Rank the universes
 

It has been asked before which TMNT universe is your favorite. As well as your least favorite. But I do not think I have seen this one.

List the TMNT universes in order starting with your favorite on top and your least favorite on the bottom. You can include all available ones- even the more obscure ones.

Mine would be:

1) 2k3 4Kids cartoon. Yes, including the Lost Season and Fast Forward. There is no word to describe this series other than "superb". It takes what is good about all other previous universes and combines it all together in a fantastic version. If this were someone's introduction to TMNT, I can see how he or she would totally love the Turtles. The family aspect is really important, while at the same time having a good balance of action, ninjitsu, history, comedy, sci-fi, fantasy, drama, and adventure.

2) Archie TMNT Adventures. It may have started out as a graphic novel version of the old toon, but later it spun off into some wonderful stories. The title is really fitting- the Turtles and their friends go on adventures all through the world. And the family stays together- which is a major pro. Why is Archie second to 2k3 then? Just a couple things- no Casey Jones (other than a brief mention in Year of the Turtle), and not as much focus on my favorite Turtle as 2k3. Plus there's Splinter's origin, although they did give him some quite interesting background.

3) 1987 Fred Wolf cartoon. What introduced me and many of us to TMNT. Hysterical, while not being insulting to your intelligence. If it ran so strong for 10 seasons, it is for a reason. I do wish they had kept Splinter's original story, but otherwise it is very good. Plus it lifts your spirits and makes you feel good with all the comedy and fun and rapport.

4) Mirage comics. What started it all. If it were not for Mirage, the others would not exist. So why am I ranking then fourth? Sometimes the Mirage comics depress me. I do not know if it is because the family sometimes falls apart and gets separated for too long. Or because of the direction it has taken. Or because of all the inconsistencies, incoherencies, incongruencies, timeline errors, and contradictions. I prefer the multicolored bandannas anyway. I still like that there is so much to them- and want to see some more good stories from them adapted into cartoon episodes.

5) Movies. Good for the most part, but some aspects also depress me for similar reasons as Mirage (that 2k3 has managed to successfully avoid). I am not talking about the shock that the first movie was after watching only the 1987 cartoon. I just think the movie plots were not as good as 2k3 and Archie and OT.

I have not read the Image comics nor watched TNM, so I cannot comment on those- other than the fact that from their premises and summaries, they do not appeal to me in any way.

I'd rank it

6) Movies - As someone who takes movies very seriously the movie portion of turtles falls face first into a cinder block after falling off the edge of a 3 story building. Their all bad, the only reason I enjoy any of them is they bring me good childhood flashbacks. Unfortunately the new movie can't do that for me because it's well new so it just puts me to sleep, it seriously does. After the first like 10 minutes I start to fall asleep.

5) 2K3 - If this series had less comic adaptations I'd like it more. That or if they did them properly and not butchered them like they did. I thought TLS was pretty lame on my second viewing of it and you all know I happen to enjoy FF so I guess those two even each other out. But back to 2K3 itself the orginial episodes were great, like "The Darkness With-in" and "Hun On The Run".

4) Old Toon - I know it's weird to pick the old toon over 2K3 but the old toon is great. It started off serious, got goofy, and evolved back into a serious series right before it ended. I loved the majority of the episodes.

3) Mirage Comic - While as you said some of the time the comic can be depressing if I think Mirage I usually think Volume 1 and Tales Volume 1 and those both never failed me. The art was great, the stories weren't always great but most of them are good, and they had fun with it.

2) Image Comic - It's violent, it's brutal, it's different! I love the change of style and the line-up is great. They didn't just stick with the same old villains or try to restart the series again.

1) Archie Comic - Seriously the ultimate turtles for me, has the best characters and villains, and the most creative storylines.

#1 is the Mirage 'verse cos this is the "real" 'verse. All others are based on this. Depressing and lost in direction yeah, but that's the way it is.
#2 Movie 1 & 4 - seperate from 2 & 3 cos those are totally different in style, and portrayals-I consider them apart from the more darker styles. The Mirage style is here, dark, with some funnies and drama and lots of action.
#3 2K3, closest style to their real personalities on tv. decent stories.


everything else is below these.

Hahaha, the thread title amuses me. It's like we're almighty. RANK THE UNIVERSES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, it'd be new toon, old toon, movies, then comics.

1)Mirage comics: It's the one that started it all. Out of all the incarnations of the turtles has probably aged the best. It's a comic that is somewhat dark and quite unique in its own right (even though it was originally a parody). IMO older comic fans can appreciate the parody aspect and how odd the concept is, and at the same time it isn't so dark that it can't be enjoyed by younger readers as well. As far as the new volume bringing it down, I don't see it that way, because you can always ignore Volume 4 if you want.

2)Old toon: Probably ranked this high because of the nostalgia factor, but the cartoon had massive appeal. So much so that the kids who grew up with it when it was new still remember it fondly and are nostalgic. It was a fun series, that can now be appreciated as part throwback to old comic book/sci-fi movie plots, and part strange product of the 80's.

3)Movies: If you aren't being a hardcore movie critic (I don't mean to insult anyone, if you want to analyze movies that strictly that's your choice), the first TMNT is a surprisingly good movie. Really, most things aimed for a younger audience are really dumbed down these days. TMNT I still managed to be slightly dark, while incorporating aspects of the cartoon. It wasn't exactly a complex drama or anything, but it handled the idea of the love between family fairly well. Adapted the comics well overall.

4)New Toon: I've only seen a few episodes, but so far it seems like a good adaptation of the comic books. I have run into an episode here and there that didn't thrill me though (Nano was okay, but I would have much rather gotten to Shredder more quickly or had something else about the Purple Dragons).

5)Archie Comics: I remember enjoying the issues that I read, it went in some directions the cartoon series didn't. It didn't stick to the formula of "Shredder hatches scheme, Turtles stop him" from the cartoon, and it was better off for it.

6)Next Mutation: Venus DeMilo is probably the only reason why I don't really give this one much of a chance, because it seemed like they were blatantly trying to make the turtles like the Rangers.

7)Image Comics: Just can't get into it. For me it isn't fun to read the Turtles being forced into that whole "extreme 90's" that Image started out as.

Others: I guess I'd put the music tour thing above Next Mutation. Not a big fan of that music...but it was goofy fun. The anime series...I guess I'd put on the same level as Next Mutation. TNM was trying to make TMNT more Power Rangers like, the anime series kind of tried to make TMNT into stereotypical "people transforming into things" anime.

1. OT
2. Movies (#4 included)
3. NT

5-Old Toon: This and the action figure line made me a Turtle fan. Now that I'm older, it doesn't quite cater to my tastes now, but it still brings back some good memories of my childhood. If the entire series had been more like the first 5 episodes, then this series would be higher on my list.

4-Archie Comics: Some interesting stories plus more focus on the Turtles supporting cast of mutants made this comic one of my favorite comics as a kid (besides the fact that it was the only TMNT comic available in drug and grocery stores).

3-Movies: I could seriously watch the first TMNT movie once a week if I wanted to. Not only for nostalgia purposes, but despite the opinions of some "critics" on this site, I thinks it's a damn good movie. I just think it's an awesome almagamation of the first 11 issues of Mirage vol. 1 and the old toon, and is presented in a gritty, yet humorous and family friendly way. Plus, Jim Henson's suits in that film are the best of any live action TMNT interpretation. The other movies vary in quality though. 2 is enjoyable despite passing up a lot of great opportunities. 3 is pretty bad, I won't get into too much more of that. And the new one I think is pretty decent, despite it's flaws. But the first one movie is what makes the movie universe rank higher on my list.

2-2k3 Toon: The first 3 seasons are just awesome in my opinion. I'm one of the fans that enjoys seeing issues of the comics being interpreted for animation (I mean, that's what most movies are, interpretations of novels or comics). I really love the darker tone of the first 3 seasons of this show. It was dark, but not too dark to be on the verge of "gothic". I also really enjoy seeing the "Ninja" Turtles use actual martial arts, which is something that the old toon never really did. The 4th season, while flawed, is still watchable, in my opinion. Fast Forward, I gave a chance and tried to enjoy it, but found it to be nothing of what I like of the Turtles. But the first 3 seasons of this series are gold in my opinion.

1-Mirage Comics: Mirage vol. 1 and Tales vol. 1 are tops on my list. The first 20 something issues of Mirage v.1 are some of my favorite comics because I can do something with them that I can't do with a lot of comics that I own; read them over again. The first issue is a work of art in my book. The story is incredible, and Kev and Pete's artwork was phenominal. I've never read vol. 2 or the Image series, but I have read vol. 4 and am severly disappointed with it. Peter without Kevin is like an annoying brat who is going to do things his way and that's that and he doesn't care if fans don't like it, he's just tryig to please himself. Much like Fast Forward, the Turtles in vol. 4 live in a world inhabited by aliens, which pisses me off cause I think that when there are aliens all over the world, then mutant turtles really aren't all that special. Vol. 1 treated the Turtles as outcasts and made them different from the outside, normal world, which was far more appealing. That and the ninja action make Mirage vol. 1 tops in my book.

It's cool to see how diverse everyone's interests are. Everyone has good reasons behind their choices. here are mine:

9. out of their shells tour- was never a fan of this, though a few of the songs were catchy at the time...didn't care for the costumes either, and I thought it was ridiculous for ninjas to have a rock band.

8. next mutation- as bad as it was, it has some good one-liners though more than a few groaners. The repetetive stock scenes like raph on his bike got old really fast.

7. fast forward- I like a few of the episodes but for the most part, for me at least, this show is really hard to sit through.

6. image comics- I actually liked this series. I remember the art was hard to decipher at first and got better as time went on. I loved the idea of Raph as the new Shredder.

5. movies- I love the first movie, not a big fan of the rest. The new movie had great visuals, but the story wasn't all that exciting.

4. original cartoon- awesome memories as a kid. Of course the animation doesn't hold up very well today, but that's part of its charm. I watched the hell out of this show as a kid which is probably why I get bored watching it today. Not because it's bad, but because I've literally seen them all a million times.

3. archie comics- great characterization for a children's comic. I remember wishing they would do this kind of thing in the toon, and wondered why all the "extra" characters in the toon were "one-shot" while they had continuing stories here.

2. 2k3 toon- This show exceeded my expectations and got away with a lot more than I thought they would. I loved most of the comic adaptations, though where there is good there is also bad. I think the series got off to a very slow start; didn't keep my interest at first. Also, around the time of "Rogue in the House", Shredder returning was getting pretty old. But I really think the show got stronger as time went on.


1. mirage comics- eastman and laird were my inspirations to become an artist and in a way my current career is thanks to these comics. The first eleven issues and micro series are the best IMO. These alone make this the best incarnation of tmnt.

I'm just going to rank the ones that I have read or seen for this one. I mean, it's a bit hard to rank something that you haven't really seen yet, right?

5) Next Mutation: I have to hand it to Next Mutation - it wasn't all that bad. I was watching it when I was four or something and I loved it. But...let's face it, Venas DeMilo, while a good idea to play around with, was just handled badly. The show was almost a carbon copy of Power Rangers. To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if the turtles got out giant dinosaur robots and started kicking the Dragon Lord to kingdom come. Still, it was an attempt to revive the franchise, so you have to give it credit for trying.

4) Movies: The first one was great, no arguments. But the consistancy of the movies through out the timeline is...well, odd. Number two had an interesting-yet-kind-of-camp story, while number three was just...god, the turtles looked like they had some sort of skin disease in that one. While four brought in new fans and was a marvel to watch, it was a bit lacking in story, placing movies at number 4.

3) Old Toon: I never grew up with it, so I don't feel any nostalgia watching it. It doesn't bring back any memories for me, but you know what? It's great. It makes me wish that Boomerang got to show this 'toon once in a while. The tone is kid-friendly, but not dumbed down like most cartoons we see today. Just some good late 80's and early 90's fun.

2) New Toon: It brought me back in to the world of TMNT...it brought me here. For that I love it. It had stories I loved, and it inspired me to pick up a pencil and try to draw something. The first four seasons are great, Ninja Tribunal was a great change of pace for me, but Fast Forward was another story. Now with a new year for the cartoon with new styles and what-not, I feel like that this incarnation will keep kids entertained for quite some time.

1) Comics: I have only read most of the first volume to be honest, but it's left quite an imprint on me. It was the thing that started this entire ball rolling...and not to mention it's the original "universe". Eastman and Laird knew what they were doing, and they created something great for everyone to enjoy. One of the best incarnations, hands down.