The Best Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutant Battle You Can't Read

foreign [Music] hello welcome to Comic tropes I'm your host Chris I don't know about you but I love the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles I discovered them in the mid 80s shortly before they became a toy and a cartoon and really exploded in popularity and at that time I didn't really even understand that it was satirizing some of the Grim and gritty comics of the time like Daredevil I just enjoyed it as a black and white badass action comic book but the comic book exploded in popularity very very quickly and shortly into its run the creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird got so busy running the business side of things that they didn't have time to make the actual comic book themselves the so-called guest era of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ran from issues 22 all the way to issue 44 a two and a half year period where the creators basically just handed over the reins to a rotating series of guest artists and writers creators that they thought could do something interesting with their title and allow it to keep coming out within this guest era there was a three-part Storyline by a Creator I've discussed on this channel before Rick Veach it was called the river and it was fantastic it's a great story it does something different with the turtles it actually features them going up against the first evil mutant in the main Ninja Turtles comic book but it was only reprinted once back in 1991 so it's not very easy to find today let's talk about what makes this comic book story so cool as well as why you can't find it anymore let's do it Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles debuted in May of 1984 as an independently self-published book by its creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird artists and friends who named their company Mirage Studios as in since it was just two guys it was a mirage that it was a studio Ninja Turtles was an immediate success going into multiple reprints and adding One-Shot spin-offs and an anthology series by folks hired onto Mirage Studios the cartoon and toys debuted in December of 1987 and only 12 regular issues of the main title were even out in print by then behind the scenes Eastman and Laird were so busy running the business side that they had less and less time to write and draw the comic themselves they would trade off working on the book and use some of their employees to help draw the book issue 16 from July of 1988 was the first to be made entirely by a guest and many years later Peter Laird declared this and most of the other guest era issues to not be considered Canon by him for whatever that's worth in August of 1989 artist and writer Rick Veach took over the title for a three-issue storyline I've made an episode discussing veach's history and techniques through the lens of looking at his book brat pack for the purposes of looking at his work coming onto Ninja Turtles it's worth noting that he had come off of a long run on Swamp Thing with Alan Moore he was initially one of the rotating artists and then took over as writer When Alan Moore wrapped up his Arc however D.C president Jeanette Khan had rejected his final storyline at the last minute and it made Veach vow not to work for DC again until they would publish it he turned to Independent comics with TMNT being his first big gig after Swamp Thing Rick veitch's writing style is multi-layered and he's noted as being one of the first people in comic books to really deconstruct the ideas of the superhero he did that in books like brat pack and also the one which actually predates Watchmen and Alan Moore himself has had some nice things to say about the one when it comes to his artwork Veach is just an artist's artist you know his detail in swamp thing and it should be noted that those feature inks by the great Alfredo Alcala are insanely detailed just really gorgeous organic looking stuff his artwork in Ninja Turtles is much more streamlined a little less detailed a little more angular and Stark but it's still clearly his style it is gorgeous in the first issue of vich's story set in rural Massachusetts the Ninja Turtles are being trained by their father and Mentor Splinter Raphael leaves the group without bowing to Splinter which makes Splinter note that his students may not be mature enough to learn what he has to teach them this irritates Leonardo Michelangelo and Donatello and they chase after their brother who was swimming in the Connecticut River that's the longest river in New England and it cuts through Northampton the small town where Eastman had Laird worked out of and where the turtles were currently living in the comic story Raphael is just about to get a beating from his brothers when he notes that some baby turtles have just hatched all four teenagers take a moment to observe and wonder what they used to be and Raphael Muses about what their lives would have been like if they had not been mutated he then finds one baby turtle with a leech on it and is horrified because he finds them creepy the rest of the turtles decide to give Rafael a hard time by holding him and placing the leech on Raphael's foot Raphael pulls it off and is about to squish it but decides that it's not the leeches fault for being what it is and tosses it back into the river however when the Turtles and Splinter later meditate and Splinter pushes them to explore the astral plane Raphael passes out while he rests later in the river his brothers apologize to him and they all witness a large snapping turtle yanked underwater following the creature that nabbed the turtle they trap it in a cave Raphael seals the Escape Route with his shell and tells his brothers to come back with Splinter and their weapons but when they all finally return Rafael is nearly comatose and they find the Leech from earlier is now sucking on Raphael's shell and it's grown vestigial arms and legs Splinter cautions them by but Leonardo acts impulsively and cuts the leech to Ribbons I think this story is fascinating but it's also early enough in their creation that not all of the personalities have been completely locked in for instance I think it would be much more likely if this story were written today for Michelangelo to be the immature one who doesn't bow and runs off to the river to play and I think it would be more likely that Raphael loses his cool and cuts the leech to Pieces as compared to Leonardo who's a little bit more stoic and obedient to Splinter's teachings nevertheless I think Rick Veach also makes some really interesting decisions with his artwork in terms of humanizing the characters for instance he often draws the turtles without their bandanas and allows us to actually see the irises of their eye and connect with them on that emotional level you might think that this story is over but it's really just beginning as the turtles Splinter and their human friends April O'Neil and Casey Jones all note that Raphael is quickly becoming childlike he can't balance well or focus on a simple game by the end of the issue he's crawling again and just making mewing sounds instead of words the group heads back to the river to see what they can find of the leech and see if it holds any clues they're interrupted by a game warden Raphael swims over to him only for the game warden to look up from under his hat and reveal that he is the leech mutated into a humanoid form like the turtles he taunts them and Pilots a boat upriver the brothers vow to track down the leech and swim away while April tells a crying Raphael that he can't go with them this time this is an effective set of stakes the turtle force is down by 25 percent and the turtles are working hard to save their brother's life this is also an early example of the Ninja Turtles going up against a fellow mutant and evil mutant they'd gone up against the shredder and his ninja Clan they'd gone up against robots and aliens and even super villains but they actually hadn't gone up against an evil mutant in the main Ninja Turtles comic book although it should be noted that exactly one year earlier the turtles did go up against a mutated alligator named Leatherhead in the tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles book that was an anthology by Mirage Studio employees and of course Bebop and Rocksteady predated all of that in the cartoon but this is still a very early example of the Ninja Turtles going up against an evil mutant the second issue in the story doesn't simply give us the Turtles versus bloodsucker the leech although we do get some of that and it's great the story escalates The Stakes by introducing the corrupt Sheriff of a town reporting to a businessman who controls the town on the river the police officer illegally arrests Casey Jones who escapes by jumping a bridge while handcuffed into the river below he is saved by a Native American named abenak the businessman Mr Booter and the police act as secondary antagonists delaying the turtles from tracking down bloodsucker bloodsucker is a fantastic enemy he's cruel and sarcastic anyone in his path is someone he's ready to drain he goes after kids early on but the turtles stop him not so lucky is Mr Booter but we the reader kind of want to see such an easy to hate villain get his comeuppance bloodsucker makes his way further up the river in the Final Chapter and the turtles and their allies track him down at one point the turtles find baby turtle Raphael being attacked by a weasel Donatello is about to help his brother but Leonardo holds him back Rafael may be a baby normal Turtle but he's still Raphael and he successfully defends himself I thought that was a great little character beat the turtles and abanak eventually meet Old Man River who is a physical embodiment of the river itself he lets them know that he allowed bloodsucker to come into being and admits he could undo it but doesn't care either way the turtles including Raphael stand up to the old man which distracts him Splinter attacks him on the astral plane and the old man loses his connection to Nature and regresses past infancy into some sort of an embryo the turtle's battle blood sucker and Raphael Chomps down and feeds on bloodsucker reversing their status and eventually returning to his mutant teenager self it's a story that blends the metaphysical with the very physical I'm not going to break down all of the action beats the subplots with The Supporting Cast or even the final day Numan I'll leave that for you to discover yourself although it should be noted that because Rick Veach didn't want this story to be reprinted it's not the easiest book to find so let's get into that part of the story The Guest era overall was a mixed bag some issues were comedic and some felt like the turtles were guests in their own books but there were other really fascinating stories like the souls winter Trilogy by Michael Zuli that re-envisions Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as supernaturally empowered turtles in Japan as compared to their sci-fi Origins but the point is there were a lot of different creators involved creators that Eastman and Laird paid royalties to each time the books were reprinted collected or turned into something like a toy Kevin Eastman discussed this with Gary Groff in an interview in the March 1998 issue of the comics Journal because of the number of creators it eventually became overwhelming keep track of royalty payments and Mirage reached out to these creators with a blanket work for hire agreement for artists to sign retroactively most folks did but Veach did not like the terms so it was only reprinted once before this agreement was offered in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the collected book 6 from July of 1991. a user on the Technodrome forums wrote to Rick Veach for an explanation in 2012 and Rick replied writing quote the problem is a rights issue the work was originally done on a handshake with a 50 50 split on any future Revenue I never signed the after the fact work for higher contract that Mirage later demanded over 20 years of trying to negotiate a deal nothing ever came of it now that they have sold the turtles to Nickelodeon Viacom there will have to be a new agreement between them and me before any of my copyrighted material can be republished I understand the wishes of the fans to see the material and IDW has been very helpful trying to make it happen but Nickelodeon Viacom wants me to sign over all rights films publishing merchandise for my stories to be included in this one publishing event fans should organize to pressure them to do a fair deal I've wondered if Mirage decided to create the mutant named worm in place of bloodsucker worm appeared in the Archie Comics title Adventures of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and was also a toy who was a mutated flatworm not quite as interesting as bloodsucker in my opinion but certainly has some common elements Rick veitch's River Trilogy is a fantastic Ninja Turtle story a real highlight of the guest era and is very rewarding it's totally worth tracking down I definitely recommend it it's not going to be easy but I do think it's worth it it works as a story on several levels there's the action stuff but there's also a lot of character work and it asks some important questions about ownership you know can people own a part of nature can you have your own identity stolen or is that something that you truly own these are really deep philosophical questions that are really interestingly addressed in this one story and of course it's an early example of the Ninja Turtles going up against another mutant an element that now we see in the cartoons the comics the toys the movies very common but Rick Veitch was definitely one of the first to explore that kind concept thank you so much for watching I'm going to be back soon with another episode I hope you can take some time to just hit something like like subscribe maybe leave a comment down below that really helps the channel if you really want to help I've got a patreon the link is in the description and uh patreon had some weird billing issues this past month and it hurt everybody that uses it about 10 of my patrons have disappeared uh it's not their fault it's patreons but the issues have been corrected I'd really appreciate it you can support the channel for as little as a dollar a month and get some behind the scenes uh stories and access I hope you'll consider that thank you so much for taking some time to talk about Ninja Turtles with me I'll see you real soon oh yeah keep reading comics hey while you look at the names of my great patrons who are making this show possible I thought I'd take a moment to talk to you about the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Mutant Mayhem movie I've seen it and no spoilers but I really really enjoyed it I would say that it might be my second favorite of any sort of Ninja Turtle movie I still have a soft spot for that original live action one I think that that's just closest to the turtles that I knew when I was growing up but this movie is great it's got a good story it's got great character work it's definitely the funniest Ninja Turtles movie I've ever seen they hired actual teenagers and they have some great dialogue and some great character work where they're talking over each other and getting themselves all wound up several times some really fun voice cameos sometimes I wish that that work went to more established voice actors but some of them are really just fantastic I think that Paul Rudd is hilarious as Mondo Gekko I think Ice Cube is great as Superfly there's some really nice work there the animation is creative and exciting it's a really good story and it's not a repeat of stuff that you've seen a million times like them going up against Shredder or crank or something like that that we've seen before it definitely gives us something new I recommend it I definitely give it somewhere around uh b-plus to maybe even an A minus I gotta give it a little bit more time to see how I feel but I did like it and I do recommend it thanks everyone bye thanks for watching this video if you liked it please consider hitting like And subscribe if you'd like to support the show there are merchandise links beneath the YouTube video and you can always hit join on YouTube or visit comic tropes on patreon to get access to special perks [Music] [Music] thank you [Music]

Channel: ComicTropes

Views: 22,271

Keywords:

Id: Fs6isCTF3zo

Length: 19min 38sec (1178 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 13 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/life-was-better]

I can read it. I have all the original issues. And the only tpb they did get published in (TMNT The Collected Book, Volume 6).

https://miragelicensing.com/comics/books/volsix.html

[u/MicahMX700]

I love this storyline