Why TMNTA? Why was that my favorite form of
TMNT??!! It was a comic based on a cartoon based on
a comic for crying out loud. And that just screams
disaster. Well, me, like many other people who were
in good old elementary school when the cartoon
aired, got immediately hooked on TMNT. And one
day, i saw this comic sitting at the local corner
store. I was like "wow, cool!" And so it was bought.
For awhile it wasn't that great. While the story line
was original and not quite as cheesy as the cartoon,
it lacked many things. I stopped for a while, only
picking it up out of boredum (It was the only comic
I went near during this time)...
But then, something really cool happened. A
semi-seriousness entered the comic. It had been
trying it for some time now, bouncing back between
odd space adventures and almost a discovery channel
outlook... it was called (dum, dum, dum)
"The Future Shark Trilogy"(ooh, i know you are
impressed>)
I know, i know, corny name, but actually a good story.
And that's when the comic, for me, really began to
start. It was always late (but I guess that's a TMNT
Comic tradition :) ) But there was always a story.
We met a future that was not as nice as the sun-
shiny world that the TMNTA had been exposed to and
the series changed. At times it wavered, with odd
one-shots and such. But the comic began to darken
(only slightly) with sparce obsenities, truly
funny comments, and the one thing that really did
it...
The death of the MutAnimals
It was near the end now. I saw a mini series based in
the dark future, which introduced us to Leonardo's
future students (the poor people did not have
personalities :( ) and showed us how scary marketing
interference can be in comic books (All i have to
say are...those suits, yeah) But all in all pretty
good.
Then back to the present. And Raph got in a fight
with Ninjara. She ditched him. This lasted four
issues. (The second half of the book was all
mini-series 'one of four' or 'one of three'".
Then on the last one there was an advertisement
...."The beginning of the end!"
Ack!
But we didn't even get to see how it really ended.
I guess someond decided to try and save it one
last time. There were three or four last issues
that weren't even in the same "universe" as the
first ones.
And that was the end of the archie Series.
So why the archie series? I don't know, I really
don't. Maybe it had this not too light not too
dark, greatness, or whatnot. It combined the
realism of the original book with the lightness
of the cartoon. Who knows? Hm, that's a good
question.