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  • Arc Fatigue: The Turtles' exile to Northampton lasted for two long years, both in-universe and out, made worse by the way most of the issues during this time frame were irrelevant side-stories (a few of which weren't even in continuity) that made no mention of the Foot Clan or Shredder at all. Lampshaded by Raphael in the first issue of the "Return to New York" storyline, where he angrily berates the others for staying away for so long. When the Northampton arc was adapted for the 1990 movie, as well as the 2003 and 2012 animated series, it only lasts for a few months and consists mostly of the Turtles recuperating and training to take down the Shredder.
  • Audience-Alienating Era: The "guest-writer" era that came from #22 all the way through #44. Although there were some well-received stories, for the most part the majority of them are considered a huge step down in quality, often portraying the book as Lighter and Softer and overly comedic (as noted by Bizarro Episode up above) rather than the dark action-adventure tone. Eventually Eastman and Laird themselves stated that only two issues from that era (#27-28) were canon.
  • Bizarro Episode: Many of the guest issues in Volume One ended up like this, with outlandish or even cartoonish plotlines, guest characters appearing out of nowhere and disappearing just as quickly, and very spotty characterization for the turtles when they had any screen time at all. Especially the case with any issue by Rich Hedden and Tom McWeeney.
  • Broken Base: Vol. 3 was Canon Discontinuity for a long time, but with its reprint as Urban Legends and the final three issues more or less allowing it to line up with Vol. 4, fans debate whether it's still non-canon or not. Some also criticized the ending for invoking Status Quo Is God, though they acknowledged that it was probably the only way it could lead into Vol. 4 in any way.
  • Complete Monster: See here.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse: The Shredder, who was only just a one-shot Starter Villain that died in the first issue. Several issues later, he was brought Back from the Dead and most incarnations of the franchise have since depicted him as the Big Bad.
    • Baxter Stockman and his mouser robots to a lesser extent; he originally only appeared in the second issue, and unlike the Shredder, was never brought back during Volume 1, instead making his return in Volume 2, where he moved his brain into a robot body, while his mousers never appear in the comics again. Thanks to the first cartoon, the franchise overall tends to depict him as a recurring villain, albeit not quite as dangerous as Shredder.
  • First Installment Wins: To this very day, when most people think of the Mirage comics, they think of Volume 1. While it certainly had its issues at points, it was one of the first works that laid the foundation for the franchise to come, with adaptations still building on what Volume 1 has done to this day. The first issue is also the most well known.
  • Growing the Beard: As good as the comic and the franchise itself would later get, the original first issue which started it all shows its age a little too much. The turtles all had the same one-note personality, the art was a bit shabby, and the plot was seemingly entirely resolved with the death of the Shredder. The subsequent issues would flesh out each turtle into their own unique personalities, introduced Casey and April, and expanded the Turtles' world with adventures into space and through time, and by around the tenth issue, the story had much more depth and was far more easy to take seriously.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: In Baxter's first appearance, he threatens to use his mousers to tear apart the structure of one of the buildings of the World Trade Center and make it collapse upon itself. Never mind the painful sight of the Twin Towers being used in any kind of terrorist threat, the idea of destroying one of their foundations to make them collapse was the very plan crafted by the perpetrators of the 1993 bombing.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: Two in regards to Nobody, a homage to Batman.
    • In the character's backstory, he was a cop who ended up becoming a masked vigilante. Years after Nobody's introduction, former Robin Dick Grayson would eventually start working as a cop, and a few years after that would officially became the new Batman following the events of Batman R.I.P.
    • Additionally, the Turtles teaming up with an expy of Batman becomes far more amusing when they'd encounter the real deal decades later.
    • In an issue of Tales of the TMNT published in 2009, Mikey praised Michael Bay, prompting Raph to reply "You are a moron and no longer my brother". Five years later, Bay produced two movies based on the franchise.
  • Magnificent Bitch: Karai is the leader of the Japanese branch of the Foot Clan. After the Turtles kill the Shredder, the NYC branch of the Foot falls into chaos, breaking up into factions that begin to fight each other. Karai is sent to NYC to restore order to the Foot. Karai learns about the Turtles and offers them a truce with the Foot if they help end the war. The most dangerous faction in the war, a group of zealots loyal to the Shredder, calling themselves the Shredder Elite are intent on killing the Turtles and the rest of the Foot. Karai confronts the Elite, wearing the Shredder's armor and orders the Elite to kill themselves, with one of them complying and leaving the others shocked enough for the Turtles to launch a surprise attack. When one of the Elite is about to kill Karai, she manages to impale him with a broken lamp. With the Elite dead, the war is over. However Karai remains morally ambiguous, secretly dressing up her ninjas as the Turtles in training sessions, musing about killing the Turtles when they are in a helpless state and provoking a war between the Foot and some inter dimensional warriors. When Karai hires Leonardo to protect her from one of these warriors, Karai conceals the truth about their feud from Leonardo and plans to execute the warrior after Leonardo defeats him.
  • Narm: While "Sons Of the Silent Age" is mostly a wall-to-wall Tear Jerker, and an effective one at that, there's one page where April is shown psychic visions of the fish womans mind, including ancestral memories. One memory reveals that her species had befriended the original native tribes of North America, only to be attacked and opressed by the Europeans, but the panel shows a fish man and a native american being chased by a group of settlers with torches and pitchforks. The scenario, as well as the way the fish man is drawn when running makes it look less tragic, and more like a pair of scam artists being chased out of a small town.
  • Not-So-Cheap Imitation: The comics started off as a send-up of the Darker and Edgier comics of the 1980s, most notably Daredevil, New Mutants, and Ronin (1983). However, when the cartoon came out, the Ninja Turtles exploded into pop culture icons.
  • Once Original, Now Common: The amount of violence, especially in the early issues, were pretty shocking for the time, but considering how tame they are compared to several mainstream comics nowadays, newer readers may not be able to see why they made such a big deal.
  • Quirky Work: Was considered this even by the creators themselves, but some of the "Guest Era" issues can be pretty strange even by the franchise's standards.
  • Sequel Displacement: Downplayed; Volume 1 is the most well-known by far, but Volume 3 (also known as Urban Legends) is slightly more well-known than Volume 2. It's made easier by the fact that Urban Legends got its own reprint series dedicated to it, while Volume 2 only got reprinted by IDW in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Classics, a line otherwise dedicated to some of the Guest Era Volume 1 issues.
  • Signature Scene:
    • Either the cover of the first issue, or the turtles leaping to attack the Purple Dragons in the two-page splash of the same issue.
    • Another one from Issue #1 is the battle against the Foot and the Shredder on the rooftop. Most incarnations since have had a battle against the Shredder that took place on a rooftop.
  • So Bad, It's Good: How some feel about the Guest Era in general; they are an Audience-Alienating Era, but some of these stories on their own are too goofy to completely hate.
  • Squick: When April and Renet returned to the O'Neill family's past to discover April's origins, the two of them took the forms of cockroaches to observe everything. Where things really take a revolting turn, however, is when April reveals that she and Renet had their insect instincts take over and began doing normal cockroach things, including mating with the other cockroaches in the house.
  • Sweet Dreams Fuel: The Michaelangelo micro-series is an adorable Christmas Episode which sees Mikey admiring the snowy landscape, going sledding, befriending a cat, shopping for Christmas gifts, playing with toys, and delivering presents to orphans while dressed as Santa Claus.
  • Vindicated by History: It's not universal, but when Vol. 3 (later known as Urban Legends) was originally released, it didn't sell well, wasn't very well liked among those who did read it, and was Left Hanging, and eventually removed from canon entirely. However, following its reprint and actually being given a proper conclusion, it's gotten praise from fans for providing a unique take on the franchise with ideas that hadn't been done before, and had barely been done since.
  • What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Never mind that, thanks to most licensed works, the Turtles are generally associated with children's media anyway, even this comic could be mistaken for another child-friendly superhero series until the sporadic and very sudden appearances of explicit violence.
    • This is taken to a whole other level in the "Bodycount" storyline, which more than outshines the first volume in the gore department and stands out as possibly the bloodiest Ninja Turtles story ever told. Miraculously, this story was first published in 1994 — well after the '87 series had established a kid-friendly precedent for the franchise.
    • Vol. 3, also known as Urban Legends, is also noted to be one of the most violent versions of the franchise ever made, which is one factor that makes it divisive among fans of the comics.

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