The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have been a pop-culture phenomenon since their comics debut in 1984! This collection spans the decades with stories from their earliest days and their latest adventures with spotlights on Raphael, Donatello, Leonardo, and Michelangelo! Take a dip into the past, as co-creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird lay the foundation for decades of storytelling with the original four Micro-Series issues focusing on each Turtle. Published in 1985 and 1986, each story takes an in-depth look into the characters of Raph, Donny, Leo, and Mikey, adding to the legend that would become a worldwide sensation. The most recent incarnation of the Turtles’ adventures, headed by co-creator Kevin Eastman and writer Tom Waltz, paid homage to the original four Micro-Series issues early in its run, later adding four more Macro-Series issues by a host of creative talent including Brian Lynch, Franco Urru, Ben Bishop, Valerio Schiti, Paul Allor, Brahm Revel, Sophie Campbell, Andy Kuhn, Ian Flynn, and Michael Dialynas. Collects the four Micro-Series issues published by Mirage Comics and the four Raphael, Donatello, Leonardo, and Michelangelo Micro-Series and Macro-Series issues published by IDW.
This was a lot of fun! This volume was divided into one section for each of the titular turtles with selected tales from different eras to showcase their personalities and supporting cast.
Didn't bother looking for actual images from the volume but here is a stupid meme instead.
As a fan of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, this book is an emotional rollercoaster of what it’s like to experience loss and to be triumphant in life. A must read for old and new fans alike.
The beginning was tough. It began with Ralph, so a lot of action/combat, which I’m not interested in reading in a graphic novel. Fights are just better to see on-screen. And I love the humor that TMNT are known for, but there were some boring lines. So then I jumped to the end of the book with Leo & Donatello, which got better because there was more dialogue/stories. 💜💙 But I barely skimmed back through Ralph/Mikey’s section.
Hoopla bonus borrow. I’m only familiar with the turtles from the cartoons in the 90s so this is my first time seeing them in comic book form. If this is actually the best of them then I’m glad I haven’t seen them before because these were all over the place and didn’t really make me want to read more. You can see a bit of the evolution that happened, the art improved, the characters seem to have a bit more complicated backstory than just being flushed into the sewers and exposed to toxic ooze as the opening credits of the cartoons explained things. The book is divided into four sections, one for each brother, and they seem to follow a similar pattern of one really old bad comic that’s probably from the start of the comics, then two comics that focus on the character in ways that show who they are like Raph being the angry one, Mikey the dumb party dude with a good heart, Donnie the tech guy, and Leo the leader. Michelangelo has always been my favorite and his part is the one I read most of while the others I mostly just skimmed. This didn’t make me want to start at the beginning and read all the comics or anything, but it did remind me I should check out The Last Ronin because I’ve heard that’s a very good miniseries.
I am a huge ninja turtles fan: watched the shows, seen the movies, and recently started reading some of the comics! As of right now, I've only been reading what I could get my hands on for free, including this collection, which I was able to read digitally through my city library's website. Overall, it was really good! There were definitely some things I didn't fully get, especially with the newer issues, just because, you know, they're out of context, but that doesn't mean I still didn't enjoy them. They give a great perspective into each of the characters personalities, my personal favorite being the Raphael section. I loved any opportunity to see his friendship with Casey- the two are an absolute power duo and one of my favorite dynamics in the franchise.
It’s a cool sampling of TMNT runs, but it feels so incomplete that its existence is questionable. Is it just promo for the rest of each respective run? Might as well just skip this and jump into those. The only thing it accomplishes is showing how the four are different.
I am still in my early journey of reading the TMNT. Each turtle gets three stories of different universes from the decades of stories. Some are much better than others and most leave me confused and wanting to read more. Mission success for making me read more TMNT.
Loved how each story in each collection, in this case the four turtles - have been carefully selected to really portray each character. I can’t wait to read the other collections to learn more about the newer/more obscure characters in the TMNT world. Mikey is the best by the way 😜