The Mighty Mutanimals.
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Some TMNT stuff really isn't for little kids. |
Mighty Mutanimals was a comic book spin-off from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures published by Archie Comics.
Premise[]
Mighty Mutanimals was first published as a three-issue mini-series released between May 1991 and July 1991. A collected edition was released in Winter 1991. A regular series was published from April 1992 until being cancelled after nine issues in June 1993.
After cancellation, the Mighty Mutanimals received their own 7-part backup-series in the pages of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures beginning in issue 48 and ending in issue 54. This series saw the assassination of the Mutanimals at the hands of the high-tech Gang of Four. Issues 55-57 continued the aftermath of their death and its effect on the Turtles' storyline.
The Mutanimals made a small cameo appearance in Tales of the TMNT #58.
Stephen Murphy (credited as Dean Clarrain), Ken Mitchroney, Mike Kazaleh, and Garrett Ho all worked on the comic book mini-series.
Though the team was called "Mutanimals" implying that the members were all "mutant animals", only 3 were "true" mutants transformed by mutagen, Ray Fillet, Mondo Gecko, and reserve member Merdude. Leatherhead and Dreadmon were transformed by magic, and Wingnut, Screwloose and Slash (Archie's version), were all aliens from Dimension X. Jagwar was a demi-god son of a human mother and jaguar spirit/god.
History[]
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Cancellation[]
The Mighty Mutanimals own title was canceled due to faltering sales in 1993. However the team continued to appear in their own backup stories in the on-going Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures. However, during the "Megadeath" arc of the Mighty Mutanimals, and the "Future Shark" trilogy arc of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, all of the characters were killed off. Slash, was shortly killed off as well in an attempt to avenge the Mutanimals.
This was a very rare occurrence due to the demographic of the series being young children. Also, even rarer were the fact that the deaths happened during a time travel storyline and could have been easily undone...but they were not.
The creator of the Mutanimals, Ryan Brown, has stated that the reason for this decision was that the Mutanimals were supposed to be something completely different than the Teenange Mutant Ninja Turtles. Since the series, and proposed cartoon show, were cancelled, he no longer wanted his creation to become a second-fiddle act. Instead, he thought The Mutanimals could have a much more lasting impact if they were killed off.
Interesting enough, the killing off of the Mutanimals, and the lasting effect it would have, was contemplated for sometime and planned in advance. Slash was introduced to the comics, only because he, along with Metalhead, were to become Mutanimal Members. This would happen after Jagwar and Dreadmon were to be killed off. Just like what eventually happened to The Mutanimals as a whole, Dredmon and Jagwar were becoming second-fiddle characters. Jagwar & Dredmon were the only original members created solely for the series, and as such had no previous fan interest. Instead of letting this happen, Brown, decided he would kill them off, so that their deaths would create a lasting appeal to the characters and help set a darker tone for the remainder of the series.
It is theorized that Slash was killed off shortly after due to there no longer being a need for the comic incarnation of his character, since the Mutanimals were dead. His death also contributed to the lasting appeal of The Mutanimal characters.
See also[]
References[]
- The Mighty Mutanimals at ninjaturtles.com. Retrieved 2008-1-22.
External Links[]
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