Hi comics continues with ambition the releases of the new series of ninja turtles. Forget your preconceptions, the ninja turtles have definitely passed to adulthood and go in this volume to hunt the mafia in New York… Will you follow them?
A long-term series
This twelfth volume is an excellent gateway for new readers. It tells a complete history of the ninja turtles around the mafia in New York with certainly allusions to ancient stories, but it makes you want to read the above. Conversely, the enthusiast finds characters – such as the gang of street ghosts crossed in volume 10 – and intrigues around the football clan developed since volume nine. This series is without false note because the little song of the beginning becomes a fantastic opera as elements are added. This volume brings together episodes 61 to 65 of the new series which, since the beginning, is written by a duo of writers Tom Waltz and Kevin Eastman, one of the creators of the series. However, the latter essentially ensures the consistency of the title. For more than six years, this exciting series has been the work of Tom Waltz, helped here by Bobby Curnow. Cartoonist Dave Wachter – who also creates the splendid cover – is in line with the star of the series Mateus Santolouco. We find the rather thin characters in relatively small boxes. He has a more charcoal inking but he is just as good at animal faces. The latest episode by Santolouco shows even more clearly this proximity even if the latter remains even more impressive. 
Ghosts in the Mafia
Following the attack of the witch Kitsune in the last volume, the rat Splinter, master of turtles and warlord, decides to act. Rather than opting for defense, he proposes to plan an offensive. His son, the turtle Raphael wants to go as soon as possible to look for his friend the she-wolf Alopex. In fact, two different groups threaten ninjas. A group of immortals decided to revive an ancestral game but humanity could disappear during this competition. More locally, a trio of gangsters equipped with invisibility cloaks, the ghosts of the streets, seek to seize a truck, but one of the ninja turtles, Donatello, the scientist of the group, surprises them with his new weapons: glasses to see them and a stick with electric shocks to neutralize their powers. Behind these gangsters is Darius Dun, a classic mobster, but whose shift to crime is linked to his passion for science as a teenager. He used his physical strength to bond with geeks.
A family story
The series is a reflection in perpetual renewal on the family. Its classic definition is paradoxically embodied by Father Splinter – a rat – and his children – the turtles. Nevertheless, Tom Waltz also gives a more modern definition. This family of mutants is very fluid and open to passing friends and new members – April and Casey, and recently, the ninja Jennika. This family lost their friend Alopex. Some distance themselves from the family : Michelangelo refuses to join the war for moral reasons. This utopian contests Splinter's choice and refuses any compromise. The family is not always trustworthy. Over the volumes, the turtles are concerned about their father's choices that are more secretly and Machiavellian. He has planned the kidnapping of a friend and places another at the head of a street gang. The volume concludes with an excellent Christmas episode that makes you smile while being moving by its demonstration of the bonds between the brothers. Even if this very pleasant family story is present throughout the series, it never gets in the way of the most important element: the fun of the action. In this volume, the turtles go to war against the underworld by also seeking to free a friend. 
By the quality of its story, Ghost Hunt leaves a very strong trace once closed but beyond that it is the quality of the whole series that impresses. After more than sixty episodes, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles remains a most exciting series. This superheroic action story may seem classic at first but the quality of the characters and the multiple surprises in each volume constantly amaze. For example, as in every volume, the writers succeed in a tour de force: create a breathless cliffhanger but always credible (because it fits in the direction of the narrative line). If you want to discover other articles on these heroes, you can find an article on the previous volume here and the crossover with the Power Rangers on this link.
