scans_daily

We're at the end of an era. The previous 25 years of Ninja Turtles is going to step aside for a new generation due to the recent Nickelodeon sale (more thoughts on that and the Turtles Forever below the scans).

These scans are (as far as I know) the most recent chronologically in the original Mirage TMNT continuity. I'm a little sad that we may never know the conclusions to these story arcs, but I am forced to admit that the series has been treading for awhile. Mirage Studio's still has the rights to publish this series if the want (up to 18 issues a year), so we may yet find out what happens to the guys. I haven't heard any word on if the sale will affect the Future Turtles trade paperback and mini-series.

That's Don, by the way. He was traveling in the Amazon, got shrunk by aliens and placed in a terrarium with some other scientists and explorers and semi-sentient velociraptors. He is currently stuck at action figure size (how appropriate), and is working on a cure (also tooling around in a robot exo-suit that looks like Metalhead).

That's Raph. He was bit by a vampire, and instead of making him sparkle, it caused the mutagen in his system to re-activate, mutating him into a prehistoric beast. He's still sentient, but his normal rage issues are compounded by the whole being a prehistoric beast thing.

There's always a strange undercurrent in the TMNT comic books, where they get mutilated or mutated or changed in some odd fashion if the series goes on long enough. You can see this a little in the Future Turtles stories, a whole lot in the short-lived Image comics TMNT, and in vol. 4 of the Mirage TMNT. I may need to go make a mega-post exploring that.

"...he has his anger."

Leo's actually stuck in the Battle Nexus (imported fresh from the cartoon), and Mike's been shanghaied into a space adventure (he gets a lot of screen-time in vol. 4, to make up on all the time focusing on his brothers in previous volumes).

April just learned some disquieting history about herself, which I'll save for a later post. But, spoiler alert, it has something to do with this.

Some thoughts on Turtles Forever (a bit spoiler-ish):

I really liked it. It's one of the most "by fans, for fans" things I've ever seen, with a ton of cameos and easter eggs (we even get a glimpse of the "Turtle Multiverse", containing live action movie turtles, CGI movie turtles, super sentai turtles, baby turtles, future turtles, even some turtles I recognize only from concept art). I love Mikey's reaction to the 87' Turtles ("How can you not love these guys!") and Raph's similar reaction to the Mirage Turtles ("I love these guys!"). And it's nice to see that Splinter is Splinter, no matter what universe you're in.

The only thing I found a little disappointing was how little Casey and April factored into the story. Yeah, they showed up, then ran around with the turtles, then got caught in the white-out of un-creation without ever getting a chance to do anything (very "Crisis on Infinite Turtles", by the way. There was a nice effect where everything drained away until only the blue draft lines remained. Animal Man would be proud).

The last act was wonderful, with the black & white, grim & gritty 80's indie comic TMNT rendered into animation. I was giddy at the appearance of the old-school turtles, and there were some great lines exchanged. Everyone got a chance to shine in the big battle (even 87' Shredder gets a nice blink-and-you'll-miss-it-moment where he saves Karai from the "real" Shredder, her adoptive father), and the whole thing makes a fantastic capstone to the last 25 years of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Personally, I can't wait to see what Nick brings to the table now that they own the keys.

Also, why is it the Technodrome is always just the right size to fit down a city street? I guess I can blame Dimension X size-changing technology.