One of the coolest things about this Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Masters of the Universe crossover is right there on the cover. No, I’m not talking about the phenomenal Freddie Williams II/Andrew Dalhouse art (more on that shortly!), but the actual title of the comic.

It’s a great sign that this crossover is going to do things a little differently than you may expect. Instead of the expected, often clunky formula of having the titles of both franchises separated by a slash, or even a ‘vs’, the creators have instead opted for a leaner and far cooler name: Turtles of Grayskull.

To make it even better, it’s rendered in that oh-so-80s, glorious pseudo-3D, Masters of the Universe logo style. It’s a pure work of art in itself.

In terms of the comic’s story, we start in media res; the Turtles making their way to Eternia has already happened, and the real crux of the tale is the fact that the techno-fantasy world’s hero, He-Man, is missing. With Castle Grayskull’s heroes relying on He-Man to protect them from Skeletor and his minions (who’ve had a mutagen infused glow up), the Turtles decide to stay and help the good guys against the levelled up baddies, and find the lost hero too.

It’s as potent as a mutagen cocktail; seriously fun stuff, delivered at a lightning fast pace via Tim Seeley’s breathless, fun script.

And then there’s that aforementioned artwork (told you we’d get to it again!). Freddie Williams II has delivered an absolutely astonishing collection of images here, with several splash pages, featuring the bizarre menageries and oddball characters from both casts, being absolutely jaw dropping in both their gorgeous style and impressive level of detail. Andrew Dalhouse’s colours are equally impressive, with an almost painted look to its bold and vibrant selection of hues.

Williams II also deserves credit for phenomenal character designs too (did he adapt the toys, or did the toys work from his designs? Either way, his characters are phenomenal, and really transcend the look of the Turtles of Grayskull action figure range, which seem to have some major spoilers for the comic storyline among them), with the Turtles adopting Eternian looks that borrow from some very familiar characters; the siblings rocking their own coloured variants of clothing and accessories from characters such as Man-at-Arms, Ram-Man, Stratos and He-Man’s Battle Armour, for example.

Despite its all action premise and structure, there’s a lovely character moment between the Turtles and Splinter midway through the story, and a few really surprising twists and turns along the way.

Though quite often we think of comic book universes colliding as being an easy way for publishers to make a quick buck, it’s surprising how often they work really, really well; when creators give it their all. For every Spawn/Batman (which was truly awful), there’s a comic that can forever transform both properties, such as Aliens vs Predator (which really showed how franchise crossovers should be done).

Though I don’t think Turtles of Grayskull will (or is even designed to) have the lasting impact of the latter, on the strength of this first issue alone, it’s a genuinely brilliant comic that shows exactly how enjoyable and exciting these sorts of crossovers can be, without resorting to the obvious plot beats (I’m looking at you again, Spawn/Batman).

Two 80s franchises, each with their own animated series that were originally conceived to sell their toys (with both eventually transcending their origins), coming together was always going to be fun, but it wasn’t a foregone conclusion that their worlds colliding would be this good!