Upcoming short story by Ciro in 40th anniversary special
 

There’s a collection of short comics coming out next month, and Ciro is writing/drawing one of them set in the 2012 universe. Here’s what he had to say about it:

"My 2012 incarnation of the Turtles are still alive and roaming New York City. I’ve had this story idea of the brothers dealing with change, feeling pointless, facing a new threat—they are growing up, grappling with losing their “teenage” moniker. Towards the end of the series, I pitched it as an animated movie, unfortunately it never happened."

"This short, comic interlude is a teaser for that bigger story that never was. It was really exciting to let the boys out to play. I knew I missed them, I didn’t realize how much though."

https://www.ign.com/articles/teenage...ration-preview

And with Ciro admitting that they are still alive and roaming New York, at the point where they aren't teens anymore, we can safely say that Mutant Apocalypse is even more non-canon than it already was. If even Ciro isn't counting it, then there's no excuse.

Unless of course his story leads into that one. In which case I will still ignore it because it's still not canon in the first place.

Pretty sure he means the story is set before the mutagen bomb goes off.

Even if it is, which it very well could be, it doesn't change the fact that that story isn't canon anyway.

Yeah that was very interesting. I didn’t hate Mutant Apocalypse, but my main issue other than the unresolved/unacknowledged plot lines was how they barely got to live any life before the bomb went off.

His comments here do make me think there would have been some kind of reveal telling us that MA was in fact an alternate universe. Mainly just because… the ending of his unmade DTV movie would have been “turtles lose, bomb goes off, world basically ends and you already know the rest”? That just doesn’t really work as a climax. Especially not for a kids movie and even less so as a nostalgia-bait reunion special.


Then again, maybe that was his intention and that’s why Nickelodeon never gave it the green light lol.

I'd be okay with a twist that Mutant Apocalypse was just a tale written by Mikey. Cue final frame of him asking Ice Cream Kitty what she thinks of it. :)


Def look forward to reading this and the other stores written for this special issue. Cool that Ciro at least got this opportunity to maybe tell something of what he'd had in mind the past bunch of years, even if other ideas and his movie pitch didn't come to fruition.

Not to get anyone’s hopes up too much, but Ciro did say this to Cipes publicly on insta last month:

I really do wish Nick would let him make a direct to DVD/streaming movie. The 2012 cartoon is now 14 years old, all the kids who grew up with it are now adults. There's plenty of nostalgia now to be milked out of the 2012 cartoon the same way our generation felt about the original cartoon in the early 2000's.

The only issue is I don't know if Nick would want to make it competing with the current Mutant Mayhem series (especially since there's another CG movie on the way), and the only reason Rise of the TMNT movie hit netflix is they were too far deep into production and deals were signed in before they knew they were canceling the show.

Still a 2012 cartoon movie is what I always wanted. Bring back Tiger Claw as an ally (and Alopex), some of the other mutants/characters and do one last finale. And also would be cool if there's a time skip and we see April and Casey as adults instead of re-using their teen CG models. April and Casey really should of aged over the course of the show from 16 year olds to adults.

I’ve been daydreaming about this happening. I think more than enough time has passed that Jason Biggs could come back in some capacity. Obviously he can’t be Leo but I think it would be cool if he got some other role, or even if there was an extended flashback that took place during the season 1/2 era.

Wouldn’t feel right to do a reunion movie without him.

Well, I guess we finally got an answer to where that ooze nuke came from...

This was great, really enjoyed it. I love Ciro’s style, but it was kind of hard to “hear” the 2012 voices coming out of his designs. They’re awesome, just a different vibe from the 3D renders of the show.

Hopefully this drums up interest for a movie. Nick seems to have no quarrel with saturating the market with TMNT comics and toys… why not throw a DTV movie on a streaming service for old times sake? All those 3D models and sets are already created, so it wouldn’t be a massive budget. Just do it.



Thinking about this more, a flashback scene would be better. That way Hoon Lee could come back too.

Yeah, would love to see a direct-to-streaming movie about this. Nick 2012 deserves a comeback.

Not as a movie that leads into that stupid Mutant Apocalypse special. Unless the movie is about Renet, the future turtles, and the past turtles undoing the Mad Max future, I don't want any more said about it.

Mutant Apocalypse wasn't perfect but I don't get what people's problem with it being the finale.

The problems I have with it is that as a finale, it renders everything the turtles did across the show completely pointless.

Everything they did, everyone they saved, all those times they saved the world from death and destruction, and not one bit of it mattered. The world got blown up anyways. All humans are gone, and the world's desolate and mostly lifeless.

Instead of saving anything, they basically delayed the end of the world by five years. They could have stayed home and done nothing, and the net result would have been about the same.

And before you say it, if you were going to, I am aware that the world ends in Mirage and even kind of in Archie, but here's the thing: The 2012 show isn't Mirage. The ending Mirage got fit with that universe. Mutant Apocalypse doesn't fit here. It may be turtles, but this version of the turtles is not that kind of story. Here, it's tonally unfitting and clashes with the rest of the story as it's laid out. It would be like if the 2003 show ended not with Casey and April getting married, and destroying the Shredder once and for all, but with Same as It Never Was. But not as a possible future, but actually the real ending. That's what Mutant Apocalypse is.

That's why I don't like it as the finale.

Like I said earlier, that just wouldn’t even work as an ending to a movie. Especially (were it real) in the context of: “your favorite childhood heroes return to Nickelodeon after 15 years! Come relive the magic and watch them fail miserably and not prevent the apocalypse!”

Say what you will about those final episodes, but even they ended with the four brothers finally reunited and living their final days out together in the Oasis.

There’s probably more than meets the eye here, but we may never know.

Zog The Magnificent already stated it but it bears repeating. It's just bizarre to cut to decades later and show that everything the main characters strived for has been undermined. What was the point of preventing the Kraang from turning the world into a mutant wasteland several times over, when the Kraang eventually turn the world into a mutant wasteland anyway? It feels like a prelude to another story in which they go back in time and fix it, but no, that's just how it ends.

It's a really bizarre epilogue, no wonder why the Nickelodeon producers tried to pass it off as a what-if story.

And considering it was born entierly of spite on Ciro's part, and the fact that none of the rest of the crew seem to like it or consider it the real ending, I think Nick is entirely justified classifying it as an elseworlds tale.

Definitely a highlight of the book for me. Funny how different Ciro's style feels in contrast to the happier, softer CG models we were used to. Always did prefer his 2D art style myself. Very stylish. I enjoyed this a lot & would always welcome more returns to this universe, especially from those who were actually a part of it.

Good thing you didn't want any more said about it, otherwise you may have personally been responsible for de-railing a thread about something else!

It's not really derailing when it's directly relevent. That was one of the last things to happen in the 2012 continuity, and this new story seems to lead into that. Of course it was going to come up.

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen Ciro deny this accusation, but yeah… kinda seemed like he wanted to cover his tracks in case Nick thought they could give him the boot and continue the show in an undesirable manner.

But at the same time, why didn’t Nick just shut this down at the script level if they didn’t like it?

Anyways, he always said from the start that he needed 4 seasons, and he got it. Season 5 started with a nice little epilogue between Kavaxas arc and Lone Rat and Cubs, but the rest of it was (really good but) superfluous. I never had a major issue with the last three episodes, but I would probably rather imagine the guys going on a few adventures and living out their lives in NYC rather than in the wasteland all separately and freakishly mutated.

Has Ciro directed any other cartoon since TMNT ended? What has he done in the 6+ years since?

Hasn't directed anything. He was a "consulting" producer on Transformers: Earthspark. Other than doing some storyboarding for Batman vs. TMNT back in 2017 that looks like literally the only two things.

He must have got a pretty sick paycheck from TMNT. Seems like he’s chillin.

Stumbled upon something cryptic Ciro said many moons ago.

From his instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bej0khOl-CF/

"superrobot74@theethanmorales I have been writing a story around my turtles, roughly 20 years old, facing off against the return of a Kraang entity. There’s lots of great scenes in it, especially the opening scene involving Michelangelo riding the subway. It’s a cross between invasion of the body snatchers and the blob. It would be great as a video release movie for Nick. It would bridge some of the gaps and answer many gripes fans have about Mutant Apocalypse. I will try to get that going at @nickelodeon eventually. As I see it, more turtles is a good thing. Thanks for being supportive homie! @tmnt"






Answering the “many gripes” tells me that Renet would probably be involved and that future would be avoided. But again, we might never know. Or if everything is really on a 20 year nostalgia cycle…. Maybe we’ll get this after all in 8-10 years lol.