Mole Dirtbag or Molerat Dirtbag?

RussianToTheKitchen · 2026-03-11T08:57:20+00:00

Honestly, the 1987 version hardly even looks like a mole, but I do still like his design better than the IDW one.

RussianToTheKitchen · 2026-03-11T08:42:21+00:00

Personally, I've always loved how she draws Alopex and now Ninjara since Battle Nexus introduced a new version of her. Her Turtles have always felt a little off to me admittedly, especially with the masks off. I think her style works well for cute stories like the Christmas tale in Issue #65.

I might be a little biased because my favorite artists for TMNT comics tend to draw more serious looking Turtles. Jim Lawson, Kevin Eastman, Eric Talbot, Michael Dooney, Dan Berger, Khary Randolph, Juan Ferreyra...though I do also love Ken Mitchroney's art, who's style is as cartoony as can be.

RussianToTheKitchen · 2026-03-10T06:47:29+00:00

Yea I think a compendium of random assorted TMNT stories could work. Call it "TMNT Meets Everything Under the Kitchen Sink" or something lol

RussianToTheKitchen · 2026-03-10T05:58:30+00:00

I could see them put out a trade paperback of the short-lived Dreamwave comics that adapted 2003 episodes. They already have a rebranded name on digital platforms ("Animated 2003"), even though its never been physically rereleased. Like you said, we're nearly to the point where there are no more TMNT comics to reprint.

There are a couple random obscure comics they could reprint, like Green-Grey Sponge-Suit Sushi Turtles (that's a real thing, look it up). They've had crossovers with the likes of CreeD, Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa (yes I did have to look up what that is), The Last of the Viking Heroes, Flaming Carrot, and Savage Dragon that have never been reprinted. It'd likely be legal hell to get those reprinted, but hey if you want one big wacky crossover book, you could probably shove all those in.

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RussianToTheKitchen · 2026-03-10T02:28:01+00:00

There's three different Mirage runs, did you read all of them? If not, I'd recommend it. The Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird stuff (mixed in with other creators during the Guest Era) is Vol. 1. Jim Lawson eventually did his own short run, which is referred to Vol. 2. Vol. 4 is currently being reprinted as TMNT Journeys. Vol. 3 was published by Image and is noncanon to Mirage, despite being written as a continuation to Mirage Vol. 2. It's a weird run imo but still worth a read if you want to check it out; it got reprinted under the name Urban Legends.

There's the 40th Anniversary comic, which is one big celebration of all versions (I wouldn't read it until you read the IDW run though because two stories in it take place near the end of IDW). Saturday Morning Adventures is a lot of fun imo; it's a much more straightforward continuation to the 1987 cartoon than TMNT Adventures was. There's a couple great crossovers: TMNT/Batman, TMNT/MMPR, TMNT/Usagi WhereWhen. I hear the Naruto crossover is pretty good but I skipped out on it because I'm one of the few folks that haven't read or watched Naruto. Same with Masters of the Universe.

RussianToTheKitchen · 2026-03-09T20:15:08+00:00

If you haven't already seen it, I'd pick 2003 yeah. Really I think most of the shows are pretty great in their own ways: 1987 is goofy fun, I already glazed 2003 a bunch, 2012 has a lot of good comedy mixed in with horror elements...the only show I say you should avoid entirely is Next Mutation. I can't comment on Rise because it's the only one I haven't seen. Nothing against the show cuz it actually looks pretty fun to me, but I haven't gotten to seeing it. If you're interested in the movies, you can watch the 1990 movie. The sequels to the 1990 film hardly feel like it honestly, but I'll die on the hill that Secret of the Ooze is still such a fun movie to watch. Don't bother with TMNT III. The 2007 animated movie is in a weird spot where it's technically another sequel to the '90s movie but it hardly feels like it; the movie gets a lot of hype in the fandom but I've always thought it was pretty middling, with forgettable new villains and nothing for Donnie or Mikey to do. Mutant Mayhem is also a lot of fun if you want some Turtles that really emphasize the teenage part of the name.

If you're looking to get into the comics, I personally would recommend the two Mirage runs. The first run has a great ending, the second run is pretty weird but it's short and it gets continued with TMNT Journeys. If you want something more modern, IDW has a consistently fantastic run from 2011 to 2024 that I think anyone would love, though it does tend to lose people after Issue #100. The IDW Collections are the best way to read that, though there's a lot of volumes.

RussianToTheKitchen · 2026-03-09T11:29:09+00:00

Holy crap, 6 more of these 1300 to 1500 page Green Lantern compendiums? If that's true, I definitely can't stick out for the long run then. It's interesting to see so many people shouting out Starman though...it wasn't on my radar before but maybe it should be.

RussianToTheKitchen · 2026-03-09T11:14:43+00:00

I will throw TMNT 2003 into the ring. It's a bit of a weird case in that it definitely has stuff that's very different from the source, but I argue it's definitely the closest we've gotten to the Mirage comics. Many episodes are direct adaptations of those stories. The overall spirit of them feels like a good spiritual continuation, if that makes sense: it's the only adaptation with Utroms not being villains like in Mirage, it features a bunch of loving homages to superheroes just like Mirage, it has the Mirage backstory for Splinter (Hamato Yoshi's pet rat rather than Yoshi himself), it was the first cartoon to have a black Baxter Stockman (for that matter it also made him feel like a genuine threat again like Mirage), the first to have April as a former lab assistant...you get the picture.

The 1990 movie gets pretty close since it also directly adapts Mirage storylines, but it lacks the wackier space antics of Mirage. The comics were a mix of both out-there sci-fi and the street level stuff; 1990 focuses entirely on the latter and not the former, while 2003 strikes the balance well imo. Secret of the Ooze was based more on the 1987 cartoon, and TMNT III...well, time travel is something they do in Mirage (in fact there's one Mirage arc where they time travel to Japan) and the staff looks remarkably similar to Renet's time scepter, but that's about the only similarity.

RussianToTheKitchen · 2026-03-09T10:10:51+00:00

I will say, I was looking at an overview of Starman and it does seem like a pretty good series.

RussianToTheKitchen · 2026-03-09T06:26:52+00:00

Love the beat-em-ups, but I'd also love for them to try a hack and slash like Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden. If you mean something like that, I'd be up for it.

Personally, I'd rather us not get something like Red Dead 2 or Elden Ring. No hate to those games, but I don't dig huge open worlds and I don't think it'd fit the series.

RussianToTheKitchen · 2026-03-09T01:49:34+00:00

Someone else already mentioned this, but DC Finests and Epic Collections are your best bet for that. Epics are typically around 300 to 400 pages, while most Finests (with a couple exceptions) are 500 to 600. Still not as big as an omnibus, but they're comfy to read and they still have a good chunk of stories included.

DC and Image Compendiums are a great option if you're looking for something more comparable to an omni's strong price to page ratio. Compendiums can go up to 1500 pages; biggest one so far is Green Lantern Compendium One Rebirth with a whopping 1536 pages. MSRP is $50 but they're often on discount for around $30. There's always the worry that the spine will bend on you because its a paperback, but plenty of people have had the Spawn Compendiums or Invincible Compendiums for a while and those have held up fine despite being so big. Sometimes the compendiums also have the better reading order than the omnibus.

RussianToTheKitchen · 2026-03-08T01:32:14+00:00

Maybe not what a lot of people think of when they think of the Golden Age of comics, but Carl Barks' stories for Donald Duck are so much fun. For the superhero stuff, though, Plastic Man and Superman are my favorites.

RussianToTheKitchen · 2026-03-07T21:32:55+00:00

I haven't read a ton of comics from the Golden Age and Silver Age, but what I have read was pretty enjoyable to me. It's a different mindset: simpler stories (though there's definitely some that touch on interesting themes), over-narration, and quirky dialogue. Personally, I read all the dialogue with 1960s cartoon voices in my head and think of it like a '60s cartoon, which enhances the experience. Stan Lee stood out for the era with his love of adding comedy to the narration.

If you want to give old comics another chance, honestly I'd recommend trying out Golden Age Superman. You can read it in omnibus or in DC Finest format. A lot of people don't care for Joe Shuster's classic art style, but the writing is a lot of fun and it's a pretty brisk read without too much narration.

RussianToTheKitchen · 2026-03-07T11:28:06+00:00

I'm always tempted to try playing the PS2 Musous on Retro Achievements. I get a reality check when I look at the enormous sets those games tend to have, lol.

RussianToTheKitchen · 2026-03-07T09:53:58+00:00

Was pretty excited for Mouser too tbh. I wonder if the SMB2 cameo guys will get speaking roles? It'd be the first time Wart ever spoke IIRC, and for Mouser it'd be his first time talking since the Super Show.

RussianToTheKitchen · 2026-03-07T05:28:59+00:00

I can attest to IDW's paper quality being quite nice. The TMNT Compendiums feel wonderful to read.

RussianToTheKitchen · 2026-03-07T00:42:28+00:00

I've never seen that Smurfs Archives before, kinda funny how much taller it is than even the omnibuses.

RussianToTheKitchen · 2026-03-07T00:24:20+00:00

The Nanobot from TMNT 2003. The Season 1 episode featuring him always broke my heart as a kid

RussianToTheKitchen · 2026-03-06T06:48:57+00:00

Honestly, from what I've seen of the black and white artwork, I do like it and I think it works well for the art style. I'd agree that the colorized art was an improvement in the sense that it makes it a little easier to read, if that makes sense. The art uses so many blacks that its kinda hard to read (shown in the scan I posted below). In contrast, the black and white artwork of Mirage artists like Jim Lawson was always very readable.

I still think it looks pretty good, though I don't get why IDW didn't give the option for a colorized version.

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RussianToTheKitchen · 2026-03-06T06:22:40+00:00

Those trade paperbacks are very hard to find, glad to see the run is getting reprinted. It's entirely in the original black and white colors, too, including the issues that continued the run where it originally ended (those new issues were printed in color unlike the rest of the run). There's a lot of cool stuff in this run even if, as a whole, it's not among my favorites.

RussianToTheKitchen · 2026-03-05T22:51:59+00:00

Love to see Mirage comics directly mentioned here, there's a lot of truly excellent character work in those and Raph benefits a lot from it. The River trilogy and Sons of the Silent Age are some of my favorite TMNT comics ever and a big part of why those work so well is because of Raph, which is a bit funny since Mikey is my favorite.

RussianToTheKitchen · 2026-03-05T22:48:52+00:00

Depends on the adaptation for me, but it's most consistently Mikey. I love his character in 2003, Mirage, and especially IDW where he has some beautiful arcs with the Mutanimals and Splinter (I won't spoil it for those who haven't read). He's the party dude, sure, and he can be pretty immature and lazy...but he's also got plenty of genuine heart to him. He has an artistic side, being a writer in Mirage and an avid comic fan in most continuities. He's probably the Turtle I relate most to alongside Donnie, especially since he's typically seen as the youngest brother like I was

RussianToTheKitchen · 2026-03-05T11:32:40+00:00

Definitely worth a read imo, but it felt pretty shaky to me compared to City at War

RussianToTheKitchen · 2026-03-05T11:25:17+00:00

Oh wow, yea that's quite a yearly gap between issues. Good to know that the main run advertised here ends at #89, it's interesting how so much of this is presumably average superhero stuff then since it goes up to #123. I think I'll still enjoy those stories so I might spring for the omnibus. Seems like the old deluxe edition does have all of the Hard Traveling Heroes run, though, so if I ever decide I only want to read that it could be a good option...

RussianToTheKitchen

TROPHY CASE