In 1984, two guys printed a one-shot black and white comic meant to parody the grimdark Frank Miller-esque fare that had recently permeated comic books: Daredevil, Ronin, and New Mutants among them. In the comic, four mutated turtles were trained as ninja by a talking rat in order to avenge his master's death at the hands of a particularly edgy villain named the Shredder. The comic turned out to be surprise success and grew into a regular series. Three years later, a toy company approached the creators and said they wanted to make an action figure line and an animated series based on the franchise. It would have to be tamed down for kids: the turtles were given different colored masks to help differentiate them and an appetite for pizza.
Then the whole world blew up and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were the biggest thing since sliced bread.
The franchise has lived on another 30 years, emerging in various forms; cartoons, live-action movies, video games, comics, and pretty much everything else. In 2009, Nickelodeon purchased the franchise lock, stock, and barrel and revitalized it into (what I consider to be) the best interpretation of the Turtles ever put to film. That CG-animated series is concluding in its fifth season this year, and a new traditionally animated show is debuting in 2018. IDW currently has a pretty good comic book series running as well.
So let's talk about some T-U-R-T-L-E power. I lived and died by this franchise for pretty much my entire youth and it's still probably the closest franchise to my heart.
