Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures #2
IDW Publishing
Written by: Matthew K. Manning
Art by: Jon Sommariva
Inks by: Sean Parsons and Serge Lapointe
The issue begins with Harley Quinn breaking the Joker out of Arkham in an escape that the Joker comments on as being pretty boring, which I wholeheartedly agree with. Unfortunately, many of the same sentiments can be had for the remainder of the issue. After the pair escape through portals, they meet Shredder and the Foot Clan and immediately begin to fight. Batman, Robin and Batgirl track the portals, travel through and immediately come upon the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, leading to another inevitable fight. Predictable misunderstandings ensue until completely random observation leads to mutual understanding and both teams have to team up to defeat common enemy.
The story follows all of the team-up tropes to the tee, with little to no surprise. Even the villain team up at the end was easy to figure out and just leads me to think that the next issue is just going to follow suit with a random TMNT villain teaming up with his or her Batman: TAS counterpart. Jon Sommariva’s artwork is good. It really delivers on the look and feel of a Batman: The Animated Series episode, including the pacing of the action beats. The premise of this team-up is cute in theory, but it’s already lacking in its execution. Hopefully, the next issue will raise the stakes.
Batman/TMNT Adventures #2 has a predictable plot with familiar characters who have no chemistry with each other on the page. The artwork is good and showcases the animation style of each series, but the paint by numbers story becomes tedious quickly.