The third issue of Nightwatcher works really hard to sell a serious message, and hits home a lot harder than you may expect from a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic.

Executive Eliza Leonetti was a successful woman, with a great job and a loving family. Then the M-Bomb exploded in New York, and Eliza, along with many other New Yorkers, had her life completely transformed when she mutated. With Eliza now on the run after a seemingly unprovoked, violent episode that injured an innocent bystander, the Nightwatcher seeks to bypass the trial-by-social-media outrage and find out what really happened to her.

IDW have always done a great job of expanding their licensed comics range way beyond their origins as what were, in their first forms, extended toy adverts. Their Transformers comics, for example, explored PTSD, gender identity, same sex relationships and volatile political situations.

Their M-Bomb related TMNT comics have done a fantastic job of examining the treatment of minorities, but in this issue of Nightwatcher even the precarious nature of the US medical system comes under scrutiny too. It builds up a real empathy for Eliza Leonetti, and by the time it builds to its inevitable climax, it’s heartbreaking.

It’s remarkable, really, that I’m sat here 40 years after the publication of a dark, violent comic book satire, examining the social and political commentary in a comic that’s spun off from it. Especially on a day like today.

This issue alone cements Nightwatcher as an especially strong title in the current IDW TMNT output, and it’s clear that writer Juni Ba and artist Fero Pe have put their hearts and souls into its creation.

One thing it reminds us is that we need to keep hope alive. Despite all of the awful stuff that’s going on, we need to stay optimistic that people can do the right thing, even if that’s not what the world seems to be showing us.

Today, it’s a message we all need reminding of.