IDW Publishing 2019
By Mateus Santolouco
Coloured by Marcelo Costa & Mateus Santolouco
Lettered by Shawn Lee
The Story So Far
Oroku Saki, Master Shredder of the Foot Clan, was defeated in mortal combat by Hamato Yoshi, his former clan brother. Now Saki finds himself in a nightmarish afterlife on a quest to take his own destiny into his own hands. First he must get past undead versions of the Ninja Turtles!
I read the first issue on something of a lark. I don’t normally read the Turtle books but for whatever reason I thought hey I'll give this one a try the artwork was pretty spectacular. Lo and behold it turned to be something I couldn’t have imagined it being and that the story was so strong and it dealt with Saki in this way that captured my mind and imagination. Not for the first time have I found myself enamoured within the world of the Turtles but certainly with Shredder as the subject matter.
I wasn’t exaggerating or kidding when I said that I am enamoured with this book. Just looking at the interiors makes me smile and want to continue reading the book. Then the idea of Saki trying to take back his own destiny even in death is one that is fascinating to me. We all know villains are a lot more complex than heroes so getting to see, learn and understand what drove him to become who he was. What Mateus does with the characterisation here is beyond exceptional and it really takes a character whom we all thought of as just another gangster style bad guy and gives him a depth to his personality that floored me.
The way this is structured and how what we see doesn’t match up with the reality of the situation is amazingly well done. I am super impressed by the fact that we see Saki trying desperately to protect Yoshi who has reverted back to his pure rat form while facing off against those demons lurking in the depths of his subconscious. The power here in the writing is mindbogglingly good and it makes you wonder and think and has that ability to make you go beyond the page with your thoughts and feelings as you find yourself relating to issues in your own past. As far as I am concerned Mateus can write Shredder stories till the end of time and I would be here for every single one of them!
The linework here is exquisite! The attention to detail is stunning and how we are able to see some of that through the use of colour alone is astounding. The creativity and imagination on display here is bloody brilliant as we see the characters go through all those changes. I love how the spots on the turtles look giving us this truly amphibious appearance and how the colours create this tone, mood and feel of this place. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows of a magnificent eye for storytelling. I wish we’d see more backgrounds being utilised as they can be truly whatever Mateus can think of.
Part of what I am enjoying about the story is that Saki really doesn’t fully understand the rules of this place. He cannot figure out what is real and what isn’t nor can he see these trials and tribulations are here to test him. Plus he’s got that demon thing inside him that would supposedly make him immortal but at the same time fully strip him of his humanity. I could be wrong about all this but that’s how I see it and of course I will keep coming back to see if my own supposition is even remotely on point.
This is a spectacularly told story that goes beyond the TMNT Universe and could be applied to and and every possible character you can think of.