Category: TMNT Musings

All posts relating to the ever-present Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles property and all incarnations of that franchise.

IDW To Finish The Final Mirage Volume With TMNT Journeys

Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/family/after-20-years-of-waiting-one-of-tmnts-lost-series-is-finally-resurfacing/ar-AA1EWn8W

Once upon a time, Peter Laird and Jim Lawson began writing Volume 4 of the TMNT comic book – skipping the much-maligned Image Comics run that is Volume 3. Due to a variety of factors including the sale of the TMNT property to Viacom, Volume 4 only lasted about 30+ issues before it was eventually abandoned.

Well, it looks like IDW is going to pull the same shit they did with Volume 3 – where they reprinted the entire run before poaching the original creatives to produce a proper finale for this thing – but this time with Volume 4, a series that also had its share of mixed reactions.

Admittedly, I wasn’t a huge fan of the book. Maybe it was the slow pacing, the slow output of issues during the latter period, or maybe just the overall general direction… but it never grabbed me as much as some of the older stuff did. If anything, I found myself enjoying the relaunched Tales Of The TMNT series more; those were self-contained stories that did whatever and covered whatever, but you had some genuinely fun stuff in there that more than made up for the dull pacing of the main book… even if you had to put up with the harsh political slant of the letter pages, which I generally avoid because those things almost never age well.

Still, seeing this get a reprint and possibly a proper conclusion is somewhat exciting. Maybe giving this another shot decades after its initial inception will change my perception of this run… or maybe it won’t. But then again, I didn’t completely hate Volume 3 back in the day and actually did look forward to that coming to a conclusion, so… fuck, who knows?

Third Time’s A Why?

Source: https://www.ign.com/articles/mighty-morphin-power-rangers-and-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-reunite-for-third-crossover-series

For the olds… remember the days when Ninja Turtles ruled the roast of children’s entertainment before Power Rangers became a thing and there were always debates to which was better? And then we got Shell Shocked… the less said the better.

But then decades later and we didn’t just get one proper crossover, but TWO. And now a third one is coming along and I’m like… meh.

Don’t get me wrong. I actually enjoyed the first two crossovers. They were fun reads… but when you did the Turtle Rangers in the first mini and then you do the Mutant Rangers in the second mini… is there anything left to say with a third mini? At this point, we’re just mashing toys together and the appeal of these crossovers – which seem to come out thrice per month – are lost. This sort of thing used to be a rare thing that felt like an event… now it feels like business as usual and it’s hard to get excited over this stuff.

Oh well… for what it’s worth, I am somewhat enjoying the current Prime series that Boom is putting out. I have reservations about certain aspects, but it’s doing its own thing and surprisingly, I actually like it. I do need to catch up on the current TMNT run, however.

It’s Okay To Like A Franchise And Not Like Everything In It

You’re a big fan of a franchise. You like the movies they put out. Some of the TV shows were pretty good. You’ve even dabbled in some of the official novels and comic books.

But then something comes along and it isn’t quite as good… and much to your dismay, you discover that you not only don’t like this new thing, but you might actually hate it. You consider this an affront to the franchise you’ve grown to love over the years.

It doesn’t end there. Something else comes along and it’s even worse than the other thing. You come to realize that these new things are lesser products devised to set aside all the things you loved about that franchise in favor of trying to appeal that wider, casual audience… otherwise known as the “lowest common denominator.”

All of a sudden, the thing you loved ever since you were a young kid is slowly but surely becoming a thing that you don’t like. You get to that point where you’re becoming the old timer who shouts at the clouds about how everything was better back in the day when the franchise was in its infancy and now everything is just crap or worse.

Does that make you less of a fan?

Of course it fucking doesn’t.

Kids… it’s okay to be a fan of something and not like everything that comes out of it. I have enjoyed many franchises over the years – some of which have been a substantial part of my life in some form or fashion – and I can freely admit that some of the stuff coming from those franchises lately have been… let’s just say “less than stellar.” Does that make me less of a fan of this thing or worse, a “fake fan?”

Of course it fucking doesn’t.

First of all, someone not enjoying the thing you enjoy should not prevent you from enjoying the thing you enjoy. Some things I enjoy are not enjoyed by other people. That does not hamper my enjoyment of these things that some people don’t enjoy as much as I do, if at all. Your enjoyment of something should not be gauged by how many other people are or are not enjoying that something. If you like something that everybody else hates, then more power to you. On the other hand, if you don’t like something that is beloved by many others, that doesn’t make you less of a fan and if anyone else tries to convince you otherwise in a non-joking manner, that’s their problem, not yours.

Like what you like and be done with it. If you like the old stuff, just watch the old stuff. If you like the new stuff, watch the new stuff. If you like everything, then have at it. And if you’d rather spent your time doing something else, then that’s cool too.

I’d tell you not to be a dick, but it seems like every time I hear someone tell people not to be a dick, they eventually become one themselves.

I don’t know what compelled me to type out this piece of business, but hey, it’s something, I suppose.

This Mutant Mayhem Thing… It’s Gonna Suck, Isn’t It?

So Paramount released a trailer for their newest animated feature take on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles entitled Mutant Mayhem – you know, the one conceived by Seth Rogan… I guess. I’d supply a trailer, but I honestly don’t want to. And quite frankly, you can pretty much tell by the title of this post that I don’t have any positive vibes regarding this.

So I guess this stilted Spider-Verse 5 FPS animation style is a thing because that’s something they’re doing here and it looks awful. I mean, we’re at a point where we could have the smoothest, slickest animation in either hand-drawn or CG-rendered style that we could really hang our hats on and what passes as art is something goes “Let’s make this choppy and WORSE.”

Even setting that aside, the overall art style and character designs are just so bad. I get wanting to make the Turtles more like teenagers, but it feels like I’m watching Muppet Babies with Ninja Turtles. The overall tone of the whole deal feels a bit off. It seems like they’re aiming more towards goofy comedy with weird innuendo things that only the grown-ups will get. I’d be surprised if the people behind this thing realize the whole reason for the Turtles being a thing in the first place; they’re turtles that do cool ninja shit. Seth Rogan wouldn’t know cool ninja shit if it bit him in the ass.

And wait, is that Splinter with an afro? What the fuck am I watching here? I’m not even going to touch the thing that’s implied to be this movie’s version of April O’Neil. There’s a bunch of other people doing that already and quite honestly, my issues with this one trailer go beyond merely a new take on that character… or at least, that’s what I’m presuming… unless it’s supposed to be another character entirely, in which case… I’m rolling my eyes here…

I’ll be blunt here, folks. I am not feeling this one. This teaser trailer hasn’t left the strongest first impression. With that having been said, however, I have not totally soured on this thing. This isn’t a Ghostbusters 2016 deal where one bad trailer was all it took to decide that this wasn’t worth my time. This is more Star Trek Beyond Teaser that plays Beastie Boys and you’re just rolling your eyes at the whole thing… but then Beyond shot out a second trailer that did a better job of selling the movie. So my mindset is that the next trailer will do a better job of selling this thing than this did.

One thing is certain; I am not watching this in theatres. I’m at the point where if I’m going to watch a movie at a theatre, it’d better be worth the damned effort and this doesn’t quite reach that point. This is more “wait until it hit Netflix” or something like that. Or maybe grab a cheap DVD. Either way, from the teaser alone, the feeling I have is that this Mutant Mayhem thing… well, it’s probably gonna suck, isn’t it?

I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

The Turtles Collection Finally Has A Release Date

Source: https://www.comingsoon.net/games/news/1231566-tmnt-the-cowabunga-collection-release-date

In case you folks don’t like clicking links, the collection is due August 30th. So if you want to sample some ancient TMNT video games from the days where they were (mostly) good, you only need wait another month.
I’ve heard nice things about the new one, though. Haven’t played it yet.

TMNT Cowabunga Collection – An Actual Thing From Konami In 2022

So, this is a thing, apparently…. and it’s supposedly due out in 2022 in both physical and digital formats. Someone ought to let Konami know that 2022 is the present year we live in.
Other than that, an excellent announcement of a package that, quite frankly, I never thought was ever going to be a thing. And it appears to be the whole classic TMNT package; both arcade titles, four NES games, four 16-bit titles, and the Game Boy trilogy with various Japanese counterparts and some quality of life enhancements.
Don’t scoff about “multiple versions” of the same game; the NES port of the arcade game (TMNT2) is a different beast from the arcade original, the SNES port of Turtles In Time has more stuff than the arcade version, and the three games to bare the name Tournament Fighters are completely unique to the consoles they were released onto. Suffice it to say, you’re gonna get some value out of this collection, even if the asking price is a little higher than past collections.
Still, I’m actually looking forward to this one a little more than that Shredder’s Revenge game that DotEmu is working on. I’ll definitely be picking this up and for those wondering, yes, I have reviews of various TMNT games that I’ll try and spotlight over the course of several days.