Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles vol. 3 #13

[zechs80]

I only have about three issues from this run. I only have these issues due to digging the art and given they where somewhat Shredder related. But I felt so damn lost and with what happened to Don (he became a cyborg and then gets pretty banged up in these next few issues). Anyway being a Don fan I just couldn't take seeing my fav turtle get his butt handed to him. That and there wasn't much ninja stuff going on. Splinter got turned into a bat, Don was a Cyborg, Raph became the Shredder, Leo had a frigging sword hand, and Mikey well was the lucky one.

So anyway here's how Raph became the Shredder. He gets mixed up with the Foot Clan and mobsters over a botched kidnap attempt the former did to the later (involving a don's kid). The kid accidently dies and the Don decides to wipe the Foot out. Raph gets caught in the middle. It isn't middle for long as the mobsters are easily wiping the Foot up due to having auto matic weapons. So it leaves just Raph and the mobsters:











I really think this was probably the best thing about the Image series actually. It appears Peter Laird or someone behind the 2k3 TMNT toon liked this idea as well and had a little homage to it during a nightmare Raph had in a S2 or S3 episode. The other thing this series that was adapted was Karai as the Shredder. Those scans I do not have alas. Though Wiki says she was never revealed as such only hinted as so though confirmed by the creators of this book.

Comments

[zegim]

Raph as Shredder is actually a very interesting idea.

It just makes sense!

[box_in_the_box]

Agreed.

[box_in_the_box]

Raph was ALWAYS on the dark side, so this actually was a novel way of exploring that.

As far back as the original Eastman and Laird run, I remember the Turtles and April crashing at Casey's place, after Shredder destroyed April's place, and April was keeping a journal, in which she described how the Turtles were coping.

Her entry on Raph? "Raph SCARES me."

[darkblade]

Raph always kept something of his Frank Miller-esque character from the first issue while the others gradually lost their's.

[box_in_the_box]

... That's a really interesting way of looking at it. Raph remained distant from the others because he never stopped being Miller's "son." :)

[darkblade]

Which is kind of a shame. The turtle that stays the most Miller-esque never gets to have much of a Miller monologue.

They always said the first issue was meant to parody Frank Miller's writing and Jack Kirby's art. Raph kept the Miller-vibe and to me at least Mikey and Don always felt more Kirby-ish to me.

[blake_reitz]

Don is much more Kirby, as they met! And I thought Raph's Miller-ness was nicely touched upon in Turtles Forever, what with the "I'm going to retire here!" line.

[darkblade]

I loved that line.

[tsunamiwombat]

So, this is the distant future where Donatello is a cyborg batman, Leonardo is...somewhere...? and Michelangelo is dead.

Meanwhile Raphael becomes Shredder. Does he lead the Foot?

[zechs80]

The remaining New York Foot Clan? Yes, he does. Though his reign doesn't last long as Saki's daughter and Karai as Lady Shredder show up to boot him off as leader.

[blake_reitz]

More like the recent past! Leo's actually had his hand chopped off (and replaced with a sword, of course), Michelangelo is...blinded? dead? I forget.

And Splinter turned into a giant bat.

[psychopathicus_rex]

While this is pretty awesome, all right, I have two comments:

1: It's kinda... WEIRD seeing one of the Ninja Turtles with a gun.

2: I'm not sure if I approve of how Raph's shell is drawn here. It's all smooth - where's the patterns?

[rhythmbandit]

Very awesome. I love me some bloody Turtles.