Editing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (section)

=The Multiverse=
We're not the TMNT wiki, but we can give you a basic rundown on the different branches of the TMNT [[multiverse]].

'''The Mirage Comics:''' The original Turtles universe, all TMNT media ultimately traces back here; it wouldn't exist without these comics. This series covers three "volumes" of the ongoing "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" comics, plus the first "Tales of the TMNT" miniseries. Noted for a somewhat "throw mud at the wall and see what sticks" approach, this series still created such setting-defining concepts as the TMNT and Splinter themselves, Shredder, the mutagenic ooze, and the two most noteworthy alien races - the Utroms and the Triceratons.

'''The Image Comics:''' In the late 90s, Image produced the official continuation of the originl TMNT comics in what was considered "volume 3", taking things in their own direction. Then Mirage decided to produce "volume 4", which basically retconned out everything done in the Image comics and so exiled it to its own little weird continuity.

'''The Fred Wolf Cartoon:''' The 1987 cartoon, which initially might have been planned to be more serious and action-packed, but after the first season quickly became a more slapsticky action-comedy show. The first major change up to the storyline; this universe drops Oroku Nagi and his related plot threads. Instead, Hamato Yoshi was character assassinated by his power-hungry rival Oroku Saki, causing him to be exiled from the Foot Clan and making him flee to New York, where he ended up living in the sewers with a quartet of baby turtles and assorted pet rats. But Saki, now the Shredder, wasn't content with this and followed Yoshi to New York; here, he made an alliance with the exiled alien warlord Kraang, and attempted to assassinate Yoshi with some of Kraang's bio-modifying "Mutagen", which instead turned Yoshi into the humanoid rat splinter and his pet turtles into the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

'''The Archie Comics:''' Originally a comic tie-in to the Fred Wolf cartoon, these eventually went their own very different direction, similarly to what happened with the [[Sonic the Hedgehog]] comics that Archie Comics had produced.

'''The 90s Movies:''' Naturally, being a hugely popular comic and cartoon series in the 90s led to an attempt to do a movie. The first, widely considered the best, is basically an adaptation of the original comic, and extremely faithful, bar dropping Oroku Nagi as a character and instead making Saki the third wheel in the love triangle. This was followed up by two sequels; a direct one where Shredder attempts to return for revenge only to be killed off, and one in which the TMNT are zapped to Fuedal Era Japan by a magic scepter, widely considered the worst of the trilogy.

'''The Next Mutation:''' The only ever live action TV series (at least so far). Kind of implied to be some kind of spin-off to the 90s movies, or at least some alternate universe where the Shredder never died in them. The big thing of this series was revealing that there had been a ''fifth'' turtle in the bowl that was exposed to mutagen; a female who had wandered away from their group and been adopted by a Chinese wise man who had taken her back to China, where she became a "shinobi" - basically a [[ninja]] with [[magic]]. Shredder was displaced and instead the main antagonist was a clan of evil [[dragon]]s known as the Rank, who were working to free their leader from another [[plane]] he had been banished to. Absolutely '''despised''' by Eastman and Laird, and not too popular with fans.

'''The 2003 Cartoon:''' Widely considered the very best animated adaptation for trying to be more faithful to the Mirage comics, though still with its own unique spins. In particular, Shredder here is more of a title held by multiple different characters over the seasons.

'''The 2012 Cartoon:''' Basically an attempt to update the Fred Wolf cartoon to the early 2010s... before the major suckage of that decade. Same basic backstory for Splinter and the Turtles, save for a new wrinkle; Shredder kidnapped Yoshi's baby girl and raised her as his own. April and Casey are also teenagers in this one, and the Turtles being ''teenagers'' is given more of an emphasis than just them being addicted to pizza and shouting catchphrases.

'''Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:''' The most controversial of the cartoons for being even more comedy-focused than the Fred Wolf cartoon, as well as its drastic visual redesigns - this is the only series where each of the Turtles looks like a completely different species of turtle. Also, makes ''Raphael'' the leader instead of Leonardo, for some reason.

'''The IDW Comics:''' The longest running comic iteration of the TMNT, still active to this day. Borrows bits and pieces from the Mirage comics and Fred Wolf, but with radical new spins. For example, it uses the "evolved animals" backstory from Mirage, but explains their ninjitsu skills as being due to their bering reincarnations of a ninjitsu master and his four sons from Feudal Japan. Rocksteady and Bebop return, but are legitimately terrifying killers as well as idiots.

'''[[Usagi Yojimbo]]:''' It bears mentioning that the [[samurai]] rabbit is part of the same ''in-universe'' [[multiverse]] of the Mirage comics, the IDW comics, and the Fred Wolf cartoon.