Image courtesy of Dark Horse Comics
One of the coolest things about this Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles x Masters of the Universe crossover is truly the cover — and no, we’re not talking about the incredible Freddie Williams II and Andrew Dalhouse art (more on that in a moment!) — we’re talking about the actual title of the comic.
It’s a great sign that this crossover is going to play out a little differently than you might expect: instead of the expected and often clunky format of separating the titles of both series with a slash or “vs,” the creators opted for a more concise and much cooler name: “Turtles of Grayskull.”
What’s even better is that it’s rendered in a glorious ’80s-esque pseudo-3D Masters of the Universe logo style – a pure work of art in itself.
The comic’s storyline picks up where it left off: the Turtles’ journey to Eternia has already happened, and the real crux of the story is the fact that He-Man, the hero of the techno-fantasy world, has gone missing. While the heroes of Castle Grayskull rely on He-Man to protect them from Skeletor and his minions (who are glowing with mutagen), the Turtles decide to stay behind and help the good guys fight the leveled-up bad guys, and also search for the missing hero.
It’s as potent as a cocktail of mutagens and a genuinely fun piece of work, delivered at lightning speed by Tim Seely’s breathtakingly entertaining script.
And then there’s the aforementioned artwork (I told you we’d get to it again!). Freddie Williams II has delivered a truly astounding collection of imagery here, with several splash pages depicting the bizarre menagerie and quirky characters of both casts that truly wow with both their beautiful style and impressive level of detail. Andrew Dalhouse’s colours are equally impressive, with bold, vibrant colour choices that are almost painterly.
Williams II also deserves praise for the incredible character designs, with the Turtles adopting an Eternian look borrowed from some very familiar characters – for example, the brothers wear their own color variations of clothing and accessories from characters like Man-at-Arms, Ram-Man, Stratos, and He-Man’s battle armor.
Despite the premise and structure being all action, there are some lovely character moments between the Turtles and Splinter in the middle of the story, and some genuinely surprising twists and turns along the way.
While comic book universes colliding is often seen as a way for publishers to make easy money, it’s surprising how often it actually works out when creators put their all into it. On one hand, there’s Spawn/Batman (which was absolutely awful), but on the other, there are comics that managed to change both properties forever, like Alien vs Predator (which really showed how franchise crossovers should be done).
I don’t think Turtles of Grayskull will have the same lasting impact as the latter (or that it’s even intended to), but even just looking at this first issue, this is a really great comic that shows exactly how fun and exciting this kind of crossover can be, without relying on obvious plot developments (I’m looking at you, Spawn/Batman, again).
The two ’80s franchises, each with their own animated series and originally conceived to sell toys (though both eventually outgrew those origins), were always fun to come together, but it never really took for granted that their worlds would collide into something as amazing as this.
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