Weird Realization about TMNT Comic Universes

[***CJJ***]

I think you meant to say that Vol. 3 ended at #23.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by Oroku_CJJ

What? How is that nobody has replied to this specific post yet?

I have a feeling you've already saved me a LOT of work, Andrew...

Originally Posted by Venom

Probably because most of us know Buffy is working on this and in contact with Murph.

Buffy is neither the first person that's been in contact with him or the only one, and no one is working on anything right now. But there's a very good reason for that... but it will pay off.

[***CJJ***]

More vague teaser replies from Andrew...

[Venom]

Originally Posted by Powder

I've noticed a pattern here. The number 3 is bad news.

vol.2 ends at 13
vol.3 at 23
vol.4 potentially at 30
two thousand & THREE series cut short (reaching for that)
3rd movie, garbage. Presumably causing the franchise downfall for a few years.
Is it 3 episodes total missing from the OT series dvd's?

How many times did the forever war get cancelled?
3 times?

Hmm..

How many future Turtles do we know are alive? 3

How many fingers does the Turtles have on each hand? 3!

How many prongs on a sai? 3!!

"Cowabunga" has 9 letters, which is divisible by 3!!! ZOMG!!!!!1!!

[ToTheNines]

I hate to discourage... but anyone remember Peter saying this in the letter column of #24?

"I suppose I could run out of money and not able to continue doing the book. Or I could get tired of doing it and stop. (I must say, the idea of a short --i.e. 6 months or so -- hiatus or vacation from the book has some appeal to me these days.) But neither currently seems to be very likely. I wish I could tell you definitely what's going to happen, but that's just not the way I'm doing this Vol. 4, I can pretty much gaurantee you that there wil be no "rush job to conclude the story" -- it's acutally more likely that it will NEVER be concluded and people will have to use theri imaginations....."

There was some more stuff after that, mostly talk about going annual or bi-annual.

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

Oh, I know. No worries, man... I just get a little touchy when it's implied that Vol. 3 (Image) was kind of perpetually always not in Mirage canon... it's simply not true. It was part of the Mirage universe until the middle of Volume 4 when Laird said it wasn't any longer.

Which in itself is even odd because Peter himself was approving every Vol. 3 story and issue and even contributed a great many ideas himself to the mix.

To quote Pete some more:
"As I've said before, I greatly appreciate the fact that Eric Larsen stepped up and published the TMNT book at Image, and Gary Carlson did a lot of interesting work on that series. But I've also said, it's not the direction in which I would have gone had I been writing the book. Now that I am back and writing this new series, it makes the most sense as far as I am concerned to ignore what happened in those Image issues and move forward using what I think of as "Mirage continuity".

[CyberCubed]

That stuff doesn't really matter anymore now that PL doesn't own the Turtles. From the looks of things, PL's "official timeline" will never be published anyway, so it doesn't make a difference.

I also believe the main plots of Volume 4 will be wrapped up, I think PL was talking about minor plot stuff like Don clipping off a piece of Splinter's fur, something like that will probably be left to our imaginations even after Vol. 4 ends.

If Image officially publishes the new issues, it'll be interesting to see what he thinks of them.

[sdp]

Originally Posted by Roseangelo

No TMNT universe has ever received a proper ending. Comics or TV or, hell, even movies. I have been making note of this and it has been collectively bothering me for at least 15 years.

If you want to get that picky then most franchises don't get "proper" endings.

[CyberCubed]

At least TMNT comic continuity isn't as messed up as some DC or Marvel comic continuity.

Thank god we don't have 50 years worth of TMNT comics to retcon, we only have 25 years and less than 200 canon comics. The Mirage universe is so simple compared to most comic series

[Spitfire]

I feel Mirage had an ending. Just read any of the stories that take place way in the future. The little inserts in the new Tales volume 1 reprint detail to me that all the turtles are dead but Donatello and he pretty much lives a lonely and hallow life. Depressing ending maybe but it's an ending still. I guess if you have to know how or why they died then that doesn't fulfill you but it works for me. As for the in between that's yet to be finished but if you wanted to skip to the end of the book and read the last page with Mirage you could.

Archie got a proper ending. Granted Forever War never happened the fact remains even without it the time line is complete. Another depressing last note but it's like anything. We can assume there's more adventures but the main villains are all taken care of.

2K3's ending wrapped up everything nicely. I saw some posts saying that didn't get a proper ending. The OT did as well. The turtles defeated their enemy for what appeared to be the last time. Sure more could happen to them but for all we know it's done with.

Stuff could go on forever sure but if you want an ending sometimes you have to look for one or accept what we got.

[ToTheNines]

Originally Posted by Spitfire

I feel Mirage had an ending. Just read any of the stories that take place way in the future. The little inserts in the new Tales volume 1 reprint detail to me that all the turtles are dead but Donatello and he pretty much lives a lonely and hallow life. Depressing ending maybe but it's an ending still. I guess if you have to know how or why they died then that doesn't fulfill you but it works for me. As for the in between that's yet to be finished but if you wanted to skip to the end of the book and read the last page with Mirage you could.

Does that ever pop up on ebay? I have the original collection, but I really want to check out the new frontpieces and read the conclusion.

[Spitfire]

Originally Posted by ToTheNines

Does that ever pop up on ebay? I have the original collection, but I really want to check out the new frontpieces and read the conclusion.

I see it sometimes on Ebay. I got mine at a local comic shop that had extras. That was awhile ago though. I scout Ebay for turtles books quite often so if I happen to see one I'll let ya know.

[Andrew NDB]

I get the impression that Plastron Cafe #1 has been somewhat retconned by Laird himself. Or at least pushed much further in time than the "Early 21st Century" as it was said to be in it.

[ToTheNines]

Originally Posted by Spitfire

I see it sometimes on Ebay. I got mine at a local comic shop that had extras. That was awhile ago though. I scout Ebay for turtles books quite often so if I happen to see one I'll let ya know.

Ok, thanks man.

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

I get the impression that Plastron Cafe #1 has been somewhat retconned by Laird himself. Or at least pushed much further in time than the "Early 21st Century" as it was said to be in it.

Why's that?

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by ToTheNines

Why's that?

Because Don's apparently crying that he's the last Turtle, and yet we know from Tales V2 stuff that most/all the TMNT are alive and well in the "Early 21st Century" that Plastron Cafe #1 is set in. And since Volume 4 pretty much sits smack in the middle of the "Early 21st Century" and we haven't seen Don become a hermit with a computer in Japan yet.

Don seems similarly melancholy in the new epilogue seen in the Tales TPB reprint, and it's basically telling us the same story but just much further in the future.

[ToTheNines]

Hmmm, I think the date is just a screw up in Plastron Cafe. I mean, he shows definite signs of old age with his wrinkles in that piece.

He was also in "Triptyche", I'll check that one in a bit and compare dates.