The saddest moment in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles live-action films is reversed in the current continuity of the IDW Publishing comic book series. In the comics, the Turtles have gone through their fair share of hardships and defeats, especially at the hands of the Foot Clan and their leader, the Shredder. After one particularly devastating defeat where the Turtles barely escaped the Foot with their lives, the comics reversed the Turtles’ saddest movie moment.
In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #29 by Kevin Eastman, Bobby Curnow, Tom Waltz, and Ross Campbell, the Turtles have fled to a house in Northampton owned by April O’Neil’s family. They leave New York City in order to heal after they battled the Shredder and his evil clan of ninjas. The Turtles found themselves facing off against the Foot after their attempt at rescuing Leonardo who had been kidnapped by the Shredder and brainwashed into fighting alongside him. During the fight, his brothers were finally able to get through to Leo and extracted him without losing any more of their allies.
While the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were successful in saving Leonardo, he was still badly injured from the violent conflict both physically and mentally. Leo’s greatest hurdle after leaving the Foot behind is resetting his mind and fully accepting that the Shredder is not his master and that Splinter and the other Turtles are his true family. To help with that process, the Turtles along with Splinter, April and Casey, go up to the wide-open forest property owned by April’s parents, a place of healing that is free of threats with Raphael being the one brother who is trying to help Leo more than the others. This plot point is similar to what occurred in the first live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film where Raphael is injured after a fight with the Foot Clan and the Turtles and their allies go to April’s family’s property in the country to heal their wounds. In the movie, Raphael is hurt worse than any of his brothers and Leonardo takes extra care to help him recover.
In the movie, Leonardo took care of an injured Raphael while in the comics the opposite is the case, but that isn’t the only reason why these situations are reversed. In the movie, Leo is kind and gentle with Raphael, sitting quietly and meditating next to him while Ralph recovered from his injuries. In the comics, Raphael is not as nice to Leo as Ralph uses a heavy hand to snap Leo back to reality, a method that creates tension between the two but in the end helps Leonardo realize who he truly is.
Another reason as to how these two moments are the same but reversed is the type of injuries the two Turtles suffered. Leonardo’s wounds were mental while Raphael’s were physical, both equally as detrimental but complete opposites. While these situations have their differences, the similarities are striking in terms of catalyst and location with the Foot Clan being responsible for each traumatic event and April being there in both instances to help the Turtles on their road to recovery, proving that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reversed the film’s saddest moment.
About The Author