Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-25139993-20180830163953/@comment-995426-20180830215110

Even the Mirage turtles were teenagers, at least during the early page of volume 1. In a comic targeted to adults, it was already understood that many teenagers drink alcohol and sneak into adult places and do all sorts of things considered age-inappropriate for them, if ever they can manage to do so. This may not be considered ideal by many parents, but it is accepted as typical in the comic's grittier worldview.

At the end of D'ants Fever, which takes place in a bar, Leo says, "I think it's time to go, guys! Besides, if they find out we're only teenagers--whew, boy, geez!"

In , the Rat King narrates the story. In one part, he says, "They are not your average teens. They have not come here to drink beer and smoke cigarettes."

In one issue of the Image continuity (originally officially part of the Mirage continuity until it was later declared non-canon and ignored by subsequent works), the turtles recognize an abandoned porno theater being used as someone else's base, because when the theater was still open and the turtles were preteens, they used to sneak in and watch.

Also in the Image continuity, Mikey gets to third base with Sara when visiting Chicago. but Sara's roommate furiously points out the Sara is still too young to take care of herself&mdash;while being thrown out, Mikey mostly remembered the roommate's cleavage.

It's also worth noting that in many ways, the turtles grew up faster than was perhaps healthy. They were raised to be assassins, and taught to kill, and were as young as their tender preteen years when they first killed other (human) opponents. When they were only 13 or 14, they were tasked with killing their father's nemesis. There's so much about their childhoods that would screw up a lot of people.

The 2012 TV series also had the turtles behaving more like teenagers, but from the onset their lives were far less violent. Splinter wasn't grooming them to kill his nemesis&mdash;he just wanted them to be able to defend himself. He was content with living in peace for as long as they could manage, while understanding this may not always be possible. Until they were 15, they had a relatively more normal childhood than the Mirage turtles.

But I think what may drive a lot of people to complain about turtles acting like teenagers, are people who were originally fans of the 1987 TV series, where the turtles were pretty much never really teenagers, and their lair wasn't even a family home. They treated each other like college roommates and Splinter like a den parent. The growing up was largely already done, and the writers didn't have to handle any complicated (or then potentially parent-offending) issues like child soldiers, the weight of taking a life, and interracial single parents.