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Donatello: The Brain Thief #1

I enjoyed it, mostly. This mini actually seems to revolve around Don to a large extent, and the Baxter bits do intrigue me.

When things shifted gears about halfway through and it became mostly a chase of a robotic cockroach I lost a bit of interest, but that doesn't take away from a very good first half.

Here's my full review. Beware of spoilers.

And here's just the review part:

Spoiler:

Review:

The fourth and final TMNT character-themed miniseries begins here. I wasn’t too enthused with the previous three (though “The Third Kind” was alright), but this one actually had me pretty excited. The reveal in TMNT (Vol. 4) #9 that Don had morbidly kept Stockman’s brain in a secret lab in the sewers for years was one of the volume’s better twists, though it was more or less ignored as soon as it had been brought up.

“The Brain Thief” looks to cover that plot point, which is something of a relief, since it always seemed to me like it was something too important to ignore for over half a decade.

While I like the idea, I’m a bit wary of the execution. Jim Lawson seems to be going for the “manga-style” of extremely decompressed story telling which I’m not so sure I like. There’s a balance that needs to be struck between plot and pacing; you don’t want to cram too much story into too few panels, but you don’t want to spread a simple plot point out over so many pages that the reader feels like they received little for their investment. Lawson doesn’t manage to strike that “just right” note with this issue, and you end up reading the whole thing in four minutes tops.

There are pages meant to build tension, but wind up simply wasting time. Did the hobo and his dogs really need to absorb the first four pages of the issue, when all they were there for was a set-up for Baxter’s explosion? I mean, it’s the sort of thing that works on a cinematic level, in a movie or what have you, but you’ve got to be a little bit more frugal with your page space in a comic book.

The overall lack of dialogue makes things even breezier.

In the end, after 28 pages, I feel like I only read half a comic book. I imagine it’s one of those things that’s intended to “read better in trade”, but I’m reading it now, so that excuse doesn’t exactly fly. Ah well, I’m still genuinely interested I seeing where everything’s going.

Grade: C- (as in, “C’mon, Don’s spent the better part of two decades fighting robots five days a week. He could chew that roach up and spit it out”.)

I agree the lack of text had me easily distracted halfway through but im sure it will prove to be an interesting series

Got this issue today. I'm really hoping they embellish Don's interactions with Baxter. This issue cut it a bit short, with the only real exchange being Donny's asking about Raph.

Lawson's art is better than usual, IMO. I really like the creepy mood that was established with the first few pages. Dogs waiting patiently outside a dumpster only to see a man pop up! That took me by surprise.

An interesting start to this series. Hopefully it'll be better than the Raphael one or the Mikey one....but by far the Leonardo Mini has been the best of the bunch.

You know what bothers me about the writing style in TMNT comics today?

The advertisements make you think the comic is going to be about something completely different than what you read. Did we really need to see Don chase a robot cockroach and next issue a robot dog (which I assume belonged to the homeless at the beginning)?

So apparently the only reason Don reactivated Baxter is because he wanted to know what happened to Raph at the time? Fair enough, but since we all know in Vol. 2 Raph was captured by Darpa...the "surprise" feels pointless.

Why is Jim Lawson focusing on a stupid "parts of Baxter's body take over other animals" story rather than diving in to Baxter's psyche and his interactions with Don? Remember Vol. 4 takes place years later, so Baxter was kept active for over a decade.

Goddamn it. Sometimes I feel like these comics punish the readers.

This feels like it's going to be one of those "adventure" mini-series; it doesn't give off the vibe that it intends to delve into character development. It's just going to be one of those enjoy-the-ride series, which I guess I can't be too mad about. Raph's mini wasn't that great and I didn't really care much for Mikey's either. This one has a better premise to be more than likely the second best solo mini among the four.

The lack of dialogue did leave me going through this a bit faster than the usual issue. I would've enjoyed a bit more text to distract me from what I find to be the awfulness of Lawson's art (I'm sorry, but I really can't stand this style of his), but I found myself enjoying what little I could make out of the story. I'm more intrigued to find out exactly what process the liquidmetal had to go through to take the form of a huge, robotic cockroach. Does it invade a body and take over the host or does it simply just mimmick whatever it destroys?

Hopefully this series turns out as a good one, even if it's filled with Lawson's lazy art.

I haven't gotten my issue in yet, but I really do hope the mini-series will delve a bit more into its characters as it goes on. The Mirage series' strength has always been depth over action, and it seems like they forget that sometimes.

Still, the cover for number three gives me hope. Donatello using fire-arms. Anyone who's read most of the series will know that that's a rare and dark occasion.

Quote:

Originally Posted by R-iZZy (Post 723432)

This feels like it's going to be one of those "adventure" mini-series; it doesn't give off the vibe that it intends to delve into character development.

That's generally the problem with modern TMNT comics. I wanted to read a story that delved into the reason why Donatello kept Baxter alive for like 15 years, and maybe some depth into Baxter's mind and so forth.

Instead, we get a fairly mediocre story about Baxter's nanobots assimilating animals and Don fighting them. As if we haven't seen a story like that in both TMNT and other superhero stuff tons of times.

It almost seems as if TMNT forgot what it was about. Would it be too much bother to see us find out what makes Baxter Stockman tick? Or Don's possible obsession/companionship with Baxter for 15 years while keeping it secret from his brothers?

Quote:

Originally Posted by CyberCubed (Post 723550)

Would it be too much bother to see us find out what makes Baxter Stockman tick? Or Don's possible obsession/companionship with Baxter for 15 years while keeping it secret from his brothers?

Well Lawson did say that the mini series would be showing a darker side to Donatello and the little synopsis of the last two issues seems to describe Don dealing said dark side.

I don't think Don is so devoid of a killer instinct that he wouldn't keep Baxter "dead", he'd need some sort of impetus to reactivate him and trying to find Raph seems as good as any. Although I do find it a bit weird that this entire mini seems to take place between single issues of Vol. 2.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CyberCubed (Post 723550)

Would it be too much bother to see us find out what makes Baxter Stockman tick? Or Don's possible obsession/companionship with Baxter for 15 years while keeping it secret from his brothers?

Agreed. I think it would have been awesome to have had each part in this mini-series be a psychological discussion/debate between Don & Baxter - maybe a retelling from Don's POV (or computer journal entries?) of the four times he visited Baxter between v2 & v4 - and the interesting, character developing discussions that evolved from those meetings. It doesn't sound like much for action, or a straightforward plotline, but those have been done before in TMNT countless times. No need to beat a dead turtle.

We're only one issue in guys, don't write it off yet! :ohwell:

I'm writing if off. I don't think others are either, I think they're just stating their hopes. This has a lot of potential to be a psychological screwball moreso than an action extravaganza. Let's see what you boys got! :D