Cowabunga! The next evolution is here — the punk-rock lovin’, mosh-pit brawling heroine in a half-shell makes her uproarious debut in Jennika: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a three-issue miniseries starring the original IDW character. The premier issue of Jennika: TMNT delivers two brand-new turtle-tales, the expositional “The Cure for You,” from Brahm Revel and “Time and Again,” an endearing short from Ronda Pattison. The search for the cure is on in Mutant Town, as the rapscallion collides with bad seeds and ex-lovers at mutant hardcore dive, the Kennel Klub, in the nostalgic first issue of Jennika: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
In 1984, Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo crawled out the sewers and into the aquarium-hearts of untold legions with the monumental publication of Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from Mirage Studios. Named for famous Renaissance artists and trained in the martial arts by their sensei Master Splinter, an anthropomorphic rat, the turtles are transformed by mutagenic ooze into the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Eastman and Laird’s turtle-empire has spawned countless comics and strips, six full-length feature films, live and animated television series, turtle toys, video games, and a roleplaying game. After the franchise moved to Nickelodeon in 2009, IDW Publishing secured the right to reprint old adventures and publish the ongoing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book series.
Under IDW, publisher of such franchise properties as Marvel Action, Star Wars Adventures, My Little Pony, Dungeons and Dragons, and Transformers, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have traveled through time and to Dimension X, teaming up with Batman, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Ghostbusters, and Usagi Yojimbo in dozens of special crossover events. During those IDW adventures, the Turtles encountered Jennika, a human runaway skilled in the martial arts, first as the villain Shredder’s head assassin and member of the ancient ninjutsu clan, the Foot and, later, under Master Splinter’s tutelage. When Jennika was wounded by an insurgent Karai, Shredder's second-in-command, intent on regaining control over the Foot, a transfusion of Leonardo’s lifesaving blood mutated her into a turtle. Now, the newest Turtle grapples with both her troubled past and the tensions brewing across Mutant Town in Jennika: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a three-issue miniseries from IDW.
While the 1997 “Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation,” live-action television series introduced a female counterpart to the Turtles, Venus de Milo, it would be another 23 years before TMNT would introduce the comic book “Belle of Shell.” Jennika, the next progression in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles dynasty, cut her teeth on the mean streets of New York City and now she’s thwarting evildoers in her own dojo, Mutant Town. After mutation transfigures the entire community around her into sheep, dogs, rabbits, and other animals, the self-appointed shogun of the mutant zone earns the praise of some citizens and the ire of others. To let off steam, Jennika cracks shells to the sounds of punk-rock darlings Bat Brains, Rabid, the NYC Dogs, at the Kennel Klub, a tongue-in-cheek reference to legendary acts and the infamous Kennel Club, a hotspot in Philadelphia punk rock scene. At the Klub, the She-Devil in a Half-Shell relives her tempestuous youth in NYC punk scene, reigniting rivalries and romances from a time-gone-by and busting heads in the mosh pit. When a former flame hints at a cure to the mutation gripping the community, the assassin-turned-ally sees a light at the end of the tunnel, in the new Jennika: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from IDW Publishing.
Jennika: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles slices and dices her way into comic shops this week!
Source: IDW