New Year, New Comics — A Little Turtle Power With ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’
by Tony Thornley
One of my earliest fandoms was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I was four years old when the original cartoon debuted, and went into kindergarten as Turtle Fever started to hit a fever pitch. But one of my blind spots in that fandom, strangely, has always been TMNT comics.
I started very young as a Turtle fan. My mom made me a Leonardo costume for my first Halloween in school, including a paper mache shell. I had a Leo action figure and stuffed animal, the latter of which was always nearby at night. When I did start collecting comics regularly a few years later, I did read Archie’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures, but only for about a year.
Fast forward to now, and IDW Publishing’s variety of TMNT series have always appealed to me. Outside of the first volume and the Turtles In Time miniseries though, I never picked it up. Whether it’s the early run written by Kevin Eastman and Tom Waltz, or the more recent stories by Sophie Campbell, or even the recent reboot by Jason Aaron, there’s a lot of tons and stories to pick up.
The years long epic has given TMNT fans a lot to talk about. It started with introducing Old Hob, and grew and grew. We got Splinter and the Turtles as reincarnated scions of the Hamato Clan. Leonardo went dark. A new pantheon of gods were introduced. New York was partially transformed by a mutagen bomb. A new Turtle — a sister — was introduced, while a much maligned fifth Turtle from an old incarnation of the series got a makeover.
Forgive me if I got any of that wrong, I’ve absorbed it all through osmosis.
This is Ninja Turtles at its peak. A group of fantastic creators have taken the characters, concepts and world and has been able to help it grow and progress. They’ve taken the idea that comic books have flirted with- that these are years-long soap operas, and taken it to its natural conclusion.
I’ve already started digging in. Of course, I started at the end — The Last Ronin. The dark dystopian epic was a perfect way to kick off this read for me. Its strangely hopeful energy reminded me of the heroes that the Turtles are, even with three of the four long lost by the time the story picks up.
Frankly, the Turtles of Grayskull toys reignited my love of the Ninja Turtles, and yes, it’s probably turned into a bit of a hyper fixation. However, I’m thrilled to be able to dig in more and more and catch up on what I’ve missed.
As the kids say, cowabunga!
