Image credit: IDW
Nightwatcher issue #3 tries very hard to sell a serious message, and it’s much more poignant than you’d expect from a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic.
Executive Elisa Leonetti was a successful woman with a great job and a loving family. Then, the M-bomb explodes in New York, and Eliza, along with many other New Yorkers, has her life forever changed by the mutation. Eliza is currently on the run after a seemingly unprovoked incident of violence that left an innocent bystander injured, so the Nightwatcher is trying to avoid trial via social media and find out what really happened to her. I’m trying to clarify.
IDW has always done a great job of expanding the scope of its licensed comics far beyond its origins, in its first form as an extension of toy advertising. Their Transformers comics, for example, explore themes of PTSD, gender identity, same-sex relationships, and political instability.
Their M-Bomb-related TMNT comics have done a great job of examining the treatment of minorities, but in this issue of Nightwatcher, even the precarious nature of America’s health care system comes under scrutiny. It builds real empathy for Eliza Leonetti, and by the time it reaches its inevitable climax, it’s heartbreaking.
It’s truly amazing that 40 years after the publication of this dark and violent cartoon, I’m sitting here examining the social and political commentary in the cartoon that derived from it. Especially on a day like today.
This issue alone solidifies Nightwatcher as one of the strongest titles in IDW TMNT’s current oeuvre, and it’s clear that writer Juni Ba and artist Fero Pe put their heart and soul into its creation. .
What this work reminds us is that we need to hold onto hope. Despite all the terrible things that are happening, people need to remain optimistic that they can do the right thing, even if the world doesn’t seem to show it to us.
This is a message we should all remember today.
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