Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Micro Series, Volume 1
Written by Brian Lynch
Art by Franco Urru, Andy Kuhn, Valerio Schiti, Ross Campbell
IDW Publishing
Release Date June 26, 2012
Cover Price: $17.99

I’m enjoying the heck out of IDW’s new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, but I didn’t pick up the TMNT Micro Series when the issues came out, which turns out to have been kind of a mistake. If you’re reading the main series at least half of the issues in this collection are of some import to the main series as they introduce elements that are fairly important. The other half are stories that haven’t tied in directly to the main series (yet), but are still fun.

There are four issues in this collection, each issue focusing on one of the main Turtles, and if I have to explain who the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are, you may have been asleep for the last quarter century and you probably have more important things to catch up on. Raphael goes out on patrol with Casey Jones and runs into a new mutant who may be part of a bigger threat. Michelangelo goes out on the town and spends New Year’s Eve at a party, until he gets caught up in a diamond heist. Donatello goes to a technology convention and makes a new friend who is kind of a jerk. And Leonardo goes out to kick some ass.

Spike: The Complete Series
Written by Brian Lynch
Art by Franco Urru, Nicola Zanni, and Stephen Mooney
Colors by Andrea Priorini, Andrea Tentori, and Fabio Mantovani
Letters by Robbie Robbins and Neil Uyetake
Cover by Jenny Frison
IDW Publishing
Release Date: July 31, 2012
Cover Price: $29.99

Seldom do I ever get to review things from the Buffyverse. And when I do, I relish it like nothing else. Spike: The Complete Series fits the bill just fine and was a wondrous read from start to finish. I’m not the biggest Spike fan, but this series might just have turned me around on “William the Bloody.”

So, like Angel in Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Spike starts this book off with a soul. Not in the whiny way that Angelus had a soul. More of an “I’ll still kick your arse to hell” kind of thing. With a couple of companions (Beck and Betta George) to ride this roller coaster with him, he takes on Wolfram & Hart, the notorious evil law firm. Taking place mostly in Sin City (Las Vegas) we watch as Spike and the gang run into problem after problem while trying to right wrongs in a city that has no respect for that idea.

After the success of Despicable Me, a sequel was an easy choice to make (watch the teaser trailer right here), which is currently set for release in July of next year. One of the most popular things about the movies is easily the Minions, those strangely loveable little Twinkie-shaped henchmen.

Now comes word that those same little yellow creatures are, in fact, so popular, that they will now be getting their very own spinoff movie.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Micro-Series #2: Michelangelo
Global Conquest Edition
Written by Brian Lynch
Art by Andy Kuhn
Colors by Bill Crabtree
Letters by Shawn Lee
IDW Publishing
Release Date: March 7, 2012
Cover Price: $3.99

The weird part about this Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles renaissance we’re going through is seeing that word ‘Teenage’ still attached to them. Sad, but true, in just a couple years the franchise will be hitting 30. It’s not like there have always been great reasons to stick around as a TMNT fan, either. Many of us who grew up with them (Is anyone reading these books who didn’t grow up with TMNT in someway?), to various degrees, look back to the cartoons and movies and video games and breakfast cereals and Coming Out of Our Shells tour and wince a little out of embarrassment. What I suspect the folks at IDW understand is that we see the Eastman and Laird books as the high water mark, and while we accept the ADD kid-friendly stuff that came afterwards it’s time to move forward.