Archie Comics - What's the deal with Raphael?

[Risawn]

Ok, right now I'm reading through my archie comics and I noticed something that seemed a little weird.

For those of you who read them, Raphael is wearing a black suit through like ten comics or something. My question is, why? Did the artists all look at each other and say 'he looks really cool in black' or were they leading up to something? There seemd to be absolutely no point in making him wear a black costume.

Maybe there was an inside joke that I was missing or something, but I was left puzzled over this one. Thought I would get other's takes on it.

I have also noted that these comics are definitely written for kids. Still, amusing.

[Raph's Girl]

For those of you who read them, Raphael is wearing a black suit through like ten comics or something. My question is, why? Did the artists all look at each other and say 'he looks really cool in black' or were they leading up to something? There seemd to be absolutely no point in making him wear a black costume.


In the Archie series the TMNT were wrestlers at an intergalactic wrestling arena called Stump Asteroid. That's Raphael's wrestling uniform. He liked it so he wore it for a while.

[Roseangelo]

I have also noted that these comics are definitely written for kids. Still, amusing.

Wait 'til you get to issue #42. :tthumbsu: :tthumbsu: :tthumbsu: :tthumbsu: :tthumbsu:

[VaughnMichael]

The costums the turtles wear in the stump asteroid where also some od Peter Lairds old original designs for a more super hero looking tmnt.

[Spitfire]

Wait 'til you get to issue #42. :tthumbsu: :tthumbsu: :tthumbsu: :tthumbsu: :tthumbsu:

Seriously in my opinion that's the best TMNT arc ever. Every TMNT fan should own those 3 issues.

[Raph's Girl]

Seriously in my opinion that's the best TMNT arc ever. Every TMNT fan should own those 3 issues.

Anything dealing with the Future Turtles just rock period tho. :evilgrin:

Both story arcs dealing with em were awesome. Future Shark Trillogy and Dreamland both rocked! Altho I would have liked to know how Raph and Mezcaal met and how long they were together before they got married. *shrugs*

[Spitfire]

Don't forget Terricide oooo man that was a good arc too. We really needed Archie collected books.

[Mandi-chan]

Even though I don't really like the old toon that much, I do want to get the Archie comics based off of it.

Hopefully, someday they'll release TPB's for them!

[VaughnMichael]

Even though I don't really like the old toon that much, I do want to get the Archie comics based off of it.

Hopefully, someday they'll release TPB's for them!
Archie went above and beyond the old toon it took what eventully became lame in the show and made gems out of characters in printed form.
I doubt we will ever see collected books.

[Creativemind]

Archie went above and beyond the old toon it took what eventully became lame in the show and made gems out of characters in printed form.
I doubt we will ever see collected books.

Little did you know. :tlol:

[Jester]

Seriously in my opinion that's the best TMNT arc ever. Every TMNT fan should own those 3 issues.
My favorites.... ;)

Also curse you Creativemind!

[CyberCubed]

What is this, a thread from literally 8 years ago? God I was still a young man back then.

[Creativemind]

What is this, a thread from literally 8 years ago? God I was still a young man back then.

Yeah, I stumbled on this thread doing a Google search for black raphael. :tlol:

[Diorm]

I think the suit was based on an old idea from eastman wanting to copy the black spider suit from spiderman.

[TigerClaw]

Anything dealing with the Future Turtles just rock period tho. :evilgrin:

Both story arcs dealing with em were awesome. Future Shark Trillogy and Dreamland both rocked! Altho I would have liked to know how Raph and Mezcaal met and how long they were together before they got married. *shrugs*
I'm curious about that too, Because on the 1st part of that story, They show Raph in Bed with Mezcaal after he was having a nightmare.

[Coola Yagami]

That's why I love that series, and general comic continuity. Raph wore the black outfit and kept it for several issues. Mondo Gecko didn't just say he was gonna live with them for a while, he actually did. Ninjara didn't just pop in and leave, she stayed with Raph for almost the entire second half of the comic series. Oyuki became April's camerawoman and actually stuck around. It was continuity dammit, and that's the way we liked it back in the day.

[TigerClaw]

That's why I love that series, and general comic continuity. Raph wore the black outfit and kept it for several issues. Mondo Gecko didn't just say he was gonna live with them for a while, he actually did. Ninjara didn't just pop in and leave, she stayed with Raph for almost the entire second half of the comic series. Oyuki became April's camerawoman and actually stuck around. It was continuity dammit, and that's the way we liked it back in the day.
Yeah, Even though Casey Jones wasn't part of this series, April eventually hooked up with the Asian dude, that turns into a giant anthropomorphized dragon, She had a Great Granddaughter in the future.

http://miragelicensing.com/comics/archie/61/2.jpg

[Coola Yagami]

Yeah, Even though Casey Jones wasn't part of this series, She eventually hooked up with the Asian dude, that turns into a giant anthropomorphized dragon, She had a Great Granddaughter in the future.

Which again, wasn't just some random one-issue filler crush. He also stuck around.

[Jester]

Heck they even tried to bring back in the few Fred Wolf adaptations in to the continuity, sometimes they missed details, but for the most part it was spot on.

[MikeandRaph87]

Seriously in my opinion that's the best TMNT arc ever. Every TMNT fan should own those 3 issues.

AGREED 110%! That is why I wish we would not have been teased with the Forever War not once but twice now. What a follow up to The Future Shark Trilogy and then some it would be.

[Coola Yagami]

Heck they even tried to bring back in the few Fred Wolf adaptations in to the continuity, sometimes they missed details, but for the most part it was spot on.

Yeah, going back to the Eye of Sarnath episode that was already adapted in the comics, that was completely unexpected.

[TigerClaw]

Heck they even tried to bring back in the few Fred Wolf adaptations in to the continuity, sometimes they missed details, but for the most part it was spot on.
I actually like the Archie version of Mondo Gecko more then the Fred Wolf version, the Fred Wolf version retconned the TMNT origin in order to have him show up.

[CyberCubed]

It always dig bug me that Casey Jones and Baxter were completely absent in the main Archie run. It was like...odd.

Why couldn't Murphy write his own version of Baxter being mutated into a fly, and why did Casey never show up?

[Coola Yagami]

It always dig bug me that Casey Jones and Baxter were completely absent in the main Archie run. It was like...odd.

Why couldn't Murphy write his own version of Baxter being mutated into a fly, and why did Casey never show up?

Never really bugged me. Since I only knew about the 80's cartoon at the time, I just saw Baxter and Casey as two of the many other tmnt characters that could have been used in the comic. It made no difference to me wether or not Casey was in it any more than if Man Ray was in it. I wasn't aware of Casey being the 5th Turtle so to speak until I read up more on the Mirage series.

[Jester]

Never really bugged me. Since I only knew about the 80's cartoon at the time, I just saw Baxter and Casey as two of the many other tmnt characters that could have been used in the comic. It made no difference to me wether or not Casey was in it any more than if Man Ray was in it. I wasn't aware of Casey being the 5th Turtle so to speak until I read up more on the Mirage series.
^ This. In retrospect it'd have been cool to see Casey but as a Kid watching the movies and TV show, his absence in the Archie books wasn't that jarring.

[CyberCubed]

Never really bugged me. Since I only knew about the 80's cartoon at the time, I just saw Baxter and Casey as two of the many other tmnt characters that could have been used in the comic. It made no difference to me wether or not Casey was in it any more than if Man Ray was in it. I wasn't aware of Casey being the 5th Turtle so to speak until I read up more on the Mirage series.

Well it certainly bothered me. We had Shredder/Krang/Bebop/Rocksteady, Rat King, Leatherhead, Foot robots, Slash, etc....but no Baxter or Casey?

It also would have been interesting to see if Murphy would mutate Baxter a different way than in the cartoon, since in the show he was still working for Shredder in Season 2 but in Archie Shredder was gone by that point. I would have liked to see human white Baxter show up out of the blue and get himself mutated into a fly somehow.

[MikeandRaph87]

Both character showed up in the cereal mail away comic strip. Baxter The Fly was allied with Shredder and tried to mutate the captured Casey Jones into a humanoid octopus. Man Ray guest starred as well. It featured great art. A more serious tone for more cartoon inspired versions of the characters which nicely looped together the '87 cartoon, Archie Comics, and Mirage Comics into one nice mini-strip. Iwould have liked to have seen where it would have gone as an actual comic.

[TigerClaw]

I think Raph in the archie comic was a lot more fleshed out as a character, then the other Turtles, He was the only to have two girlfriends in his life, The latter becoming his wife.

[Jester]

Raph and Don were definitely the "stars" of the Archie run. Poor Mikey and especially Leo were very underdeveloped.

[MikeandRaph87]

Raph and Don were definitely the "stars" of the Archie run. Poor Mikey and especially Leo were very underdeveloped.

Leo, yes I agree but Mike had character development especially towards the end of the run.

They did have a habit of being captured in the 1987 cartoon and were both future versions were captured. I never understood why after Future Mike and Leo did not appear further like Raph and Don did in two other storylines in the present.

[TigerClaw]

One of Raph's greatest moments in the archie comics.

when Future Raph punched Hitler.

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk127/StretchDude_2008/Scans/raphvshitler.jpg

[darthsmozers]

Seriously in my opinion that's the best TMNT arc ever. Every TMNT fan should own those 3 issues.

PLEASE write/ email/ post to idw and give support for the collected trades. Yeah, they can be expensive and it stinks they skipped an arc due to world events today, BUT the next volume would be the future shark trilogy! However, the last vol came out last month and as of the May solicits another volume hasn't been listed yet. They've been released like clockwork, so I hope it doesn't mean they are stopping. Take a moment to give support. After all, some greats arcs coming up which would be killer in trade form.

[Rooish]

Leo, yes I agree but Mike had character development especially towards the end of the run.

They did have a habit of being captured in the 1987 cartoon and were both future versions were captured. I never understood why after Future Mike and Leo did not appear further like Raph and Don did in two other storylines in the present.

This always annoyed me. Blatant favouritism is annoying. Also in "Dreamland" Murphy basically just had Mikey sit out for an issue for no reason. It was odd.

[Venom]

I hang on a sliver of hope that Bobby cam wrangle something together and somehow try to restart TMNTA with Murph/Chris in the vein they did with the old GI Joe comic with Larry Hama.

Even if it's just a Future War limited series!

[TigerClaw]

I hang on a sliver of hope that Bobby cam wrangle something together and somehow try to restart TMNTA with Murph/Chris in the vein they did with the old GI Joe comic with Larry Hama.

Even if it's just a Future War limited series!
What they should do, is finish that Forever War comic story, that was originally supposed to come out during the Archie series.

[oldmanwinters]

This always annoyed me. Blatant favouritism is annoying. Also in "Dreamland" Murphy basically just had Mikey sit out for an issue for no reason. It was odd.

At least that arc did give us a whole issue with Mikey having a flashback. :tlol:

[Lordmylar06]

What they should do, is finish that Forever War comic story, that was originally supposed to come out during the Archie series.

Unfortunately, I think IDW is gauging interest in the series based on the sales of the TPB collected books. There's a lot more people interested in Forever War, (or new Archie Adventures content) than there are people that are interested in reprinted material. The other trick is to convince Murphy and Allan to come back to finish the job. It's been a long time and it wouldn't be far fetched to believe that they're in very different places and mindsets than what they were back then.

[TigerClaw]

Unfortunately, I think IDW is gauging interest in the series based on the sales of the TPB collected books. There's a lot more people interested in Forever War, (or new Archie Adventures content) than there are people that are interested in reprinted material. The other trick is to convince Murphy and Allan to come back to finish the job. It's been a long time and it wouldn't be far fetched to believe that they're in very different places and mindsets than what they were back then.
I'm all for bringing back the Archies series universe for more stories, As long as Ninjara is also brought back somehow.