The story starts out the same as we find the Turtles in the middle of a gang fight. Where the original series saw the Turtles fighting with the Purple Dragons, the new series sees them fighting a gang lead by Old Hob, an anthropomorphic cat, similar to the Turtles. I like the fact that we are introduced to a new character right away; it differentiates the two from the start. The reason we do not meet the Purple Dragons, and subsequently The Shredder, first is because the first Mirage issue was a self-contained story that the creators, Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman, did not expect to serialize. The IDW comics, written by Kevin Eastman and Tom Waltz, are going to have multi-book story arcs that will fit nicely into TPBs.
Where the two stories start to drift apart is in the origin story. The Mirage comics’ origin began 20 years ago in Japan. Splinter, who was Hamato Yoshi’s pet rat, mimicked his owner and learned ninjutsu. Hamato Yoshi was a member of the Foot Clan and competed with his rival, Oroku Nagi, for the love of Tang Shen. Yoshi discovered Nagi beating on Shen one night and killed him. He then fled to New York with Shen to get away from the Foot Clan. Oroku Saki, Nagi’s
The IDW origin is very different and has two distinct parts. The first occurs 15 months prior in the Stockgen Research Lab. Baxter Stockman, who we will see later on in a famous Mirage storyline, is in the lab with April O’Neil. The reason for the short time frame is to justify the inclusion of April in the origin story. Stockman has been performing tests on 4 turtles and 1 rat for General Krang (who will return in issue #7). April names the turtles and Splinter and notices that he is very smart, for a rat. Stockman and Krang have been trying to develop super soldiers and have developed a super soldier mutagen ooze. A ninja breaks into the lab and steals the turtles, rat, and test tubes containing the mutagen. Splinter attacks the ninja in the face forcing him to drop everything in the streets of New York. A cat (later Old Hob) happens to be there and picks up Raphael in his mouth and tries to walk away. Splinter scratches him in the face as well. Raphael has been separated from the rest and the cat, who was covered in ooze as well, runs away. The next morning, the 3 remaining turtles and Splinter are in an anthropomorphic and intelligent state. They also know ninjutsu right away since the ooze was developed for Krang’s army.
The second part of this new origin story takes place in another time, in issue #5. I will recap it here since it relates to the origin story. Back in feudal Japan, Hamato Yoshi was a member of the Foot Clan with Oroku Saki. The Foot Clan killed Yoshi’s wife Tang Shen, but not his four sons. Yoshi took his four sons away from the Foot. Saki finds Yoshi later on and forces Yoshi to watch as he kills his four sons. Yoshi prays to Buddha that he will have his revenge on Saki. Saki kills Yoshi. This story implies reincarnation and the fact the Splinter is the biological father of the Turtles. We will see how the story plays out, but this origin story is very different, with similarities, to the original.
Next we are introduced to Casey Jones. The Mirage issues do not provide as much back story to Casey Jones right away. They develop his character over time. The IDW comics have taken the time to give a back story to Casey Jones. Where Raphael was out on his own in the originals and ran into Casey on the streets of New York, this version has Raphael separated from the group from “birth”. Raphael is wandering the streets and sees someone being beat up. Turns out it’s Casey’s drunken father beating on him. Raphael breaks into his house and splits up the fight. Casey’s father leaves, presumably to go to the bar. Casey and Raphael go out to get a bite to eat and intercept a mugging. They chase the hoodlums and run into Old Hob. Old Hob has made a deal with Stockman to retrieve Splinter for him. Stockman wants to re-synthesize the mutagen from Splinter’s blood. The Turtles have been looking for Raphael since they were split up and have finally found him. They defeat Old Hob and are reunited with Raphael.
All in all, I am liking this new TMNT timeline. The story is being told very slowly which has advantages and disadvantages. On the one side, most Mirage stories were told in one issue and were not developed as thoroughly. This resulted in many stories that made no sense in terms of continuity and introduced many stories that could have been told over multiple issues, but weren't. On the other side, it took 4 (and a half) issues to get the entire origin story. At $4 an issue, that’s $16 - $20 to get the full story, not making it easy for new readers to jump in ($18 for the TPB). The next story arc looks to be very interesting and leads us to the first appearance of the Shredder.
Stay tuned for my next reviews, IDW’s TPB collecting the first 4 Micro-Series issues, Raphael, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Leonardo. The TPB will be released on July 4th, 2012 and all the Mirage one-shots will be re-released on April 11th, 2012. IDW’s Enemies Old, Enemies New will be released on July 18th, 2012 collecting issues 5 to 8.