Comic Reviews by Walt

The Howling of Distant Shadows

Script: Dean Clarrain
Pencils: Ken Mitchroney
Inks: Dan Berger
Colors: Barry Grossman
Clean-Ups: Buz McKim
Letters: Gary Fields
Cover: Steve Lavigne
Editors: Scott Fulop, Victor Gorelick
Published by: Archie Comics
Cover Date: Month 1990
Cover Price: $1.00

This issue introduces us to Dreadmon, another of the Mutant/Animal characters that will soon play an even larger role in the series. As the issue opens, we find April, the turtles, and Jagwar using a raft they built as they journey through the land by river. They come to a village where they’re welcomed, and their aid requested. They’re also told of a half-man/half wolf the village has been feeding. The turtles and Jagwar find a strip mine operating on slave labor–the kidnapped villagers they’re to rescue. When one of the guards/enforcers gets the drop on Jagwar, he’s rescued by the “were-wolf” they’d encountered at the village, who reveals himself as Dreadmon. Villagers rescued, everyone returns to the village.

The cover is a bit “off” for me–not so much the art, but the imagery…we have Raph pointing at the wolf-figure like they’re getting ready to attack, Leo looking rather alarmed at Jagwar, while Mikey and DOnnie just look alarmed and unhappy. 

The interior art is good. April’s outfit looks similar to her cartoon version stylistically, just brown instead of the horrid bright yellow. Raph has ditched the top half of his black costume (keeping black pants, essentially). While he COULD look scary, Dreadmon actually looks rather happy for the most part, which could fit the personality as things develop…here, it works in showing that he’s not actually a threat to the turtles and friends.

The story itself remains somewhat simple, and in this issue certainly much less “preachy” on the environmentalism. We have another new “mutant of the month” in Dreadmon, and another new threat in humans vs. the land/environment. However…at least it isn’t yet another thing with Shredder. We also continue the subplot of whoever Mr. Null is, being fed information about the turtles, and I know where this goes, that it’s building to something big, though it’s not yet overly obvious just how big at this point.

Another issue that may not be tops on my list of stories and all, but we do get the introduction of another major character, and at minimum I can appreciate the issue for that fact alone. I do enjoy the “Lost World” and seeing the turtles in this kind of environment away from “the city” and their “usual” to this point. I’m also glad to see little moments, such as Mikey expressing that he trusts Cudley though his brothers do not. It’s little things like that that do build the larger tapestry around the characters, making them that much more “real.”

Filed under: 2016 posts, 2016 Reviews, The '90s Revisited, TMNT Adventures Revisited | Tagged: Adventures, archie, Archie Adventure Series, Archie Comics, Barry Grossman, Comic Reviews, comics, Dan Berger, Dean Clarrain, Dreadmon, Gary Fields, Jagwar, Ken Mitchroney, Kevin Eastman, Ninja Turtles, Peter Laird, Scott Fulop, Steve Lavigne, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Howling of Distant Shadows, TMNT, TMNT Adventures, Victor Gorelick |