Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vs. Street Fighter

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vs. Street Fighter

by

Paul Allor (writer), Ariel Medel (Illustrator), Sarah Myer (Colorist), Ed Dukeshire (Letterer)

My rating: 3 of 5 Ω‘s

For reasons that one will not delve into, because this comic does the smart thing and doesn’t try and overload setup, the Turtles have entered themselves into a fighting tournament at Raphaels’ urging so that they can test themselves after some stuff they’ve been through. As it happens, the tournament also includes fighters from the Street Fighter world, i.e, folks like Guile, Ken, Ryu and Chun-Li mainly. Meanwhile, behind the scenes of it all, we have the sinister villains of M. Bison and Baxter Stockman, hatching some sinister scheme that requires the harvesting or usage of “Chaos Energy” from fighters for sinister purposes.

So there, the setup is complete.

One does not really go into these crossover books with too high an expectation level because it is a hard thing to pull off at the best of times and more often than not, it is a middling experience that is at best, enjoyable as a one-time read. Other times, it can be downright silly and you want to drop it partway through and you probably tried it for the very reason it was created: franchise loyalties and novelty value.

As it stands, this book is a mixed bag but one that falls on the better side of things overall. We have a good amount of fighting and martial arts spread throughout the book from the very beginning itself – this is the core of why we are here and the book smartly does not try to be something it is not, which is overly clever or intellectual, nor does it take itself too seriously. The Turtles and the Street Fighters are all just here to fight a few good fights and that is it – but the interventions and machinations of the villains from the shadows, who are also not seeing fully eye-to-eye, ends up creating friction between these two groups of heroes and makes them suspicious of each other; this of course comes to a head at a point and then the obligatory fighting between them which leads to them putting their differences aside and seeking out the shadowy threats behind the strange goings-on begins!

The art is light and bright and bombastic and is one of the most fun parts of this comic. The team does a fantastic job with the muscle-fighters and the turtles and renders them all very well. The bright colour palettes used keep the books tone of fun and entertainment and overall it feels like a solidly all-ages vibe which is something I appreciate in comics and in comics like this especially. Allor has proven to be an adept writer at handling these franchise titles and does a pretty good job with the broad strokes of the different characters and they all feel like they should and we never feel the need to delve deeper into them because we’re given a good amount and thereafter the good handling of the interactions between them all – especially between members of opposing teams is good fun and carries the story the rest of the way.

A good, clean, solid entertainer that I would recommend if you are a fan of either franchise and/or just want to have a quick, fun comic read.

All my reviews are also on Goodreads