The Overall Opinion of IMAGE TMNT (Vol. 3)

[PizzaPower1985]

Not being continued but yeah... being reprinted! Always thought these books were up there with the "bad TMNT" as well. Come to the 'Drome and you find out it has fans.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by PizzaPower1985

Not being continued but yeah... being reprinted! Always thought these books were up there with the "bad TMNT" as well. Come to the 'Drome and you find out it has fans.

Not only reprinted. Reprinted twice (first time in comic form, then TPB), with a fan conclusion, and an official one, too.

[PizzaPower1985]

Wow. Didn't know that, Andrew. Thanks. I know that Veitch owns his own TMNT work, but do you think IDW will ever reprint the guest era stuff that Nick/Viacom now owns?

[Leo656]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

But remember, Laird went on to ironically similarly "mutilate" the TMNT. Don became a cyborg in V3... he became a little guy inhabiting an android body in V4. Raphael got scarred in V3 and now he's a vampire mutant thing in V4.

Perhaps another factor was that he indeed had his own rather bizarre plans for Vol. 4, and found the Image stuff to be too thematically similar, so therefore tried to create as much distance as possible from it. There's a bit less redundancy if the events of Vol. 3 and Vol. 4 happened in different universes. That could've been part of it, too.

[neatoman]

I'm not entirely sure why the series is like 30% Savage Dragon crossover, it just makes me wonder why the Turtles don't just move to Chicago so they won't have to hide in the sewers.

Beyond that, I mostly think the series is cluttered nonsense with unappealing artwork and some really ugly character designs.

[Mutant Ninja Anole]

Just to be clear, I'm not bemoaning any series getting a continuation/conclusion, was just taken aback that this got a conclusion of all things, that's all. From my perspective, it was a bit like...I don't know, a reboot of Dallas as if season 9 wasn't a dream? A Star Wars EU based show focused on the Yuuzhan Vong? But what do I know?

[LUIS]

[QUOTE=neatoman;1852836]I'm not entirely sure why the series is like 30% Savage Dragon crossover, it just makes me wonder why the Turtles don't just move to Chicago so they won't have to hide in the sewers.
I'd had complaint about that too, but Mirage had the same problem since issue 15. There are already superheroes and freaks in Mirage universe.

[CyberCubed]

Originally Posted by Mutant Ninja Anole

Just to be clear, I'm not bemoaning any series getting a continuation/conclusion, was just taken aback that this got a conclusion of all things, that's all. From my perspective, it was a bit like...I don't know, a reboot of Dallas as if season 9 wasn't a dream? A Star Wars EU based show focused on the Yuuzhan Vong? But what do I know?

Image was always intended to be canon. It's why when PL brought Mirage back he called it "Volume 4" instead of "Volume 3" because he acknowledged the Image run as Volume 3. As said, PL probably just didn't want to continue off someones elses writing and "undo" what happened to the Turtles, so he did a time skip instead and left it up to people's imagination.

Image directly continues off the plots of City at War and Volume 2 and does them fairly organically, and ironically enough, some elements of Volume 4 and Tales continue stuff from the Image run. Such as Dr. X the Utrom that Leatherhead befriended in Image, he appears in one of the Tales issues. Leatherhead losing his mind and the mutagen degenerating was something that also started in the Image run and continues into Vol. 4 and Tales. The Turtles uneasy truce with Karai and the Foot in Vol. 4 also makes more sense after the events of the Image run.

Likewise nothing PL wrote after that contradicted anything that happened in Image.

[Dejablue]

I haven't read the Image comics yet. I reaaaallly should....I will soonish. I want to I swear!

I think I read the first two-three issues. Are these the ones where Donatello basically dies/becomes a cyborg and Raphael gets his face blown off. Also stripper ninjas. See I read these issues but I couldn't tell what the ff**** was happening. The art is chaotic and without color, if there was a fight scene or close up, I couldn't tell where one character ends and another began. So I lost interest fairly quickly. It was like trying to interpret static.

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

Originally Posted by Dejablue

I haven't read the Image comics yet. I reaaaallly should....I will soonish. I want to I swear!

I think I read the first two-three issues. Are these the ones where Donatello basically dies/becomes a cyborg and Raphael gets his face blown off. Also stripper ninjas. See I read these issues but I couldn't tell what the ff**** was happening. The art is chaotic and without color, if there was a fight scene or close up, I couldn't tell where one character ends and another began. So I lost interest fairly quickly. It was like trying to interpret static.

That's the one!

Stripper BDSM kunoichi, Two-Face Raphael, and Cyborg Donatello! It's GREAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT.

[Leo656]

Yeah, that's the book.

I do think the art kinda got better as they went along, but the earliest issues were definitely not great with that. It clearly wasn't drawn to be printed in black and white, some parts were really, really tough to make out. I never thought the art was "good" at any point, but it did get better later on.

But yeah it's a pretty ridiculous book. Although "ridiculous" is apparently what this franchise is best at. It's just kinda funny to me how some people who really hate FW really love Image. To me, it's equally goofy from the opposite direction. Like a teenage boy's idea of "edgy", that's the Image TMNT. And even as an edgy teenage boy, I thought it was seriously Try-Hard. Me and my friends used to just laugh at it. "(Sigh), Now Donnie's a cyborg and Leo's got one hand. Can't wait until they have April working a street corner or stripper pole, that'll be fun." Tell me you couldn't see them doing that!

I'unno. It is what it is, I guess, but I don't think it's anything particularly special.

[AquaParade]

The earlier issues looked the best imo. Even moreso now that they are in color.

Looks much better than the IDW "Color Classics".

[neatoman]

Originally Posted by LUIS

I'd had complaint about that too, but Mirage had the same problem since issue 15. There are already superheroes and freaks in Mirage universe.

That isn't a problem if it also explicitly rare or hidden. The Superheroes we saw in Mirage were mostly old or a rare sight. However, Chicago as depicted in the Image series had plenty of Superheroes and weirdness, which was very clearly out in the open.

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

Originally Posted by neatoman

I'd had complaint about that too, but Mirage had the same problem since issue 15. There are already superheroes and freaks in Mirage universe.

Originally Posted by neatoman

That isn't a problem if it also explicitly rare or hidden. The Superheroes we saw in Mirage were mostly old or a rare sight. However, Chicago as depicted in the Image series had plenty of Superheroes and weirdness, which was very clearly out in the open.

I do so dearly hate superheroes in TMNT. Don't care if it's Mirage canon even, don't like 'em.

Aliens, sure. Monsters, sure. Mutants, only a few. But not one damn superhero.

[PizzaPower1985]

Originally Posted by neatoman

That isn't a problem if it also explicitly rare or hidden. The Superheroes we saw in Mirage were mostly old or a rare sight. However, Chicago as depicted in the Image series had plenty of Superheroes and weirdness, which was very clearly out in the open.

That's Eric Larson's fault. The Dragon's supporting characters were a 90's/Image riff on Justice League/Avengers called the Freak Force. A lot of the heroes were anti-heroes and the villains were of the "bad guys are only bad if they burn people alive, rape large numbers of women, blow up hospitals and daycares and molest children" variety. It was everything about 90's comics and American culture that I worshipped when I was 10. These days, that story is soooo damn good, I urge, beg and pray that folks read it. Savage Dragon was some damn good comics in the early 90's.

[Leo656]

Originally Posted by CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy

I do so dearly hate superheroes in TMNT. Don't care if it's Mirage canon even, don't like 'em.

Aliens, sure. Monsters, sure. Mutants, only a few. But not one damn superhero.

You'd love my fanfic, though. But only because I'm incredible at every single thing I set my mind to. It also only is what it is because it wasn't written for an audience and sprung out of a very specific idea; if I were doing a "real" TMNT story for public consumption and charging money for it, it would be an entirely different animal all the way around.

I'm with you in spirit, though. Ideally, the TMNT should be the weirdest thing in their world, or else the premise sort of doesn't work. They wouldn't theoretically have to hide out and sneak around if there's a ton of other mutants, guys who can fly, and all this other stuff going on around them. They'd just be One More Weird Thing instead of "the weirdest thing".

Just saying, though, there's ways to make the TMNT "work" in a world where super-heroes exist... it just takes a steady hand and a damn handsome guy who's never, ever sober in order to force it to work. So it's no wonder why, on the surface, it can SEEM impossible. But that's what I do, make the Impossible into the Slightly Plausible!

Lucky for you and your point of view, you'd never have time to read it anyway. So you're just gonna have to take my word for it.

[PizzaPower1985]

Originally Posted by Leo656

You'd love my fanfic, though. But only because I'm incredible at every single thing I set my mind to. It also only is what it is because it wasn't written for an audience and sprung out of a very specific idea; if I were doing a "real" TMNT story for public consumption and charging money for it, it would be an entirely different animal all the way around.

I'm with you in spirit, though. Ideally, the TMNT should be the weirdest thing in their world, or else the premise sort of doesn't work. They wouldn't theoretically have to hide out and sneak around if there's a ton of other mutants, guys who can fly, and all this other stuff going on around them. They'd just be One More Weird Thing instead of "the weirdest thing".

Just saying, though, there's ways to make the TMNT "work" in a world where super-heroes exist... it just takes a steady hand and a damn handsome guy who's never, ever sober in order to force it to work. So it's no wonder why, on the surface, it can SEEM impossible. But that's what I do, make the Impossible into the Slightly Plausible!

Lucky for you and your point of view, you'd never have time to read it anyway. So you're just gonna have to take my word for it.

OMG! Shut up! What? That fan-fic has to be read by me. Please. May I see it? That sounds amazing! Any time you're ready, pal. I wanna read that.

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

Originally Posted by Leo656

Lucky for you and your point of view, you'd never have time to read it anyway. So you're just gonna have to take my word for it.

$hit, man, we agree on most things TMNT. I'd give it a fair shake.

As long as April ain't attending a cockroach orgy, it can't be all bad.

[Leo656]

I've been picking away at it off-and-on for 20 years and it's not finished, so if you have another ten or so to spare and wouldn't mind waiting... maybe you'll get lucky.

The first one actually won a couple Fic Awards on this very forum back in 2004 or so, but I've recently re-read it and Christ almighty it needs a near-complete do-over. Gets the story across but you can tell I was 18-19 when I wrote most of it. I gotta George Lucas that sh*t up if anyone's ever gonna look at it again.

But yeah, a common response from those who did see it was "None of this should work at all, but it works great," that much is historical fact, so I maintain that pretty much any idea is all in the execution of it.

I'unno, sometimes when people ask nice - or I get really bored - I send 'em a sample chapter for fun. So ya never know!

[Sharman]

Originally Posted by AquaParade

The earlier issues looked the best imo. Even moreso now that they are in color.

Looks much better than the IDW "Color Classics".

The addition of color has certainly improved the Image series and, as far as I can tell, the coloring has been handled well on "Urban Legends".
Still have mixed feelings over the IDW coloring of the Mirage stuff, though.