Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #14, 15, and 17

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #14, 15, and 17

Originally released in 1988

Written by Kevin Eastman (#14 and 17), Peter Laird (#15)

Art by Kevin Eastman (#14), Peter Laird (#15), Eric Talbot (#17)

For whatever reason, the collection that I'm reading the original TMNT issues from is missing issues 13, 16, and 18, with issue 19 starting a three-part Return To New York story arc. For now, they're lying low in a small town, though Splinter is conspicuously absent from these stories.

Tonally, these three issues are very different, so I'm guessing they used this opportunity to experiment with different ways of storytelling.  Issue 14 mixes a crime drama with comedy, as Casey Jones is trying to hunt down a cow statue that was stolen from a local convenience store that he went to when he was a kid.

The Turtles and April get roped into this, with the Turtles dressing like characters from the gangster movie The Untouchables at one point. There's a car chase that sounds silly on paper, multiple double-crosses, and our heroes are stuck in the middle of this like they wandered into a movie halfway through and have to figure out the plot.

Issue 15 incorporates elements of traditional superhero comics, as a team of mostly retired superheroes exists in that universe.  Their old enemy, Doctor Dome (no relation to Doctor Doom), is a former member who still carries a torch for the Wonder Woman equivalent after all these years, and he's making it everyone else's problem.

As a side note, I'm surprised they were able to get away with so many direct references in the double page spread above.  With the superheroes feeling their age (the Flash equivalent is wheelchair-bound), the Turtles do a lot of the heavy lifting, though the parodies feel like they're done with a lot of respect rather than a sense of mockery or maliciousness.

Issue 17 feels like a trial run for The Last Ronin, as Michelangelo is in feudal Japan, separated from his brothers.  With issue 16 being missing, I thought that it involved time travel, with the Ninja Turtles being sent to different eras, but it turns out to be something that Michelangelo was writing.

The tone is definitely more serious by comparison to the other two issues that I read here. There is build-up to it being an in-universe work of fiction, as nobody seems to find it unusual that there's a five foot tall talking turtle wandering around feudal Japan. They mention in the notes afterwards that Frank Miller's work was an inspiration, and I can definitely see that, with the gritty tone and some parts seeming like they'd fit in with a story about the Hand.

This makes for a very different setting than what I'm used to for the Ninja Turtles, but even their attempt at getting away from the dangers of New York City couldn't keep them out of trouble.  In the next set of issues in these collections (#19-21), they'll return to the Big Apple, and I'm curious to see how rotten it will have become with Shredder and the Foot Clan being left there unopposed for quite some time.