Would you say the Archie series has aged well?

[neatoman]

I didn't grow up reading the Archie TMNT series, my experience with it is mostly IDW's reprints, so I don't really feel nostalgic about it. Now that they only have one trade left, I feel like I might as well give my verdict. It's pretty long and mostly negative, so I'll put in spoilers.

Spoiler:

Aside from the problems with the trades themselves, it's not a good series. The artwork is often rushed, the story flows in an awkward way, many of the characters aren't memorable and kind of gets preachy. Admittedly, there are some good points. Environmentalism, a little bit of history, etc, aren't really bad for the intended target audience. And if nothing else, I guess I can it's one of the more imaginative versions? It's just that the good points don't really do anything for me as an adult, maybe if I was kid I'd like it better? I can't say I "hate" it or anything, it's just "meh" coupled with some clumsy excecution. Once I get the final trade I might reread it one more time to see if I like it better, if not I might donate it to a library or sell it.

Being a Murphy book designed to market the same toyline as the Fred Wolf cartoon, it's basically a version of the Fred Wolf cartoon that actually feels like it understands the characters. And comparing it to Fred Wolf cartoon at all feels a bit disingenuous. The first four issues use David Wise's crappy scripts, then Murphy takes over and drop the Fred Wolf status quo. Then it's basically all original concepts and characters that have nothing to do with the Fred Wolf cartoon. The brief return of the Fred Wolf main villains, a couple of toy characters that FW barely used in the first place, the initial few issues and the (surprisingly) rare reminders that April is a reporter and Splinter is Yoshi, aren't enough to make me associate this with the Fred Wolf cartoon.

I honestly wonder if Murphy hated the cartoon and deliberately ignored it, or if he just didn't care and just sort of drifted in another direction? Seeing how Krang's fate was to get stranded on a radioactive dump, I'm gonna go with dislike.

Anyway, do you think it holds up? Like I said, I can't really make that kind of judgement if I didn't read it as a child.

[TigerClaw]

I think it still holds well today. If they were still making it.

[ChosenOne]

Yes. The Archie series is the Preacher of TMNT comics.

[Nortock Diab]

As the OP I discovered the Archies series very late, around 30. I had never read it before.

I had the luck to find almost the whole run in a lot (and I also previously purchased the TMNT Mutanimals issues). I was ready to discover the series!

Unlike the OP I had a really good time (once the FW adaptations are behind) and I believe the series holds pretty well today.
There might be a bit too much environmental speech (even if I consider myself sensitive to that) but a lot a good plots and stories: famous arcs such as Cyber Samurai, Terracide, Black Hole Trilogy, Slash appearance (man this page!), the Mutanimals on-going...

Now I wish Forever War to be released.

[Andrew NDB]

I would tend to think it was ahead of it's time in a lot of ways. In others, maybe not (i.e., Nick forbidding IDW to release certain issues that might be insulting to Islam).

[DarkFell]

I'm really not certain since I haven't cracked into and re-read an Archie comic in years.
(I think it was when Walmart used to have their comic book section within the toy section of the store - at least my store used to do that.)

The only story arc that I halfway remembered reading was Future Tense.

[darthsmozers]

Mind blowing then (time travel, new mutant characters, globetrotting) and, Gia nostalgia, loved today.

[pferreira]

I wouldn't mind them reprinting the 'Hero Turtles' UK stories since a lot of Archie's stories ended up in that comic.

[Dejablue]

I enjoyed reading Archie but I agree it gets oddly preachy at times and it pulls me out of the story when it did that, but other than that I really loved the art. It felt like I was reading a more mature version of the 87 cartoon. And I quite liked the future turtles stuff. I wish the story had a chance to be finished.