Every Turtle had his day: TMNT Personalities & The 4 Canons

Aztec General · 11-03-2009, 03:39 PM

This thread is about the TMNT personality that I feel is dominant in each of the TMNT canons. I feel like this is an appropriate time to post this since all 4 of these canons are coming to an end shortly (unless Mirage continues printing comics; which appears unlikely), and with Turtles Forever coming out (hopefully) featuring all 4 TMNT canons. Interestingly enough, I feel like each of the 4 TMNT canons has a different Turtle's personality as an overarching theme. I'll explain my reasoning for each below; but first I want to clarify the 4 main canons:

There have been 4 major TMNT canons over the past 25 years:

1) Mirage Comics TMNT (Mirage guest artist tales & Image Comics being subdivisions)
2) 1987 Animated TMNT (Archie Comics, TMNT comic strip, & Manga/Anime TMNT being subdivisions)
3) Movieverse TMNT (Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation & Movie adaptation comics being subdivisions)
4) 2003 Animated TMNT (Dreamwave Comics being a subdivision)

For convenience purposes I'll refer to each of the canons by the first year that it began. Thus:

1) Mirage TMNT= TMNT 1984
2) OT TMNT= TMNT 1987
3) Movie TMNT= TMNT 1990
4) 2K3 TMNT= TMNT 2003

TMNT 1984= Leonardo
I associate Leonardo with the Mirage comics because the series (or at least the main canon) is rather serious, stoic, action packed, martial arts centered, and is truly the "leader" of the other canons since it was the original. All of these are Leonardo's traits. Also many of the main stories in the Mirage comics are Leonardo centered.

TMNT 1987= Michelangelo
The 1987 toon has Mikey written all over it. It's goofy, slapstick, fun, doesn't take itself too seriously, and is full of pop culture references. In fact Mikey's personality was created in this series. In the prior Mirage issues Mikey's personality was rather understated; or at least he certainly wasn't the "party dude".

TMNT 1990= Raphael
The dark, brooding, overeager, and trouble making brother Raphael shines through at his finest in 3 of the TMNT's 4 big screen versions. It's hard to not think of him as the central character in the film franchise. Heck, his huge role in the first film even caused "Partners in Kryme" to get it wrong in the theme song for the first film: "Raphael, he's the leader of the group" LOL.

TMNT 2003= Donatello
The new toon was overall a very smart and well thought out show, particularly in its plot continuity. Very smart and very well thought out? That sounds like Donatello for sure! Also the 2K3 show had a great deal more sci-fi and tech based elements than the other TMNT canons. Which of course are also very Donny traits.

Your thoughts on my musings?

11-03-2009, 03:39 PM	#1
Aztec General Mad Scientist Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 1,437	Every Turtle had his day: TMNT Personalities & The 4 Canons This thread is about the TMNT personality that I feel is dominant in each of the TMNT canons. I feel like this is an appropriate time to post this since all 4 of these canons are coming to an end shortly (unless Mirage continues printing comics; which appears unlikely), and with Turtles Forever coming out (hopefully) featuring all 4 TMNT canons. Interestingly enough, I feel like each of the 4 TMNT canons has a different Turtle's personality as an overarching theme. I'll explain my reasoning for each below; but first I want to clarify the 4 main canons: There have been 4 major TMNT canons over the past 25 years: 1) Mirage Comics TMNT (Mirage guest artist tales & Image Comics being subdivisions) 2) 1987 Animated TMNT (Archie Comics, TMNT comic strip, & Manga/Anime TMNT being subdivisions) 3) Movieverse TMNT (Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation & Movie adaptation comics being subdivisions) 4) 2003 Animated TMNT (Dreamwave Comics being a subdivision) For convenience purposes I'll refer to each of the canons by the first year that it began. Thus: 1) Mirage TMNT= TMNT 1984 2) OT TMNT= TMNT 1987 3) Movie TMNT= TMNT 1990 4) 2K3 TMNT= TMNT 2003 *TMNT 1984= Leonardo* I associate Leonardo with the Mirage comics because the series (or at least the main canon) is rather serious, stoic, action packed, martial arts centered, and is truly the "leader" of the other canons since it was the original. All of these are Leonardo's traits. Also many of the main stories in the Mirage comics are Leonardo centered. *TMNT 1987= Michelangelo* The 1987 toon has Mikey written all over it. It's goofy, slapstick, fun, doesn't take itself too seriously, and is full of pop culture references. In fact Mikey's personality was created in this series. In the prior Mirage issues Mikey's personality was rather understated; or at least he certainly wasn't the "party dude". *TMNT 1990= Raphael* The dark, brooding, overeager, and trouble making brother Raphael shines through at his finest in 3 of the TMNT's 4 big screen versions. It's hard to not think of him as the central character in the film franchise. Heck, his huge role in the first film even caused "Partners in Kryme" to get it wrong in the theme song for the first film: "Raphael, he's the leader of the group" LOL. *TMNT 2003= Donatello* The new toon was overall a very smart and well thought out show, particularly in its plot continuity. Very smart and very well thought out? That sounds like Donatello for sure! Also the 2K3 show had a great deal more sci-fi and tech based elements than the other TMNT canons. Which of course are also very Donny traits. Your thoughts on my musings? __________________ Last edited by Aztec General; 11-23-2009 at 03:46 PM.