Earlier this year Michael Bay announced to the world that the upcoming Ninja Turtles would be aliens, and the internet took a massive collective shit. “Another childhood memory ruined by Michael Bay.” “The Turtles AREN’T Aliens, they are from Earth!” And blah blah blah.
I didn’t care. I’ve become so used to these interpretations and reinventions of the shows of yesteryear that I just didn’t see what the big deal was about changing around the mythology on the Ninja Turles just a little bit. Your childhood is still alive and well in your memories and on DVD. Don’t like the idea for the new movie? Grow up, and move on. It’s just a movie.
Then movie was put on hold, the internet jumped up and down in celebration. Their childhoods were safe, for now. Once again I didn’t care. I knew they could turn the turtles into killer clowns from outer space and it would still probably be better than the time they danced with Vanilla Ice. But I digress.
This is about Michael Bay being right. Well, kinda right-ish.
When you ask the internet about the Ninja Turtles the first thing that pops into their collective pop culture mind is the animated tv show that started in the late 80s and ran well into the 90s. A close second was the first live action movie. These are the turtles that people hold near and dear to their hearts. These are the turtles that most people are referring to. These are the ones that fan boys feel the need to protect from Michael Bay.
These turtles (mostly the original cartoon) are a far cry from what they were originally based on.
Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird created the first TMNT graphic novel back in 1984 during the independent Black and White comic book rush of the 80s. These turtles weren’t the friendly saturday morning, pizza eating turtles you might be familiar with. These turtles were violent, dark, gritty assassins, who (with the occasional tongue in cheek gag here and there) usually took themselves somewhat seriously. These aren’t the turtles most people remember. These are the ORIGINAL turtles that your precious turtles are based off, and sadly these are the turtles most people don’t know.
Until recently I’ve only read some of the older issues here and there in the early 90s. Despite the Turtles huge popularity, these B&W series where somewhat hard to come across, at least in Puerto Rico. Thankfully IDW has recently released the old B&W books in collected hard bound volumes. As of now they’ve released 3 volumes covering up to issue 19, and a couple spin-off issues. This was the first time I’ve been able to properly read the pre-Saturday morning TMNT.
So other than being dark and gritty, how much more different were they? Oh let’s see.
The first few issues are somewhat standard. We got the Shredder. We got the Mousers. We get Splinter getting kidnapped. We even get an alien race of aliens who control humanoid robot bodies from the stomach (a precursor to Krang from the cartoon). But then by Issue 5 they are transported to another planet where they befriend a robot with a transferred human soul/memory/spirit, get into a alien bar brawl, escape in a spaceship, end up in a space station, fight a bunch of military T-Rex’s in a gladiatorial style arena, then get transported back to Earth, were by issue 7 they learn the truth of their origins. (Pretty wild, ay?)
Turns out the mutagen that transformed these little turtles into the ninjas they are today was actually created by these brain aliens who were hiding amongst the humans. That’s right folks, issue 7, page 21, of the ORIGINAL Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles tells us that the radioactive goo belonged these aliens. And to be honest, with all that space traveling and fighting they were doing for 3 issues straight, this is probably the most normal thing I’ve read in a few issues.
So while the Turtles themselves aren’t aliens, they are alien-ish in origin. So say what you want about the cartoon series (the first movie follows the original books VERY closely, minus the whole 4 issue space bit), but Michael Bay doesn’t have to do much to ruin the image of your childhood. The cartoon series you hold near and dear to your heart is nothing more than a toned down, skewed, almost tainted version, of one of the wildest graphic novel tales ever told.
what you also missed out was that the goo is the same goo that blinded dare devil!!! if it not for dare devil no turtles
what you also missed out was that the goo is the same goo that blinded dare devil
Yeah. When The Mask came out and was starring /Jim/ /Carrey/ (!) I wasn’t sure I wanted to watch it.
I did, eventually.
I consider it one of my life’s mistakes.
Try actually /reading/ the original Dark Horse comic – it was dark, more than a little psychotic, and the Mask would twist your mind and eventually take over. It wasn’t a bright, fun adventure – it was a story that I could have drawn on for my psych term paper (“The Mechanics of Madness: An Exploration of Insanity in Popular Entertainment.”)
I still prefer the original comic – much better story anyhow.
I completely forgot that the Mask was based off a comic book.
I’ll admit to being one of those who didn’t know that when I saw the original movie. I do know at some point in my life I did eventually find out it was based off a comic book, but never actually took the time to read it. But now you got me curious.
Do so – you can find it as a graphic novel, with a little work (I don’t know as I have it in digital format yet.)
Dark Horse was probably the premier publisher of offbeat and /outre/ B&W comics in the 1980′s and 1990′s – I have most of theirs. They also did a number of Aliens series, some AvP, and some other Predator series (I recommend Predator: Race War, for instance) – all close-ended and fairly short. I think the longest Aliens series ran 12 issues.
While my buddies were all gathering up Marvel/DC work, I was getting Dark Horse and Studio Proteus (translated manga – they brought Dirty Pair, Outlanters, and Appleseed to the states – all excellent work. Then, they got more of the work by Shirow Masamune, which is philosophical enough to be interesting: Black Magic M66, Orion, Dominion: Tank Police, and like that.)
I was a huge fan of the original books when they came out while I was in the 8th or 9th grade. This was during the era when GI Joe comics were worth like 50 bucks a pop.
I even bought all of the rip-off comics like Adolescent Black Belt Hamsters and such.
You really opened my eyes regarding the alien nature of the Turtles. I was one of the people bashing on MB abut his decision to alter the origin, but you made realize that perhaps he’s not too far off-course.
GI Joe comics were 50 bucks a pop? What era are we talking here?
I don’t want to live anymore.
Suicide is preferable to knowing the truth.
I’ve never read the original comics so this was interesting to learn. Maybe this new movie will be closer to the original comic than those other movies were.
I doubt it.
And besides, I think the first movie is the closest we’ll get to the original B&W series, and that’s fine. The first movie still holds up pretty damn well.
I’m glad you posted this! The original turtles are the ones I relate to. I bought the books when they first came out and back then they were definitely considered R-rated. I couldn’t stand the cartoon.
yes, I can’t spell my own name in the above post….
Yeah, the original books were pretty shocking compared the cartoon. Especially the final Leonardo/Shredder fight in issue 19. That was pretty brutal.
I had seen the cartoon like everyone else. Thanks for the information on what really happened in the comics. It would still be cool to see them on the big screen again. I would love to see a non PG version.
If they did stay true to the comics then TMNT could probably get a hard PG-13 rating. But yeah, I would love to see a gritty TMNT where they actually KILLED their enemies like in the original comic book run.
That’s a lot of alien turtle dookie
You’re fired. I’m the captain.
Thank you for this! It was interesting to learn
I have one question, though. On those B&W comics, how often would you confuse one turtle for another?
Usually you can tell by the weapon they are holding or the situation within the panel. But sometimes you have no idea who is who. Even if it was in the color, their original bandanas were all red.
I always thought that the idea that the turtles were alien in origin was the least of our worries. In the original movie, the origin story took up maybe 5 minutes, and that’s only because they told it twice.
There are so many bigger reasons to be concerned about Michael Bay’s involvement in the movie.
Honestly, I’ve enjoyed some Michael Bay movies up to a point. And he was only set to produce the new Ninja Turtles movie, so it would probably lack of a lot of Bay flare.
If word of this spread, it might be easier for people to accept the alien origin theory.
Spread the word!
When I heard Michal Bay was turning them into Aliens, yes I was fucking angry, pissed off, almost killed a friend of rage. I calmed down and watched the 3 movies in one sitting. Now to hear that the Mutagen was an alien substance, I can accept them as Alienish but not full aliens. Given that most of the Alien substance’s in comic books end up giving an alien advantage (As for now, I can only list Venom and Carnage) it is something I do love. But do not make them FULL aliens. That’s as bad as the new TMNT cartoon lore (Splinter not being a rat but a human transformed into a rat)
I actually completely forgot about the original cartoon making splinter a mutated human. I remember watching the first movie and Splinter being mutated from a rat and Hamato Yoshi was a separate character altogether, and thinking that it was WRONG, because I was only familiar with the cartoon. I think it was a few years later when I learned the cartoon changed it. I think the other series from the early millenium closely ressemble the original B&W books, making Splinter a mutated rat, and not a human turned rat.
As far as Turtles and aliens. Eh… If this project ever gets off the ground and they do happen to be born in space, and not just the mutagen, then I’m willing to take it as it own separate entity. If it sucks, we still have the original movie, and even the newer CGI one (which I thought was pretty sweet).
I mean honestly, can it really be any worse than The Next Mutation, or the Japanese Ninja Turtles Anime series?