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Originally Posted by Andrew NDB
While I didn't enjoy it -- like, at all -- 4Kids is probably a better "face" for TMNT kids cartoons out there. I didn't love the 2007 movie, but it is leagues better than either of the PD films.
Comics-wise? There's no comparison. We had Volume 4 going strong, new tales with adult Turtles told straight from the horse's mouth. And hell, the lettercol was sometimes just as entertaining as the comics. Tales V2? What's not to love? Existing Mirage vets and up and comers playing in the Mirage TMNT sandbox? 70 issues worth? Amazing. I wish I didn't take those days for granted.
IDW is well-written, but it's basically "Nostalgia: The Ongoing Series"... the biggest points of suspense being when and how they will introduce X character from X pre-existing show/movie/thing, and seemingly cramming it with as many mutants as humanly possible (basically the antithesis of Laird's vision for TMNT). Plus Nickelodeon doesn't even let them actually get their hands dirty. It's just... not TMNT to me, or at least not any TMNT I'm interested in reading about. It's like, a TMNT franchise homage. Pretty, appealing to fans that are super into everything TMNT ever or even just Fred Wolf casuals who are content just seeing Beebop and Rocksteady and pizza again, but fundamentally flawed in my book.
IDW is savvy, though. Mirage could have benefitted greatly from the level of their editorial and marketing teams.
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We got to see a lot of "Laird's vision" in the 2000's...and I liked it. I don't know how everyone else feels, but I have long felt like the 2k3 series is almost like what the "Ultimate universe" was for Marvel around the same time period. It was a fresh start with many familiar characters and storylines present, but with a twist on the original. I sometimes think the 2k3 series is how Laird would have told the Mirage stories if Kevin weren't involved. Add in the Volume 4 comic and you got to see how Laird viewed the turtles 15 or so years down the line. It wasn't always the most exciting stuff, but it was certainly interesting.
With so many people working on the IDW comic, I'm not sure that comic can be considered "Kevin's vision", but he does endorse it and it has found nice success. I personally find myself more intrigued by the new characters in the comic...doesn't really blow my mind when they introduce a "classic" character. Some were done well while some were a little forced. Though I will say that while I have no real love for Bebop & Rocksteady from the 80's, I thoroughly enjoyed their introduction in the IDW series. And as far as getting their hands dirty, I think Leo not killing anyone during his stint as Dark Leo and giving him something to weigh on his conscience for a while was the biggest misstep of the first 30 issues. The turtles don't need to be non-stop murder machines, but they are trained in a deadly martial art and use deadly weapons, so I'd expect some casualties from time to time.