The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise has always been about fighting the odds. Now, there is no bigger obstacle for the Turtles and their new ally, Shredder, than Rat King and his cohort’s sinister Armageddon Game. Sadly, this story is nowhere near the conflict as IDW Publishing’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Armageddon Game #2 — by writer Tom Waltz, artist Vincenzo Federici, colorist Matt Herms, and letterer Shawn Lee — continues to tease the highly anticipated battle, instead of diving in.
Picking up where the last issue left off, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Armageddon Game #2 doesn’t really move the story forward. The mechanics of Mayor Stockman’s endgame continue to be unclear, while the imposter Turtles run rampant. Elsewhere, the Turtles are still rallying for support, as they try to find allies who will help them against the Rat King and the Trio of Terror.
Next to Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, there’s no one else who knows the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles quite like Waltz does. However, this might be to his detriment in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Armageddon Game #2. He repeats the same mistakes from the first issue, as the story gets lost in a flood of exposition, giving the reader a lesson in the Turtles’ history. There’s simply way too much text on the pages, and some of the introductions feel a bit redundant. Of course, he is working to create a story that will be accessible to new readers, but it might not be particularly engaging to fans who have been keeping up with the series.
The issue drags in the places where the characters explain the importance of The Armageddon Game, a point that was already established in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Armageddon Game – Opening Moves. It’s frustrating since this is the second false start where most fans would have expected the Turtles and the Shredder to be facing off with their enemies by now.
Federici makes the most of what there is to work with. The art is energetic and exciting. Fans haven’t seen the artist depict much in the way of action yet, but Federici still brings an air of enthusiasm to the quiet moments of the series. Herms comes to the party, too, whipping up an exciting range of colors and shades that reel the reader deeper into the world.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Armageddon Game #2 continues to feel fairly anticlimactic. After all the build-up and hype, this story arc is missing a lot of the fun and action that fans were anticipating. There was more than adequate time to lay the groundwork for the storyline; however, it feels like the book is stuck in pause and exploring all the side missions. Hopefully, future issues will make the most of all this exposition before readers may become frustrated with the turtle’s pace of the series.
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