The last known states of the Orginial Mirage TMNT, some thoughts on Turtles Forever

[blake_reitz]

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.

Comments

[savitar]

I loved Turtles Forever and thought it was the perfect way to end things now that the whole thing has been sold off.

Some people complain the 87 turtles got the end of the stick but as someone who grew up watching them I'm going to say this was just the way they were and would have gone. When the 87 turtles started out they were pretty capable but they slowly descended into what they were shown to be in Turtles Forever, that's just how they were. I remember watching when they debuted on CBS in prime time, the one where Baxter gets that computer AI friend that had a computer for a head and I utterly HATED how badly the series had gone campy by that point. Not like it was great before but it only got worse.

As noted before the 87 Turtles got to shine a lot, Don's invention to cross dimensions ended up saving the day more than once including his inventions. Ralph breaking the fourth way repeatedly was awesome and hey 87 April has great breast doesn't she?

When they brought in the original turtles, I mean how awesome was that! They certainly held their own and showed how badass they were, they were more so than the 2003 turtles if anything.

For the most part it seems like to me the only ones that complain about the Turtles Forever special were those that felt their childhood got put down but honestly those people are simply wrong and likely have no concept of the turtles except for that series. Those of us who kept up with them know better.