Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Dimension X #5 review: Plants vs. Ninjas
By Alex Widen
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are at the end of their journey through Dimension X! Yet is planet Totus a deadly jungle or a walk in the park?
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Dimension X #5
Writer: Devin Grayson
Artist: Craig Rousseau
Cover Artist: Nick Pitarra
Colorist: Leonardo Ito
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After a wild five weeks, the Ninja Turtles reach the end of their trek through Dimension X. They’ve met psychic bouncing balls, a blind sumo, intergalactic wrestlers, and Ace Duck. Yet now their journey brings them to planet Totus and another showdown with Hakk-R. The techno-organic hit man has been hired to kill all five witnesses to Krang’s trial on planet Neutrino. The Turtles have thwarted him at every turn, but Hakk-R may be at his most deadly when backed into a corner!
Image by IDW Publishing
As a result of some fine piloting skills, Hakk-R beats the Turtles to planet Totus this time. The witness is named “Occuli,” and Hakk-R assumes it will be another simple gig. Once landing on the planet, however, it becomes obvious that Totus is quite different. He is immediately greeted by a flying plant called “Polygot,” and his position is known despite his stealth technology. It seems like the entire planet Totus is covered in self-aware and interconnected plant life, from grass to trees!
Image by IDW Publishing
Can You Bring a Forest to Court?
As the Polygot explains, Totus’ plant life exists as one large cooperative organism. Only two species on the surface can talk, and Occuli are not among them. The Occuli serve as the “eyes” for Totus and cannot speak nor leave the planet. Yet to Hakk-R, that isn’t good enough! He immediately opens fire on the flowers, intent on burning the lot to the ground with his weapons and bombs! While the plant life of Totus swarms around Hakk-R, there is very little the pacifist plants can do!
Image by IDW Publishing
With the insect Malignoid Swarm closing in on their ship, Zak and Kala can only afford a brief drop for the Turtles. By the time the heroes in a half shell beam onto Totus, the planet is closed for tourism! Since the Turtles all strongly resemble each other, the Polygot that greets them is initially confused, yet also put at ease by the Turtles’ similarity to plants. Donatello, Michelangelo, and Leonardo are eager to clarify their introductions to the Polygot and get to the bottom of things.
Image by IDW Publishing
The Turtles quickly learn that Hakk-R is attacking the Occuli, and immediately leap into battle to help. Raphael manages to fend him off, leaving Hakk-R to escape by lobbing some bombs at them. Unfortunately, both Leonardo and Donatello uncover the bigger problem with Totus. Since few of the plants can talk, and none can safely survive off-world, it may be impossible to bring them to trial. Apparently, Krang conducted illegal weapons testing on the historically neutral planet.
Image by IDW Publishing
Face the Wrath of Mutant Pollen!
As a result of Krang’s weapons testing, a section of Totus was mutated into a “wasteland.” The few plants that survived were transformed and are no longer part of the collective. The Turtles set out to investigate and are immediately attacked by one such plant! Fortunately, the mutated Polygot is more bark than bite, and her concentrated pollen blast only makes Michelangelo hallucinate slightly about anchovies on his pizza. Yet such mutant plants are considered outcasts.
Image by IDW Publishing
When the collective plants of Totus prevent the mutated Polygot (or “Poly-95480”) from leaving the wasteland, Leonardo and Donatello quickly settle upon the answer to their problems. Eventually even Raphael gains some fondness for the mutant plant, dubbing her “Buttercup.” Maybe Raphael is a fan of The Princess Bride? At any rate, the Turtles manage a bloodless solution to their problem, and Krang may wish that he had gotten a warranty on Hakk-R’s killing services!
Image by IDW Publishing
For this final issue of TMNT: Dimension X, readers get what may easily be the highest profile creative team yet. Devin Grayson is well known as a major DC Comics writer from the late 90s into the mid-2000s. She’s best known for runs on Nightwing, Catwoman, The Titans, and Batman: Gotham Knights. Her workload has lowered over the years, but she last worked with IDW Publishing via Womanthology: Heroic and Womanthology: Space from 2012-2013.
Image by IDW Publishing
Two Iconic DC Comics Creators Produce a Gem!
Grayson’s first foray with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is pretty good. She has a great voice for the characters, especially with Michelangelo. Many writers seem to have fun with the goofy party dude, and Grayson is no exception. She also crafts an interesting dilemma with Totus which is unlike any of the previous issues. Past chapters involved convincing or protecting a witness. This time, the Turtles have to figure out how to transport a witness who is basically a planetary being.
Image by IDW Publishing
Craig Rousseau is another longtime talent from DC Comics. He got his start on Impulse and has worked on covers and interior art on other titles and with other publishers. Like Grayson, this is hiss first foray into Ninja Turtles, and he sticks the landing. He brings the lush world of Totus to life, and has a ball with the Polygots and the Turtles themselves. There is more comedy here than action, although there is one brief sequence with the Turtles taking on Hakk-R and his bombs.
Image by IDW Publishing
Is It a Task to Remember about Dask?
One hiccup which I noticed in issue #3 was some miscommunication regarding the Neutrinos. The best known trio from the 1987 cartoon, Dask, Zak, and Kala, have been recreated here. The premise for this mini involves Zak and Kala ferrying the Turtles across Dimension X, while Dask stayed behind. The artist of issue #3 accidentally drew Dask despite the dialogue having Zak’s “greaser” lingo. And in this issue, there seemed to be some editing job to “crop out” Dask’s hairdo.
Image by IDW Publishing
Colorist Leonardo Ito does a great job of enhancing Rousseau’s art, as well as fixing this error. The mistake isn’t in the writing, as Grayson makes it clear which Neutrino it is. Slight errors happen in comics sometimes, especially in a five issue weekly series. The IDW team has done their best to fix things, and on the whole it’s just a minor thing to notice. Considering that these are five issues by five different creative teams produced in one month, it’s amazing this is the only glitch to arise.
Image by IDW Publishing
I must say, Krang cannot be pleased with the services he got from Hakk-R. Out of five witnesses, he failed to eliminate any of them. Hakk-R presumed Anemon was useless because he was blind, and similarly dismisses Totus since they’re all plants. Yet that’s still a fail ratio of three out of five. It will remain to be seen how dangerous Hakk-R will seem after being defeated four times, although in most cases the Turtles benefited from good luck or allies who were alongside them.
Image by IDW Publishing
It’s Been a Great Tour of Dimension X!
I’d be lying if I said this was my favorite issue of the mini, yet it’s still another fun and exciting romp. The interaction with the Turtles is great, and both Grayson and Rousseau breathe a lot of life into a planet full of weird alien plants. I expected something more hostile, so I was pleasantly surprised that it required more cleverness and imagination out of the foursome more than ninja skills. The colors by Ito are vibrant and make Totus seem like a lush and brilliantly crafted world.
Image by IDW Publishing
Next: Have some Ace Duck tales in #4!
TMNT: Dimension X has been a resounding success. A cynic might say that it’s IDW’s way to produce a third canonical ongoing series for Ninja Turtles. However, it has allowed Dimension X to be fleshed out as well as created or recreated some very memorable characters. It’s also allowed a variety of different creators to have their take on TMNT while still serving a bigger story. Issues #3 and #4 were my favorite, but this is still a fun finale to a righteous series.