how far has the tmnt universe gone?

[Time Mistress]

I like it too Jo Dawn. One of the things that's so frustrated me about Marvel lately is the realization that I really am reading the never ending story. Some writers are able to give the illusion of progress other aren't, but the truth is continuity means less and less these days. But that's a rant for another time. The simple fact is Captain America will be back, Splinter won't. But Tales of TMNT is set in the interum years where Splinter is still alive and well and endless stories can still be told about him allowing for TMNT comics to give us the best of both worlds.

[TheAnimatedSeries]

Originally Posted by heretic888

No offense, but its obvious you've never read Volume 4.

Volume 3 (the short-lived Image series) was a "shock thing". Volume 4 is more along the lines of an epic and complex sci-fi/fantasy storyline, with each of the protagonists involved in their own sub-story.

Actually, they've aged ten years in the last ten years. Laird purposefully chose to have the story set in real time (at least in the beginning). The TMNT were 15 years old in 1985 (i.e., issue 4 of Volume 1), so they're around 31 or 32 in the first issue of Volume 4.

No, I definently havent but hopefully if its ever collected and I find it I will.

I was basing the aging thing on the way most comics work, with six month long story archs spanning a few weeks in the characters lives. Are the TMNT comics told differently, or every so often do they catch up and say "two months later" or some such?

I guess it helps to have the Tales of the TMNT there to fill in the gaps. If you look at say the first five years of Ultimate Spiderman, its really insane that he would get powers, fight the green goblin, fight the green goblin again, have a movie made about himself, fight the hob goblin, fight Venom, fight Carnage, quit and then go back to being Spiderman multiple times and everything else all in one year. They might as well had done it in real time because by the time twenty real years have gone by and the character would be 35, the book will be so ridiculous it will be time to restart anyway (it all ready is).

[TheAnimatedSeries]

Originally Posted by Jo Dawn

The comic strip For Better or For Worse does that, and I think it's great.

Its cool, but comic strips have the benefit of being published daily and after every little arch is done you can kind of assume a few days or weeks have gone by. With comics you have just one new update on whats going on a month, and 40 pages to tell it. Its the slowest medium to tell a story, so its difficult to make it in real time unless every issue is a one shot.

[heretic888]

Originally Posted by TheAnimatedSeries

I was basing the aging thing on the way most comics work, with six month long story archs spanning a few weeks in the characters lives. Are the TMNT comics told differently, or every so often do they catch up and say "two months later" or some such?

In the first issue of Volume 4, the turtles comment about fighting the Purple Dragon gang 15 years earlier. They originally fought the Purple Dragons in the first issue of Volume 1.

Shadow is also introduced as a "teenager" in Volume 4. She looks somewhere between 16 to 18 years old. In Volume 2 (which takes place when the TMNT were about 17), she was a baby.

I'm not saying that each individual issue of Volume 4 takes place in "real time", but the first issue does take place somewhere around 15 years after Volume 2 ended.

[Aignatius]

I never saw the comics as turning into a shock thing. It was rather intense from the very first issue, about 3 years before it became widely popular as a kiddie cartoon. Then it became a mishmash of different storylines and short story issues, many were quite different from each other.

I will say the Image series was rather shocking, though. Not only the story but at times, the art as well. Rather distorted, like something you read and then dream about when you have a high fever.

Come to think of it, so was Volume 2. A very strange storyline. And the ending! Pretty gross.

I don't like to think of the TMNT at the end of their lives, it's too depressing to think about.

[Raph'N'Roll]

I have to say, I loved the Image TMNT series, it's what got me back into them, and from that series I became a serious collector of the original comics.

[TheAnimatedSeries]

So has the series remained pretty consistently dope? I for some reason was under the impression that it fell off at some point, but again, I've only read the first dozen or so issues.

[Time Mistress]

Voulme 1 is great! There's a lot of non continuity experimental stuff in the middle some of it is good, some of it not so good. But Eastman and Laird's stuff is all good in the first 21 issues or so, plus Shades of Gray/City at War (issues 48-63.)

Volume 2 is a good continuation, it's also in color.

Volume 3 has been declared an alternate universe by Laird. This is usually the one people talk about when they refer to shock value.

Volume 4 is done by Laird, the story has more sci-fi and less action than the privious volumes, plus not everyone enjoys Jim Lawson's current art. But it's got a decent story and it's interesting to see where Laird is taking his creations now that they've grown up. If you don't mind the art, it's worth getting. It's also currently on hiatus.

Tales of TMNT - fills in the years between Vol. 2 and Vol. 4. I really like this book. It spotlights different artists and writers like Vol. 1 did in the middle, but this time it's all in continuity. Sometimes the quality can be hit and miss, like you'll get an issue or two you love followed by one by a writer or atist you don't like, but there's always the hope that next month you will like it just as much again. So it's worth getting though you might want to check on the specifics of waht each issue includes before you decide which ones to get since they can be read in pretty much any order.

[The Shelf]

I wanted to get TMNT volume 4 and Tales, but since I can't find any issues of Tales in comic shops and I can't order every issue off the official site (and I'm too lazy to scour the web for them), I decided to get all of TMNT and just get the Tales paperbacks since they seem to be coming out pretty regularly. I hope they release most of Tales in paperback. Hopefully by the time they're done with the Tales paperbacks the volume 1 paperbacks will be complete.

[Time Mistress]

The trades are probably the best way to start. Hope you enjoy them.

[TheAnimatedSeries]

Originally Posted by Time Mistress

Voulme 1 is great! There's a lot of non continuity experimental stuff in the middle some of it is good, some of it not so good. But Eastman and Laird's stuff is all good in the first 21 issues or so, plus Shades of Gray/City at War (issues 48-63.)

Volume 2 is a good continuation, it's also in color.

Volume 3 has been declared an alternate universe by Laird. This is usually the one people talk about when they refer to shock value.

Volume 4 is done by Laird, the story has more sci-fi and less action than the privious volumes, plus not everyone enjoys Jim Lawson's current art. But it's got a decent story and it's interesting to see where Laird is taking his creations now that they've grown up. If you don't mind the art, it's worth getting. It's also currently on hiatus.

Tales of TMNT - fills in the years between Vol. 2 and Vol. 4. I really like this book. It spotlights different artists and writers like Vol. 1 did in the middle, but this time it's all in continuity. Sometimes the quality can be hit and miss, like you'll get an issue or two you love followed by one by a writer or atist you don't like, but there's always the hope that next month you will like it just as much again. So it's worth getting though you might want to check on the specifics of waht each issue includes before you decide which ones to get since they can be read in pretty much any order.

I doubt I would really mind the art, I can usually get used to most artists unless they are too busy in every panal. I know its hard to find all the collected books, so I guess I will pick up what I can find at my comic book store and ebay. Thanks for the info.

[The Shelf]

Originally Posted by TheAnimatedSeries

I doubt I would really mind the art, I can usually get used to most artists unless they are too busy in every panal. I know its hard to find all the collected books, so I guess I will pick up what I can find at my comic book store and ebay. Thanks for the info.

You may be able to find these cheaper elsewhere, but.... you can buy every single issue of Volume 2 and 4 off of the official site. They also have most of Volume 3 and about 1/3 to 1/2 of Volume 1. They have most of Tales as well. EDIT: And for the record, I personally love Lawson's art in Volume 4, though it is different than what I was used to. I'm pretty neutral toward his humans, but my only complaint is a couple very minor errors that he had involving the un-coordination of some humans' eyes.

[Daunt]

I read through this thread and and found myself totally confused. D: I really have been out of the loop far too long. I read the first 4 trades back when I was a kid and collected a bunch of the comics ranging from mirage to Archie. None of the Image ones though. :v

I have no idea where to start now. :(

And as a note I was really -really- shocked about them being in their 30s. 8O WOW. I have missed so much!

[Raph's Girl]

Originally Posted by TheAnimatedSeries

I was basing the aging thing on the way most comics work, with six month long story archs spanning a few weeks in the characters lives. Are the TMNT comics told differently, or every so often do they catch up and say "two months later" or some such?

In TMNT the characters age in real time. When the series started in 1984 the turtles were 15 years of age. In volume 1 they even celebrated their 18th birthday.

The City At War actually lasted for 2 years. During that time the turtles were on their own. April left for California to live with her sister and nephew, Casey initially went after her but instead met and fell in love with a woman named Gabriel who was already aproximatly several months pregnant with another man's child. Casey married her but she died giving birth to Shadow, who was born near the end of the city at war arc.

In Volume 2 Shadow was a toddler.

Volume 4 is set 15 years after Volume 2 ended. Shadow is now around 17/18 (altho tho she was probably 16 when Vol 4 started since about a year has passed between the first arc and the current one).

Splinter died in issue 10. As of issue 28 approximatly 2 months have passed since his death.

Also in TMNT when a character dies they stay dead. Splinter, Rat King, Nobody (he was killed in Vol 2), The Savanti's (Romero and his wife, Juliet...Savanti is the only TRUE reacurring villian in Mirage comics), Venom (a uh er different venom...), Klunk (who lives on in his descendents), Baxter, April's folks (her dad died during the city at war arc), Oroku Saki, Nagi, ect

I would say Shredder is dead (uh unless you count the shark) but there's a new Shredder, Oroku Yoshi. Leo met him in the Nexus. Oroku Yoshi is a good guy (and cute! )

[Coola Yagami]

Oroku Yoshi? Explain... Anything to do with Hamato Yoshi?

[The Shelf]

Originally Posted by Raph's Girl

Also in TMNT when a character dies they stay dead... Baxter...

I question whether or not Baxter is really dead (by the way, that's one of my favorite scenes in all of Volume 4). I think his brain is what was inside that robot, and that could still be intact if he foresaw the possibility of being blown apart like that. I'm picturing his brain detaching from the rest of the robot and starting to crawl around using the head portion of the robot to get around. I really hope he's dead, and it looks like he is, but there's still a slim possibility that he survived.

[heretic888]

Originally Posted by Coola Yagami

Oroku Yoshi? Explain... Anything to do with Hamato Yoshi?

Spoiler:

In the current arc, Leonardo used some of Splinter's mystic documents to open a portal to the Battle Nexus (don't worry, its different from the one in the FoxBox series) by himself. While there, he met a seemingly human martial artist dressed like the Shredder whose real name is Oroku Yoshi. He appears to be a "good guy" (he helped Leo fight a big mutant snake thingy and shook his hand when they met).

That's as much as we know right now, as the series is currently on hiatus. I'm personally interested to see how both Leo's sub-plot and Mikey's sub-plot end up. In the last issue, Mike was about to have a sparring match with a Triceraton commando inspired by the TMNT.

[odupianist]

The closest thing to Rat King's return is an upcoming issue of Tales of the TMNT in which we will find out his origin and how it connects to Splinter.

That I would love to see. The only "origin" we really have for the Rat King is the 2k3 series and Bishop's clone. While I don't think it's a good representation for the Rat King's origin, I think they tied it in very nicely.