I’m having problems, here.
The basic issue is the ‘vs.’ Four anthropomorphic turtles fighting with martial arts weapons is likely not going to be the weirdest thing that Batman has seen that day. So that’s strike one. Strike two: they’re clearly fully fluent in English and can speak in complete sentences, so they’re not monsters or anything.
And then there’s strike three: “Hi, we’re here because we’re chasi…” “You’re chasing your greatest enemy, who has come to my city to join forces with my greatest enemies in order to further a nefarious plot.” “Yeah. How did you know?” “It’s Tuesday.” So, yeah, unless that ‘vs.’ in ‘Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ takes up only about a minute or something, I’m not managing to suspend the old disbelief, here.
Anyway, supposed to come out March 31, but nothing on Amazon yet. Weird.
Moe Lane
PS: I personally LOVE the idea of a Batman/TMNT match-up, actually. I just can’t believe that them meeting would be a surprise to anybody involved.
I like the Turtles. I like Batman. However, the Turtles operated predominantly out of New York. Batman is in Gotham City. Therefore it makes more sense for the Turtles to meet Daredevil. It should be Daredevil vs. TMNT.
Sometimes logic and personal preference align. (Daredevil is my favorite Marvel character.) Sometimes, they don’t.
Marvel does seem like a better fit.
You’re more right than you know. The origins of the titular turtles is actually a reference to the origin of Daredevil.
“The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles origin story paid homage to the first issue of Daredevil from 1963, in which young Matt Murdock is blinded by a radioactive isotope while pushing an old blind man from the path of an oncoming truck. Eastman and Laird extrapolated that after the canister containing that isotope struck Murdock, it collided with a bystander who was carrying a fishbowl containing his pets—four baby turtles. The turtles and the canister, which bore the initials T.C.R.I., fell down a grate into the sewer below, where they were discovered by an inquisitive rat, Splinter.”
https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-strange-real-life-origins-of-the-teenage-mutant-nin-1604889191
Not to mention the other parallels, like how Daredevil fights the Hand and the Turtles fight the Foot.
Funny thing – I actually brought this up today at work. Someone was talking about Daredevil’s origin. And after they talked about the canister, I added, “And then it fell down into the sewers where the contents ended up all over four turtles. And no, I am not making this up.”
😛
On a more serious note…
In the real world, Gotham is a nickname for New York City. So in essence, Batman’s Gotham City is supposed to essentially be a “name substitution” New York City as seen through a lens of sleaze and corruption.
Gotham is New York at night, Metropolis is New York during the day.
That’s true, but it’s still a separate and distinct entity. They have “GCPD” printed on the police cars. The Turtles, on the other hand, are actually from New York.
Therefore, they should have met Daredevil.
I read the comic version of this back in 2016, my thoughts from the time: Even taking in to account his rogues gallery of freaks, Batman and his associates are wayyyy to accepting of the premise of pan-dimensional anthropomorphic reptiles in battle with a clan of ninjas.