Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1: Raphael is in prison in a bruising first look at the new series

Art from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 2024.
(Image credit: IDW)

IDW has revealed a blistering first look at its soon-to-be-relaunched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic to The Hollywood Reporter. The new series, written by Jason Aaron, is set to be drawn by four different artists, with Joëlle Jones providing the bone-crunching and gritty art for the first issue, which focuses on Raphael alone and in jail. As you can see from the pages below, things aren't looking too great for him at the moment. 

"When this new series begins, the Turtles have gone their separate ways and ended up in some surprising places," Aaron explained to THR. "First up is Raphael, the one mutant inmate in a prison full of killers, as brought to gorgeously gritty life by Joëlle. Can't wait for folks to read it, and to see where we go from here." Check it out in the gallery below...

Future issues of the series will feature art from Rafael Albuquerque in #2 (which stars Michelangelo), Cliff Chiang in #3 (Leonardo), and Chris Burnham in #4, (Donatello). Rafael Albuquerque will then become the series' regular artist for the second story arc.

IDW's synopsis for the new issue gives us a few more details of what to expect from the debut:

"The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have all left New York to pursue their own interests, but there are forces gathering that will pull them back together - whether the bad guys like it or not. First up: Raphael! But why is everyone's favorite brawler in prison?! When a surprise attack behind bars puts Raph's position in jeopardy, he needs to figure out how to get out of jail and warn his brothers that trouble is coming."

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 is published by IDW on July 24. Before then there's also the recently delayed release of the second issue of the mature readers-focussed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin II - Re-Evolution #2 on June 12.


Have you checked out IDW's dark, hilarious serial killer thriller Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees yet? You really should and here's why.

CATEGORIES
Will Salmon
Comics Editor

Will Salmon is the Comics Editor for GamesRadar/Newsarama. He has been writing about comics, film, TV, and music for more than 15 years, which is quite a long time if you stop and think about it. At Future he has previously launched scary movie magazine Horrorville, relaunched Comic Heroes, and has written for every issue of SFX magazine for over a decade. He sometimes feels very old, like Guy Pearce in Prometheus. His music writing has appeared in The Quietus, MOJO, Electronic Sound, Clash, and loads of other places and he runs the micro-label Modern Aviation, which puts out experimental music on cassette tape.

Read more
Key art for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown
TMNT rocks Steam Next Fest with the snappiest, slickest tactics RPG I've ever played
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Practice your ninjitsu because the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are coming to protect the Castle Panic board game
The Biker Mice From Mars.
Oni Press's new Biker Mice From Mars comic will take a "hard-hitting approach to the stories" and "definitely won't pull any punches"
An alien attacks.
Xenomorphs have taken the island as Alien: Paradiso nears its endgame
Finn riding Jake with a broken sword in the air.
Oni Press shares an exclusive preview of the first Adventure Time comic in 7 years
The Umbrella Academy.
The Umbrella Academy is returning to comics with a new storyline featuring the Sparrows from season 3 of the TV show
Latest in Comics
The Punisher holding two machine guns in the rain
Daredevil: Born Again - Learn the bullet-riddled comic book history of the Punisher before he officially joins the MCU
Jay, Silent Bob, Archie, Betty and Veronica.
Snootch to the nooch! Mallrats director Kevin Smith is writing an Archie Comics/Jay and Silent Bob crossover
Absolute Batman in the snow.
Absolute Batman writer Scott Snyder teases the arrival of Robin, crossovers with Superman and Wonder Woman, and building up to the Joker
King Kong wrestling a giant squid monster
The Monsterverse expands with Return to Skull Island, a comic tying into Netflix's King Kong-centric animated series
Close up on Emma Frost's face as she sits on a throne on the cover of Emma Frost: White Queen #1
"Bow down to the White Queen" as Emma Frost gets her own X-Men solo comic that flashes back to her time as a villain
The Biker Mice From Mars.
Oni Press's new Biker Mice From Mars comic will take a "hard-hitting approach to the stories" and "definitely won't pull any punches"
Latest in News
Jordan A. Mun looks at herself in a mirror in just a vest in Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet screenshot
5 years after starting development, Neil Druckmann says Naughty Dog's new game Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is "still evolving and changing as we're making it"
Silent Hill f
After 2 years of silence, the next mainline Silent Hill game is getting a dedicated stream this week with "the latest news"
Original Xbox console
Former Microsoft exec says the first Xbox was killed early in favor of 360 because it was "losing money left right and center," but luckily "we could afford to hemorrhage cash"
A Monster Hunter Wilds character holding binoculars.
Despite Monster Hunter Wilds suffering monstrous performance problems on PC, it still outsold the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions in the US
Jordan A. Mun looks at herself in a mirror in just a vest in Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet screenshot
The Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann says Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet will also be about "being lonely," as if his zombie apocalypse wasn’t isolating enough: "I really want you to be lost"
A screenshot of Jordan drinking a soda during the reveal trailer for Intergalactic: The Hertic Prophet.
Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is "a game about faith and religion," which Neil Druckmann jokes will surely get less hate than The Last of Us 2