Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Ultimate Collection vol. 1

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Ultimate Collection, Vol. 1 by Kevin Eastman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A young boy knocks an old blind man out of the way of a truck and is hit by a canister falling off the truck, striking him blind but amplifying his remaining senses. But the canister didn't stop there, it shattered as it struck a fishbowl containing four turtles and fell into a sewer. Now, fifteen years later, the turtles have returned to the surface as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

I've been a comic nerd my entire life but somehow I never got around to reading the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics until now.

As you can tell by the intro, I knew Eastman and Laird pinched Daredevil's origin and bolted TMNT's origin on to it. I also knew the general beats from the 1980s cartoon and the movies that came shortly thereafter but was surprised by all the differences but I'll get to that in a minute.

The first thing about the first issue was how murky and overdone the art was. I was actually more impressed with the writing. Secondly, the art style wasn't what I expected either, showing more of a Richard Corben and Robert Crumb influence than anything else. The layouts had some Marvel influence though, showing some dynamic, Kirby-style action. As the series progresses, and the guys get more comfortable, the art improves dramatically.

Quite a bit happens in the eight issues contained in this volume. The turtles emerge from the sewers to confront the Foot Clan and its master, The Shredder. And he dies in the first issue. See what I mean about differences? Not only that, April is a lab assistant to mad scientist Baxter Stockman, who is black in this iteration and not a human fly at this point.

Anyway, there's Baxter Stockman holding the city ransom, Splinter going missing, Raphael having a solo adventure with Casey Jones, and an interstellar saga that reminds me of early Fantastic Four issues. The double page spread on pages 2-3 of issue #6 is spectacular.

The comics are quite a bit different than the cartoons and the movies. The turtles all were red masks. Michelangelo isn't an annoying surfer dude, there is no mention of pizza, and the guys kill quite a few people. It's good shit!

There are notes by Eastman and Laird after each issue, giving extra insight into what went into them and vindicating me when I mentioned Richard Corben being one of their influences. I find it crazy that these guys were making a living putting out four comics a year and that a cultural phenomenon started with a self-published black and white comic.

By the end, I was hooked. It was great seeing the characters develop but I think I enjoyed watching Eastman and Laird getting more confident as artists even more. I'm in for another volume at least. Four out of five stars.

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