The tiling of their battle is creative, and the initial clash in the foreground is very well done. However, after waiting an ENTIRE series for THIS fight, this condensed brawl just seems a little hollow. I was hoping for bigger, more violent, more action - these are two of the top hand-to-hand combatants in comics! Again, Freddie E Williams II has done a phenomenal job on this series - his turtles are different yet similar in that fantastic style that Mateus Santolouco has mastered (I'd rank Santolouco as the best Turtles artist I've seen, with Williams in the Top 5). His shredder looks terrifying, his Batman formidible. So cramming this into such a small space? A bit disappointing.

Splinter literally mops up everything else, which stays true to his characterization in this series: Batman knows how damn good at martial arts Splinter is - we've seen Splinter fight Bats and look very good, so it only makes sense that a fighter as-good-as-if-not-better-than Batman can take out fellow mutated animals. I just wish we could have SEEN it! We get one panel of Splinter finding Harley Quinn's giant fucking mallet (YES!), and it precedes other peoples' battles. We next see Hamato Yoshi in front of a bunch of unconscious Arkham inmates. Blech.

But as disappointing as two out of three fights were, the issue is still a rollocking good time. The Turtles make it home thanks to April, Casey, and Harold keying on their mutagenic signature, and Bruce takes Damien home to bond over Bat-tech. All the loose ends are wrapped up, and there's a touching scene where Raph has to say good-bye to Bruce.

That has been one of my favorite developments of the series - Batman's and Raphael's relationship. Tynion has found equal ground for them to stand on, with Batman serving as a mentor to the headstrong turtle. Of course, they're two of my favorite comic characters, so my bias makes this even more powerful, BUT STILL!

LOWDOWN: It won't leave you giving a standing ovation, but it was satisfying in a way where you can't be disappointed with it as a whole. Maybe this will work better as part of a trade, but Tynion and Williams gave a great effort, focused on their strengths, and made this crossover what we hoped it would be.

7 out of 10 Killer Moth Moth Man Moths