It’s amazing how crossovers are so looked down upon in other media. When the Aliens vs Predator comic series was released back in the early 90s, it did so to a rapturous reception, with both critical and commercial success that completely eluded the 2004 Alien vs Predator movie. Admittedly, the latter was done on the cheap, with a dire storyline and a director who got the concept somewhat backwards (I’m still not convinced he knew what Predators were supposed to look like either; certainly not the bulky, wrestler-shaped things we got there). Yet even before it was released, critics were sharpening their knives.

When it comes to comic books, a cliché that persists is that fans sit around and debate who among different heroes, from different universes, are the strongest. Who would beat who in a fight, and so on. So perhaps the notion of the inter-franchise crossover is just baked into our DNA.

In any case, Turtles of Grayskull gives us that exact type of mad, multiversal crossover that we perhaps thought we’d never see, with the worlds of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Masters of the University coming together in an epic clash for the ages.

This second issue’s story gets incredibly timely wimey, and as such is a less straightforward read than the first, but one thing that remains consistent is the jaw dropping artwork from Freddie Williams II; it’s as if he’s been waiting to draw this series his whole life, such is the passion and creativity that flows from each page.

It’s an absolute visual feast, and even though the script gets a bit too convoluted for my liking here, I’m confident that it’ll start to come together as the various time and space jumps pay off.