Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Volume 3: Shadows of the Past

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2011) #3

by Kevin Eastman (Writer), Tom Waltz (Writer), Dan Duncan (Illustrator)

The Turtle's home in the sewers is destroyed thanks to a sinister team-up between Baxter Stockman and Old Hob. Now that the Turtles are homeless, with one of their own captured, things have never looked bleaker for our heroes. And enter... THE SHREDDER!

Collects: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #9-12.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics

104 pages, Paperback

First published September 18, 2012

About the author

Kevin B. Eastman is an American comic book artist, co-creator of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Reviews

[Jayson · Rating 4 out of 5]

(A-) 82% | Very Good
Notes: A boss battle built to burst, pretty poignant in protraction, it pays off lore laid heretofore: not merely mindless action.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Foot Clan finally makes its presence known in Enter the Shredder. I like what they did here, making Splinter and Shredder ancient enemies. Splinter gets captured a few times before the boys come to bail him out. Dan Duncan's art is just OK. I won't cry when he's gone from the book.

[A.J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve been kinda meh on this series so far, but this is the volume where everything started to click for me. The turtles banter seems better, the action scenes are easier to follow, and the story feels like it’s picking up some steam.

Still not loving it like I did the initial Mirage run, and the art by Dan Duncan seriously isn’t all that great, but it is very fun run that’s been pretty easy to get invested into.

[Jim Ef · Rating 4 out of 5]

7.5/10
Vol. 3 and still going strong. More struggles for our heroes to overcome and Shredder shows up. I'm still not 100% onboard with the art but what can you do.

[James DeSantis · Rating 4 out of 5]

The return of the Shredder!!!!

So poor Splinter was kidnapped by that pesky evil cat-human hybrid. The turtles tell April who they are and she agrees to let them crash at her place. They don't stay long as they need to find their father. At the same time we got the Foot Ninjas in action here as they kidnap Splinter FROM the other bad guy. The showdown of Splinter verse the foot clan and eventually Shredder begins!

This is probably one of the most action-packed comics of Ninja turtles I read. This is where I stopped reading originally first time (Not because didn't like it, just didn't have enough money then to buy more) and damn this is fun. The turtles teaming up and doing kickass moves, shredder fighting, fucking SPLINTER kicking butt. All of it is great.

The subplot with the other gang of teenagers cleaning up the streets was just okay.

Overall, good stuff. This series is light and fun, just like I like it. I can't wait to read more! A 4 out of 5.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first year of Turtles action comes to an explosive close as the Heroes In A Half Shell go on the offensive as they try to rescue Master Splinter from Baxter Stockman, only to find that he's been taken by someone else entirely.

This definitely reads like a season finale type story. All of the story threads from the last year's worth of issues, including the Micro Series, come together to form a four issue bonanza that ropes in everyone and their dog, as well as a new character to throw a spanner in the Casey/April relationship. There's the epic fight scenes, a few little unexpected reveals, and the promise of more threats to come as Krang finally loses his patience. This is what I was looking for when I started reading Turtles, and I'm not disappointed at all.

The art's still the same; I'm not a fan of Dan Duncan, but it works well enough, and I think this is his last arc, so there's that. He's definitely established the look for the series though, and I have to give him credit for that even if I don't like the overall style.

Turtley awesome, dude. Yeah, I went there.

[Subham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume was quite good. We pick with the turtles looking to rescue their father from Stockman labs and April comes in and guides them and there they fight guards all the while Master Splinter has been kindapped by Foot clan and he has to fight for his survival there. When TMNT come to know about it they have to reformulate their plans and they move into April's old home, but that place is occupied by Angel and her purple dragons gang and they fight TMNT until Casey comes in. Casey and Angel are classmates and so they team up and she leads them to the ninja place where Master Splinter is fighting his arch-enemy the shredder and its epic, the way he takes out that foot ninja clan and then TMNT come in to save the day and the fight is hilarious and we learn teamwork and they merely escape but Master splinter is rescued, and that scene with April and Master Splinter was the best. It was so worth it and the art is getting better and it was a quick read thats for sure.

[Ondra Král · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kam ten Eastman spěchá? 12 sešitů (debilně rozdělených na 3 knížky) a mám pocit, že vytáhl všechny trumfy. Viděli jsme Trhače i Kranga, viděli jsme mousery, April nám randí s Casey... povinný status quo je asi hotový, teď to snad začne být zajímavý.

[Michael Church · Rating 4 out of 5]

The series is still doing very well. Nothing too surprising or groundbreaking here, but it's still very enjoyable. The writing is solid enough, but it does go around in circles a little. There's definitely some instances of being written into a corner without using some sort of deus ex. I am really enjoying this origin story, though. I don't know how original it is, but there's a lot I'd never heard before.

I'm also a fan of the long game the writers are playing here. There are a couple of events they're working toward, but it's nothing that's distracting from the current story. They have a great balance between current events and showing new information on these ideas. I also really enjoy the broad cast of characters being developed and the way they're interacting. I know it's a franchise that's been around for awhile, but it feels like they're establishing a rich world and gallery of rogues and companions and all sorts of things.

On the art front, it's still good from Duncan, but it's nothing stellar. I actually showed it to a friend who isn't at all into comics and he thought it was pretty solid. I guess I'm just distracted by what I know is coming in a few volumes and how incredible those books will look. It works well, I just can't wait for it to get better.

[Paul Porry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really like this ongoing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, I´m 37 and the turtles have been around for 31 years, so I identify with the characters ever since I was a kid.

[romevi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the reboot of TMNT ever since Nick’s acquisition (especially the show) and this comic series doesn’t disappoint.

It’s interesting to see a new storyline taking place with old characters, especially with the idea of reincarnation. It seemed farfetched at first, but then again I’m reading a comic about mutant turtles with feudal Japanese combat training. So there.

The final fight with the Shredder was a great way to introduce him, though I’m always wishing the Shredder will give the turtles quite the beat-down than just offering them a slap on the hand. I mean, he DOES defeat them, but they always seem like they’re on more even ground than necessary.

Still, a great series, and the last volume to contain Dan Duncan’s WONDERFUL illustrations.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think what's nagging me while reading this series is I was engrossed in the 03 cartoon, so I already know all the same beats and characters in this, so it comes off like kids/teens first TMNT book.

This is the Turtles first fight against shredder and to save their dad, and it's the same as every other adaption of this. It's all just ok. Dialogue is very simple and to the point. It's art is a tad rough. It's just ok.

[Chelsea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm still really enjoying this series! Volume 3 brings about another enemy, the Shredder. And even being as vaguely aware of the Turtles as I am know the name "Shredder". I will say, having Shredder not being connected to the bad guys from a lab is leaving me a bit skeptical because the amount of bad guys is getting into the ridiculous category for being so early in the series. The ending of this volume had a lot of action but it was pretty equally balanced with exposition which was nice. The pacing of this series is still steady and I feel like the story is moving and I'm following it all and I'm remaining invested. The Turtles are starting to get distinct personalities and quirks which make them distinguishable, although the constant "Bro"s thrown in are a bit much.

I'm unable to get ahold of the micro-series which is apparently a bummer because according to the footnotes in this, there is some fun things happening in them!

Otherwise, I'm eager to look at the next volume as the Turtles regroup to face this new enemy.

[Adam Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Volume 3: Shredder! The art style is growing on me, probably because the story is so good. Though its a fast read, it feels reminiscent of watching TMNT back as a kid. Take a bit of that nostalgia, mix in a bit more darkness and you get this strong showing of the future of the Turtles.
Upcoming must be Krang soon..... I'll definitely keep reading.
High recommend!

[sixthreezy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This TMNT comic is simply amazing. Every TMNT comic I'd ever read up until this point was pretty average, if not less than average. This series is for the TMNT fans that are now grown up, and have been following the turtles for years. Must read for TMNT fans.

[Tjavierb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything from the first two volumes of this fun reimagining come to a head in this volume.

Last time, their home was destroyed and their father was taken. Now the brothers must stop fighting with each other to get Splinter back. Enter Shredder to throw a wrench in things.

[Victor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good read! This book did a great job introducing the Foot and included a great battle at the end. It was a great start to the long historic feud of the turtles and the Foot. I highly recommend this book, and it may be my favorite yet of this new series.

Great read!

- V.

[Jeremy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Okay. Now I'm done.

[Rich · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm absolutely loving this new Turtles series. Love!

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

The introduction of Shredder is mysterious and foreboding as it should be. More good.

[Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesome. Shredder totally makes this trade.

[Justyn Rampa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume features a kidnapped Splinter and the reveal of Shredder.

Again, really well done and enjoyable...not AMAZING yet...but really well done.

Gonna keep reading:-)

[Lucas Lima · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ending of this volume is just beautiful. This series is just great!

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enter the Shredder and an increase in action makes this another great read.

[Jesus Hector Fernandez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good exposition to the Turtles.

I grew up as a fan of the old TMNT 80's cartoon which are pretty goofy but still likeable so Ive seen the cartoons transform and become more updated to our society's technological advancement, and from what we have seen in movies, is that the original TMNT comics were kind of dark, my first time exposed on this was with the original tmnt movie, so as a person that has never read any of the comics I went in excited to see how the comics were.

First off this is the review for vol 3. so this book continue on with the rescue of the master arc, the artwork is still great, though the turtles look a bit rough, story wise its still a bit out there with the whole resurrection thing going on, I still dont know what to think of that but then again I am reading a book about 4 ninja turtles, a humanoid cat and rat, so I guess my suspension of disbelief should be even looser, the story is still dark as new revelations are made about old enemies making the stakes higher, we now see the team working together more cohesively though Don is having a tougher time than he usually does in the cartoons, his engineer brain is clashing with other turtles more often now, but well that helps separate him more from the others and makes him more hum.. "turtle" I presume. another great thing is how Casey which seemed more like Raphs chum in the movie look more like a part of the family though brief the turtles do acknowledge him.

my only disdain with this comics is that I own a kindle basic 2019 and that's where I read these comics, and while its great to be able to read comics on an ereader, the format of the panels (many are long rectangles not very high) make reading these on a 6 inch kindle hard to read as the text appears very small (even on panel mode) thus I have to zoom in and move around often, if only the font was a bit bigger. gonna have to save up for a 7.8 inch ereader.

and the only reason I keep giving the books so far a 4 out of 5 is because of the whole ancient japan turtles backstory, so far the story has been ok, its a new begining story, but I personally don't really like young Casey and April.

If you love the previous 2 books, there is not reason not to like the 3rd one and well you gotta read this one as well...spoilers....ok here goes in quotation marks "it's the end of this arc of the story". END SPOILERS.

[Rihards Husko · Rating 3 out of 5]

Splinter has been kidnapped, and the turtles’ home has been wrecked by Baxter’s mousers. The brothers must work together to find and recover their father, with the help of Casey and April, while a foe both ancient and new stands in their way. Shadows of the Past feels a bit like checking off boxes rather than an effort to really push the story forward.

The writers behind the new run of TMNT are in an unenviable position - how do you please an audience of such a long-running series, one with so many different tones? I really felt like they struggled due to this weight this volume. They have been setting up the Foot Clan and The Shredder, finally to reveal them, and it was... kind of disappointing, to be honest. They try to give the villain a certain menace and reverence, especially through the backstory of their previous lives, but the current incarnation has yet to be sold. I tend not to think too deeply about the media I intake, but even I kept wondering about the villain’s motives and strange decisions. I get that they wanted to give Splinter a real badass moment (and, for the most part, succeeded in that), but it happened at the expense of a highly anticipated villain's reveal. It’s not the only issue I had with the writing, but it is the biggest.

Thankfully, Dan Duncan’s strong art helps pull it all together. I love the look of this book, though I suspect not everyone might feel the same way about the messy lines or, at times, unattractive characters. The motion feels impactful, the poses are often striking, and there are several excellent shots that change the perspective or lens, as it were, to great effect. Though I really wish the fight scenes had a clearer sense of place and choreography. While the action shots look good, when you actually run what’s happening through your mind, it’s kind of just a punch-out most of the time, which isn’t ideal.

Volume 3 of the IDW Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles run is perfectly adequate. It draws on the series’ rich history, bringing in more fan favorites, even if it does not necessarily know what to do with them. I really hope the writers can get to stretch their legs soon, and not just retell old adventures. There is clearly enough talent here that that would likely be something worth seeing. I liked it.

[Rolando Marono · Rating 4 out of 5]

Esta serie sigue aprovechando la nostalgia de la serie de los 2000s, la que pasaban en Fox Kids y la cuál fue parte importante de mi infancia, para añadir algunos giros interesantes y hacer esta adaptación un cómic bastante interesante.
Mi mayor problema con esta historia son los diálogos poco originales y algunos anti naturales o muy infantiles. El trabajo de diálogos de Eastman no es lo mejor de este volumen.
La incorporación narrativa de la reencarnación, aunque la sentí un poco fuera de lugar en el volumen pasado, aquí se esfuerzan por mostrar las mismas dudas que yo tuve pero por parte de los personajes, y le dan un tratamiento de construcción más desarrollado, haciendo que aceptes ese detalle como parte del canón. La verdad es que TMNT tiene tantos detalles que podrían sonar una locura pero funcionan bien; comenzando desde tortugas ninjas mutantes adolescentes, hasta alienígenas, seres de otra dimensión, ninjas malvados reencarnados, etc. Todos los detalles que podrías imaginar están aquí y eso dota a la serie de cierta ridiculez que es aprovechada e integrada a la trama.
El arte me gustó mucho, aunque los trazos son sucios tiene un tratamiento cinematográfico, haciendo muchos close ups a media cara para añadir dramatismo y la escena de pelea del final está muy bien hecha.
Me gustó como en la serie animada se esforzaban por mostrar un Shredder muy poderoso y aquí, lo muestran vulnerable, obviamente eso hará que se haga más malvado y despiadado.
Me gusta que Eastman sabe exactamente a dónde quiere llevar la serie en el futuro y los volúmenes están plagados de señales que seguro derivarán en algo.
No me gustó que requiriéramos de leer las Micro Series para entender algunas cosas que referencían aquí, en México no están trayendo las Micro Series así que tendré que buscarlas en inglés.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is TMNT firing on all cylinders now, and I loved it. Shredder had been the missing piece in the earlier volumes, and what are the Turtles without Shredder? With his introduction in this volume, the "family" is just about complete (we're still missing Bebop and Rocksteady).

I loved how Shredder was brought into the story -- with perfect partnership of writing and art. While I was disappointed in the art in the first two volumes (and overall I'm still not warming up to the style), the art team nailed the Shredder reveal. I turned the page and saw him and gasped. He looks badass and threatening, red cape hanging dramatically like a river of blood pouring off him. I kept staring.

In the first two volumes our main villain was Old Hob, an alley cat who got mutated along with Splinter and the Turtles but who was less chill about it. Old Hob was built up as a legitimate threat -- he almost succeeds in defeating our heroes. So it's a major "oh sh*t" moment when we see that Shredder has flung Old Hob aside like a sack of potatoes. It's a fantastic way to raise the villainy stakes and make us understand that our heroes are screwed.

There is a *long* fight sequence between Splinter and Shredder that's tense and heavy and so good. Splinter's character in particular is pitch perfect. And this is not the goofy Shredder from the cartoons.

One other thing: The writer, Tom Waltz, really gets Donatello. I've seen Donatello portrayed in other places sometimes as being wimpy, a geek, a follower. But Waltz understands that an unshakable faith in science, which Donatello possesses, can make one confident and bold. Donatello goes toe-to-toe in an argument with Leo in this volume that feels both totally Donatello and refreshingly badass. Typically it's Raphael and Leonardo who butt heads while Donatello tinkers quietly in the background, but Waltz highlights the science-versus-spirituality divide between Donnie and Leo in a way I've never seen done before, or at least not this well. This shows how a good writer can find something new in a character that's both fresh and rings true. As a bonus, there's a callback to the Don-Leo argument later in the volume that had me burning with writerly envy. Waltz's writing has the precision of a novel. I guess in fact this entire decade-long series (so far there are 23 volumes) is like one long novel.

I have so much affection for these characters; I always have for almost my entire life. Seeing them handled this well makes my heart glad.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Volume 3.
The Turtles, along with their allies Casey Jones and April O'Neill, race to rescue Splinter from potential vivisection at the hands of Baxter Stockman. However, they soon discover that a third party has kidnapped Splinter; the Foot Clan and its vicious leader Shredder.

In the previous volume I enjoyed the exploration of the idea that Splinter and the Turtles were the reincarnations of murdered ninja from feudal Japan and here we see that storyline ripen fully as Splinter (AKA Hamato Yoshi) finally comes face to face with Shredder (AKA Oroku Saki).
The confrontation between these two characters, whose emnity has endured beyond death (and beyond one of them being turned into a giant talking rat) is this book's most compelling scene. I particularly loved the fact that Shredder shrugs off the reasons and method of Yoshi's reincarnation as inconsequential compared to the opportunity for him to kill his nemesis once more.

The scene in which the Turtles rescue Splinter at the last moment and combine their talents to defeat Shredder is a little cliché but, honestly, I still loved it. It felt true to the spirit of the cartoon which I loved as a kid and ends with a particularly badass moment where Shredder says to the fleeing Turtles "I am unyielding. I am unstoppable. I am the Shredder" to which Leonardo turns just long enough to throw a shuriken into the wall by Shredder's head and reply "I am... unimpressed."

* More reviews here: https://fsfh-book-review2.webnode.page *

[Phillip Richardson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another win

This is the third volume and needs the previous two volumes to be read. It is best to collect the use collection that also includes 5 extra stories for the turtles and splinter that add more to the story (they are referenced in several issues); that being said they are just subplots and the story makes sense without them. This issue sees a conclusion to the first three volumes as we get a battle with shredder, April gets to say thank you and Hobs story appears to end. Of course it has other threads for what will follow but it’s the end of the first little arc and it works well. Of course the quality of the books does mean that I will continue to read. There are some excellent meta moments and thread in of previous lore (like the other two volumes) that work so well to make this feel familiar while still being new. Well worth a read (although, as said before, if you can get the first IDE collection it contains the first three volumes and the extra side stories as well and is totally worth getting).