Bobby Curnow

i'm in awe. i just genuinely kind of do not even know where to start with this one.

SO MUCH HAPPENED in this volume, but it didn't feel rushed. it felt purposeful. it felt thoughtful. moments had weight & meaning. this volume wrapped up FOUR YEARS WORTH OF STORY in a satisfying way, but still went out of its way to plant seeds for (by my count) what's probably gonna be at least three major future storylines in a way that did not feel even slightly forced, in a way that fit the breathtakingly show more perfect pace & tone of the rest of the comic.

this really, truly felt like the culmination of four years worth of storytelling. something that's grown increasingly obvious to me the more i've read this comic is that the people making it really care. there were times i literally had to pause reading and just let what had happened in the last few panels or pages sink in. i teared up a couple times.

i don't know if i'm doing this any kind of justice, i don't know if anyone who hasn't read this title will get anything out of me basically doing the textual equivalent of just waving this series in your face & begging you to read it, but seriously, it is SO GOOD. i don't know what else to say. show less

now this is more like it! shredder is genuinely terrifying, karai and alopex kick all kinds of ass, leo gets captured and brainwashed. aside from a frankly kinda lackluster solo effort from eastman in the 2012 annual, this volume was hella tight.

but most importantly, bebop and rocksteady have joined the party!!! and they're so good!!! i swear, they're somehow exactly the same amazing rays of sunshine in literally every version of the franchise they're a part of. literally everything else can show more change around them, and they're just always them. it's kind of uncanny! and every version that doesn't include them suffers for it. the only exception is rise because it's so different than everything that came before that it's really hard to compare it to the rest of the franchise. i think they're the most important non-turtle characters in the franchise. i really do. you could plop them into any version of the franchise that didn't include them and it would immediately make it noticeably better, even if it's already super good. (i'm looking at you, 2007 cgi movie.)

i think that’s the case here, too. i think the best-written volume of the first three is probably the first volume, the second one is a bit rough at times. the third one is noticeably better but like just slightly less good than the first volume… except bebop and rocksteady totally push it across the finish line just barely ahead of the first volume. excellent stuff here. show less

maybe we have a reverse star trek movies deal on our hands here, and the odd-numbered volumes are great and the even-numbered ones are fine?

the eight issues of the ongoing series collected in here are all about the turtles and their family recovering from the events of the previous volume on april’s parents’ farm and then returning to new york. i gotta say on the whole i definitely prefer some of the issues on the farm to some of the issues after they return to new york. i especially show more loved the last issue on the farm when the foot attacked, led by koya the mutant falcon. koya’s dialogue was hella vore-horny, so obviously i was super there for that.

once they returned to new york, the main things i liked a whole lot were casey’s verbal confrontation with his father in #34 and leonardo and splinter’s talks in #36. i also liked the rat king noticing that leo’s recovery from shredder’s brainwashing had strengthened him.

i needed way more karai and bebop & rocksteady, though. i felt their absence quite keenly. i know this volume was sort of two transition periods stacked up in a trenchcoat, but it really showed.

also collected in this volume were the utrom empire miniseries which wasn’t really my cup of tea except for my beautiful triceratons finally showing up, that ruled. and rounding it out was the 2014 annual, which was kiiiiiinda bad? i’m starting to think the idw annuals are cursed. they’ve both been pretty bad so far.

i still enjoyed this for the most part because i like the ninja turtles and i’m easy, but i do hope the next volume is a bit more impressive. show less

Unlike seemingly innocent cover of this graphic novel, Night of 1000 Wolves is an adult horror and supernatural violent graphic novel about a family torn in a tragedy when hundreds of wolves began to target them for a nightmarish bloodbath. Its a serious graphic novel about family, survivalism, the struggle between humanity and nature at its most violent moments.

This volume consisted of 3 issues from the series that followed the Benjyon family and their struggle with the sudden influx of show more raging wolves and werewolves. The story is a subsequent result from the pact between the wolves's god and a man that hunger for power. If you are familiar with the Ghibli's Princess Mononoke, this graphic novel is more violent but similar to the story.

The artist had managed to captivate the readers in his richly descriptive setting and emotional creatures and characters. He does not limit himself by toning down the necessity violence in the story which he depicted skillfully. He brought humanity in his characters who are desperate to be alive and afraid by the frightening blood-thirsty creatures who came at them without mercy. The tone of the story is done with efficiency that three issues does seemed limited on the plot but the ending of the novel are guaranteed the reader's interest in the storylines.

I wouldn't recommend the book to readers who judge the graphic novel by the cover. If you read the book preview, you'll notice the cover is very sinister. I am not recommending it to people who wanted some light reading or anticipate a great wolf romance out of it. It does contain a close husband and wife loving relationship but its definitely not a twilight romance. So if you are offended by the violence depicted in this book, well, the book doesn't skimp on potraying wolves as cuddly things but in real life, wolves are not a cuddly being. If you approach the novel as a realist, you'll notice there's a great deal of realism in the storyline.

But I would recommend the book to adult readers who love the direwolves in the Games of Thrones and Princess Mononoke. Wolves are not a pet nor are they a cuddly thing. Its a serious violent and quite male-centric novel that are not for the soft hearted ones. There's a lot of gore in it and blood which can bother those who have weak stomach. But honestly to me, the gore is quite mild (milder than Saw or Final Destination or Spartacus or The Walking Dead) but the artwork is fantastic. The clever use of the watercolour helped the graphic novel in potraying the desperation and the intensity between the characters, the scenes and the settings. It's a good graphic novel if you are to be specific about the storyline.

The ARC is provided by IDW Publishing via Netgalley and the graphic novel will be published on 30th October 2012. show less