It’s round one of the tournament at the Battle Nexus, and first up we have IDW Leonardo vs the original Mirage Studios version of Shredder.

It’s cool that Shredder is rendered in his original black and white, and even his dialogue is lettered in a way that pays homage to his original appearances. The fight does seem a bit disappointing, ultimately, but only because one of the participants seems to be a lot more powerful and skilled than he was previously thought to be.

That said, evil tournament organiser Savanti Romero does give a bit of an assist. And he also gets some backstory too, which helps to continue giving Battle Nexus a little more depth than you might expect from a clash of multiversal Turtles, along with their allies and adversaries.

The art is truly gorgeous once more, and there’s another fun backup story starring Mister Ogg and his clandestine, mini Turtles tournament. The brief, cartoon-style fight pits 1990 live action Donatello against animated, Mutant Mayhem Donatello, and it’s a blast. I really love how well depicted each version of the Turtles are; they’re instantly recognisable, which is a huge credit to each artist (shout out to Ben Bishop for the main story, and Sarah Myer for the backup).

Battle Nexus was always going to be fun, but it’s also surprisingly well written and has much more to it than just fight sequences, which is more than welcome.

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