Free Comic Friday: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 FCBD Edition
Writers/Artists: Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird
Editor-in-Chief: Peter Laird
Managing Editor: Dan Berger
Design: Eric Talbot
Published by: Mirage
Released: May 2, 2009

When I was a kid, I didn't understand the changes made from the source material when adapting a book or cartoon or, less frequently, a comic book, to the big screen, like the Red Skull being Italian in the 1990 Captain America movie starring J.D. Salinger's son and Ned Beatty.* When I came up with ideas for my own movie adaptations, I would just introduce random changes for no reason.

For example, in extending my denial of the traumatic “Death of the Incredible Hulk,” I imagined a movie in which that series' versions of Thor and Daredevil teamed with other adapted incarnations of Marvel characters to rescue the Hulk from near-death by venturing into a dreamscape defended by the Hobgoblin. And this battle unfolded against the backdrop of Cape Canaveral based on some stickers I'd gotten related to the space program.

Anyway, I assumed filmmakers just changed stuff to change it, such as in the 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles live action movie. Having been exposed to the Turtles primarily through the cartoon series and the profiles on the back of the action figure boxes, I couldn't understand why, in the movie, they over-complicated the origin story by making Splinter the pet of Hamato Yoshi instead of a mutated Yoshi himself. Even more confusing, in the junior novelization of the movie, they made Shredder the younger brother of Yoshi's romantic rival, Oroku Nagi, instead of the rival himself.

Many, many years later, one of the best Free Comic Book Day offerings I've ever grabbed, showed me those “changes” were actually part of a very faithful adaptation to the original source material.

To mark the 25^th anniversary of the Turtles' debut, in 2009, Mirage Publishing, founded by Turtle creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, released a reprint of the full debut issue of the original TMNT #1. It's probably the closest most of us will ever come to holding that original issue in our hands.**

The issue opens with text reflections by both Eastman and Laird about the Turtles and their creation. It shares the excitement of two young artists and comic fans upon getting their first printed work – a relatable feeling as someone who finally got to write material that appeared in self-published comics over a decade ago. Incidentally, that seems like a much easier prospect these days, with print-on-demand services like Ka-Blam. I wish I could also relate to the feeling of that creation becoming a money-making phenomenon, but I don't begrudge these guys their success.

Reading the original comic also showed me how different the Turtles I knew were from their original form. Leonardo and Raphael have no compunctions against using the pointy ends of their edged weapons on opponents, be they members of the Purple Dragon gang or Foot Clan ninjas or Shredder himself. Eastman and Laird were, in part, homaging one of their artistic heroes, Frank Miller, and these Turtles are both grim and gritty before that phrase became a punchline.***

(Spoilers for the issue – and movie – follow)

The story is pretty straightforward. The Turtles fight a gang, then Splinter recounts their origin and sends them on the mission he's been training them for for more than a decade: Kill Shredder.

See, Shredder is Oroku Saki, the younger brother of Oroku Nagi, Hamato Yoshi's rival for the love of a woman named Tang Shen. Nagi tried to kill Shen, and Yoshi killed him instead. Yoshi and Shen fled to America, and Saki later followed as the head of that branch of the Foot Clan. Eventually, he exacted his revenge, killing both Yoshi and Shen and leaving Splinter a homeless rat, who eventually gets mutated, along with four turtles, by some mysterious chemicals in an homage to Daredevil's origin. It's told with language and images that were clearly influential on the similar sequence in the movie.

It's clear Shredder's a bad dude, but Splinter isn't exactly interested in fighting crime here. He does acknowledge the gravity of taking a life but tells the Turtles he wants them to avenge the murders of Yoshi and Shen.

And so they do, in a rooftop battle also reminiscent of the first movie. But Splinter doesn't intervene and “kill” Shredder in self-defense (with an assist from Casey Jones and a conveniently placed garbage truck). Leonardo just runs him through and the Turtles... offer him the chance to commit ritual suicide.

He declines, instead attempting to blow them all up with a grenade. Luckily, Donatello hurls his bo at their foe, sending Shredder over the edge of the roof, where he goes boom.

And that would have been the end, except the Turtles became a pop culture juggernaut, reaching heights only a handful of Marvel and DC properties had attained at that point. I'm glad their edges were softened a little bit as they were introduced to the masses. I like my heroes a little less murder-y and vengeance-focused.

But even though this isn't my favorite version of the Turtles, I'm glad to have a copy of my own. I enjoy original content, but I'll gladly take a key reprint, especially of landmark, hard-to-find material, over a throwaway filler story that will be forgotten within minutes of reading any day of the week.

Especially Free Comic Book Day.

* - Sometimes I just make up random-sounding stuff to be funny. This was not one of those times. All that is true.

** - You can try MyComicShop.net, but when I posted this link, the asking price was $24,500, or best offer. https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=157031

*** - One I, admittedly, overuse.