There’s a central mystery to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Nightwatcher #1 from IDW that could have been all about the twist. It’s all credit then to writer Juni Ba and artist Fero Pe that the first issue of this series makes sure it’s about much more than just the identity of Nightwatcher.
If you haven’t read TMNT in a few years, this — perhaps even more than the recently released Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 — is a great reintroduction into the world. The Turtles are far from the only mutants anymore, with a section of NYC cordoned off as Mutant Town. Given there are now animal people of various powers and abilities wandering around, there’s also a fair amount of prejudice and concern coming from regular humans. And in the middle of that is the armored, masked Nightwatcher protecting helpless mutants on the streets… Basically, Batman meets Iron Man but shaped like a turtle.
What works best about this book is that Ba sets up Nightwatcher as part of the fabric of the city, a symbol rather than the main character. The book might as well have been titled Mutant Town, as it’s peppered throughout with talking head interviews that set up the humans versus mutants conflict. It also helpfully underlines these ideas with the final page reveal of Nightwatcher (which I won’t spoil here) which has the character disappearing into crowds in the city.
In that, though the action scenes Pe lays out are dynamic, is the real joy of this book. It’s about how prejudice against “other” can take forms both overt and subtle. It’s also about how those others must incorporate negative feelings into the flow of their everyday life. And Nightwatcher becomes the force that says, “No, we don’t need to just take this, we can stand up against it.”
So this is a book with a lot on its mind. And the reveal of Nightwatcher’s identity is satisfying for longtime fans of the books and will be intriguing for new readers. It’ll presumably become a bit more clear about what the flow of the book is going forward… Will it continue with the taking head conceit? Is Nightwatcher’s identity, now that it’s out there, the main focus? This issue could be the mold, or it could be more of a prelude. Either way, now that the mask is off, it’s time to see what this book is made of.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Nightwatcher #1 Rating:
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Nightwatcher #1 Official Synopsis:
After making a dark debut in the Free Comic Book Day special, fans have one burning question: Who is the Nightwatcher? Violence and discrimination against mutants is running wild, and a new vigilante will rise up to combat it… but who is this fearsome armored fighter standing bravely against the criminals who wish to harm mutants?
From the brilliant mind of writer Juni Ba and astonishing artist Fero Pe comes an action-packed ongoing series that spins out of the pages of TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES to delve into the grim reality of New York City after the Mutagen Bomb and unveil the secrets behind the mask.
