Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Dimension X #1 Review

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If you’re reading the main Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series from IDW (and you should be), then you know that the Turtles have some witnesses to find and round up for Krang’s upcoming trial. They also have an assassin named Hakk-R who has no intention of making that job easy.

First Read Reactions

• The transition from the ruminations of an assassin to complaints about Mikey’s foot stank is a bit jarring.
• In almost any other situation, a witness with visible empathy would be a good thing (I think).
• Someone should considering hiring Hakk-R as the new White House Communications Director.
• Wow. This race of empaths sound like a bunch of jerks.
• A planet that reacts, feeds, and changes based on its occupants’ emotions? Isn’t that kind of like Twitter?
• I think I might be rooting for the assassin in this scenario.

The Verdict

On one hand, I really like the way Hakk-R is being handled. In addition to Pablo Tunica giving him all types of cool looks/moves, Paul Allor writes the character with a Thrawn-esque appreciation of his targets and/or enemies.

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Unfortunately, the way the turtles and the story itself are being handled falls quite a bit short. Both their physical depiction and characterization is wonky, to say nothing of the way the planet’s initially intriguing environment quickly morphs into a convenient plot device whenever it’s needed. I get that things in Dimension X aren’t supposed to work like they do in our world, but the contrived way things played out here definitely took away from the story.

Add in the turtles’ odd interaction/appearance, and you have a fairly lackluster start to the miniseries. Thankfully, Hakk-R still makes this one (barely) worth the price of admission.

Let’s hope the next planet’s story gets things straightened out.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Dimension X #1

Is it good?

A great new villain is nearly overshadowed by poor characterization and a planet with the power to create plot contrivances.

Hakk-R's characterization and appearance are both awesome--and by far the best part of the issue.

The turtles look and act weird (and not in a good way).

The planet's unique environment ends up "fixing" whatever the problem the turtles happen to find themselves in.

5

Average

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