Are the TMNT crimefighters?
 

After reading IDW's Raphael #1 where we see the turtles patrolling, it got me wondering, does the TMNT community consider the turtles crimefighters? Obviously this is just an opinion poll depending on people's preferences and what interpretation of the turtles they grew up on, but I've personally never viewed the turtles as such. I know the temptation to group them with the superhero crowd has always been strong, but the original Mirage volume 1 series didn't seem to indicate this. Most of the time, problems came to them (discovering mousers in the sewer, Renet interrupting training, running into Rat King in an abandoned building, etc.) and the only time they really did seek out trouble was facing Shredder. This is all (quite brilliantly) discussed in City at War where they struggle with what their purpose is now that the Shredder is destroyed, even so far as to loathingly refer to patrolling as turning into the "Neighborhood Watch." Yet other interpretations and mediums definitely have the turtles seeking out crime to stop. So weigh in, what's your opinion?

Only in the original cartoon really, but even then they never actively patrolled for crime in the same way Batman does.

I think I recall seeing various issues of Volume 2 "Tales" with the turtles patrolling, but I'm not 100%. And even if not, I still feel like a good amount of the general populace view the turtles in the same vein as superheroes fighting crime. It's often put under the superhero category when looking in bookstores and such. Would you say your vote is a "no" then?

My view is they don't actively seek out crime, but if they are tipped off to some sort of criminal activity going on, they'll check it out.

That being said the IDW series could very well make them into crimefighters, especially with Splinter hinting in that direction.

Im agree!!! :tgrin::tgrin::tgrin::tgrin:

They absolutely should not be crimefighters and are not, as pointed out already, in any universe save for the Fred Wolf cartoon.

They are not a part of mankind and are not here to fight our battles for us or police our streets... they live outside of us, in shadows, peering from the outside in. There is simply no reason for them to be doing so.

That said, yes, if they happened to be -- for example -- crossing Main Street at night on their own business and just happen to see a lady getting mugged... would they just ignore it? No, they would probably jump in and intervene. But they wouldn't actively be seeking or rooting out any crime. Ever.

If IDW intends to have them cross that line and become like every other comic book superhero/vigilante, then that would 100% cause me to lose interest in what they're putting out there.

Absolutely agree. I guess I overestimated the crimefighting element present in TMNT universes. Still, does anyone else remember some Volume 2 "Tales" issues of the turtles patrolling or am I remembering wrong?? It wasn't a dominating element, but still, I recall something... Wouldn't patrolling by definition be actively seeking out crime? Naturally, I would certainly be interested in Tristan, Bobby, or Tom's take on this!

Also, if you count the "future samurai turtles," in the Archie comics, they seemed to have a pretty established crimefighting headquarters...

This.

The TMNT aren't like Batman or Spider-Man where they go out and search for crime to stop. They have their own agenda so to speak. Such as fighting The Foot, or any other villains who they stumble across.

The TMNT are... reactionary crimefighters, I guess?

Their "patrols" in the past have always just been training runs or just nights on the town; any crime they fight is strictly because they happened to be in the right place at the right time.

I've never seen them as doing "rounds", actively looking for wrongs to right.

So in retrospect, the idea of them going on nightly "patrols" in the IDW comic does seem a little out of place, especially when one considers they're still rather fledgling ninja and I can't imagine Splinter would permit them to go out and fight armed criminals every night.

Unless the idea of "patrol" was meant to be different than how we interpretted it; like they're looking for something specific, not necessarily crime, and we just don't know what it is yet.

I don't consider them crimefighters, no. I'm hoping that what was going on in IDW's first microseries (which honestly worried me when I saw them patrolling) is just a kind of one-off thing, Casey and Raph hanging out, Casey being pretty keen on taking down lugheads and bozos, and it's just kind of something they do sometimes. In that respect, I see Raph being more likely to do the whole crimefighting thing, not necessarily because he wants to do good and all that, but just to bust some heads and get out some aggression, kind of tagging along with Casey who actually wants to take down the slime (as shown in E&L's Raph microseries and "Shades of Gray").

If TMNT becomes a crimefighting or superhero book, I'm saving my money.

I initially thought that patrolling could mean protecting the perimeter of the home or whatnot from outsiders who may stumble upon it, but I think it's pretty clear when Raphael states that "all the good crime" is in Casey's neighborhood... As I said before, I essentially am on the same as Andrew, but as we get the discussion going, it does seem like the line is a bit blurred when we think about the turtles' varied history and what it actually meant when they went on patrols in the past...

The Raphael-Casey thing, the two of them going out at night to look for trouble and busting heads... that's always been its own thing. That's their way of blowing off steam... it makes sense.

For the rest of the TMNT, as a team to adopt such a practice? Apocryphal.

Hm... that's a really good point. Perhaps we can interpret Raphael #1 as the TMNT patrolling to keep watch on their home while Raphael intentionally goes to Casey's side of town to find some trouble and have some fun. I guess we'll find out as continue down the road...

Raphael, like Casey, needs an outlet and a consistent supply of heads to bash to sate his anger problem. That's well documented. There isn't always roaming Foot Soldiers nearby to acquiesce to this.

If that line were spoken by Leonardo, though, then we'd have a problem.

Andrew pretty much nailed it for me. The turtles are "heroic" and well-mannered enough to help an innocent person out of a bind, but like any other family, wouldn't waste their own time patrolling the streets in search of crime.

Are they caring, compassionate, and dutiful characters? Definitely.

Are they "crime-fighters"? No way. They are just a family trying to survive in the crazy world they inhabit.

Andrew pretty much said it.

But if anything, criminals makes good practice.

Right.

The way I look at it is, most good people will intervene and prevent a crime to the best of their ability. And not only are the guys "good people", they also have the ability and then some, AND they live in a high crime area. So they run into it more often than most others would.

On top of all this, they're trained ninja who spend a lot of their time cooped up in a sewer den simply sparring. They're also young and restless, so they're going to want to get out and actually use these skills they have every once in a while instead of going easy on each other.

I interpreted the Casey-Raph Wednesday night patrols as purely "entertainment." They just want to beat up some people who deserve a whoopin.' The whole "vigilante justice" angle is more of a surface justification for their little hobby.

I'm giving the mention of the others going on patrols the benefit of the doubt; these TMNTs are still young and learning. Perhaps they are eager to go out and use their skills and are trying out a patrol routine to learn their way.

Also, patrol could just as easily mean they're going out for a while to explore the city. A metropolis the size of NYC has a loooot of alleyways and shortcuts to learn, and what better way than to go on a partol of the area to learn new routes to use in battle?

As has been mentioned though, no, the Turtles are not crimefighters even though they get thrown in the grouping along with "children's characters" in book stores. (No kidding, Books-A-Million only has a listing in that section for TMNT -_-).