Review: Casey Jones #1
From IDW Publishing
Spinning out of the ongoing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Casey Jones #1 begins a new story from IDW Publishing.
Casey Jones was shot by D.A. Hale, he’s awake, and he has a second chance at life. Instead of taking things slow and smelling the flowers, he’s jumping headfirst into the action. Casey is hitting the streets and doing everything he can to protect the people of New York City, but those closest to him think he’s pushing too hard. April O’Neil and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, especially Casey’s closest friend Raphael, are concerned. Things are only going to get worse as a new strain of mutagen starts changing the shape of New York City, and a brand-new villain threatens everything Casey believes in.
From the critically acclaimed team of Alex Paknadel (Sentinels, Batman: Urban Legends, All Against All) and Amancay Nahuelpan (Detective Comics, Green Arrow, Crush & Lobo).
After the main series events, it is good to see Casey Jones on the mend. One thing that struck me during this initial issue was that Casey hadn’t fully recovered. All too often, heroes recover from injuries in record time, even the more ‘human’ ones, but this issue does an excellent job of showing what can happen…
In this issue, Casey seems to feel trapped here; he’s stuck indoors after being shot, and he is bandaged and stitched up. But, due to his nature, Casey still feels the need to go out on patrol, leading him to trouble.
It’s a good build-up, and it looks like Casey has it all in hand. The thugs cause trouble by raising their power levels, which causes more trouble for Casey. Luckily for him, the turtles' appearance helps him out; otherwise, he would be in more trouble.
Raphael giving Casey a pep talk was a good idea, as the two of them are the closest, and he is more likely to listen—especially when it comes to burst stitches…
This issue does an excellent job of setting things up for Casey and the current state of New York. I feel this will be more ground-level than some of the more magical aspects of the primary TMNT series, but there is still the strange mutagen the thugs used.
On top of all of that, there are the missing mutants—we get a good look into that, and it looks like it is going to come to the city and cause even more problems for Casey. The big, powerful mutant looks to be someone who is going to cause some damage, and their Kraven-feeling hunting makes an interesting twist.
This issue had some excellent art, moving from the city and rooftops to the countryside for some mutant hunting. There is some brilliant work done with the colouring, and this looks like a good series after a strong start.
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