Jason Aaron’s relaunch, or soft reboot, of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles came to a close with issue 12, leaving the Turtles in a much more optimistic, close-knit position than when they started. His first issues each focused on a different Turtle in turn, as they gradually came back together to be the team we’ve always known and loved.

So Gene Luen Yang’s run starts here, alongside the always reliable Freddie Williams II on art duties, with our boys much closer to their status quo than they have been for some time.

Yet one element remains missing: their father, Splinter, died, but was somehow communicating with his sons from beyond. There’s also a new, beastly vigilante on the loose; their heavy handed, violent modus operandi might just kick off a gang war in NYC.

Just another day in paradise for the TMNT then?

Aside from Leonardo randomly addressing his brothers with “Turtles!”, Yang doesn’t put a foot (pun unintended) wrong here. We’ve got a few mysteries, we’ve got a new foe for the Turtles, and we have the brothers working together (though still bickering, because they’re siblings after all) once more. It’s fantastic stuff.

Of course, Freddie Williams II does his usual sterling job with the chunky, detailed art; the only thing I wasn’t sure about were the different shaped masks for each of the Turtles. That’s really nitpicking though; I’ve always enjoyed his art and it brings a pleasingly action figure-esque feel to the visuals, which I adore.

There’s an amazing cliffhanger in this issue too, so it seems that the Turtles are in very safe hands once more; I’m definitely looking forward to catching up with them in the next issue.

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