One thing a lot of writers try to do when writing a comic is find some kind of lasting metaphor or description of the character they're writing about. It's hard to do, of course, but writers keep trying, because when you FIND one, it becomes an absolute classic, like Grant Morrison's “But that's the thing about Batman. Batman thinks of everything.” An even better example is when Peter David absolutely NAILED Quicksilver's personality with this spot-on metaphor in Factor X #87 (art by Joe Quesada and Al Milgrom)…
Because your life is slowed to a crawl by the inabilities or inconvenient behavior of others. That’s not a rational or thoughtful attitude to have, but it is. Now, imagine, Doctor, that everyone you work with, everywhere you go… your entire world… is filled with people who don’t know how to use an ATM. I dare say, Doctor, you would suffer too… Do you understand? It’s not so disconcerting anymore, is it?”
Since then, the term has been used repeatedly by other writers to describe Quicksilver and is essentially a shorthand used by comic book fans to describe the irritable superhero.
I say this because while Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Issue #2 (written by Jason Aaron, drawn by Rafael Albuquerque, colored by Marcelo Maiolo, and penciled by Shawn Lee), the series’ featured issue dedicated to Michelangelo, may not quite hit the same level as Quicksilver’s ATM metaphor, but it comes damn close with a stinging metaphor involving, lo and behold, nunchucks!
What is Michelangelo up to in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #2?
In case you're not familiar with the concept of this series (since I've only just started reviewing it now, with its second issue), after a run of 150 issues, IDW has decided to reboot its long-running series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series (created by Kevin Eastman and Tom Waltz), a series that merged the original's approach Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as the iconic approaches Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series (including, but not limited to, of course, the four brothers who adopt the animated series' individualized colored masks). Naturally, after 150 issues, the series had built a great deal of continuity behind it (one of the biggest plot developments was a bomb that mutated a group of people in New York, making mutants a major factor in the world), and so a new “back to basics” series was launched, set a year later, with the Turtle brothers separated, and eventually having to return to New York City together.
Each of the first four issues will spotlight a different Turtle, with each issue drawn by a different artist. This issue's art team of Rafael Albuquerque and Marcelo Maiolo will then take over the book as a regular art team starting with issue #5. In this issue, the spotlight is on Michelangelo, who has become a major TV star in Japan with a popular Ninja TV series (which Aaron cleverly makes into a sort of parody of how big the Turtles animated series became in the '80s).
Yet, as you might expect, just as that Patrick Dempsey film rightly observed, money “can’t buy love,” and in Michelangelo’s case, it can’t buy a sense of peace of mind either.
Of course, as you may know by now if you're familiar with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Michelangelo's favorite weapon is the nunchaku, or “nunchucks”, two sticks linked by chains that can be used as effective blunt attack weapons, but also as effective defensive weapons (with the chains between the sticks wrapped around the opponent's weapon).
In this issue, Aaron has Michelangelo explain that when you train with the nunchaku, you will innately hit yourself while you train. It is virtually impossible NOT to do this at some point, and so becoming a nunchaku master means that you have learned to hit yourself, and this, of course, is the cutting metaphor that is at the climax of the story, as Michelangelo is beating himself up a lot over everything that has happened between him and his three brothers.
When he is attacked by some villains who had previously spiked his frozen pizza that he regularly eats (reminding him of the pizza dinners he shared with his brothers in the old days), he imagines the attackers as his brothers, as each of them belittles him. However, he has had enough and fights back, demonstrating his growth as a character.
Rafael Albuquerque and Marcelo Maiolo do some stellar work in the fight sequences (Maiolo does that thing where he colors a box differently to highlight a particularly dramatic moment in the fight), but Albuquerque is actually terrific in the entire number, both in all the big, over-the-top stuff and in the small, concrete stuff, like Michelangelo passing out while eating a pizza alone in his spacious luxury apartment.
Aaron's decision to open the series with a spotlight on each character was a very smart one, as I learned a lot about Raphael in issue #1, and now Michelangelo in this issue. It makes the wait for the brothers to finally get back together all the sweeter in the end (especially since, as we see at the end of this issue, whatever drove them apart left some really nasty scars on their souls).
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2024)
As the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles go their separate ways, each pursuing their own interests, shadowy forces work to bring them back together. Raphael finds himself imprisoned, and a surprise attack on his prison forces him to fight for survival. Meanwhile, an imminent threat looms over his brothers, setting the stage for a dramatic reunion.
- Excellent artwork by Rafael Albuquerque and Marcelo Maiolo
- A clever joke about the Turtles having been TV stars in the past
- A penetrating look into Michelangelo's inner demons
Source: IDW Publishing