How Would You Rank All The Mirage/Image Volumes?

profobligadoo · 08-26-2021, 04:01 PM

People jske

*neatoman* · 08-26-2021, 05:23 PM

Alright:

Vol 1
Tales Vol 1
Tales Vol 2
Vol 2
Image

And Vol 4 is N/A, simply because there is no good way for me to collect it.

I should point out here that I don't think any of the TMNT books that were ongoings don't have serious problems, aside from maybe Tom Waltz run on IDW. Not that they are bad books, just that I can very easily see what doesn't quite work about them.

I mostly just rank these based on how many stories that I consider good (or good enough) are found in them. Vol 2 and Image are put on the bottom because both essentially only have one or two stories each and I don't consider any of them to be a particularly good one.

*Andrew NDB* · 08-26-2021, 05:43 PM

1. Vol. 1.
2. Tales V2
3. Vol. 3.
4. Vol. 4.
5. Tales V1
6. Vol. 2.

And I mostly gauge in terms of content. Obviously 7 issues of Tales V1, even if they're all great, doesn't really move the scale next to, say, Vol. 3's 26 issues.

Zog The Magnificent · 08-27-2021, 04:07 AM

Here's my ranking.

1. Vol. 1 (And I'm including Tales Vol.1 with this)
2. Vol. 3
3. Vol. 4
4. Tales Vol. 2
5. Vol. 2

Volume 1 really was the peak of Mirage storytelling. The story continually built upon itself, the stakes rose, the characters all grew and changed, and the main narrative was conclusively wrapped up by the end. Tales volume 1 is so short and so intertwined with Volume 1 that I personally don't see the point in counting it as separate. Mirage vol. 1 took the characters as far as they could go, and no one really figured out what to do with them in this universe after the fact. There are plenty of good stories after the fact, but they never came together with that sense of build up or narrative like they did with Volume 1.

That being said, Image Vol. 3 is a close second for me. The Image run, especially with the conclusions that now exist, is the only other story that has all of the elements that made Volume 1 so good, albeit drenched in a bit of 90s cheese. Despite being a product of its time, I really enjoyed it, as well as it's willingness to break the status quo and actually develop the characters in ways that were organic to their characterizations in the previous volumes. Plus, I just think it had a lot of cool ideas and some great and consistent artwork to go along with it.

Volume 2 is easily the worst of the bunch. Not only is it way too short, but it has a meandering story that ultimately goes nowhere. It starts off with all these great ideas, and then immediately sidelines all of them for badly drawn action, bad plotting and characters, and especially bad pacing. The whole thing starts off slow before kicking into high gear and ramming into a wall at 200 mph by the end. Also, it has what is perhaps one of the worst uses of the "As you know" trope. You know the scene I'm talking about.

After that, the middle of the list is somewhat arbitrary. Ultimately, Volume 4 is higher for me because it's a serialized narrative and I just prefer that sort of storytelling. There are a lot of individual good issues in Tales vol. 2, but as a whole it's still just an anthology with a lot really great issues mixed in with a bunch of mediocre issues, and a lot of subplots that never got the followup they needed. There are a lot of excellent stories in that run that I would rank over Volume 4 perhaps, but as a whole I have to place it lower. Volume 4 had the same problem, but at least it was interesting before it started losing track of the plot and then petering out. Even though Volume 4 doesn't have an ending, it's still better than the trainwreck that Volume 2 ended up turing into.

08-26-2021, 04:01 PM	#1
profobligadoo Mouser Join Date: Mar 2021 Posts: 8	How Would You Rank All The Mirage/Image Volumes? People jske Last edited by profobligadoo; 07-24-2022 at 06:57 PM.

08-26-2021, 05:43 PM	#3
Andrew NDB Weed Whacker Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Auburn, WA Posts: 29,276	1. Vol. 1. 2. Tales V2 3. Vol. 3. 4. Vol. 4. 5. Tales V1 6. Vol. 2. And I mostly gauge in terms of content. Obviously 7 issues of Tales V1, even if they're all great, doesn't really move the scale next to, say, Vol. 3's 26 issues. __________________ [ ODYSSEY \| ORIGIN \| THE IMAGE/VOL. 3 CONCLUSION \| THE SHELLSHOCKED PODCAST \| ON FACEBOOK ]

08-27-2021, 04:07 AM	#4
Zog The Magnificent Stone Warrior Join Date: Nov 2015 Posts: 570	Here's my ranking. 1. Vol. 1 (And I'm including Tales Vol.1 with this) 2. Vol. 3 3. Vol. 4 4. Tales Vol. 2 5. Vol. 2 Volume 1 really was the peak of Mirage storytelling. The story continually built upon itself, the stakes rose, the characters all grew and changed, and the main narrative was conclusively wrapped up by the end. Tales volume 1 is so short and so intertwined with Volume 1 that I personally don't see the point in counting it as separate. Mirage vol. 1 took the characters as far as they could go, and no one really figured out what to do with them in this universe after the fact. There are plenty of good stories after the fact, but they never came together with that sense of build up or narrative like they did with Volume 1. That being said, Image Vol. 3 is a close second for me. The Image run, especially with the conclusions that now exist, is the only other story that has all of the elements that made Volume 1 so good, albeit drenched in a bit of 90s cheese. Despite being a product of its time, I really enjoyed it, as well as it's willingness to break the status quo and actually develop the characters in ways that were organic to their characterizations in the previous volumes. Plus, I just think it had a lot of cool ideas and some great and consistent artwork to go along with it. Volume 2 is easily the worst of the bunch. Not only is it way too short, but it has a meandering story that ultimately goes nowhere. It starts off with all these great ideas, and then immediately sidelines all of them for badly drawn action, bad plotting and characters, and especially bad pacing. The whole thing starts off slow before kicking into high gear and ramming into a wall at 200 mph by the end. Also, it has what is perhaps one of the worst uses of the "As you know" trope. You know the scene I'm talking about. After that, the middle of the list is somewhat arbitrary. Ultimately, Volume 4 is higher for me because it's a serialized narrative and I just prefer that sort of storytelling. There are a lot of individual good issues in Tales vol. 2, but as a whole it's still just an anthology with a lot really great issues mixed in with a bunch of mediocre issues, and a lot of subplots that never got the followup they needed. There are a lot of excellent stories in that run that I would rank over Volume 4 perhaps, but as a whole I have to place it lower. Volume 4 had the same problem, but at least it was interesting before it started losing track of the plot and then petering out. Even though Volume 4 doesn't have an ending, it's still better than the trainwreck that Volume 2 ended up turing into.