Out of all of the delightful crossovers we’ve received over the past few years, the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover has been one of the best, and the third entry in this series is continuing that tradition of greatness. The series has delivered big moments for fans of both franchises, and now the series has revealed it is pulling one of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ most divisive characters into the story.
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Penguin Random House has revealed some of the new variant covers for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III #5, with one of the covers showing a powered-up and rather menacing Zedd battling Leonardo. The other variant cover had an even bigger surprise, as it featured the Yellow and Pink Rangers standing with Venus De Milo, a character that has divided fans ever since she was introduced in 1997. You can check out both of the new covers and the official synopsis of the issue below.
“Don’t miss the shell-shocking conclusion of the fan favorite crossover! After perilous battles, the Rangers and Turtles must put their differences behind them with help from an unexpected new Ranger. The Rangers and Turtles must now face off against Super Zedd and the evil mutant Rangers. Will our heroes find the courage within themselves to save the day against seemingly insurmountable odds? New York Times–bestselling author Ryan Parrott, fan-favorite Italian comic book artist Vincenzo Federici, and Jodi Nishijima bring this celebrated, retro series to an epic end in this final, action-packed issue!”
What Is The Connection Between Venus De Milo And The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?
To understand why adding Venus to the series is a big deal, you have to go back to 1997. That’s when Saban Entertainment (who also created Power Rangers) brought a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series to Television titled TMNT: The Next Mutation. The series introduced a brand new Turtle into the mix named Venus De Milo, and along with her introduction was a retcon of the original origin story of the Turtles.
That rewritten story revealed that there were five original Turtles covered in mutagen, but one was washed away from the others and discovered by a shinobi master. After her guardian was killed, she learned about the other Turtles in New York and eventually reunited with them.
While having a female Turtle join the group actually sounds cool on paper, at the time, fans didn’t receive the changes to the origin or the group all that well. There were other tweaks to the Turtles that didn’t exactly help things, and there were also no appearances from April O’Neal or Casey Jones, but the addition of Venus was the change most were hyper-focused on, and the series was ultimately cancelled after one season.
Venus did make her big return in the comics back in 2022, and now she’s making another return in pages of one of comics’ coolest crossovers. We’re excited to see what the creative team can do with her addition to the story, which was already shaping up to be an epic finale.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III #5 will release in comic stores on March 18th, 2026.
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Image courtesy of Tor Books/Macmillan -
Official art by Bastien Lecouffe-Deharme
