“Yesterday’s” Comic> Raphael: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (micro series #1)

“I didn’t know the term ‘red light district’ was so literal.”

Raphael: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle

Mirage Studios (1985)

“Me, Myself, And I”

WRITERS/ARTISTS: Kevin Eastman & Peter Laird

also see my review of IDW’s colorized reprint

During sparring, Raphael gets way too into it and nearly kills Michelangelo until Leonardo stops him, ordering him to go cool off. While trying to pull himself together he comes across muggers and chases them off, though the victim is just as scared of him. Then he has to save the muggers from the vigilante Casey Jones, who will beat any criminal to death for even minor crimes. The pair battle almost all over New York City until they’re finally exhausted and find a strange bond before running off together to stop another crime.

What they got right: Casey is a good match for Raphael. While the turtle is shaken by nearly killing his brother and “best pal”, we have someone who may be worse than him, forcing Raph to be the voice of reason. It’s interesting to see him have to talk the vigilante down and in a small sense confront himself.

What they got wrong: Casey is only motivated because he saw a Dirty Harry or Charles Bronson movie (or just the action scenes). It really does make him loo bad, when later incarnations of the character gives him good reason to be angry, usually involving his father or the Purple Dragons or both.

What else is there: This comic is more interesting in hindsight with Casey’s debut than the story itself, since so much of it is just Raph and Casey fighting. For example, Raphael is usually the hot head (or at least the snarky one depending on the target age group) but we see early on–this being only the fourth Ninja Turtle story–that he does care about his brothers. Usually Mikey is the one he’s shown most antagonistic with, Mikey’s more laid back comic geek style conflicting with Raph’s more brutal style. That’s not really the case here. They seem closer when they’re not being treated as siblings but as friends and comrades. It’s also interesting, as I noted in the color reprint when it came out, that Casey was so underused in the first cartoon but in the original comic and other adaptations since (except for The Next Mutation), he’s an important part of Team Turtle while the Shredder is supposed to be their big bad but we’ll only see him in one more storyline way later in the comic.

What I think overall: This is a comic more interesting for its place in Ninja Turtle history than for the comic itself. It’s just an average story that at least gives us some insight into Raphael, but not enough. Casey’s debut is a bit weak and both the live-action movie and 2003 cartoon did a better job with this issue’s plot. This is also the first of four comics giving each Turtle a focus story, though I don’t know why they couldn’t just be four issues of the main comic.