April O'Neil

IDW Publishing is keeping us Turtle fans on our toes as every week something new is coming to the shelves for us to go after.  This week is no exception to the rule.  Today, two TMNT books come to the stores, one in which a lot of fans have been waiting for, the next issue of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Micro Series, April O’Neil.  April gets her own story.  Will there be action?  How will this go without the Turtles there to liven up the moment?  Here are my thoughts on the April O’Neil issue of the TMNT Micro Series.

On July 5th, I shared a review of the TMNT toys that came out and are based off of the Nickelodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toy line.   At that time, I only covered the four Turtles with promise to cover the other characters when I could.  I’ve finally gotten my hands on a second set of th  Nickelodeon toy line to be able to share this review.  Just like before, I did a video of me opening the toys.  So here’s the video and then we’ll get onto a bit of a written review. 

Nickelodeon’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series is coming out on September 29th, 2012. With this information there was no way that San Diego Comic Con could pass up on having a totally awesome TMNT panel, bringing in the cast and creative team behind the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The Cowabunga Corner crew, as well as many other TMNT fans, gathered for this event to try and be some of the first to see and hear the news about this new series.

For 12 wonderful issues, IDW Publishing has brought us a steady pace of awesome Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle issues.  With the great team of Tom Waltz, Kevin Eastman and Dan Duncan, the kept us on our toes from issue to issue.  I really have felt it and loved each of those 12 issues.  I speak highly of this comic to many people as I tell everyone about the new comics from IDW, wIth the twists and turns they threw at us.  It’s been outstanding and a real treat.  With issue 13 though, sad news has come to us all.  Dan Duncan has another job and is now no longer part of the new TMNT series.

One of my favorite things that IDW has been doing for us fans is the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles “The Ultimate Collection” books.  And Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Ultimate Collection Volume 3 just came out last week!

A year of stories have been building up to a big fight, Ninja Turtles vs. The Foot!  IDW Publishing has been keeping us on our toes with all these comics building more and more on the characters and stories.  Tom Waltz has been bringing us through this world building up the tension.  With Dan’s artwork flowing right through.  What a comic.  And here issue 12 is finally here bringing us a battle of good vs. evil.  Though this does not end the story, this is only the beginning.

Mirage Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Volume, the classics!  The start of it all.  If it were not for these comics we would of never had a game, cartoon, movies, toys and so much more.  Eastman and Laird brought these characters to life through print.  Through the years, sadly, the comics have become a lost art, until recently when IDW picked up the title of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and decided to reprint the original comics alongside with their brand new Ninja Turtle story.  The Ultimate collection is for the serious collectors who want the best details.

In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle history, the first battle with the Shredder is usually highlighted as a fight for the Turtles.  The original comics Splinter sent the Turtles to kill the Shredder, which is what they were originally trained for.  In the first cartoon series, Splinter was kidnapped by a robot and the Turtles had to fight Shredder and the Foot to save Splinter.  In the movies, Splinter was kidnapped by the Foot Clan.  We don’t even get to see how that happened, but the Turtles have to fight the Shredder.

In 2009, the news of the sale of Ninja Turtles to Viacom also meant that ninjaturtles.com would no longer be ran by Mirage Studios.  The website soon had an image showing that the new site was to be launched in 2011, as we watched a lot of the areas disappear from the website that we all knew and loved.  Though some cool areas remained, like the history of the old TV series and movies.  We waited for the new site.  But 2011 came and went with no new changes.  Finally, June 2012 the website changes, but is this change for the better?

IDW Publishing has been bringing us a handful of great comic books, this time it’s the IDW TMNT Micro Series. With a total of 8 in production, we’ve seen four of them so far and they’ve been great.  I’ve had the chance to review each of these comics as they came out.  There was the Raphael issue, which brought us signs of Bebop and Rocksteady.