“Just try to take my ‘chucks, UK!”
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #16
Mirage Studios (September, 1998)
“A Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Story”
STORY/ART: Mark Martin
Two things of note. According to the Grand Comics Database, this issue was released before #15 because it was finished first and #15 wasn’t going to be ready in time. They didn’t have time to change the number, I guess. And according to the TMNT wiki, this issue is considered non-canon. I don’t even think IDW did a colorized version.
Frankly, I don’t blame them. Best I can follow: A girl goes back in time with her time machine to thank the Turtles for helping her, but she ends up there before she showed up, just after the Turtles stop a purse snatcher. She thanks them and then leaves before time resets. Then the past future her…
Okay, admittedly I’m exaggerating. It’s just hard to explain. Anyway, the previous version of the girl arrives to get the Turtles’ help stopping her dad from taking a job at a eugenics company or some other kind of science lab that would lead to her being born a superintelligent mutation and having a terrible life, which didn’t go well for her parents, either. So they do. She begins returning to normal but when she gets home she picks up a stowaway, presumably the reader, and the story recycles.
Look, the art is good except when the actual parents are portrayed by obvious tracings of the “American Gothic” painting of a farmer and his wife, just reworked to be two people looking shocked at the Turtles. Otherwise, the art is quite good. It’s the story that starts out cute but then starts making barely any sense. It just isn’t very interesting. Time travel is tricky and being as clueless as the characters doesn’t always work. If you haven’t read it, you aren’t missing anything outside of the art. I do like the little girl’s design and character in her human form. It’s not a terrible story, but I do understand why it isn’t considered canon. I’m not even keeping this one and it’s just a digital download.
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