How do you feel about TMNT having few incarnations? Do you prefer it?
 

For a franchise around for 30 years, the TMNT series surprisingly has very few mainline incarnations. Sure, if you count alternate universes or minor stuff like the toys and videogames it may seem like a lot more, but overall there's really just:

3 mainline comic series universes: Mirage/Image, Archie and IDW

3 TMNT cartoons: Original cartoon, 2k3 and Nick

2 movie universes: Original movie trilogy (and if you count it the 4th movie or Next mutation which were loose continuations), and the Bay movies


Again there's a lot more if you count all the third tier stuff, or the alternate universes within series (like Soul's Winter, etc), or the toylines as their own thing, but this is really it.

We really only have 3 comic continuities and 3 cartoons. Then just the movies. Do you prefer the TMNT franchise being small and tight-knit unlike the millions of incarnations of Batman and Spiderman?

TMNT has a **** load of different versions... and once they're as old as Batman and Spider-Man are now, they'll be no different.

Turtles certainly has more iterations than, say, Ghostbusters, Star Wars or Super Mario Bros.

With 32 years of TMNT we should compare to:

Batman in 1971
Spiderman in 1994
Superman in 1970

Agreed. I think the amount of continuities now is already confusing for newcomers and casual fans.

I figured it has plenty, far more than what most media gets, seeing as how most things have their run and then they're gone. It might have less than some media that also has multiple, but as has been pointed out it's also younger than many of them.

The fact alone that they are in that group and have a habit of not going away is special as is, no matter how many they end up with. :)

Nah, I welcome them continuing to return. I like them feeling like they're still thriving alongside us.

What are the other incarnations? As said, universes within universes (like Soul's Winter, or Future incarnations, Super Turtles from Volume 4, or alternate timelines) aren't an entirely separate incarnation.

The videogames are mostly based on whatever cartoon they're based on, and since most of the games barely have a story it doesn't matter. The toylines again are based on their cartoons. The TMNT anime OVA was based on the original cartoon even if you think of it as separate.

Then you have Nick animated adventures which aside for like one issue, does not deviate from the cartoon at all and can just be considered filler stories or extra content. Dreamwave also got canceled too early for it to spinoff from the 2k3 series in the same manner.

The videogames have background stories even if I don't consider them as universes. Just videogames, not much more.

I think the fact that there's been as few versions of the TMNT as there has been, shows just how popular the franchise truly is. Every time a new version comes out, it lasts a long time.

I agree with this very much. TMNT is a lot younger than those other franchises, and considering how long it's been around I think the amount of continuities it has are plenty!

Anyway, I think having multiple versions is both good and bad. It's good because it's fun having variety and seeing so many different takes on these characters and their world, but it's also confusing for newcomers, and sometimes fans themselves find themselves divided on what's "truly" TMNT.

Honestly, I consider TMNT to have 11 main incarnations(in my mind anyway) right now.

2 movie universes(the first 4, and now the current movies)

4 tv series'(3 cartoons and Next Mutation). In all honesty I consider NM to be very different than the first 3 movies

5 comic universes(Mirage, Archie, Image, IDW, and Amazing Adventures)


Anyway, I'm perfectly fine with the number of incarnations TMNT has and I do enjoy them all to some extent.

The fourth movie isn't even in the same universe as the first three, though. I'd place NM as part of that universe befire the CG movie, since it at least uses the same lair. April never had any training in the movie trilogy, so the Imagi movie having her clearly having had some training doesn't fit, and neither does Mikey or Donnie's jobs or Leo going to South America. None of that belongs to the trilogy universe- but NM clearly takes place in it. So that gives us three clear movie universes, plus a TV spin-off set in one of them. The props in Splinter's trophy corner were just Easter Eggs, not any indication of being in the same universe.

Few incarnations? A dozen of different takes is not a few.

http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/9b/9b035...560c439b2e.jpg

At any given time there are a few out there. If you don't like one, there's always something else to enjoy. Right now, there's two comic series, a show, and new movies. If you don't like one or even more than that, there's probably something out you do like. Keep it coming!

Don't forget The "Coming Out of Our Shells/Gettin' Down in Your Town" universe (it didn't seem to be exactly the OT or the movies). The "Turtle Tunes/Turtle X-mas universe (which may be the same one, I'm thinking of starting a thread about that). And, a strange TMNT universe where they live in LA instead of New York and are shills for the LA public transit system. :lol:

Incarnation in this context just means version, iteration, etc.

There's not many "main" incarnations at all:

- 3 cartoons

- 3 major comics (Mirage, Archie and IDW)

- 2 movie continuities (original movies, Bay Movies)


The Nick animated comic is an off-shoot of the Nick cartoon. The Image series was written to be in continuity with Mirage (hence why there's no Mirage Volume 3), stuff like the TMNT Anime OVA is a Japanese off-shoot of the original cartoon. The videogames are again based off of whatever various cartoons or comics they want them to be. Next Mutation and the 2007 movie were loose continuations of the original films.

There are not many continuities at all.

More like the various continuities fit mostly in those 8 categories (the cheesy live action videos I mentioned I guess are a category in their own right). But, while some versions share continuity Image Vol.3 is not in continuity with Mirage Vol. 4, nor is Next Mutation with the Imagi film, or the Chôjin Densetsu OVA with the red sky seasons, etc.

I guess it's interesting how they branch out from common sources like that, but it's nothing to panic over.

Even if there are only 9 main incarnations, i prefer it to having more in incarnations because i think it would result in more, but smaller scale and less unique universes. It may not sound like alot, but compare the FW and 4Kids cartoon. Technically they are only 2 incarnations and it may bot sound like alot, but each one has such a diverse and unique universe when compared to each other, that i have a hard time believing they both are originally inspired by the same source material.

Maybe no one has brought this up but i also see tmnt as having generational time periods of when it rose in popularity and resulted in various tmnt works being produced at the times:

Generation 1: FW cartoon, live action trilogy, archie comics

Generation 2: 4 Kids cartoon, 2007 movie, turtles forever

Generation 3: Nick Cartoon, IDW comics, Bay movie trilogy.

Im not sure where id place mirage.

Generation 0.

By your own rationale isn't the Archie book just an off shoot of the '87 toon? It did become it's own beast and grow into something original, but it started just as kids tie-in book.

In my own personal head canon the Imagi film is part of Golden Harvest film series and NM is it's own beast.

I like having all these different versions of the story. By the time we get to later runs such as IDW and Nick they can pick and choose things and give them a fresh spin. I'm much more open to new interpretations of the TMNT franchise then other fandoms of mine. Such as Star Trek. I think that's because with Trek I've always been there on the ground floor (Prime Universe baby). With TMNT I was introduced via Fred Wolf, then Golden Harvest and then I finally read some Mirage.

Prime Trek high-five. :tcool:

Most logical! :D

i say the more versions we get of Tmnt the BETTER!!!

there are things i like and dislike about all of the various cartoons and movie
(though all of the comics are pretty on point! :D )

but depending on my given mood, it's nice to have plenty of variety to choose from! :)

And Next Mutation is also Generation 1. All this makes sense, since all these three years also had their own toylines, videogame series and marketing.