Was there a reason to make a FW comic instead of an Archie continuation?
 

Yes, I know that's kind of a stupid question because the answer is pretty obvious.


But let's pretend that we don't understand that, what compelling reason is there? While I'm not exactly going to claim Archie was some great comic book (in fact, I don't even like it, the artwork is often really sloppy and the writing preachy), there is clearly more meat there than the FW show. Not to mention that because they are both the product of Playmates wanting promotional material for the toyline, which means there is plenty of overlap in both how the characters are presented and which characters appear in the first place. If they had done an Archie revival instead of a FW tie-in, I don't think it would confuse casuals much beyond the mandatory explanation that Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady had to come back from some alien planets they didn't remember seeing in the show.

Probably the answer is not because they're worried fans haven't read it, it's because "They" haven't read it. It's easier to do some kind of blanket "blah-blah-Fred Wolf-pizza-smiles" thing than delve into 70 plus issues of a thing from the 90s.

Clearly so. It's easier to make a fresh comic based on the actual show everyone remembers.... then a continuation to a long-forgotten 90's comic series that is only vaguely similar to the old show.

Remember once issue 5 hit, that series went it's completely different direction and barely had anything to do with the show anymore other than the basic designs of the Turtles, Splinter and Shredder. I mean even April got a whole new look that barely resembled the show.

I think it was obviously due to the games, Shredder's Revenge followed by the Cowabunga Collection of all the classic games sold incredibly well and IDW saw that and greenlit the comic shortly after. They never would have done so otherwise.

I suspect that had 0 to do with it. Nickelodeon has made it clear from Day 1 of the signing of the deal that their #1 top priority was everything surrounding the Fred Wolf show. That they suddenly made an actual Fred Wolf comic before a new Fred Wolf cartoon is surprising, but the existence of one now certainly makes sense with their modus operandi.

Because the Saturday Morning Adventures line started with GI Joe. When it did well they decided to do TMNT next, and you can't very well do a Saturday Morning Adventures comic using a branch of the franchise that wasn't a Saturday morning cartoon.

I mean IDW had the comic license since 2011, over a decade, and they didn't make a comic based on the cartoon until after the new games had come out. Shredder's Revenge made a huge impact, and then the collection was confirmed a few months later. Had those games never happened, I don't think we'd have a comic based on the show at all.

Because as said they had from 2011-2022 to do so and didn't in all that time.

Because FW was largely an anthology show and Archie relies on continuity. So for that and a variety of other reasons, FW was more marketable to return to.

Correct. And the comic makes no attempt to actually fit into the FW canon beyond the surface level. And given the nature of that show’s canon, no one cares. Archie would have been more restricted and people would have been mad at any retcons.