Review: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1
After doing two Spider-man related posts in a row, I decided it was time to change things up and talk about another franchise I love. So here we are.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I've loved these guys ever since I discovered them with a game at a certain pizza arcade as a little kid. You know you're hooked on a game when you're wasting all your tokens on it even though it doesn't give any tickets. Years later, I managed to catch the 2003 series when they started airing it on Cartoon Network and I've been following them ever since.
A couple of years ago, I got a copy of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Ultimate Visual History. It's a great recounting of the franchise's history with nice little attachments throughout its pages and I recommend it to anyone who's a turtles fan. On the back cover, it lists that the book contains a reprint of the first Turtles comic. I searched through the pages over and over, never finding the dang thing. It was only last month that I took one last look and discovered a pocket in the back end page. The comic and a poster were contained inside. Go figure.
So I now have a physical copy of this iconic book and decided to take a look at how this worldwide phenomenon got started.
The cover features the classic image of the Heroes in a Half-shell standing ready for action on a rooftop in New York City. You've probably seen a few homages to this cover, like the end of the currently running Nickelodeon series opening theme. One detail I wasn't familiar with before finding my copy was the image inside the word "Turtles." It show's Leonardo's hand wielding a bloodied katana. Yeesh.
Guess I better get this out of the way. The original Ninja Turtle comics were much more violent than what you'll see of them today. This is because a major influence came from the dark, gritty comics of the time, including Frank Miller's run on Daredevil.
SPOILERS BELOW: Scroll down to bottom if you want to see my final thoughts.
Our comic opens with a scene that some of you may recognize from the first episode of the 2003 series.
NARRATION: My name is Leonardo. We made a wrong turn somewhere.
You guys really should've taken a left turn at Albuquerque.
Leo goes on to name each of his brothers, distinguishing them by their weapons as they're backed against the wall of an alley by the Purple Dragons.
PURPLE DRAGON: You're dead, Freaks!! Nobody trespasses on the Purple Dragon turf and gets away with it... Especially when they're wearing stupid turtle costumes!
Costumes? Oh you poor, simple fool.
The next panel is a two page spread where the turtles leap in to action with the comic's title underneath them in huge text. I love this opening. It feels like the beginning of a movie and it makes me feel like the 2k3 theme song is about to play in the background. It's so awesome, that I feel showing it in this review would betray the experience of reading the book for yourself.
The next few pages show the turtles taking down Purple Dragon thugs left and right. The gang members try fighting back with guns and hand-to-hand, but these are the Ninja Turtles. We know they're going to win. There's also more narration from Leonardo as the fight goes on, but they stop long enough so it doesn't feel like the text is overcrowded. But there's three particular panels that stand out to me.
Like I said, the original comic is much more violent and gritty than what we see of the Turtles these days. However, the way it was described to me before reading this, I was expecting to see something like decapitation or dismemberment. So this is actually better than expected.
After slaughtering the Purple Dragons, our violent heroes notice incoming police sirens and disappear into the sewers. Leo narrates some more about how they hate running from people who would be their allies. Last I checked, taking the law into your own hands and killing thugs was illegal. But he also mentions how the police wouldn't "understand" them.
They return to the lair, where Master Splinter is meditating. After they report on their successful fight, Splinter congratulates them and tells them that "it is time."
Apparently all their training in ninjutsu was actually to prepare them for a big mission. But either way, he recounts the story that most Turtles fans should be familiar with.
Twenty years ago, Splinter was a normal rat and the pet of a ninjutsu master, Hamato Yoshi. He learned the art himself by mimicking Yoshi's movements whenever he trained. That must've been fun to watch for anyone in the dojo.
Yoshi was a member of the the Foot Clan, along with his rival, Oroku Nagi (no, that's not a typo). Oroku Nagi is a character that I have never seen outside of this comic, because most later interpretations give his role to another character coming up.
Yoshi and Nagi competed at everything, including the love of a beautiful woman named Tang Shen. They both wanted her, but it was clear from the start that her heart belonged to Yoshi. Nagi took her rejection of him pretty well.
SPLINTER NARRATION: Yoshi's world vanished in a red haze.. and when it cleared, Nagi was no more.
Yoshi was shamed for killing another member of the clan. His only options were to either kill himself to hopefully restore his honor in the next life, or flee the country with Shen and start over. Splinter says it was a difficult choice, but it seems obvious to me. Get the heck out of there! Yoshi and Shen moved to New York, where Yoshi started his own martial arts school.
Okay, now I'm wondering if we'll see something like this in the Nickelodeon show. Maybe have the turtles find the school Splinter/Yoshi ran before his mutation.
But things weren't over for the two. Nagi's younger brother, Oroku Saki (there he is!), swore vengeance on Yoshi. So he worked his way up through the Foot clan until he became leader of the New York branch.
This is a bit different from what we usually see today, where Saki is there from the start and was actually the one who was jealous of Yoshi winning Shen's heart. But the story still works here.
Saki became The Shredder and made the Foot clan more corrupt than ever before finding Yoshi and Shen's home, where he took his vengeance on the poor couple. Splinter escaped and lived on the streets after that.
We then finally get to the turtles' part of the story with the classic origin. A blind man was crossing the street when a truck was coming in. Someone managed to save the man and the truck stopped in time, but a canister of ooze fell out and hit the young rescuer's eyes before bouncing off to a kid with a jar of baby turtles. It smashed the jar and the four reptiles fell into the sewers with the canister.
Wait a minute. A blind man? A truck carrying mysterious chemicals? The canister hitting the old man's rescuer in the eyes? A clan of ninjas named after the end of a limb? If this is sounding familiar, it should. This origin is paying homage to Daredevil.
Splinter followed the turtles into the sewer where he found them covered in the ooze and you probably know what's next. Splinter helps them out. They all get bigger and smarter. He adopts them and trains them in ninjutsu and we have the Teenage Mutant— you get the idea.
After explaining their origin to the audien— I mean the turtles, Splinter gives them their mission. To avenge Hamato Yoshi by killing Shredder.
Okay... just a few questions.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I've loved these guys ever since I discovered them with a game at a certain pizza arcade as a little kid. You know you're hooked on a game when you're wasting all your tokens on it even though it doesn't give any tickets. Years later, I managed to catch the 2003 series when they started airing it on Cartoon Network and I've been following them ever since.
A couple of years ago, I got a copy of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Ultimate Visual History. It's a great recounting of the franchise's history with nice little attachments throughout its pages and I recommend it to anyone who's a turtles fan. On the back cover, it lists that the book contains a reprint of the first Turtles comic. I searched through the pages over and over, never finding the dang thing. It was only last month that I took one last look and discovered a pocket in the back end page. The comic and a poster were contained inside. Go figure.
So I now have a physical copy of this iconic book and decided to take a look at how this worldwide phenomenon got started.
Guess I better get this out of the way. The original Ninja Turtle comics were much more violent than what you'll see of them today. This is because a major influence came from the dark, gritty comics of the time, including Frank Miller's run on Daredevil.
SPOILERS BELOW: Scroll down to bottom if you want to see my final thoughts.
Our comic opens with a scene that some of you may recognize from the first episode of the 2003 series.
NARRATION: My name is Leonardo. We made a wrong turn somewhere.
You guys really should've taken a left turn at Albuquerque.
Leo goes on to name each of his brothers, distinguishing them by their weapons as they're backed against the wall of an alley by the Purple Dragons.
PURPLE DRAGON: You're dead, Freaks!! Nobody trespasses on the Purple Dragon turf and gets away with it... Especially when they're wearing stupid turtle costumes!
Costumes? Oh you poor, simple fool.
The next panel is a two page spread where the turtles leap in to action with the comic's title underneath them in huge text. I love this opening. It feels like the beginning of a movie and it makes me feel like the 2k3 theme song is about to play in the background. It's so awesome, that I feel showing it in this review would betray the experience of reading the book for yourself.
The next few pages show the turtles taking down Purple Dragon thugs left and right. The gang members try fighting back with guns and hand-to-hand, but these are the Ninja Turtles. We know they're going to win. There's also more narration from Leonardo as the fight goes on, but they stop long enough so it doesn't feel like the text is overcrowded. But there's three particular panels that stand out to me.
 |
| Turtles murder with honor! |
After slaughtering the Purple Dragons, our violent heroes notice incoming police sirens and disappear into the sewers. Leo narrates some more about how they hate running from people who would be their allies. Last I checked, taking the law into your own hands and killing thugs was illegal. But he also mentions how the police wouldn't "understand" them.
They return to the lair, where Master Splinter is meditating. After they report on their successful fight, Splinter congratulates them and tells them that "it is time."
Apparently all their training in ninjutsu was actually to prepare them for a big mission. But either way, he recounts the story that most Turtles fans should be familiar with.
Twenty years ago, Splinter was a normal rat and the pet of a ninjutsu master, Hamato Yoshi. He learned the art himself by mimicking Yoshi's movements whenever he trained. That must've been fun to watch for anyone in the dojo.
Yoshi was a member of the the Foot Clan, along with his rival, Oroku Nagi (no, that's not a typo). Oroku Nagi is a character that I have never seen outside of this comic, because most later interpretations give his role to another character coming up.
Yoshi and Nagi competed at everything, including the love of a beautiful woman named Tang Shen. They both wanted her, but it was clear from the start that her heart belonged to Yoshi. Nagi took her rejection of him pretty well.
 |
| Something tells me picking a boyfriend wasn't a very difficult choice for Shen. |
SPLINTER NARRATION: Yoshi's world vanished in a red haze.. and when it cleared, Nagi was no more.
Yoshi was shamed for killing another member of the clan. His only options were to either kill himself to hopefully restore his honor in the next life, or flee the country with Shen and start over. Splinter says it was a difficult choice, but it seems obvious to me. Get the heck out of there! Yoshi and Shen moved to New York, where Yoshi started his own martial arts school.
Okay, now I'm wondering if we'll see something like this in the Nickelodeon show. Maybe have the turtles find the school Splinter/Yoshi ran before his mutation.
But things weren't over for the two. Nagi's younger brother, Oroku Saki (there he is!), swore vengeance on Yoshi. So he worked his way up through the Foot clan until he became leader of the New York branch.
This is a bit different from what we usually see today, where Saki is there from the start and was actually the one who was jealous of Yoshi winning Shen's heart. But the story still works here.
Saki became The Shredder and made the Foot clan more corrupt than ever before finding Yoshi and Shen's home, where he took his vengeance on the poor couple. Splinter escaped and lived on the streets after that.
We then finally get to the turtles' part of the story with the classic origin. A blind man was crossing the street when a truck was coming in. Someone managed to save the man and the truck stopped in time, but a canister of ooze fell out and hit the young rescuer's eyes before bouncing off to a kid with a jar of baby turtles. It smashed the jar and the four reptiles fell into the sewers with the canister.
Wait a minute. A blind man? A truck carrying mysterious chemicals? The canister hitting the old man's rescuer in the eyes? A clan of ninjas named after the end of a limb? If this is sounding familiar, it should. This origin is paying homage to Daredevil.
Splinter followed the turtles into the sewer where he found them covered in the ooze and you probably know what's next. Splinter helps them out. They all get bigger and smarter. He adopts them and trains them in ninjutsu and we have the Teenage Mutant— you get the idea.
After explaining their origin to the audien— I mean the turtles, Splinter gives them their mission. To avenge Hamato Yoshi by killing Shredder.
Okay... just a few questions.
- Why doesn't Splinter do this himself? From what we've seen in other versions, he's a seriously kickbutt fighter. And these are his sons.
- They're seriously supposed to go after someone as dangerous as the Shredder. These are his sons for crying out loud!
Splinter, you can forget about that "Father of the Year" award. I'm glad that later versions of the story change this so Splinter doesn't want his sons seeking vengeance for him.
So the turtles go on their assassin mission while Leo narrates some more (man, this really is reflecting the comics of the time). After ninja-ing their way through Shredder's security, Raph sends a message.
Apparently, this was happening while Shredder was in an important meeting and this kind of ruined it. So Saki has the natural reaction.
The next scene is the big battle. The TMNT vs the Shredder for the first time ever. The turtles stand ready on a rooftop and call out for their foe to face them. Shredder makes his entrance, wearing a pretty awesome suit as shown below.
Shredder summons his Foot soldiers and the fight is on! This is awesome. It starts with the turtles taking on the Foot soldiers and while they do take them down, Shredder points out that the turtles did get hurt in the process. That dirty coward let his minions wear them down before he even lifted a finger.
The turtles move in to face Shredder, but he makes it clear that he's the superior fighter. At first, he wipes the floor with them, but the turtles are relentless. They finally get the upper hand and it looks like they're about to kill him. But Leo offers his katana, giving Shredder one chance to redeem his honor by committing "seppuku." A quick search online let me know that seppuku is a Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment, done by samurai. Understandably, this ritual is illegal in Japan now.
Shredder refuses to commit the act and pulls out a grenade, ready to take the turtles with him as he dies. But Donnie rushes in and knocks Shredder off the edge of the building. We see the flash of an explosion and the turtles find Shredder's gauntlet is all that's left of him. The comic then ends with more narration from Leo.
LEO NARRATION: We are the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We strike hard and fade away... into the night.
SPOILERS END HERE
This was a pretty decent comic. But it has its flaws. I'm not going to criticize it for being so violent and dark, since it was meant to pay homage to the darker, grittier comics of the time.
The origin for the turtles is really well written, though I will admit I'm a bigger fan of the idea that Splinter was Hamato Yoshi instead of his pet rat, as seen in the 80s cartoon and the Nickelodeon show. It just feels more satisfying knowing that Yoshi managed to get some kind of happy ending. But I won't fault you for liking the original better.
My first complaint was originally how Shredder is killed in their first fight with him in the first issue. But I can understand why this is. When they created this comic, Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman didn't think it would sell enough for them to get a second issue. This was originally meant to be a joke. Gotta say, they put a lot of effort into it for something they didn't expect to be taken seriously.
So it makes sense to kill Shredder in this issue. They wanted to make sure the story had a beginning and an end. But to their shock, the comic sold really, really well. You can probably guess what happened after that. The series was continued, eventually got a cartoon for kids, and we had ourselves a worldwide hit.
I love ninja turtles and this is a must-read for anyone who's a turtles fan. If you're not a fan of dark and gritty stories, I still recommend fans check the book out just to see how it all started. I also recommend the Ultimate Visual History that my copy came with to anyone who likes knowing how the things we love came to be.
All I can say now is, TURTLE POWER!!!
So the turtles go on their assassin mission while Leo narrates some more (man, this really is reflecting the comics of the time). After ninja-ing their way through Shredder's security, Raph sends a message.
 |
| Special delivery, Shredhead! |
The next scene is the big battle. The TMNT vs the Shredder for the first time ever. The turtles stand ready on a rooftop and call out for their foe to face them. Shredder makes his entrance, wearing a pretty awesome suit as shown below.
The turtles move in to face Shredder, but he makes it clear that he's the superior fighter. At first, he wipes the floor with them, but the turtles are relentless. They finally get the upper hand and it looks like they're about to kill him. But Leo offers his katana, giving Shredder one chance to redeem his honor by committing "seppuku." A quick search online let me know that seppuku is a Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment, done by samurai. Understandably, this ritual is illegal in Japan now.
Shredder refuses to commit the act and pulls out a grenade, ready to take the turtles with him as he dies. But Donnie rushes in and knocks Shredder off the edge of the building. We see the flash of an explosion and the turtles find Shredder's gauntlet is all that's left of him. The comic then ends with more narration from Leo.
LEO NARRATION: We are the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We strike hard and fade away... into the night.
SPOILERS END HERE
This was a pretty decent comic. But it has its flaws. I'm not going to criticize it for being so violent and dark, since it was meant to pay homage to the darker, grittier comics of the time.
The origin for the turtles is really well written, though I will admit I'm a bigger fan of the idea that Splinter was Hamato Yoshi instead of his pet rat, as seen in the 80s cartoon and the Nickelodeon show. It just feels more satisfying knowing that Yoshi managed to get some kind of happy ending. But I won't fault you for liking the original better.
My first complaint was originally how Shredder is killed in their first fight with him in the first issue. But I can understand why this is. When they created this comic, Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman didn't think it would sell enough for them to get a second issue. This was originally meant to be a joke. Gotta say, they put a lot of effort into it for something they didn't expect to be taken seriously.
So it makes sense to kill Shredder in this issue. They wanted to make sure the story had a beginning and an end. But to their shock, the comic sold really, really well. You can probably guess what happened after that. The series was continued, eventually got a cartoon for kids, and we had ourselves a worldwide hit.
I love ninja turtles and this is a must-read for anyone who's a turtles fan. If you're not a fan of dark and gritty stories, I still recommend fans check the book out just to see how it all started. I also recommend the Ultimate Visual History that my copy came with to anyone who likes knowing how the things we love came to be.
All I can say now is, TURTLE POWER!!!
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