Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Saturday Morning Adventures #1-4

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Saturday Morning Adventures #1-4

Originally released in 2022

Written by Erik Burnham

Art by Tim Lattie

This is more of the tone that I'm used to with the Ninja Turtles - not taking itself seriously, to the point where the fourth wall is little more than a suggestion, and Michelangelo throwing out tons of 80s/90s surfer slang. (Most of the Turtles developed their personalities quickly in the original comics, but Michelangelo didn't have his laid-back surfer dude personality, and the Turtles didn't have their pizza obsession yet)

These comics are treated like they're missing episodes from the original series - self-contained adventures where the villains aren't particularly competent.  Even the technology is treated similarly to how it would be in the 90s, with VR headsets being able to effectively transport someone's mind inside of a video game.

When a freak lightning storm traps the Turtles in Donatello's VR training simulator, the Turtles have to work their way through thinly-veiled pastiches of games like Donkey Kong, Mario Kart, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighter. (Don't think too hard about that last one)

The art and writing do a good job with emulating the era, even down to the ending being the sort of conclusion where everyone laughs or groans, leading into the credits.

Shredder, Rocksteady, and Bebop appear in one of the stories, though Shredder is nowhere near as threatening as he was in his original appearance.  He's impulsive, very open about planning to betray his allies, and surrounded by idiots.

The tone is irreverent, poking fun at New York's rivalry with New Jersey...

...the sort of ridiculous plots that happen in series like this...

...and even the real world creation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The stories are some pretty standard sci-fi plots that you've probably seen a dozen times before. For example, Casey's gotten super powers, but wouldn't you know it? He's gone mad with power, and they come with a major downside (he's unconsciously draining New York's electricity), so they need to be removed.

Or Splinter's been infected by nanomachines that are killing him, so the Turtles need to shrink down and enter his body to save his life in some sort of fantastic voyage.

The plots may not be the most original, but the series is charming and it does a good job with capturing the Saturday morning cartoon feel. The art and character designs feel like they were ripped right out of the cartoon, and it was a fun read that went by quickly.