Today we’re opening up our case study on the longest running comic book series in Turtle history, IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. For me, this series is full of ups and downs. There’s creative decisions I can’t help but question right alongside characters I’ve grown to love all over again.
In issue #1, we open on right in the thick of the action. Old Hobb is looking for a beat down and he gets it courtesy of Splinter and his THREE ninja turtle recruits. Yes, three. As we learn in the next few pages, Raphael is notably missing from the group and they have been searching for him so long that they have begun to lose hope. Readers, however, are given reassurance that he is still out there. Roaming the streets without his mask.
The issue then flashes back to introduce April O’neil, in a new light. She is seen as an intern at the “Stock Gen” genetic research lab. It’s in this flashback that we also get to see the turtles, un-mutated, lounging in their cage with splinter perched atop. Splinter is a laboratory test Rat used for psychoactive drug testing, and April reveals to her co-workers she has named the turtles based on her Renaissance Art 101 class..
We also meet “Dr. Stockman”, namesake of the company and clearly intended to be the familiar turtles foe Baxter. He is speaking over the phone to a “General Krang”, who mysteriously remains shrouded in shadow in his panels.
We flash back to present day where a maskless Raph is seen dumpster diving to stave off starvation. There’s a ceremonial garbage binning of the lighter side of the turtles when Raph throws away a “Cowabunga” t-shirt” (this serves to cement the departure from the cartoon cannon and tone, and ground the IDW universe).
Before long, Raphael stumbles across a domestic disturbance in progress and we are greeted with another reinvented fan favorite: Casey Jones.
Raphael, with no recollection of who he is or why he’s wandering the streets, still can’t keep out of a fight. Our cliff hanger for this issue shows him breaking down the Jones’ door to confront papa Jones and defend Casey.