TOS s1e[debatable] “The Man Trap” and TMNT II: The Secret of the Ooze
Fun fact: in the original comic, Shredder didn’t make it past the first fight. Splinter kicked him off a building, into a dumpster, and then dropped a grenade in it.
I’ve never been able to take his jank-ass seriously.
The comic is dark as fuck. Not to mention The Last Ronin storyline.
Truth. The only color was red: turtles masks & blood.
Eastman & Laird were fucking mad as hell at their competition being a simplistic rabbit comic boppin’ around Sengoku-era Japan, so they whipped up a “catchy” rebuttal in the form of TMNT and went hard. This, of course, made it a bareknuckle pivot into the Saturday morning cartoon version that launched the turtles into the spotlight as cultural icons we know today, but at least E&L weren’t complete tools about Usagi Yojimbo when Sakai reached out to collab/crossover. (The latter is a genuine sweetheart of a man, btw, and legit was simply trying to make history fun for kids.)
What’s more bonkers, that Shredder’s costume got turned up to 11 when he took mutagen, or that the turtles had a full choreographed routine when Vanilla Ice improved a new rap with his crew on stage
We all go a little ninja, sometimes…
