The release of the game from Tribute Games and DotEmu put the spotlight back on Ninja Turtles, these four mutant reptiles named after four Renaissance geniuses. A heavily retro-sounding beat ’em up, the game takes us straight back to the late 80s, early 90s, Wednesday morning cartoon days. Hyper-referenced, it touches the very heart of what Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is: a work in the blink of an eye, where reference borders on pastiche.
Because the Ninja Turtles are originally a kind of unofficial spin off of a great Marvel license, which has experienced a resurgence in popularity thanks to a Netflix series (having since migrated to Disney Plus): Daredevil (pronounce [dèrediveule]and not [dardéville] !).
In Daredevil, Matt Murdock is a lawyer by day, but a vigilante by night. And like justice, he is blind. An accident deprived him of his sight at the same time as it allowed him to develop his other five senses in a superhuman way. One evening, when a truck was about to run over a (decidedly…) blind man crossing the street, young Murdock rushed to push the man out of the lorry’s path. The latter then swerved, letting some of his radioactive cargo escape, blinding the young man and at the same time triggering an unprecedented evolution of his other senses…
However, re-reading the very first volume of Ninja Turtles published in 1984 by Mirage (reprinted several times since by IDW, the current publisher of Les Tortues), we discover this origin story narrated by Master Splinter himself:
The Turtles and their rodent Sensei have therefore been transformed by the same radioactive product that changed Matt Murdock into Daredevil! It is therefore no coincidence that all five of them (Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, Raphael, and… Matt Murdock!) have become versed in the art of ninjutsu!
And the relationship between the two universes does not stop there. Daredevil must face a criminal organization called The Hand when the Turtles face… The Foot Clan! And even, the old master of the Knights of Scales is called Splinter (“splinter”, in French) when the one who trained Matt Murdock is called Stick (which can be translated as “stick”, or “branch”) .
Elevator return? In an episode of The Defenders, the Netflix series which features Daredevil, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and Jessica Jones together (also, since recovered by the owner of Marvel, Disney), we see the four heroes forced to flee by sewers. If we add to the situation the color that relates to each (red for Daredevil, yellow for Luke Cage, green for Iron Fist and purple for Jessica Jones), we understand that some observers wanted to see in this scene a nod to the mutants of the New York sewers…
Since then, if Ninja Turtles were able to confront first, then collaborate with Batman, they haven’t yet officially met their mutagen brother… Any idea for a next crossover?