Magazine

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Magazine was a typical children’s magazine published quarterly by Welsh Publishing Group, Inc during the height of TMNT popularity in the early 1990s. It was officially licensed by Eastman and Laird and available by subscription.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (franchise)

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT or Ninja Turtles) are a team of four teenage anthropomorphic turtles, who are trained by their sensei, Master Splinter, to become skilled ninja warriors. From their home in the sewers of Manhattan, they battle petty criminals, evil megalomaniacs, and alien invaders, all while remaining isolated from society at large.

The TMNT originated in an American comic book published by Mirage Studios in 1984. The concept arose from a comical sketch by Kevin Eastman during a casual evening of brainstorming with his friend Peter Laird. Using money from a tax refund together with a loan from Eastman’s uncle, the young artists self-published a single-issue comic intended to parody four of the most popular comics of the early 1980s: Marvel Comics’ X-Men/The New Mutants, which featured teenage mutants, Daredevil, which featured ninja clans dueling for control of the New York City underworld, Cerebus the Aardvark, which featured anthropomorphic animals, and Ronin.

Today, there is a resurgence in the Turtles’ popularity with the success of the recent animated series, a new line of Playmates action figures, Konami video games, and a computer-animated feature film that came out in 2007.

Contents

History

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Clockwise from top: Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles originated in an American comic book published by Mirage Studios in 1984 in New Hampshire. The concept arose from a humorous drawing sketched out by Kevin Eastman during a casual evening of brainstorming with his friend Peter Laird. [2] Using money from a tax refund together with a loan from Eastman’s uncle, the young artists self-published a single issue comic intended to parody four of the most popular comics of the early 1980s: Marvel Comics’ Daredevil and New Mutants, Dave Sim’s Cerebus the Aardvark, and Frank Miller’s Ronin. [3]

Much of the Turtles’ mainstream success began when a licensing agent, Mark Freedman, sought out Eastman and Laird to propose wider merchandising opportunities for the offbeat property. In 1986, Dark Horse Miniatures produced a set of 15 mm lead figurines. In January 1988, they visited the offices of Playmates Toys Inc, a small California toy company who wished to expand into the action figure market. Development initiated with a creative team of companies and individuals: Jerry Sachs, ad man of Sachs-Finley Agency, brought together the animators at Murakami-Wolf-Swenson, headed by award-winning animator Fred Wolf. Wolf and his team combined concepts and ideas with Playmates marketing crew, headed by Karl Aaronian and then VP of Sales, Richard Sallis and VP of Playmates, Bill Carlson. Aaronian brought on several designers and concepteer and writer John Schulte and worked out the simple backstory that would live on toy packaging for the entire run of the product and show. Sachs called the high-concept pitch «Green Against Brick». The sense of humor was honed with the collaboration of MWS’s writers. Playmates and their team essentially served as associate producers and contributing writers to the miniseries that was first launched to sell-in the toy action figures. Phrases like «Heroes in a Half Shell» and many of the comical catch phrases and battle slogans («Turtle Power!») came from the writing and conceptualization of this creative team. As the series developed, veteran writer Jack Mendelsohn came on board as both a story editor and scriptwriter. David Wise, Michael Charles Hill, and Michael Reaves wrote most of the scripts, taking input via Mendelsohn and collaborating writer Schulte and marketing maven Aaronian.

The miniseries was repeated three times before it found an audience. Once the product started selling, the show got syndicated and picked up and backed by Group W, which funded the next round of animation. The show then went network, on CBS. Accompanied by the popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987 TV series, and the subsequent action figure line, the TMNT were soon catapulted into pop culture history. At the height of the frenzy, in the early 1990s, the Turtles’ likenesses could be found on a wide range of children’s merchandise, from Pez dispensers to skateboards, breakfast cereal, video games, school supplies, linens, towels, cameras, and even toy shaving kits. The TV series would eventually reach it’s end, only to be replaced by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003 TV series a few years later, which would prove to become extremely popular, reaching an even broader fanbase than the previous series.

On October 21, 2009, it was announced that cable channel Nickelodeon (a subsidiary of Viacom) had purchased all of Mirage’s rights to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles property. Mirage retains the rights to publish 18 issues a year, though the future involvement of Mirage with the Turtles and the future of Mirage Studios itself is unknown. [4] Nickelodeon has developed a new CGI-animated TMNT television series and partnered with fellow Viacom company Paramount Pictures to bring a new TMNT movie to theaters. The TV show premiered on Nickelodeon on September 29, 2012. [5] The live action film, produced by Platinum Dunes, Nickelodeon Movies and Paramount Pictures, directed by Jonathan Liebesman and produced by Michael Bay, was released on August 8, 2014. [6]

Main characters

Powers and abilities

Each turtle posses enhanced mutant strength, thanks to the mutagen that mutated them. This explains why they are able to fight and overpower beings ten times their own size, such as being able to knock out Triceratons with simple jump kicks, as well as various other monsters, aliens, and giant creatures. It’s obvious that the Turtles aren’t on any human level. Each of them are on an almost superhuman level.

The 15 years of intense ninja training combined with their mutant powers makes each of them even stronger, faster, and much more skilled than normal humans. And as the years go by, they become more and more skilled in all forms of martial arts. In the episode, «Turtle Trek», Leonardo destroyed an alien tank by running around it at lightning-quick speed while slashing phenomenally quick at it, then as he stopped running, the tank shattered to pieces.

In the episode, «Enter the Shredder», the Turtles were able to smash through an army of giant mechanical robots using nothing but their weapons and their bodies. In the episode, «Turtle Trek», they defeated an entire invasion fleet of nearly-indestructible Rock Warriors through brute force.

Each of the Turtles have also shown to be outstanding warriors on their own.

Leonardo was able to battle entire armies of ninjas all at once, and win. He is usually the one who defeats the Shredder, and various other very powerful beings. Such as Tempestra, (a being with elemental powers), the Ultimate Ninja, Hun, etc. He, at one point, even destroyed an embodiment of the devil (from the episode; «The Darkness Within»). Leonardo, in a fit of uncontrollable rage, fought and injured his own master Splinter at one point, proving that he’d surpassed his own master. (from the episode; «The Ancient One»)

Michelangelo has won the Battle Nexus Tournament (A dimensional arena where beings from across all the known universes come to duel to determine the most skilled and powerful warrior ever), can easily beat Raphael, and is the most agile and athletic of the four Turtles.

Donatello is the least violent turtle, often trying to solve issues without needing to resort to fighting. However, despite the fact that Donatello spends more time in his lab than he does training, he can surprisingly keep up with the other Turtles in terms of skill and power with little effort. In fact, in the classic series, he may just be the most skilled of the four. (In the episode, «Too Hot To Handle», he was able to defeat his fellow turtles in a training duel. However, it was just training so it’s likely the others weren’t fighting with the same intensity they fight with in an actual battle). He has saved the world on his own a lot of times, and can outsmart even the most intelligent beings (he has out smarted an evil duplicate of himself, who literally had ten times his own intelligence), and has also outsmarted various other super intelligent beings such as, Slash, Krang, Lord Dregg, etc.

Raphael is perhaps the most powerful and strongest, and definitely one of the quickest. Like the others, he can fight entire hordes and armies of ninjas by himself, and win. He’s the most durable turtle, being able to take hits from the Shredder himself and still fight back, has been repedeatly smashed by Tripple Threat and still get back up, has been shot by lightning from the Sword Of Tengu and could still fight, and even had his entire body sliced into a bloody mess, and his own eye ripped apart, but he was still able to fight back with no less might (this was in the episode, «Same As It Never Was»,). He can be just as deadly and powerful as any of the other Turtles, and can throw some serious punches. He’s also shown the ability to defeat Leonardo.

Aside from their incredible skills and mutant strength, each Turtle also has a super mutant form that can be triggered when they each feel stressed enough. (this was only in seasons 9-10 of the classic series, though). They basically grow into giant hulks with shells. In this form, their strength and power increases a hundredfold. (being able to survive building explosions without a scratch, able to withstand devastating blasts, etc.). In the episode, «Return Of Dregg», Leonardo, in his mutant form, threw a giant 200 ton robot into space, showing just how powerful his mutant form is.

In the episode, «Cyber Turtles, each of the Turtles «borrowed» four extremely powerful cyber suits from the war like Glaxxons, which could transform each of them into giant, invincible super cyborgs with incredible fire power. The only thing capable of destroying a cyber suit would be another who posses a cyber suit, or a laser powered by the Firestar; a crystal with the power of a thousand suns. However, this was only used once, and it was never revealed if the Turtles ever returned the cyber suits to the Glaxxons after defeating them.

In Season 5 of the 2003 series, (also known as «The Lost Episodes» and «The Ninja Tribunal Season»), the Turtles were granted four magical amulets which gave each of them incredible mystic powers. (super speed, super strength, teleportation, etc.). It was also revealed that when focused hard enough, each of the Turtles could transform into giant mystical dragons, which increases their powers a thousandfold. In this form, each of them are on a near «god-like» level.

Each of the Turtles are extremely durable and can take some serious damage. They’ve survived explosions, buildings being dropped on them, being stabbed, superpowered punches, lightning bolts, laser shots, and even an intense cosmic blast from the Starchild (this was from the episode: The Starchild of Season 7 in the classic series).

However, their main power is their family bonded team work and cunning. The team work of the TMNT is unmatched, and when working together, there is nothing they cannot solve. Though it’s mostly Donatello who comes up with the ideas and answers, it’s Leonardo who plans out their next move, with help from Raphael and Michelangelo. It’s almost as if the Turtles all think as one, for they almost always combine their skills to great effect, making use of their strengths and making strategies, even in the midst of battle, to make up for their weaknesses.

Comic books

Mirage Studios

The cover of TMNT #1 is a parody of Frank Miller’s Ronin.

The first issue of Eastman and Laird’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles premiered in May, 1984, at a comic book convention held at a local Sheraton Hotel in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It was published by Mirage Studios in an oversized magazine-style format using black & white artwork on cheap newsprint, limited to a print run of only 3,000 copies. The small print runs made these early comics instant collector items, and within months they were trading for over fifty times their cover price. The name «Mirage Studios» was chosen because of Eastman and Laird’s lack of a professional art studio at the start of their career, before their creation made them both multi-millionaires.

Mirage also published a bi-monthly companion book entitled Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, featuring art by Ryan Brown and Jim Lawson, which was designed to fill in the gaps of continuity in the TMNT universe. The title ran from 1987–1989, released in alternating months with the regular Eastman & Laird book.

As the TMNT phenomenon proliferated to other media, Eastman and Laird would find themselves administrating an international merchandising juggernaut. Unfortunately, this prevented the two creators from participating in the day-to-day work of writing and illustrating a monthly comic book. For this reason, many guest artists were invited to showcase their unique talents in the TMNT universe. The breadth of diversity found in the various short stories gave the series a disjointed, anthology-like feel. Fans stuck with the series, and what was originally intended as a one-shot parody became a continuing series that lasted for 76 issues spanning two separate volumes.

In June, 1996, Image Comics revived the title as a more action-oriented TMNT series. Although notable for inflicting major physical changes on the main characters, the events of Volume 3 have been dropped from continuity. Mirage Studios resumed publication of a fourth volume in December, 2001, under the simple title TMNT. After the publication of issue #28, writer Peter Laird put the series on an eight month hiatus to allow him more time to devote to the upcoming movie.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures was a comic book series published from August 1988 to October 1995 by Archie Comics. The initial storylines were close adaptations of the 1987 TV series, but with the fifth issue Eastman and Laird decided to hand the book over to Mirage Studios employees Ryan Brown and Stephen Murphy who immediately abandoned the animated series adaptations and took the title in a decidedly different direction with all-new original adventures, including the uniting of several of the series’ recurring characters as a separate team, the Mighty Mutanimals.

Dreamwave Productions

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Dreamwave comic was a monthly comic inspired by the 2003 animated series was published by Dreamwave Productions from June to December 2003. It was written by Peter David and illustrated by LeSean Thomas. In the first four issues, which were the only ones directly adapted from the TV series, the story was told from the perspectives of April, Baxter, Casey, and a pair of NYC cops, instead of the Turtles.

New Animated Adventures

Manga

The Turtles have appeared in many manga series: Mutant Turtles (ミュータント・タートルズ) was a 15-issue series by Tsutomu Oyamada, Tadashi Makimura, and Yoshimi Hamada that simply adapted episodes of the original American animated series. Super Turtles (スーパータートルズ) was a 3-issue mini-series by Hidemasa Idemitsu, Tetsurō Kawade, and Toshio Kudō that featured the » TMNT Supermutants » Turtle toys that were on sale at the time. The first volume of the anime followed this storyline. Next was Mutant Turtles Gaiden (ミュータント・タートルズ外伝) by Hiroshi Kanno, which was a re-interpretation of the Turtles story with no connection to the previous manga. Also of note was Mutant Turtles III, an adaptation of the third feature film by Yasuhiko Hachino.Another also of note is Mutant turtles 95 and it’s continuation 96 (ミ(ュータント・タートルズ９５)

Daily comic strip

Television series

First animated series (1987–1996)

The 1987 animated series.

When little known Playmates Toys Inc. was approached about producing a TMNT action figure line, they were cautious of the risk and requested that a television deal be acquired first. [8] [9] On 10 December, 1987, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ first cartoon series began, starting as a 5-part miniseries and becoming a regular Saturday morning syndicated series on 1 October, 1988 with 13 more episodes. The series was produced by Murakami-Wolf-Swenson Film Productions Inc. Mirage Studios does not own the rights to this cartoon series, so changes made in the 1987 version of the TMNT have not translated to other versions. Here, the Ninja Turtles are portrayed as four wise-cracking, pizza-obsessed superheroes who fight the forces of evil from their sewer hideout. The cast included new and different characters like Bebop and Rocksteady and the Neutrinos. Original characters like Shredder and the Foot Soldiers stayed true to the comics in appearance and alignment only. Krang, one of the series’ most memorable villains, was inspired by the design of the Utrom, a benevolent alien race from the Mirage comics. The animated Krang, however, was instead an evil warlord from Dimension X. Baxter Stockman, whose race was inexplicably changed from Afroamerican to Caucasian, was rewritten as a shy and meek lackey to Shredder, later mutating into an anthropomorphic housefly. This version of the Turtles also gave the Shredder the immense battle fortress, the Technodrome.

Starting on 4 September, 1989, the series was expanded to weekdays and had 65 more episodes for the new season. On 10 September, 1990, the series (with a different end credits background) continued with 13 more syndicated episodes. 15 «Lost» syndicated episodes were produced in Season 4, but aired in 1993 and 1991, most likely because of animation or schedule problems. Many fans refer to these episodes as the «European Vacation episodes» and the «Awesome Easter episodes». In the fall of 1990 (with a different opening sequence) began its run on CBS. The CBS weekend edition presented a full hour of Turtle Power, initially airing a couple of Saturday exclusive episodes back to back.

Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation (1997–1998)

However, The Next Mutation never caught on with fans, and it was canceled after one season of twenty-six episodes. Since its cancellation, the program has been considered apocryphal by the TMNT fanbase, and Laird and Eastman have disavowed all knowledge of the character Venus de Milo. Currently, all 26 episodes are available on DVD.

Second animated series (2003–2009)

The 2003 animated series.

In 2003, a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series produced by 4Kids Entertainment began airing on the «FoxBox» (later renamed » 4Kids TV «) programming block. It later moved to «The CW4Kids» block. The series was co-produced by Mirage Studios, [12] and Mirage owned one-third of the rights to the series. Mirage’s significant stake in creative control resulted in a cartoon that hews more closely to the original comics, creating a darker and edgier feel than the 1987 cartoon, but still remaining lighthearted enough to be considered appropriate for children.

This series lasted until 2009, ending with a feature-length television movie titled Turtles Forever, which was produced in conjunction with the 25th anniversary of the TMNT franchise and featured the Turtles of the 2003 series teaming up with their counterparts from the 1987 series. 4Kidstv.com featured all the episodes of the series, up until September 2010. Now days this series is available in some online streaming services, like iTunes, or Pluto TV through its internal channel Totally Turtles.

Fast Forward

Back to the Sewer

The Turtles, April and Casey in BTTS

A follow up series where the Turtles return to the present. This series lasted until 2009, ending with a feature-length television movie titled Turtles Forever, which was produced in conjunction with the 25th anniversary of the TMNT franchise and featured the Turtles of the 2003 series teaming up with their counterparts from the 1987 series.

Third animated series (2012-2017)

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2018-2020)

Anime series

Metal Mutant Raphael

In addition to the American series, a Japanese exclusive two-episode anime OVA series was made in 1996, titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Legend of the Supermutants (ミュータント・タートルズ超人伝説偏 Mutant Turtles: Chōjin Densetsu Hen). The OVA is similar in tone to the 1987 TV series and uses the same voices from TV Tokyo ‘s Japanese dub of the 1987 TV series. The first episode was made to advertise the TMNT Supermutants toys. It featured the Turtles as sentai superheroes, who gained costumes and super powers with the use of «MutaStones», while Shredder, Bebop and Rocksteady gained super-villain powers with the use of «Dark MutaStones». As with the Super Sentai and Power Rangers franchises, the four Turtles can combine their powers to form the giant Turtle Saint. The second episode was created to advertise the Metal Mutants toys in which the characters gain Saint Seiya-esque mystical metal armor that can transform into beasts. The seven Japanese MutaStones encased in a magic mirror that control the Metal Beasts are based on the sun, moon, and the Five Elements.

Feature films

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)

The Turtles in the second film.

The first film, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, closely follows the storyline from the Mirage comic books, in addition to some of the more lighthearted elements of the first cartoon. This movie presents the origin story of Splinter and the Turtles, their initial encounters with April (Judith Hoag) and Casey (Elias Koteas), and their first confrontation with Shredder and his Foot Clan. Directed by Steve Barron and released by New Line Cinema, the film showcases the innovative puppetry techniques of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. It remains one of the highest grossing independent films of all time. [17]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991)

The second film, entitled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze, expands on the Turtles’ origin story while claiming the distinction as Vanilla Ice’s film debut. It also introduced the Turtles’ human friend Keno (Ernie Reyes Jr.) and Shredder’s mutant henchmen Tokka and Rahzar. The original story was to include Rocksteady and Bebop at the insistence of the studio, but Laird and Eastman fought tooth and nail to prevent their inclusion, settling on Tokka and Rahzar (Mark Ginther, actor, stuntman) as a compromise. [vague] The original ending to «Ooze» would also reveal the benevolent TGRI scientist, Professor Jordan Perry (David Warner), to have been an Utrom. But due to budget constraints, plus the fear he may be mistaken for the character Krang, [vague] the plot twist was abandoned.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993)

The third film in the series was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, which featured Elias Koteas reprising his role as the character Casey Jones. The plot revolves around the «Sacred Sands of Time,» a mystical scepter which transports the Turtles back in time to feudal Japan, where they become embroiled in a conflict between the tyrant daimyō Norinaga and American traders.

TMNT (2007)

The Turtles as they appeared in TMNT

The Turtles’ fourth feature film, entitled simply TMNT, was release on 23 March 2007 in theaters. Unlike the previous films, it utilizes 100% computer-generated imagery, produced by Imagi Animation Studios and distributed by The Weinstein Company and Warner Bros. Pictures. According to a press release, «the PG-rated movie will derive its tone from the original comic-book series and will be slightly grittier than the previous live-action pictures. The animation will be created in Imagi’s state-of-the-art facility in Hong Kong.» [18] The teaser trailer was released July 20, 2006. [19]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)

The live action film, produced by Platinum Dunes, Nickelodeon Movies and Paramount Pictures, directed by Jonathan Liebesman and produced by Michael Bay, was released on August 8, 2014. [6]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016)

The sequel was released on June 3, 2016, with Bay returning to produce and Dave Green directing.

Toys and merchandise

Merchandise

Among the first licensed products to feature the Ninja Turtles was a pen-and-paper RPG titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness, published by Palladium Books in 1985 and featuring original comics and illustrations by Eastman and Laird themselves. The game features a large list of animals, including pandas and sparrows, that are available as mutant player characters. There were several more titles in this genre, including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures!, Truckin’ Turtles, Turtles Go Hollywood, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Guide to the Universe, and Transdimensional Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In 1986, Dark Horse Miniatures in Boise, Idaho produced an attendant set of lead figurines; unlike later incarnations the bandanas on the store’s display set were painted all black before the multicolored versions were released to help younger readers distinguish between the four characters other than their weaponry. Palladium allowed the license to lapse in 2000, in part due to declining sales stemming from the «kiddification» of the animated and live-action incarnations to that point. However, Palladium’s publisher, Kevin Siembieda, indicated in 2007 a potential willingness to revisit the license given the franchise’s recent moves closer to its roots. [20]

The series was highly popular in the UK where, in the run-up to Christmas, the Army & Navy Store in London’s Lewisham devoted its entire basement to everything Turtle, including games, videos, costumes, and other items.

Playmates continues to produce TMNT action figures based on the 2003 animated series. The 2007 film, TMNT, also gave Playmates a new source from which to make figures. And in September 2007, NECA announced that they would produce figures based on character designs from the original Mirage comics. As of April 2008 there have been toys released of the four turtles with their weapons, a piece of an interhooking platform, a can of ooze, an unmutated turtle toy, and two alternate hands. It features a detailed color/design job as well as 20 points of articulation. August 2008, NECA announced a second wave, featuring Shredder, Casey Jones, and a Foot Soldier, but the future of the NECA line is unknown with Playmates releasing 25th anniversary TMNT toys.

Role-Playing Games

RPG Supplements

Action Figures

Video games

Screenshot from Turtles in Time

Also released by Konami in 1989 was the first TMNT arcade game, also titled simply Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This side-scrolling «beat-em-up» was ported to the NES as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game. This led to an NES-only sequel, entitled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project, which used the look of the arcade game, as opposed the first NES game. The next home console Turtles game, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time, was released in 1991 as an arcade game, and was later ported to the Super Famicom/Super Nintendo in 1992. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist was also created for the Mega Drive/Sega Genesis in the same year, and used many of the art assets from Turtles in Time.

As the video game series progressed, programmers began to incorporate unique signature moves for each Turtle, as well as game features such as «Versus mode» and «Time Attack mode.» When the Ninja Turtles’ popularity began to decline in the mid-nineties, the video games changed direction. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters was released as a one-on-one fighting game similar to the Street Fighter game series.

Konami also acquired the license to adapt the 2003 animated series into a video game franchise, resulting in a new series of games with the same button mashing gameplay as the old TMNT «beat ’em ups.» (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles [2003], Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battle Nexus, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: Mutant Nightmare) In 2006, Ubisoft acquired the rights of TMNT games, beginning with a game based on the 2007 animated feature film. [23] Afterwards, a new TMNT fighter called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Smash-Up was announced for the Wii and released during fall of 2009, to coincide with the series’ 25th anniversary. [24] pie

In other media

Food tie-ins

Live appearances

Concert tour

«Coming Out of Their Shells» album cover.

To capitalize on the Turtles’ popularity, a concert tour was held in 1990, premiering at Radio City Music Hall on August 17. [25] [26] The «Coming Out of Their Shells» tour featured live-action turtles (in costumes similar to the films) playing music as a band (Donatello; keyboards, Leonardo; bass guitar, Raphael; drums & sax, Michaelangelo; guitar) on stage around a familiar plotline: April O’Neil is kidnapped by the Shredder, the turtle guys have to rescue her. [27] The story had a very Bill-n’-Ted-esque feel, with its theme of the power of rock n’ roll literally defeating the enemy, in the form of the Shredder (who only rapped, about how he hates music) trying to eliminate all music (Interestingly, the first two films featured hip-hop in their soundtracks). A pay-per-view special highlighting the concert was shown, and a studio album was also released. Stylistically, the music’s genre was closest to hair metal/power rock. [28] The track listing is as follows:

Since the tour was sponsored by Pizza Hut in real life, there are many references to their pizza. Empty Pizza Hut boxes are seen onscreen during the «Behind The Shells» VHS. As part of a cross-marketing strategy, Pizza Hut restaurants gave away posters, audio cassettes of «Coming Out of Their Shells,» and «Official Tour Guides» as premiums. The original show of the tour was released on video with a making of video also released. The song «Pizza Power» was later used by Konami for the second arcade game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time. In 1994 two more twenty-five minute videos were released featuring some of the same songs plus some others. They were called «We Wish You a Turtle Christmas», and «Turtle Tunes».

At the Disney-MGM Studios theme park

The TMNT as they appeared at Disney-MGM Studios.

On June 30, 1990, the TMNT arrived in the «New York Street» section of Disney-MGM Studios theme park in Orlando. Emerging from their Turtle Party Wagon, they would «ninja dance» across the stage while April performed the theme song to the show. After the main show was done they would pose for pictures and sign autographs. The Turtles made appearances in Walt Disney’s «Very Merry Christmas Parade» to sing their own rendition of «Santa Claus is Coming to Town». They also appeared during the Easter parade dancing to their single «Pizza Power». The Turtles’ live shows and appearances ceased production in 1996.

Cultural impact

Parodies

Cover of Cracked #255, Aug 1990

Controversies

Departure from origins

In keeping with the «grim ‘n gritty» feel of Frank Miller’s Ronin/Elektra material, the Turtles engaged in a greater amount of overt violence in the pages of the early Mirage comic book series. As the TMNT were introduced into the mainstream, they were radically redesigned for a younger audience in the children’s spino-ff universes beginning with the first cartoon. This development incensed the core group of fans who had faithfully collected the independently-published comic series from its inception. They accused Eastman and Laird of selling out their indie roots in favor of corporate greed. In issue #19 of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the creators published an editorial addressing these concerns. It stated, in part: «We’ve allowed the wacky side to happen, and enjoy it very much. All the while, though, we’ve kept the originals very much ours – forty pages of what we enjoy and want to see in our books, whether it comes from our own hands or from those of the talented people we work with.» [30]

In the film Turtles Forever, the original Mirage Turtles refer to their descendents as «sell-outs,» in reference to their colorful accessories (the originals are conveyed in black and white).

Children and consumerism

For many parents in the late 1980s, the Ninja Turtles phenomenon represented the latest in a series of shrewd cartoon-toy marketing strategies, a trend that had proven very profitable with Masters of the Universe, Transformers, and a host of other «good vs. evil» action-adventure franchises. Parents often found themselves at odds with children who demanded scads of toys and accessories after being subjected to so-called «30 minute commercials» delivered via after-school television. [31]

Teenage Mutant «Hero» Turtles

The altered UK opening sequence.

Upon TMNT’s first arrival in the United Kingdom, the name was changed to «Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles» (or TMHT, for short), since local censorship policies deemed the word ninja to have excessively violent connotations for a children’s program. [32] Consequently, everything related to the Turtles had to be renamed before being released in the UK, making it sound lame and being the fault of Margaret Thatcher. The lyrics were also changed, such as changing «Splinter taught them to be ninja teens» to «Splinter taught them to be fighting teens.»

The policies also had other effects, such as removing Michelangelo’s nunchakus (which were at the time banned from appearing in even 18-rated movies) and generally toning down the usage of all the turtles’ weapons. After many seasons of never using his nunchaku, they eventually disappeared entirely, replaced by a turtle shell shaped grappling hook called the «Turtle Line».

By the time of the 2003 TV series, these censorship policies had been abolished, and no changes have occurred in the content of the show. The name «Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles» remained unchanged for the 2003 show. As a result, in the UK, the 1987 program is still called Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles and the 2003 program is called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Ownership rights

Due to various movie and television deals, the various TMNT films & television series have split between various companies, with Mirage Studios having retained copyright and trademark until October 19, 2009, at which point the rights for the entire TMNT franchise were sold by co-creator Peter Laird to Nickelodeon. [33]

Television

The original animated series (1987–1996) was produced by Fred Wolf Films Dublin (as Murakami Wolf Swenson (MWS) and Murakami Wolf Dublin (MWD) during earlier seasons), and syndicated by Group W. The series itself is owned by Wolf Films, home entertainment rights reside with Lionsgate, and until recently, syndication rights belonged to former Nickelodeon corporate sibling CBS Television Distribution.

Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation was produced by Saban Entertainment, and as of May 2018, is owned and distributed by Hasbro Studios.

Films

Michael Bay produced a feature film directed by Jonathan Liebesman titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and was released on August 8, 2014.

Comic books

Initially, Mirage allowed employees and freelancers to retain the rights to characters they created for the TMNT Universe but had never licensed for media and merchandise outside comic books. Eventually, due to the difficulty of keeping track of everyone’s rights, Mirage made TMNT character creators sign retroactive work-for-hire contracts. One creator who did not sign over the rights to his TMNT work was Swamp Thing veteran Rick Veitch. [34]

Черепашки-ниндзя, герои детства

Рожденные в результате радиоактивной утечки, воспитанные говорящей крысой и названные в честь художников эпохи Возрождения – все это Черепашки-ниндзя. Герои, которые стали кумирами детей и взрослых еще в 80-е годы, до сих пор не сходят с экранов. В 2018 году вышел очередной мультсериал с мутантами, вернувшийся к 2D анимации. Всего было создано 6 сериалов и 7 фильмов о черепашках. Все началось с пародийных комиксов, нарисованных двумя друзьями.

Содержание

Комиксы TMNT

Однажды ночью в Mirage Studios в ноябре 1983 года Кевин Истмен и Питер Лэрд усердно работали над последней главой комикса «Fugitoid». Неожиданно Истмен под каким-то неизвестным вдохновением нарисовал черепаху с маской и нунчаками. Друзья посмеялись и решили продолжить начатое.

«Пит нарисовал круче, – вспоминал Кевин, – тогда, конечно, мне пришлось превзойти его эскиз, поэтому я нарисовал четырех персонажей, стоящих в драматической позе. Это все было сделано карандашом. Пит подписал их и добавил «подростки мутанты» к части «черепашки-ниндзя». Мы в ту ночь просто смеялись до упаду. Это самая была глупая вещь, что мы сделали».

Чем больше художники развивали идею, тем больше видели в ней потенциал. В итоге шутливый проект TMNT было решено сделать следующим комиксом. Вдохновение создатели черпали из своих любимых историй: «Ронин» Фрэнка Миллера, «Cerebus» Дэйва Сима и «Сорвиголова» от Marvel Comics. Именно последний из них натолкнул друзей на мысль о радиоактивной утечке.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles отдает дань первому выпуску «Сорвиголовы» 1963 года, в котором молодой Мэтт Мердок был ослеплен радиоактивным изотопом. Это произошло в тот момент, когда слепой старик переходил дорогу. Мэтт спас его от грузовика. В результате аварии канистра с радиоактивными веществами перевернулась, а жидкость попала на героя. Истмен и Лэрд изменили историю и написали ее так, что изотоп пролился не только на Мердока, но и на случайного свидетеля, который нес аквариум с четырьмя черепашками. Животные вместе с отравой упали и попали в канализацию, где их нашла любознательная крыса Сплинтер. Тот в свою очередь был питомцем изгнанного воина-ниндзя Хамато Йоси, который прежде был убит.

Поскольку Рука угрожала Сорвиголове, было вполне естественно, что Черепашки-ниндзя окажутся в конфликте с Ногой (кланом Фут). Это тоже ниндзя, лидером которых является Шреддер. На самом деле он не кто иной, как Ороку Саки, убивший Хамато Йоси и его жену. Вдохновением для образа Шреддера послужила металлическая терка для сыра, которая показалась Истмену опасной штукой. Также главным персонажем является Эйприл О’Нил – репортер и лучшая подруга черепашек.

Как зовут героев Черепашек-ниндзя

Леонардо владеет парой мечей, которые называются катаны. Тактичный мужественный лидер и преданный ученик сенсея, он надел синюю маску. Как самый добросовестный из четырех героев, Лео часто несет ответственность за своих братьев, что обычно приводит к конфликту с Рафаэлем. Леонардо был назван в честь итальянского живописца, инженера и изобретателя Леонардо да Винчи.

Микеланджело использует нунчаки и носит оранжевую маску. Он самый озорной и веселый подросток в команде. Микки обожает пиццу даже больше других, а также катается на скейтборде. Имя первоначально было написано с ошибкой – Michaelangelo. Оно оставалось таким долгие годы. Персонаж назван в честь художника и скульптора Микеланджело Буонарроти.

У Донателло есть посох Бо и фиолетовая маска. Он является ученым, своего рода гением. Это, пожалуй, наименее жестокая черепашка, предпочитающая использовать свои знания для разрешения конфликтов, но никогда не колеблется, если нужно защищать своих братьев. Дон назван в честь итальянского художника и скульптора из Флоренции Донато ди Никколо ди Бетто Барди или просто Донателло.

Рафаэль предпочитает кинжалы сай. Он носит красную маску, что подчеркивает агрессивных характер мутанта. Он стал тем самым «плохим парнем» в команде, который первый лезет в атаку и не слушается братьев. В то же время он всегда придет на помощь. Раф назван в честь художника и архитектора Рафаэля Санти.

Забавно, что родители фанатов комиксов и последующих экранизаций часто не имели понятия, кто стоял у истоков комикса. Так Дэйв Сим, создатель «Cerebus», однажды рассказал историю о славе TMNT. Во время разговора в самолете с пассажиром он упомянул, что зарабатывает комиксами на жизнь. Другая пассажирка сказала, что ее сын очень любит комиксы про черепашек. Она даже взяла его на шоу, чтобы получить автограф. «Кто его оставил, – спросил Сим, – Кевин или Питер?». «Донателло, – ответила она, – кто такие Кевин и Питер?».

Игры Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Комиксы, отправленные художниками в разные источники, получили ошеломляющий отклик еще в 1980-е годы. Поклонники были поражены оригинальностью видения авторов. В итоге Черепашки-ниндзя, постоянно поедающие пиццу, стали иконой поп-культуры. Одним из первых лицензированных продуктов, приуроченных к истории, была настольная ролевая игра под названием «Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness», изданная Palladium Books в 1985 году. Она включала оригинальные комиксы и иллюстрации Истмена и Лэрда. В игре представлен большой список животных, включая слонов и воробьев, которые тоже стали мутантами.

Первую видеоигру издали Konami для Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) в 1989 году. Затем она перешла на домашние компьютеры и, в конечном итоге, на Wii на Virtual Console. В том же году Konami выпустила аркадную игру, которая позже была перенесена на NES под названием «Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II». За ней последовала третья – «The Manhattan Project» и другие продолжения, ставшие целой серией игр. Konami также приобрела лицензию на адаптацию сериала 2003 года к франшизе видеоигр, в результате чего была выпущена новая серия с трехмерным геймплеем.

Компании Game Arts и Ubisoft выпустили в 2000-х игры, основанные на полнометражном мультфильме. В 2007 году была выпущена TMNT для Wii, Xbox, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, GameCube, PC, PlayStation Portable и Nintendo DS. В 2013 году Activision выпустили игру «Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows», основанную на сериале 2012 года и разработанную Red Fly Studio для Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network и Steam. Летом в 2016 году Ludia выпустила бесплатную ролевую видеоигру для iPhone, iPad, Android и Kindle Fire, также основанную на сериале.

Помимо игр было немало мерчандайзинга. В 1986 году компания Dark Horse Miniatures выпустила набор свинцовых статуэток героев. Также были фигурки от Playmates Toys, а затем и японцев Medicom Toy. В течение десятилетий товары приносят их создателям миллиарды долларов доходов.

Мультфильмы про Черепашек ниндзя

Первый мультфильм появился в 1987 году. Вскоре он стал «субботним» еженедельным сериалом. Создатели уделили больше внимания юмору. Появились новые герои: Бибоп, Рокстеди и Крэнг. Сплинтер вместо того, чтобы быть мутировавшей крысой, стал Хамато Йоси, а клан Фут – роботами. Изменилась раса Бакстера Стокмана, он стал белым. Видимо, были опасения по поводу изображения злодея афроамериканцем – якобы намек на расизм.

В России сериал появился в 1990-е годы и стал по-настоящему культовым. Всего было выпущено 193 серии, которые завершились в 1996-м. За ним последовали аниме-сериалы, а в 2003 году вышел второй «Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles», совместный с Mirage Studios. Это основное отличие от первого сериала, на который студия не имела прав. За счет этого новое творение больше соответствовало комиксам. Он продолжался до 2009 года и завершился полнометражным мультфильмом «Черепашки навсегда». Тогда же Nickelodeon приобрел все правда на TMNT. Компания выпустила свой сериал в 2012 году. Именно на его основе были созданы многие вышеупомянутые игры. Четвертый мультипликационный сериал 2D «Черепашки-ниндзя: Восстание» вышел в 2018 году.

TMNT фильмы

Что касается фильмов, то первым опытом можно назвать сериал «Черепашки-ниндзя: Следующая мутация», где персонажей впервые играли люди. Он стал продолжением к первой мультипликационной версии и выходил с 97 по 98 год. Здесь герои столкнулись с новыми злодеями. Удивительным новшеством стала пятая черепашка Венера Милосская.

В общей сложности было выпущено шесть художественных фильмов. Первые три стали боевиками, созданными на волне популярности жанра в начале 1990-х годов: «Черепашки-ниндзя», «Черепашки-ниндзя II: Тайна изумрудного зелья» и сиквел на вторую картину. Персонажей играли разные актеры в костюмах. Четвертый фильм TMNT был представлен в 2007 году. Он был полностью анимированным.

В 2014 году вышел фильм от режиссера Джонатана Либесмана. Хотя он получил смешанные отзывы и был назван неинтересным, лента все же порадовала настоящих поклонников комиксов и мультсериалов. Спустя два года вышел «Черепашки-ниндзя 2». Он стал продолжением неудавшейся картины. Многие актеры остались прежними.

Истмен и Лэрд посвятили себя тому, чтобы изобразить свою версию городского боевика. Это не просто детский рассказ, а в какой-то степени научно-фантастическая история о ниндзя, где представлены интересные взгляды на взросление подростков в США. Сохраняя право собственности, несмотря на многочисленные возможности продажи, авторы были уверены, что будут частью каждого мультсериала и каждого кадра фильма. Хотя их желания не полностью осуществились, сегодня мы имеем настоящую «черепахоманию», которая хоть и почти вымерла после 90-х, навсегда оставила след в сердцах сегодняшних взрослых. Кстати, с 2009 года права на персонажей стали принадлежать Nickelodeon Animation Studio.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures

TMNT Adventures #1

Some TMNT stuff really isn’t for little kids.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures was a comic book series published by Archie Comics from August 1988 to October 1995. It is mainly based on the stories of the mutant turtles- Donatello, Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Raphael, and their rat sensei Splinter. It is set in a separate reality from other TMNT stories.

Initially, the comic book followed the 1987 TV series story by adapting early cartoon episodes, beginning with the three-part miniseries adapting the five-episode premier of the TV series, «Heroes in a Half Shell», which was drawn by Michael Dooney, then adapting the first few episodes of the second season with the launch of the main series.

However, after issue #5, control was given to Ryan Brown and Stephen Murphy, a pair of Mirage Studios employees. In their hands they immediately took the comics in a different direction, incorporating social, environmentalist, and animal rights themes. It also introduced several new characters of various races and backgrounds, including humans, mutants, aliens, and other anthropomorphic creatures. Additionally, the series added new layers to established players such as April O’Neil, who began training with a katana, and the Shredder, who gradually revealed a sense of honor. The stories were often seen as «deeper» and more «serious» than the cartoon. As the new tales and characters were explored the cartoon villains Krang, Bebop, and Rocksteady were slowly phased out making later appearances during stories involving alien worlds, while The Shredder remained as a recurring adversary. Ken Mitchroney did most of the pencils until issue #28, when Chris Allan took over.

The main series lasted for 72 issues. In addition, there were numerous annuals, specials, and mini series. The series was extremely popular (said to be more so than the Mirage line). It ended with a 3-part miniseries entitled «Year of the Turtle», which featured one last battle with the Shredder who had gained great power from a mystical talisman.

Archie reprinted the comics in a digest format series titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Classics Digest which they published quarterly from 1993-1994. These collected TMNTA issues #5-#25. Additionally, Random House and Tundra Publishing published books that collected various issues and stories and were sold with a tape dramatizing the action.

In celebration of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ 25th Anniversary, Archie Comics announced that they would release a 104-page, full color trade paperback collection of the first three issue miniseries (though the trade paperback’s cover features new art based on the newer 2003 TV series). The paperback was released in May 2009. Mirage Studios also printed a trade for the 25th anniversary, titled «Future Tense» reprinting Mighty Mutanimals #7 and «TMNT Adventures» #42-44 and #62-66 in July 2009. The trade was still in black and white at 228 pages.

With the success of the 2003 TV series, an unfinished story arc was to be released as a mini-series in the summer of 2009. The story arc is called «The Forever War». «Future Tense» was released to coincide with the release. However, due to buyout by Viacom of the TMNT property, the story was canceled and will not be published.

Beginning in 2014, IDW Publishing released 16 full-color trade paperback collections of most of the issues of the regular series along with select issues of Mighty Mutaniamals.

Contents

Major story arcs

The first issue of the mini-series

Heroes in a Half Shell: Mini-series #1-3

Issue #5 featuring the debut of Man Ray

The Turtles are recruited by Cherubae to battle the Malignoids, an alien insect-like army sent out by Maligna. The battle is exploited by Stump Asteroid television. The Turtles are joined by Leatherhead, Wingnut and Screwloose, and other intergalactic wrestlers. Shredder, Krang, Bebop, and Rocksteady are connected with the alien threat, and Cherubae banishes them across the universe as punishment (Shredder to an Earth prison, Krang to the landfill planet Morbus, and Bebop and Rocksteady to an Eden World planet). Cherubae is revealed to be the sorceress who mutated Leatherhead as Mary Bones, (her Earth disguise, Cherubae is her true form) and Leatherhead renounces his former life as helping Shredder for a while to become a wrestling idol on the Stump Asteroid as he was seen as a monster on the Earth.

Issue #14 featuring Jagwar

The Turtles return to Earth just in time to rescue April O’Neil from poachers in the Amazon rainforest, Brazil. They are aided in their tropical adventures by Jagwar, Dreadmon, and Man-Ray. Upon their return to New York City, Mondo is introduced and joins the Turtles after he decides to break up with his girlfriend Candy Fine, believing his mutation from human to human-lizard would make their relationship impossible to pursue.

Issue #19 featuring Dreadmon

Evil businessman, Null, sends his alien lackeys, Scul and Bean, to attack the Turtles. The Turtles, Splinter, April, and Mondo are rescued by rats which Splinter summons to chew through their ropes. Having beaten Scul and Bean to a standstill, the aliens escape (but not before Raphael and Mondo can sneak aboard their ship). Together with Man-Ray, Jagwar, Dreadmon, Leatherhead, Wingnut and Screwloose (the newly formed Mighty Mutanimals), Raph and Mondo defeat the alien warlord, Maligna (this arc overlaps with the events of Mighty Mutanimals mini-series #1-3). While Raphael is away fighting with the Mighty Mutanimals, the remaining Turtles meet Chu Hsi, a firefighter in Chinatown, New York City who is empowered with an ancient Warrior Dragon (popularly known as «Hot Head») spirit after an old man trying to help him by throwing some mystic East Asian substance into a burning house where the firefighter tries to help a child. Together with their new ally they defeat a giant Foot robot, which is later revealed to have been a ruse by Shredder to get the turtles to show themselves. The Warrior Dragon defeats the giant Foot robot by throwing it on the Statue of Liberty.

April O’Neil is revealed to have obtained competence with the katana sword under Splinter’s instruction, and together they aid the Turtles in their battles against Vid Vicious and Shredder. Raphael returns to help defeat Shredder and aid his friends in the final fight with Krang, who has allied with Belly Bomb to take possession of Shredder’s body. The mutant turtle Slash battles the Turtles for the first time. The Turtles remove Krang from Shredder’s body and remind Shredder he owes them.

This story line explores environmental political issues. In «The Keeper», an alien spacecraft lands in Tibet, and out comes Boss Salvage who abducts rare animals from the Earth, among them the Yeti T’Pau who searches help by Splinter. Boss Salvage also abducts the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot and a merman. The reason is that he sees no future for them on the Earth because of pollution, but the Yeti persuades Boss Salvage that there still is hope, referring to all who are engaged in environmental politics. In «In the Dark», animals are mutated after illegal industrial pollution in Innsmouth, Massachusetts and April makes a report about illegal pollution. She calls the Turtles, and she they also get help from the local teenage girl Beth Ann. The mutants want revenge on humanity, and put poison in the food with substances putting humans in a zombie-like state.

Mightnight Sun: Issues #28–30

Continued from the April O’Neil backup stories in issues #24–27, the Turtles, Splinter, and April travel to Japan (by stowing away aboard an airplane) to rescue Fu Sheng and Chu Hsi (Chu Hsi is the human alter ego of The Warrior Dragon from issue #20) since Chu Hsi is kidnapped by ninjas in Chinatown, New York City and sent to Hiroshima, Japan. They battle the samurai-masked villain Chien Khan (a fusion of the French word for ‘dog’ and the Turkish/Mongol term for ‘great leader;’ essentially «Dog King», since he is really a giant dog) and his humanoid vixen warrior, Ninjara. Chien Khan forces Fu Sheng to summon the Warrior Dragon (if not he will use a knife to kill a young teenage girl, the street child Oyuki Mashimi who later becomes friend to April O’ Neil) whom Chien Khan uses to brainwash with a witchcraft and destroy a nuclear power plant and set free an interdimensional demon. Chien Khan’s recklessness regarding the nuclear plant enrages Ninjara, who decides to help the Turtles defeat him. Through meditation, Splinter is able to summon the ancient gods, Izanagi and Izanami, who defeat the demon and free the Warrior Dragon from Chien Khan’s witchcraft. The Turtles and Ninjara defeat Chien Khan and his men before he escapes in the confusion. Ninjara has a change of heart. She decides to accompany the Turtles and leave her criminal life behind.

The heroes have further adventures in Japan, the Japanese culture and religion is studied, and gangsters who illegally make money on sumo wrestling are stopped. Raphael and Ninjara become close and April and Chu Hsi share a kiss. The Turtles, Splinter and Ninjara begin a long quest on land and sea heading west while the human characters fly back to New York City. In Tibet the heroes fight, with the help of a four armed anthropomorphic tiger named Katmandu, to protect the incarnation of a lama (who happens to be Charlie Llama, an anthropomorphic llama) from the evil Chinese wizard Mang-Thrasha who kidnapped Charlie Llama from his Crystal Palace. The Whirling Dervishes and skeleton versions of them are fought. When the group finally arrive, Charlie Llama dies while a young woman gives birth to a child. Journeying through the deserts in the Middle East, the group is attacked by Al’Falqa who believes they have stolen the Black Stone of Mecca. The sacred stone has actually been stolen by Shredder and a cat mutant Verminator-X from the future. The black stone is saved by the heroes before the villains disappear in a mysterious vortex-window. They also plan to kidnap Splinter, but give him back since Shredder owes the Turtles after they helped him from Krang.

Cudley the Cowlick appears in the Middle East dessert before the gang and proposes to take them to Stump Asteroid for another wrestling competition. If the Turtles participate Cudley will then drop everyone back on Earth at any location they desire, including New York. The Turtles agree, compete against each other, and Donatello emerges victorious and also defeats Cryn’ Houn, here known as «El Mysterio».

Issue #38 Cover Part 1

In a three issue crossover with Mighty Mutanimals (one of the issues was a Mighty Mutanimals comic), the Turtles fight the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and Null in Brazil.

In issue #40, as he and his brothers sail home, Donatello is taken by a spirit to 1492 where he and his brothers encounter Christopher Columbus (who reached the Americas that same year). The Turtles must defend the natives from Columbus’ raids, but it all turns out all to be in vain as the natives are either captured as slaves or die of disease. In #41, Raphael, while on a date with Ninjara to show her around New York City, is reminded of the Turtles battle against a mammoth mutant. The parts of the story in the present are drawn by Chris Allan while the flashbacks are drawn by Ken Mitchroney, who drew the earlier issues of the comic in the Shredder era the flashbacks take place in.

Mighty Mutanimals Issue #6 Cover Part 2

Issue #39 Cover part 3

Issue #42 Debut of Armaggon

The Future Shark Trilogy: Issues #42-44

The Turtles, Splinter and Ninjara are taken to the future by the future versions of Raph and Don. Don explains how in the future, some time after Splinter’s death because of high age, global warming has melted the polar ice caps and left most of New York City under water. The present turtles have already seen this earlier, after a mistake by Cudley the Cowlick after their first visit to the Stump Asteroid, and said it was a possible future. This created a rat problem but Don invented robot traps to eliminate the rats, much to the Rat King’s chagrin. His robots won Don fame and wealth, which he used to fund his company Turtleco, along with a talented young cat mutant named Manx. Manx began to enhance himself as a cyborg named Verminator X, obsessed with becoming immortal. Soon he and Don were archenemies. Verminator X, Armaggon the shark mutant and a time displaced version of the Shredder (from issue #36) broke into Turtleco, kidnapped the future Mike and Leo and stole Don’s experimental time slip generator. When Raph attempted to stop them, his eye was blown out by one of Armaggon’s missiles. Don built another machine in order to get reinforcements in the past. Armaggon works on powering the machine with Adolf Hitler’s brain, the Roswell Alien’s bones and the white stone of mecca so he and his cohorts can rule all of space and time. Splinter, Ninjara and the six Turtles ambush the bad guys with a time slip, but Armaggon escapes, taking Leo as a hostage, into his machine with both Raphs and the «present» version of Don in pursuit. While the remaining Turtles battle Shredder and Verminator X, the Rat King shows up to get his revenge on Future Don, using his powers to control Splinter. Luckily, the Turtles have a surprise ally in the future version of Merdude, tricking Verminator X to fire his blaster, destroying the wall and letting sea water come in to free Future Leo and Mike which turns the tide in favor of the Turtles. Don and the two Raphs pursue Armaggon in a mystical swamp land some local fairies call Thantia. The two Raphs use their shared training to kick Armmagon over a waterfall. They recover Leo and escape through a time hole created by Future Don, but leave Armmagon stranded in Thantia. All eight Turtles, Past and Future, say their goodbyes. They send Shredder back to his own time with his memories of this erased but Verminator X escapes their custody. Before the Turtles are sent home, Future Raph bid a tearful farewell to Ninjara and gives his younger self an ominous warning about the fragility of relationships. In the final panel, we see Armaggon next to a destroyed Turtleco building, revealing Thantia is an even farther future version of Earth.

Mutations: Issue #45

Splinter reminisces back to when he was human, how Oroku Saki became the Shredder, and the events that lead him to New York and the origin of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Splinter also reflects on their adventures with old enemies and meeting new friends (Mighty Mutanimals). Splinter catches the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Ninjara working on his surprise birthday party.

Ninjara’s brother Naga comes to the turtles location to tell them that the elder (Ninjara’s grandmother) of their clan was captured by a hunter who captures them for sport. Raph goes with Ninjara and Naga to their home land to confront the hunter. The hunter captures three of them, but the elder herself who was captured frees them all. The hunter goes after them and there’s no escape, but the elder uses a Torii to open a gateway as a means of their only escape, the hunter goes into the Torii after them. They gateway leads them to hell and they are approached by a female demon. The only way back is to go through the Torii (portal) at the edge of a cliff, but only those who are «pure heart» can walk though the Torii and return home. The hunter walk through, but falls to his death. Then the Elder goes through the portal back to earth; Naga, Ninjara, and Raphael follow.

The turtles and Splinter minus Raphael race off to an emergency they saw on the news. A creature name Sarnath, who is a Triasts created by the Mersia, and his pet Qark (dog type creature with spike tail) were causing the disturbance. Qark was capture and the news reporter (McIntyer) who was covering the disturbance was about to reveal Qark live on TV. The turtles and Splinter quickly helped Qark escape, but for a momentary Qark, the turtles, and Splinter were caught on camera and then vanished within seconds to escape. From there the turtles minus Splinter go with Sarnath in his spacecraft to pick up Raphael and Ninjara as they headed on to Dimension-X.

Black Hole Trilogy: Issues #48-50

The Death of the Mutanimals

MEGADEATH ( Part VI of VII ) The Mutanimals step out to the beach to investigate the strange meteorite. Considering it didn’t destroy all of Mutani-Isle when it struck, Jagwar deduces that it isn’t a real meteorite. He is correct, as it is actually a spaceship containing Scul and Bean! Mondo Gecko tells Candy to take cover while he and the Mutanimals deal with Queen Maligna’s old goons. The fight goes well, as Wingnut eventually wins by using his shrunken wings to fly, lifting Bean up and dropping him on top of Scul. Thinking the battle over, the Mutanimals let their guard down, leaving them wide open to a surprise attack from the Gang of Four. Dead-Eye, Executor and Lynch mow the Mutanimals down with a stream of machinegun fire while Fist finishes the job with a blast from his rocket launcher. Their job complete, the Gang of Four tells Scul and Bean to quit playing possum so they can go. As they take off in the meteor-ship, Scul and Bean titter over what is to come. Appearing through a time-slip, future-Don and future-Raph discover they’ve arrived too late (funny, I thought they had a time machine…?). Future-Raph mumbles that things weren’t supposed to turn out this way as Don scans the bodies of the Mutanimals. They’re all dead. Suddenly, Slash emerges from the waves, enraged. Blaming the future-Turtles for the deaths of his friends, he swears to kill them.

Issue #57 featuring Slash

Mutanimals in Hell

Terracide: Issues #55-57

The present turtles are returning home in an airplane with blinded Michelangelo when they were attacked by an eyeball villain. Future Don and Raph comes to the present to find the Mutanimals dead and Slash attacked them. Candy stops Slash and tells of how the Mutanimals really died. After burying the Mutanimals, Future Don, Raph, Candy, and Slash heads out to find the present turtles. They find out that the plane carrying the turtles crashed and the coast guard had picked up the pilot and blind Mike. They land on a nearby island to come up with a plan when they were attacked by Null and his minions. The turtles take care of the minions while Candy was kidnapped by Kull. The turtles goes after Kull while present Leo and Don goes after Mike. The group chases Kull to Maligna’s Hive World hidden on the dark side of the moon. Their ship was used as a distraction while they «time slipped» their way onto the hive world. Present Raph leads the way and Slash attacks the hive heart alerting Maligna of their presence. The hive attacks and they saved Candy as the hive slowly plunges into the sun. Slash tells them to leave while he prevents «the insects» from repairing the ship. Slash and the hive world burns up in the sun as the turtles escaped.

Early Years: Issue #58

While in lock-up Mike recounts how the turtles got their colors. Three thugs steals a chip and uses the sewers to escape interrupting the turtle’s training. The thugs shoot at the turtles and the turtles fought back. After dispatching the thugs Master Splinter mistakenly scolds Don because they are all wearing red masks and he couldn’t tell them apart. After Mike mistakenly broke a vase but wouldn’t take the blame they were all punished. They come up with a plan to take the tests that they excel at. Master Splinter realizes their deception and comes up with a plan to trick them. In the next test he only gave Mike the perfect score so that the brothers would fight amongst themselves. The thugs are back looking for the lost chip. The turtles defeats them and turns them into the cops. The turtles comes up with colored caps to identify themselves but later would change to their colored masked and initial belts later on.

Blind Sight: Issues #59-60

At a studio recording the latest live episode of Inside Affairs, McIntyre has the audience eating out of his hand regarding the dangerous “Teenage Mutant Turtles” he’s been reporting on. Tonight, though, he wants to invite a special guest to discuss the situation: April O’Neil, a close friend of the Turtles. As April takes her seat, McIntyre prepares to roast her alive on national television. April, however, has an ace up her sleeve. In the broadcasting control room, Oyuki slinks in and starts putting the moves on the A.V. tech, Squint, while distracting him, she slips a special video into the player. On stage, the audience is eating up McIntyre’s propaganda that the Turtles are monsters, but April takes it in stride, explaining that if they got to know the Turtles, they wouldn’t think that way. She then thanks McIntyre for allowing her to play a special video recording on the broadcast to show the truth about the Turtles (and McIntyre is none too happy about this turn of events).

As the video starts, an unknown cameraman follows Leo and Don as they infiltrate the USCGS Dater where Mikey is being held prisoner. Meanwhile, Leo and Don succeed in knocking out the various members of the Coast Guard and make it to the interrogation room right before Dr. Dick takes a cattle-prod to his victim. They knock the interrogator out and decide to seize his camera as evidence. Through the government camera, we can see that Leo and Don have brought along their old friend, Kid Terra (who is outfitted with his own recording helmet) and two of his human allies.

As they fight their way through several armed guards, Dr. Dick comes to and gives chase. The Turtles, Kid Terra and his men make it back to their escape raft, but Dr. Dick insists on plunging into the water after them. Unfortunately, he can’t swim. Despite everything he had done to him, Mikey leaps into the water, following the sound of Dr. Dick’s voice, and rescues the grateful scientist. Back at Inside Affairs, the video ends and the audience have a change of heart. They cheer for the Turtles and April, leaving McIntyre to desperately try to save face by thanking April for bringing the truth to light. In the broadcast control room, Oyuki bids Squint goodbye (encouraging him to call her sometime) as McIntrye storms in and gives the tech Hell. As April and Oyuki leave the studio, they find the Turtles waiting for them with a taxi amidst a crowd of admirers. In front of many flashing cameras, Mikey shouts “Cowabunga” and the Turtles drive away from the paparazzi.

Later, at Kid Terra’s eco-warrior group HQ, Oyuki is pleased to see that Mikey’s sight is slowly recovering. April compliments Kid Terra on having organized such a group. He explains that they’re so sophisticated, they were able to hack into government computers and learn about Mikey’s detainment as soon as it happened, which is how they bumped into Leo and Don during the rescue. With that exposition out of the way, they decides to see if they can’t find the rest of April’s missing friends.

Out in the desert, the Turtles and Kid Terra’s eco group perform an impromptu ceremony for the deceased Slash. Both Future-Don and Frances give some somber words, but Raph ruins the wake with some callous talk. Future-Raph is shamed by the self-centered actions of his younger counterpart and goes off to speak with him alone. Young-Raph is equally mystified by his own behavior, but rather than admit it, asks Future-Raph to tell him how he ends up losing Ninjara. Future-Raph refuses, telling him just to enjoy the time he gets with her. Speak of the devil, Ninjara shows up and takes a seat between the two. As the sun sets, a coyote howls at the full moon and Ninjara believes she is pondering the mystery of tomorrow.

The next morning, Splinter and the old Indian janitor share a telepathic communication as they contemplate the day ahead. The old man tells Splinter that in a past life he was an owl and will be so again, which is why his name is Sleeping Owl. Splinter tells Sleeping Owl that he was once a man. They rejoin the group and bid farewell to the Future-Turtles and Nobuko, who return to their time and place. Sleeping Owl telepathically asks Splinter if his sons were once men, too. Splinter explains that they were baby turtles who became man-like and are growing more-so by the day. This reminds Sleeping Owl of a story and he asks the Turtles to listen. It is the story of the Earth’s creation.

In the beginning there was only a great empty sea and the Maker. The Maker created the Holy People, a group of deities who lived amongst the stars over the sea. He then planted three seeds in the great sea and they became Water Beetle (the swimmer), Beaver (the builder) and Turtle (the mother). One day, a Star Person fell asleep while watching over a Star Tree and both fell toward the great sea. Water Beetle quickly began bringing mud up from the bottom of the sea and placed it on Turtle’s back. Beaver then used his tail to pat down the mud and form it into a continent for the Star Person and their tree to land on. The Star Person then planted the tree which gave life to the continent they now live on, called Turtle Island.

Raph finds the story mellowing and thanks Sleeping Owl for sharing it. He then thanks Kid Terra for everything he and his group have done to help them. The gang then decides it’s time to get going as a coyote howls in the distance. Elsewhere, Water Beetle and Beaver (dressed as doctor and nurse) tell their patient that they have done all they can do to help her. They say that all she can do is rest and wait. The patient is revealed to be Turtle, hooked up to life support systems. In terrible pain, Turtle begs them to give her something to ease her suffering. Meanwhile, the Maker, who is all, feels a small part on his side suddenly begin to ache.

Issue #62 with the Cyber-Suits

Dreamland : Issues #62-66

In the future, Verminator-X breaks into a high tech lab and succeeds in hacking into the Hubble II space telescope. With it, he spots an approaching alien space craft which intrigues him.

Elsewhere, Raph stands atop the corpses of his enemies (the Shredder, a Foot Soldier, a Malignoid and Armaggon). As he revels in his victory, a sudden downpour of acid rain begins to melt away his flesh. Raph welcomes the pain and celebrates as he is reduced to little more than a skeleton. Raph suddenly wakes in his bed and describes the nightmare to his coyote-woman/girlfriend, Mezcaal. Mezcaal suggests that it’s a message from his subconscious, showing him his inner self.

At Turtleco, Don struggles to remove all the modifications Armaggon made to his timeslip generator. As he begins to disconnect the human brain hooked up to the device (unaware that it belonged to Adolf Hitler), the portal shows him a picture of Nazi Germany toward the end of WWII. Confused, Don shuts off the generator when he gets a call from Leo. Calling from his dojo, Leo says that something strange is going down. He and four of his students (Nobuko, Miles, Carmen and a mutant baboon named Bob) were on patrol when they caught four robbers stealing some gyroscope parts bound for a space station. Before Leo could question their motive, the robbers each bit down on a pill that vaporized their flesh, committing suicide. Don agrees that the matter bears investigation and offers to pick up Mikey while Leo grabs Raph.

At Gabrielle’s Orphanage, Mikey is taking some time to work on a new piece of art (a sketch of April as an angel). Suddenly, Don arrives at the window wearing a set of cyber samurai armor. He asks Mike if he’d like to help investigate some possible terrorist activity and Mike gleefully suits up. At the Turtle Island club, Mezcaal is busy throwing some hoodlums out of the joint. Leo shows up in his own set of armor and asks Raph to come join their brothers on patrol. Much to Mezcaal’s irritation (as she has to stay behind and run the joint on her own), Raph suits up and leaves to join the party.

In the basement of Turtleco, where Don has his partially dismantled timeslip generator stashed, the brain of Adolf Hitler awakens. Confused, it uses its connection to the timeslip generator to open a doorway to Berlin, at the close of WWII, by sheer power of thought. In the flooded streets of New York, a boat carrying equipment for NASA’s asteroid mining operation is being attached by armored henchmen. After one of the guards is killed, the Turtles arrive in their Cyber Samurai armor and take down the robbers before they can get anybody else. Don removes their helmets and finds that they’re nothing more than lifeless corpses, reanimated with advanced cybernetics.

From his lab, Verminator-X curses that the Turtles have foiled yet another of his robberies. Finally having had enough, he decides to take some offensive measures. After answering some questions for the police lieutenant, the Turtles decide to split up and patrol for more clues. As soon as Mikey is alone, though, Verminator pounces from the top of a skyscraper and begins tearing apart his armor with his cybernetic claws. Landing on the roof of the Empire State Building, Verminator beats Mikey unconscious and prepares to kill him. He’s interrupted by a strange, shadowy alien who encourages him to forget the Turtle and pursue his greater plans.

Patrolling the flooded streets, Raph is startled by an alien space craft that bursts out from beneath the water and launches toward the moon. Fearing that something bad has gone down, Raph attempts to contact Mike but gets no answer. Back at Turtleco, Leo and Don determine that the cyborg zombies fit the M.O. of their old enemy, Verminator-X. As Don heads down to check out the timeslip generator he had to abruptly abandon, he finds it turned on and set to Nazi Germany. Even worse, several objects are missing, including the brain. But an even worse crisis pops up, as Raph returns with the battered body of Michaelangelo… and he isn’t breathing.

Later at the infirmary of the Turtleco building, Don has gotten Mikey stabilized, though still on life support. Mezcaal wonders if Mike would be better off in a hospital, but Don explains that their mutant physiology makes them tough patients even for trained specialists; only Turtleco has the proper equipment to keep Mikey breathing. Unfortunately for the Turtles, they can’t stay and watch over their wounded brother; they have to head through the time slip generator and see what happened to the missing brain. Leo leaves his students behind to keep Mikey safe and the three Turtles then jump through the time slip.

Out in space, an alien named Crainiac shows Verminator-X the imminent fate of planet Earth: A comet is careening toward it and will shortly destroy the whole world. Verminator isn’t sure he likes the sound of that, at least until Crainiac offers him a business proposition. Crainiac explains that there are alien races incapable of dreaming and that they pay good money for the brains of unique individuals that have lived exciting lives. They then siphon the memories of those people and use them as dreams. Crainiac has collected many human brains, but one very special one still awaits…

Future Raphael Punching Adolf Hitler in the face.

In the tunnels beneath war-torn Berlin, the brain of Adolf Hitler has forged a makeshift robot body (really just a jar with tripod legs and pincher arms) and is desperately trying to reconvene with his younger self to prevent his defeat at the hands of the Allied forces. Hitler’s brain kills a member of the resistance hiding in the tunnels, then trudges off. Not long after, the Turtles arrive through the time slip. They find the body, but before they can ask too many questions, more members of the resistance arrive and open fire. The Turtles escape to the surface and find Berlin in ruins, as Allied planes continue to drop bombs on the city. Hitler’s brain has succeeded in teaming with his younger self and together they’ve mustered several members of the Reich to hold off their enemies. The Turtles are pinned by gunfire until a bomb drops and destroys the robot body of Hitler’s brain (and scatters the Nazi soldiers, too). Raph punches young-Hitler in the jaw and they snatch up the gooey brain from its shattered globe. Unfortunately, Don has lost his time slip remote and they now have to race to the entry point for their one shot at returning home when the time slip portal briefly reopens.

They make it back to the tunnels, only to be accosted at gunpoint by a dazed and confused Hitler. As the time slip opens up, Leo tells Hitler that they are demons and they have come to take his soul to Hell. Hitler refuses to let them and, instead, blows his own brains out with his gun. The Turtles return through the time slip with Hitler’s not-blown-out brain as the young Hitler’s lifeless body falls to the rubble.

As the Turtles return to Turtleco, they find Verminator-X and Crainiac waiting for them. They have subdued Leo’s students and demand that the Turtles hand over Hitler’s brain. Don tells “Manx” (Verminator) that he was once a brilliant scientist and shouldn’t be associating with such criminal scum. Verminator is unmoved and escapes in Crainiac’s spaceship, intent on finishing his project before Earth’s destruction. As the ship zooms off, Raph notices a groggy Michaelangelo clinging to the bottom of the hull. Weakly, Mike promises to hold on for as long as he can and find out where they’re headed.

Inside a strange pool, Leo (in his Cyber Samurai armor) is being swarmed by dozens of human brains, clasping onto him with their stems. Leo ponders how he ended up in this crazy predicament…

Leaving the Turtleco building in their Cyber Samurai armor, Raph manages to find Mike floating in the water below. Apparently, Crainiac and Verminator-X are still on-world, merely hiding out in the flooded streets. Speaking of them, in his underwater base, Crainiac inspects Hitler’s brain and is shocked to find it still functional. He then asks Verminator as to the status of “the project”. Verminator says he’s finished installing the stolen NASA parts, though he wished he could have gotten more. Crainiac reminds Verminator about the deadly comet heading Earth’s way and that every second counts.

At the Turtleco building, the Turtles, Mezcaal and Leo’s students gear up and split into teams. Leo and Don (in their armor) infiltrate the underwater base from below, while Raph, Mikey and the rest go in from above. Sneaking in, Raph’s team stumbles onto one of Verminator’s Thanotics labs: a lab full of corpses hooked up to strange machines. Raph trips over a device and suddenly all the corpses spring to life. As the corpses attack, Leo’s students fight back and begin tearing the zombies apart, though the numbers against them are great. Eventually, the corpses overcome the heroes. Undersea, Leo and Don find an unguarded entrance. Knowing it to be a trap, but having no other means in, they go through. The Turtles find themselves in a strange pool full of human brains (which takes us back to where we started). The brains begin attacking and there are too many for the Turtles to fend off. Eventually, they start slithering inside their Cyber Samurai armor.

Watching from security monitors, Crainiac and Verminator laugh at their success.

Back in the lab, the zombies are begging for death while attacking Raph and his team. Uncollapsing Don’s hi-tech bo staff, Raph decides to fry the cadavers with electricity. This only makes things worse, as now they’re killer zombies that are on fire. In the brain tank, Leo is about to black out when Don saves the day with a pulsar blast from his gauntlet. He tells Leo that he could have just cranked up the thermowaves in his Cyber Samurai armor to fry the brains around him, but Leo says he hasn’t read the owner’s manual. Raph then resorts to plan B. He uses the staff to draw out all the electric energy coursing through the cadavers, as that’s what’s keeping them “alive”. Raph succeeds in shutting down the corpses, but the staff cannot hold all that energy and fires it out in a huge blast. The blast smashes a nearby wall, emptying the brain tank. Don and Leo step out of the goo and rejoin the team.

From another room, Verminator and Crainiac step in and get the drop on the heroes, holding them hostage with their guns. Crainiac wants the brains of the Turtles, as they’re sure to fetch a good price. Raph and Mikey think fast and knock the guns out of the villains’ hands by throwing a nunchaku and a brain. Raph and Verminator tussle a bit, with Verminator regaining his gun. Crainiac draws his sword and is about to cut the brain out of Mikey when Verminator turns his gun on Crainiac. Apparently, a part of their deal involved Crainiac promising to only harvest already-dead brains. Enraged at Verminator’s betrayal, Crainiac abandons him to die on Earth when the asteroid collides and flies off laughing in his ship.

While Verminator is distracted, Raph grabs one of the fallen guns and holds it to Verminator. Raph tells Verminator to drop his weapon or he’ll kill him on the spot. Verminator calls Raph’s bluff, knowing that the Turtle would never kill an enemy. Raph shoots Verminator at point blank range in the head. The other Turtles are appalled, but Raph insists it was the only way; that killing Verminator was needed to save future lives. At any rate, it won’t matter for long, as the approaching asteroid will soon destroy the Earth. A short time later, a space ship piloted by Don targets the asteroid. A well-placed nuclear missile fired by his copilot destroys the asteroid and saves the Earth. Don’s copilot is revealed to be Verminator (now going by his original name: Manx). Apparently, Don repaired his cerebral cybernetics, removing certain “bad parts”, and not only succeeded in saving Manx’s life, but returning him to his younger, gentler personality. The day saved, the friends fly back to Earth.

Moon Eyes Saga: Issues #67-70

TMNT Adventures #67

It is the first snow of winter in the Alaskan wilderness and, beneath a full moon, a wolf-woman cries a beautiful song to her beloved across the forest. The wolf-woman is Nei’Sha and her beloved is Mokoshan. Suddenly, a shot is fired by hunters, killing Nei’Sha. Mokoshan grips his mate and cries a howl of grief that is carried over the wilderness by packs of wolves. At camp, Ninjara hears the howl and finds it similar to the cries of her fox-people. Raph asks her what’s wrong and she snaps at him, telling the Turtle to leave her alone.

The next day, at Fairbanks International Airport, The Turtles, Ninjara and April bid farewell to Oyuki. April is sending her off with their old friend Tattoo to cover the Sumo-Fest in Japan. Oyuki and Tattoo board their plane, leaving Inky behind on the tarmac in his pet-carrier. That night, on the Dalton Highway, the Turtles, Ninjara and April are struggling to reach the next town as their truck fails on the snow-covered gravel road. Raph, meanwhile, is failing to reach Ninjara, who still refuses to talk to him and explain why she’s acting so cold and distant. April stops her truck to check the map and another truck operated by locals pulls up beside her. They ask if she needs any help (as the Turtles pull up their hoods to hide their identities) and she politely declines the offer. As the locals drive away, a young boy in the backseat gets a look at Mikey as he pulls down his hood. April pulls the truck off to the side and figures they might as well camp where they are.

As they make camp and Don explains the science behind the Northern Lights to everybody, Ninjara loses interest and marches off to be alone. Raph finally confronts her and she explains that he simply hasn’t been paying enough attention to her; being too caught up in his own adventures to ever ask how she feels or what she wants. In fact, she feels as though she’s lost sight of her own individual purpose; merely tagging along with the Turtles on all of *their* adventures. Raph is shocked, but before he can try to work things out with Ninjara, she hears the same wolf howl and runs off to follow it. Leo shows up an instant later and together they tail Ninjara. They eventually catch up with her and the three find themselves surrounded by a pack of wolves. Leo and Raph try to talk Ninjara into backing away slowly, but she orders them to shut up, as she feels the alpha male is trying to tell them that someone is coming. Just then, Don, Mike and April arrive, ready to fight. They aren’t the ones that the alpha male was trying to warn Ninjara about, though. That individual is Mokoshan. Angry and tired of trespassers in his forest, the wolf-man swears to kill them all.

As Mokoshan approaches the Turtles, April and Ninjara, he resends his death threat once he sees that Ninjara is an anthropomorphic canine like himself. Immediately smitten, he dubs her “Moon-Eyes” and compliments her on her beauty. Raph is instantly incensed and tries to break the two up. Ignoring him, Mokoshan vanishes in a sudden flurry of snow, promising to see Ninjara again. Ninjara, meanwhile, looks equally smitten. At camp, April asks Ninjara if she wants to talk. Ninjara explains the deal between her and Raph and admits that she’s just no longer in love with him. Mokoshan, however, intrigues her.

Hitting the road the next morning, Ninjara still refuses to discuss matters further with Raph, making for an uncomfortable car ride for everybody. Sulking, Raph spots an Indian watching them from the rocks, though nobody else pays him any mind. After gassing up, they continue their trip north and Raph notices the same Indian a few miles up the road, still watching them. Later, April leads the Turtles and Ninjara on a hike. She explains that she’s following a story about the US Government planting radioactive waste in the arctic to study its effect on the environment. Unfortunately, the government didn’t tell the local Eskimo community what they were up to.

Looking down a small valley, they spot a pack of wolves devouring a caribou. Suddenly, Ninjara spots an old hunter about to fire upon the animals. Wanting to protect her canine brothers, she races out into the valley to warn them and the hunter shoots her by mistake. Ninjara collapses and passes out. Furious, Raph rushes to the hunter and prepares to wipe the floor with him. The old hunter’s grandson then pops up and begs Raph not to hurt him. Right in the nick of time, Mokoshan appears, leaning over Ninjara. He promises “Moon-Eyes” that his peoples’ medicines can save her and without so much as a word to the Turtles, disappears with Ninjara in a flurry of snow. Raph wants to go after him, but the flurry turns into a blizzard and the gang is forced to make camp.

Later that night, as the blizzard gets worse, Raph sneaks out on his own. Out in the blizzard, Raph is determined to track Ninjara when he is accosted by a huge polar bear. The bear throws him around like a ragdoll and eventually tosses him off a cliff. Raph cracks his head on a ledge and passes out as the bear trudges off. Elsewhere, the wolf-woman Revyen awakens Ninjara, asleep in a (well-furnished) chamber. Revyen begins to tell her the true meaning of “Moon-Eyes” (the name Mokoshan gave to her) when Mokoshan comes in and orders Revyen to leave. Seeing Ninjara still groggy, Mokoshan tells her to go back to sleep.

At the camp, the blizzard has finally died down and the Turtles and April decide to go after Raph. Mike finds a series of slashes made by his sai in the trees and they begin following the trail.

Speaking of Raph, he awakens at the edge of the cliff, having been rescued by the young Indian that he saw following their van the previous day. The Indian introduces himself as Dave, a descendent of the Tlingit, and asks the “turtle spirit” if he knows why so many other animal spirits have been showing themselves, lately. Raph admits to being no spirit, but refuses to accept being a teenager, either. He declares himself a man and asks Dave to show him to the lair of the “wolf spirits”. Dave escorts him to a cave with two entrances, but reveals he doesn’t know which is the right one. Raph picks an entrance at random and goes in alone. Later that night, Mokoshan performs a service for Nei’Sha, his recently killed mate, and sets her corpse ablaze in a funeral pyre. The wolf-people give a farewell howl that awakens Ninjara. Ninjara goes out to see Mokoshan and he tells her whom the funeral is for. Still groggy, Ninjara passes out. The next morning, the Turtles and April follow Raph’s trail to the cave entrances. Leo picks an entrance and the four venture in. Meanwhile, inside, Raph finds himself surrounded by a pack of wolves, eying him hungrily.

In the cave, April, Mike, Leo and Don fail to find Raph, but do find the discarded barrels of toxic waste that the US Government had hid. Raph, meanwhile, is in a different section of the cave, staring down the wolf pack. Before he can defend himself, a stalactite breaks and falls on his head, knocking him out. At the wolf-people village, Mokoshan shows Ninjara around their livestock pens. Mokoshan explains that the only people who know of the wolf tribe are the Native Indians, as modern man cannot understand them. He says that the wolf-people and the Indians came to Alaska over the ice bridge many centuries ago. Ninjara realizes that her fox-people and Mokoshan’s wolf-people share a common ancestry. The two become even closer as the day winds on.

April, Leo, Don and Mike find their way out a different entrance to the cave and see for themselves how the toxic waste has affected the flora; giant briar patches twist and wind every which where. Don wonders what the radiation might have done to the fauna as a large shadowy creature stalks the gang. Back at the village, Raph awakens inside Revyen’s chambers. She admits to having rescued him from the cave and dressed his wound. Raph is in no mood to talk and demands to see Ninjara. Revyen points him to the window and says that Ninjara is with Mokoshan by the caribou pen. Infuriated, Raph smashes through the window and accosts Mokoshan.

At the cave, the shadowy creatures stalking the Turtles turn out to be polar bears, mutated into humongous monstrosities. The Turtles and April make a break for it as the gang of bears chase after them.

And at the village, Raph picks a fight with Mokoshan, who has no interest in violence. Raph insists, though, and starts punching him (as Ninjara begs for him to stop). From the broken window, Revyen looks on in sinister amusement. Before a victor can be determined, though, April and the Turtles come barreling through the briar patch with the polar bears hot behind them. Don tells Mokoshan to create a diversion and the wolf-man sets the caribou free from their pen. As the caribou race off over the hills, the bears chase after them and abandon the village. Still weak, and made even weaker by all the action, Ninjara faints. Mokoshan sees to her and carries her back to her room. Raph realizes he’s lost the battle for good. Later, April and Ninjara have another chat while sitting on a cliff-side. Ninjara admits to being smitten with Mokoshan’s charm and good looks, but also that she finds his peaceful and positive disposition preferable to Raph’s perpetual bad attitude. Raph approaches and April takes her cue to leave. Ninjara finally gives it to Raph straight: She has needs that he cannot give her and that she has to find her own path in life. Raph says he understands and they kiss each other goodbye.

As the Turtles and April leave the village, Mokoshan wishes Raph goodbye, though the Turtle says nothing. Entering the forest, Mike tries to cheer Raph up with some canned advice, such as “if you love her, set her free” and “it’s better to have loved and lost at love than never to have loved at all”. Raph tells Mike to shut up.

In the Prologue, down in the sewers, April enjoys a leisurely stroll with Master Splinter. April is busy discussing how the Turtles lack self control (Raph throwing her TV out the window when upset, or Mikey teaming with Oyuki to raid her fridge), but she notices Splinter gaining a distant look in his eyes. Splinter apologizes and explains that the section of the tunnels they’re in reminds him of a story…

Returning with a payload of pizzas for his young, pre-teen Turtles, Splinter passes by the storm drain looking out at the Ling Martial Arts Academy. He overhears its owner, Lynda Ling, having an argument with her attorney, Kim. Slujjco wants to tear down her failing academy so it can develop the neighborhood, but she won’t sell. The academy was left to her by her late husband, the famous martial arts film star David Ling. As Kim drives off and the conversation ends, Splinter recalls how he met David and Lynda shortly after he was exiled from Japan in his Hamato Yoshi days. David was a talented martial artist and a dear friend, so Splinter was crushed when he learned that he’d died in a Hollywood car accident. Splinter since yearned to comfort Lynda, but his subsequent mutation forced him to keep a distance.

Shortly after Kim drives away, a trio of masked thugs breaks in and attacks Lynda, demanding she leave the neighborhood or face the consequences. A talented martial artist herself, she mops the floor with the punks and they retreat. Splinter, still watching, leaves with the satisfaction that Lynda can take care of herself. However, he feels the urge to give her a helping hand of the invisible kind, anyway.

Back at the lair, Splinter attempts to rally his pre-teen Turtles, but all they can do is whine about the pizza being cold. Leo snaps his brothers out of their childish behavior and, grabbing their bo staffs, they all promise to help Splinter’s friend. At a construction office, the three bruised punks meet with their boss (a shadowy, cigar-chomping figure). They ask if they can go back with guns, but he refuses to let them; Lynda’s death and the destruction of the academy has to look like an accident. The boss then gives the punks cybernetic exoskeletons to enhance their speed and strength. He then dons one himself, insisting he must go along to make sure the job is done right.

Watching from the storm drain, the Turtles and Splinter spot the thugs breaking into the dojo. The thugs beat the tar out of the unprepared Lynda, then the boss says that they’ll burn her body and the building in an “electrical fire”. The Turtles and Splinter arrive right in the nick of time and the Turtles attack the thugs with their bo staffs as Splinter sees to Lynda. Leaping into action, the Turtles attack the four bionic saboteurs with their bo staffs while Splinter escapes the martial arts school with the unconscious Lynda. The bionic saboteurs prove formidable foes, busting the bo staffs of Leo, Mike and Raph (Don’s is the only one to make it unscathed, as he is most proficient with the weapon). The Turtles make due, however, as Leo uses his broken halves as escrima, Raph uses his splintered half to disarm his enemy with the three jagged prongs and Mike ties his two halves together with his bandana and uses them to trip his enemies.

The Turtles send the saboteurs tumbling down the stairs, but the villains use their flamethrowers to set the building on fire, trapping the Turtles inside. Raph takes charge and leads the Turtles to the martial artis weapon shop on the first floor. Leo, Mike and Raph then grab some fresh weapons (katana, nunchakus and sais) and head out into the streets to catch the saboteurs. Proving more skilled with their unique weapons, the Turtles take down the saboteurs, destroying their bionic suits. As Lynda comes to, Splinter tells his pupils to vanish before she sees them.

Later that evening, the leader of the saboteurs is revealed to be Don Tower, the contractor in charge of building the new Slujjcorp skyscraper intended to go where Lynda’s martial arts school currently stands. Shelton Slujj pulls up in his limo and assures Lynda that he had no idea Tower was trying to force people off the land to build his skyscraper. Slujj offers to compensate her for all her loses and change his building plans so as to include her martial arts academy in the design. Lynda happily accepts his offer. As Lynda goes over the wreckage of her school, Splinter appears to her in the shadows to see that she’s okay. Lynda recognizes his voice as belonging to her old friend Hamato Yoshi, but Splinter refuses to let her see him, fearing she would find his appearance terrifying. Lynda doesn’t care what he looks like and the two old friends reunite. Splinter then introduces her to the Turtles and Lynda offers them a reward: They can choose one of any weapon in her shop. The Turtles wind up fighting over a boomerang.

Lynda’s martial arts academy.

During the Epilogue, Laughing, Splinter reveals that Leo, Mike and Raph eventually chose the weapons they use now, while Don got the boomerang. Don later lost the boomerang and went back to using his bo staff. April asks whatever became of Lynda and Splinter tells her to look out the storm drain. April takes a peek and sees Lynda’s martial arts academy prospering, now integrated into Slujj’s shining skyscraper.

Read-along adaptations

Three read-along adaptations were produced by Radio Arts Productions, Inc. and released on audio cassette by Random House. [1] Published from 1989–1991, they feature an uncredited voice cast. These books include the three-part «Heroes in a Half-Shell!» story which was merged into one five-chapter book title «The Complete Adventure!». The second book is «Return of the Shredder», and the final book, «Intergalactic Wrestling and Other Adventures», includes the stories «Of Turtles and Stones and Mary Bones», «Intergalactic Wrestling» and «Wild Things». A version of «The Complete Adventure» was also published by VideoMedia in 1990 as three separate issues. With the titles «Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures», «Escape From The Robots» and «Battle With Dimension X».

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