Although the four Turtle-based one-shots (or “one-issue micro series”) in Mirage “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” Volume 1 are all must-haves for fans, only one of them clearly succeeds at its presumable goal: Fleshing out the personality of the title character.
That’d be “Michaelangelo.” “Raphael” is memorable due to the debut of a another character (Casey Jones), “Donatello” is a Jack Kirby tribute where Don is the audience surrogate, and “Leonardo” (which I’ll tackle in another post) is not a standalone story — it’s part of the main narrative and leads into Issue 10.
“Raphael”
“Raphael” (“Me, Myself and I”) is most notable for introducing Casey Jones, and indeed, “Casey Jones” would be a more accurate title, but – at the time — not a more marketable one. This issue is the Raph-Casey fight from the first TMNT movie, just more padded out.
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” one-shots (1985-86)
Titles: “Me, Myself, and I” (“Raphael”), “The Christmas Aliens” (“Michaelangelo”), “Kirby and the Warp Crystal” (“Donatello”)
Writers: Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird
Pencils: Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird
Inks: Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird, Brian Thomas
And, per the fact that Mirage’s “TMNT” skews toward adults, it’s more violent. Casey has no compunctions about flat-out killing purse-grabbing pukes rather than merely beating the snot out of them (although, come to think of it, he does wield a baseball bat in the movie, and that could potentially be deadly). Raph tells him: “There’s such a thing as making the punishment fit the crime. With you, everything’s a capital offense!”
Casey is a foil for Raph, as Raph sees what he could become if he doesn’t keep his anger in check. In fact, Raph’s out wandering the streets because he had nearly killed his best bud, Michaelangelo, when the sparring got heated. Now, Raph aims to reel in Casey, and by speaking Casey’s language (violence), he (more or less) convinces Casey to stop short of killing street thugs. And Raph and Casey become (more or less) friends. Certainly, he’ll be an important ally and possibly an interesting character in issues ahead.
“Donatello”
I don’t have strong feelings about “Donatello” (“Kirby and the Warp Crystal”) one way or the other. I like that I recognized it from the kids’ storybook (“The Magic Crystal”) it was adapted into. However, this is just Eastman and Laird’s straight-up tribute to Marvel artist Jack Kirby. A young man named Kirby who is renting basement office space from April draws organic and mechanical monsters that come to life thanks to a magic crystal he found in a pile of coal and attached to his pencil.
In another dimension (thanks to a dimensional gate Kirby drew), Kirby and Don fight the monsters. Then Don makes it back home just before the portal shrinks, but Kirby doesn’t, leaving Don with a note that says “Life at best is bittersweet.” Not too subtle, that ending. Because this issue doesn’t do a darn thing with Donatello’s character – and he could’ve used a true character piece — I can’t rank it too highly.
“Michaelangelo”
“Michaelangelo” (“The Christmas Aliens”), though, is an excellent character showcase. Just about every incarnation of TMNT struggles to make Mikey a serious character on par with his brothers. Leonardo struggles with his worthiness as a leader, Raph’s a hothead, and Donny brings tech skills to the table.
Mikey in the cartoon theme song is a “party dude,” and Mirage basically does a less silly version of that: Mikey is the baby among the four brothers, the one who tries to hang on to his childhood the longest. He’s the one who unquestioningly looks up to Leo, and who spars with Raph because it’s fun, not because he cares much about winning.
In this story, E&L effectively tap into their inner kid as Mike goes sledding, plays around in a toy store, and takes in an alley cat that he names Klunk. (How good are the writers at remembering Mike’s pet in future issues? Something to watch for.) Mike thinks: “Gosh, I know these lights, tinsel and stuff are tacky as heck … but I can’t help it – I think it’s beautiful!”
“The Christmas Aliens” is a less-clever version of “Buffy’s” “The Zeppo.” It shows that Mike can save the day on his own, and in his own way, even though – perhaps thanks to unfair stereotyping — he’s not the first Turtle anyone would look to if they needed saving.
Unlike many early Mirage issues, “Donatello” and “Michaelangelo” are suitable for the TMNT cartoon’s target audience. Still, “The Christmas Aliens” holds up for adults thanks to the gorgeously detailed and snowy New York streetscapes. Plus, the sequence where the police chase the Chet’s Toys truck driven by Mike just screams “vintage TMNT,” perhaps because it calls to mind Issue 3’s van chase.
Mostly for sentimental reasons (I remember buying the second printing at Christmas 1990, as I was starting to venture beyond the cartoon and movie), the “Michaelangelo” one-shot ranks as one of my favorite TMNT issues.