The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is among the most venerable franchises in history. The Turtles are celebrating their 40-year anniversary, and are having something of a renaissance. 2023’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem was a huge hit with fans, with an animated series follow-up on Paramount+. IDW has gotten big name comic creators — Jason Aaron, Joelle Jones, Rafael Albuquerque, Cliff Chiang, Chris Burnham, and Darick Robertson — for their new books. TMNT: The Last Ronin was a massive hit, spawning sequels and spinoffs. Things are going pretty great for the line, and now they’re getting dark doppelgangers from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Saturday Morning Adventures, a comic that continues the classic TMNT cartoon of the late ’80s/early ’90s. These dark doppelgangers were co-designed by NECA, a high-end action figure producer, and there’s already a Dark Leonardo prototype.
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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Saturday Morning Adventures is a nostalgia fest, and adding in these dark doppelgangers to the tales of the Turtles feels par for the course for the flavor of that book. The original show was basically an action figure production line, like many kids’ cartoons of its era. The fact that an action figure company also helped produce the designs is a throwback, as original toy manufacturer PlayMates did the same thing. The fact that NECA was involved speaks to the quality of the designs — NECA is known for creating amazing toys. The Dark Leonardo images show off an awesome figure, one that will make a lot of Turtles fans happy.
The figure combines the classic look of the old PlayMates figures with the quality that NECA has become known for. It’s an excellent action figure, all told. NECA is also working on creating the rest of the team’s dark doppelgangers. NECA’s Brand Manager Blain Rodenbaugh told IGN about the genesis of the idea, saying, “Our TMNT Brand Manager, Trevor Zammit, worked with concept artist Jason Yang to create a pitch deck of potential ‘what if’ characters for IDW, who selected our Dark Leo design, which envisioned a world where Leonardo had joined the Foot Clan. Having only one concept per character, this is where the true collaboration began, as IDW artist Sarah Myer would go on to create dark looks for the rest of the team, and Erik Burnham would develop a storyline that fit within the Saturday Morning Adventures comic.”
It’s a great time to be a TMNT fan. The Turtles have great crossovers coming down the pipe, an entertaining animated series based on a beloved movie, and a line of comics for every manner of fan — from young kids to those 40 and 50-something kids. The addition of their dark doppelgangers will make for wonderful stories and beautiful action figures.
They’ll make their premiere in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Saturday Morning Adventures #20, by Erik Burnham and Sarah Myer, which will release on January 8th, 2025.
