When I was a young child, my choices of comics were relegated to a choice between DC and Marvel. In 1984 something completely new came out. Two guys, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, decided that they would make a comic series. It was supposed to be a one issue parody of Marvel's popular "Daredevil" title.
Starting with the concept of a turtle with a nunchaku, primarily as a joke due to the "speed" inherent to a turtle, this became a comic which became a franchise encompassing animated series, movies, video games, toys, and merchandising that is still haunting us to this day. I speak of the infamous Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
This Deluxe Edition collects the first three issues of this seminal work. I call it seminal because not only was it a breath of fresh air for readers, but it served to heighten the popularity of comic books in general with the mass market.
The First Issue is truly amazing. far more violent than what was common at the time in other Comics. It's also, something I see now with age, a great parody of Daredevil. What do I mean? The accident that created the Turtles is the same accident that created Daredevil. The Ninja-Master rat, Splinter, is a parody of Daredevil's Ninja-Sensi-Stick. Daredevil's nemesis is the ninja-assassins of the Hand, where the Turtles fight the Foot.
This Deluxe Edition has those original stories in full color. The first story tells their origin and introduces Shredder. The Second and Third stories revolve around the Mouser robots and how April was introduced to the team.
A very cool blast from the past which ended up being far better than I thought it would be. I notice that, since this is a colorized version of the B&W original, all the Turtles wear red bandannas. You can only tell them apart by personality and weapons. The different colored bandannas must have come later on.
If you are a TMNT fan or would like to read about four Turtle's trained in the art of Ninjitsu, then this Deluxe Version is for you. Eastman and Laird's zany world in all its colorized glory. Well worth adding to your comic collection simply for the sheer impact it's had on the industry as a whole. Hence 5 stars.