Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Mirage Studios)



The original incarnation of Eastman and Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the one that got the ball rolling. The first issue appeared in May, 1984.

After the unexpected success of their first issue, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird continued expanding their universe in a somewhat haphazard manner, both in the regular series and complementary books such as Tales of the TMNT and various one-shots and specials. Over time, an overall arc emerged, dealing with the turtles' enmity with the Foot, which is at the heart of the book's four major stories: the initial issue, which featured the Shredder's death; a two-parter which featured his return and the turtles' exile from New York; "Return to New York", in which the Shredder is killed off for real, and "City at War", which dealt with the aftermath. In between those stories, the book would focus on mostly stand-alone stories created either by Mirage employees themselves or guest creators. These stories would fluctuate wildly in tone and content. Several, particularly those by guest creators, now have dubious canonicity. This first series concluded with the aforementioned "City at War", which ended the Foot/Turtle conflict, introduced regular characters Karai and Shadow, and is considered by many to be the definitive TMNT story.

Soon after, a second incarnation of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was born, written and drawn by long-time Mirage employee Jim Lawson, and, unlike the first volume, in full color. This second series featured the return of Baxter Stockman and Nobody, introduced government organization D.A.R.P.A., and Mr. Braunze, the mysterious man with psychic powers living in April's apartment building. However, the series proved short-lived, folding after only 13 issues.

The book was soon revived under a third volume, published by Image Comics as the official continuation of the Mirage continuity. It is mostly remembered for mutilating three out of the four turtles: Raph lost an eye and got various facial scarring; Leo lost a hand; and Don was so badly hurt he was forced to become a cyborg. Other notable events include Splinter's transformation into a bat-like creature; the introduction of Pimiko, a female ninja who was eventually revealed to be the Shredder's daughter; and the expansion of Shredder mantle to a full-blown legacy, with both Raphael and an unknown female (Karai, according to Word of God after the fact) taking on the identity. The series ended inconclusively with cancellation, and although it was subsequently removed from canon, nods to it appear once in a while.

The year 2001 saw yet another version of the book, this time helmed by turtles co-creator Peter Laird. Fifteen years after the events of volume 2, the turtles have now returned to the sewers, Casey and April are now married, and Splinter lives in Northampton with Shadow, who is now a teenager. The Utroms have announced their existence to humanity and have opened Earth up to interstellar trade, meaning that the turtles can now live in the open. It has proven controversial, thanks in part to plots such as the death of Splinter and the revelation that April was not actually born, but rather a drawing come to life.

Midway through its run, the book was joined by a second incarnation of Tales of the TMNT, this time as an anthology book telling stories set through the turtles' lives, told by a variety of writers and artists.

In 2006, the regular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles book ceased regular publication, thanks to Peter Laird's other duties, creative burn-out and the economic disincentives of publishing a money-losing book. While new issues are still being released online once in a blue moon, Tales become the de facto main book until the series' cancellation and the sale of the TMNT property.

Amazingly, even after this, new issues of TMNT volume 4 have continued to be published, albeit very intermittently and electronically for free on Peter Laird's blog.

See also: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for information on the franchise in general.


 * Aborted Arc: A handful, most notably a story involving a group of villains interested in Splinter, and another featuring a ninja with a vendetta against Hamato Yoshi.
 * Action Girl: Shadow Jones.
 * A Day in the Limelight
 * Alien Among Us: The Utroms
 * All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The Foot's attack on April's apartment.
 * Alternate Company Equivalent
 * Alternate Universe
 * Anachronic Order: Tales of the TMNT Vol. 2.
 * Animal Nemesis: The feud between Oroku Nagi and Hamato Yoshi is taken up by Nagi's brother and Yoshi's pet rat, respectively. The Turtles themselves also become part of this, of course.
 * Anti-Hero: Type III
 * Area 51: Site of a D.A.R.P.A. base.
 * Arms Dealer: Ruffington.
 * Art Initiates Life: Kirby's crystal. April O'Neil is the result of this.
 * Artifact Title: As of vol. 4, the mutant ninja turtles are no longer teenagers. But eventually, even the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles title was dropped altogether, and it became simply TMNT.  Since they are now thirtysomething mutant ninja turtles, the acronym still works.
 * Avenging the Villain: The reason behind the Foot's vendetta against the turtles.
 * Back from the Dead: The Shredder; Sloane, a werewolf friend of Shadow's.
 * Baleful Polymorph: In Rick Veitch's "The River", Raphael is forcibly devolved into a normal turtle.
 * Beneath the Earth
 * Black Sheep: Sid, Casey's cousin.
 * Non Sequitur Episode: Many of the guest issues in volume one ended up like this, with varying results. Especially any issue by Rich Hedden & Tom McWeeney.
 * Blind and the Beast: Occurs with Raphael and an old woman in a one-shot special.
 * Brain In a Jar: Baxter Stockman, eventually.
 * Canon Discontinuity: Volume 3.
 * Canon Immigrant: Hun, the Battle Nexus, Bishop via Word of God cameo (4Kids Cartoon); Cudley the Cowlick (Archie comics) and Charles Pennington (first movie) make up the short list.
 * Chew Toy/Fallen Hero: Michelangelo became this in volume 4. Since his fateful fling with Seri, the Regenta of the Styracodons, and his subsequent abduction by her bodyguards, prolonged extrajudicial imprisonment on their homeworld, torture and starvation, as well as the tragic death of his Triceraton friend Azokk, Michelangelo has developed a fierce hatred for Seri and for all Styracodons, and was instrumental in convincing the Triceratons to declare a war of genocide against them.  Needless to say, he is darker and less fun-loving than he used to be.
 * The Commissioner Gordon: Lt. Gordon Miller, in recent issues of Tales.
 * Creator Breakdown: Peter Laird stopped volume 4 and later sold the franchise to Viacom because he was burned out. Many posts on his blog reveal how, ever since the merchandising and cartoon started circa 1988, things spiraled out of control, and he ended up neglecting his own family.
 * Crossover: Several, notably with Miyamoto Usagi, Cerebus, the Wild West Cowboys of Moo Mesa, The Flaming Carrot, and The Savage Dragon, among others.
 * Cycle of Revenge: And how.
 * Darker and Edgier: The comic is very much this compared with the 80's cartoon and the 2000's cartoon. Though it's really more accurate to say that the cartoon adaptations (which were made later) are Lighter and Softer than Mirage's.
 * Lampshaded in the movie Turtles Forever where the 80's turtles and the 2000's turtles were scared of the Mirage turtles.
 * Da Editor: Charles Pennington.
 * Death by Childbirth: Occurred to Casey's first wife, Gabrielle.
 * Deus Ex Machina: Employed surprisingly often.
 * Discontinuity Nod: The appearance of an Utrom called "Dr. X" in issues of Tales; the name had been used by an Utrom in the discarded volume 3.
 * Divergent Character Evolution: The turtles themselves.
 * Downer Ending: The turtles' life story, if the tales set in the future are any indication.
 * Dumb Blonde: Renet.
 * Dying Alone: In Volume 4 Issue 10, Splinter dies of old age (presumably of heart failure, as he clutches his chest) while preparing a drink for himself. He is later found by Leonardo.
 * Early Installment Weirdness: The overwrought narration from the first issue is gone by the second one, and never really appears again.
 * Elseworld: The Michael Zulli three-parter in the first series.
 * Enemy Civil War: The "war" in "City at War", with different factions of the Foot fighting each other.
 * Enemy Without/Grand Theft Me: Casey's darker self, which takes over a shapeshifting alien in an issue of Tales.
 * Enigmatic Minion: Lin, a member of the Foot Clan who has been seen helping out other parties for unknown reasons in recent issues of Tales.
 * Evil Overlord: Savanti Romero.
 * Fantastic Racism: A prominent theme in the series after aliens arrived on Earth.
 * First Law of Resurrection: Eastman and Laird, not figuring that their comic would last past the first issue, killed off the Shredder by having his own grenade explode on him. Once they realized that they wanted him back, they had to resort to worm-based cloning to do so.
 * Fish People: Several.
 * Flying Brick: Nobody/The Herald.
 * For the Evulz: This is the reason why Baxter Stockman decided to use his Mousers for crime when he'd already made a legal fortune with them.
 * From Nobody to Nightmare: Complete Carnage.
 * Fun with Acronyms: The Committee to Restore American Patriotism, a.k.a., "C.R.A.P.".
 * The Future: Has played a part in several stories.
 * Going for the Big Scoop: Reporter Lauren Stanton, in the issue "Expose".
 * Golem: Featured in the Tales issue titled "Kaddish", with nods to the original Jewish legend.
 * Government Agency of Fiction: D.A.R.P.A., which is a M.I.B-style organization instead of what it actually is in real life.
 * Happily Adopted: Shadow, technically, since neither Casey nor April are her biological parents.
 * Incredible Shrinking Man: Donatello's current status in the books.
 * Interspecies Romance: Michelangelo/Serilicus (Mutant Turtle/Styracodon); Leonardo/Radical (Mutant Turtle/Human)
 * Intrepid Reporter: Lauren Stanton in recent issues of Tales.
 * Killed Off for Real: Oroku Saki and Baxter Stockman.
 * Knight Templars: A group of rogue Utroms called "The Illuminated", whose purpose is to eliminate all violent races from the universe.
 * Laser-Guided Amnesia: Mr. Braunze does this to the turtles at the tail end of volume 2.
 * Laser Guided Tykebomb: The turtles themselves, who were trained by Splinter to eventually kill the Shredder.
 * Love Triangle: Oroku Nagi, Hamato Yoshi and Tang Shen.
 * Meaningful Funeral: Splinter receives one after his death.
 * Medieval Japan
 * Mistaken for Aliens: After the Utrom arrival on Earth.
 * Mood Whiplash: A common occurrence in the current Tales of the TMNT volume, thanks to wildly different writers, artists, and stories.
 * The Mole: Lin, who
 * Morally-Ambiguous Doctorate: Dr. Dome.
 * The Multiverse
 * No Dialogue Episode: The first issue of "City at War".
 * Opening Monologue: Every issue of Tales begins with one, ending with the line "Let me tell you a story..."
 * Out of Focus: The Turtles themselves, especially in Volume 1, often take a back seat to their various guest characters.
 * Physical God
 * Pin-Pulling Teeth: Raphael does this a few times in the story arc "Body Count".
 * Posthumous Characters: The Hamato Yoshi/Tang Shen/Oroku Nagi trio. Professor Obligado.
 * The Professor: Professor Honeycutt, the Utrom Glurin.
 * Race Lift: Although April O'Neil's race was never established during the original comics, or even agreed upon by the creators, Kevin Eastman used to draw her with distinctively non-caucasian features, which went away when he stopped drawing.
 * Right-Wing Militia Fanatic: The antagonists from the volume 1 story "Survivalists".
 * Scars Are Forever: The turtles' mutilations in volume 3. Foot Ninja Cha Ocho sports a scar left by Leonardo.
 * Schedule Slip: All the time; during the first series the creators joked that you could tell it was a Mirage book if it was running late.
 * Second Love: April, to Casey.
 * Story Arc
 * Sdrawkcab Name: When Baxter Stockman uses his Mousers to hold the city at ransom, the genius chooses the Rextab building as his first victim.
 * Presumably also a Shout-Out to the Fantastic Four's headquarters.
 * Stripperiffic: Pimiko's costume.
 * Temporary Blindness: Subverted in the "Blind Sight" arc.
 * Time Skip: Volume 4 takes place roughly fifteen years after the previous canonical volume.
 * Several issues in, the series jumps another six months ahead to show how things have changed since the Utroms unveiled themselves to humanity.
 * Timey-Wimey Ball
 * Tsundere: Princess Serilicus.
 * Two Lines, No Waiting: The basic structure of "City at War", with separate storylines for the Turtles, April, Casey and Splinter.
 * Uncanny Family Resemblance: Between Battling Bernice and her daughter Ananda.
 * The Unmasqued World: After the Utroms open up Earth to alien commerce.
 * Vague Age: Karai, who was old enough to have a teenaged daughter when introduced, and yet looks no older than 45 in the current comics.
 * Volleying Insults: Casey and Raph do this in issue #11 of the original book, in a scene that was later adapted to the movie.
 * Western Terrorists: The Committee to Rebuild American Patriotism, the antagonist group in an early issue of the original series.
 * What Could Have Been: Tatsu was suppose to show up in the comics after "City at War".
 * What the Hell, Hero?: After Raphael almost kills Mikey in an early issue.
 * Winged Humanoid: Raptarr.