BATMAN -vs- TMNT: Please make this into a game!

How did I not know about this movie until now? I was born in 1980, so I was 7 when the cartoon first aired and I even remember some of the darker comic books before they went mainstream. The saddest thing about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise is that the best thing they’ve ever produced was in 1990 when the original live action film was released. I’ve shown the classic gem to friends and students here in Laos who’ve never seen it and they can tell it’s not CGI, it’s over three decades old, but it looks real. They always asked the same thing, “How did they do it?”

I’ve given ALL of the TMNT flicks a try over the years, but none have ever really even come close to capturing the magic of the first film. As a ten year old boy, it was the only film I remember that was a bigger deal than Star Wars. I also remember going to see it in a big theater with my friend Mike and we noticed this “old lady” in front of us sitting alone. She was friendly, but we were very surprised to see that a 24-year-old was also a turtle fan like us. In Catholic school, my teacher was very amused that in my version of heaven, I would choose to be a mutant turtle.

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DC

The Movie

Warner Brothers, nickelodeon, and DC has brought the turtles, the Footclan, and Shredder to Gotham City. Batman -vs- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has cheap Saturday morning animation, but the voice acting and ninja story kept me entertained. Did anyone else dream of being a ninja as a kid? I didn’t find out it wasn’t a real job and there was never going to be a ninja academy scholarship in my future until I was almost 13. Even though it’s been many years, I can still use most of the turtles’ weapons I practiced with for hours and hours in the woods. Mikey is my favorite turtle and I was always a Bruce Lee fan so I’m pretty handy with nunchuku.

I felt the characters all stayed true to form and used their weapons in brutal ways in this animated action adventure crossover. I won’t ruin or spoil the story for you. I’ll just say that I would have loved to watch this as a kid. Overall, I’d give this four out of five stars.

The Game

Remembering that I’m NOT a genius and someone else may have had this idea or even hoping the game already exists, I Googled it and found this awesome Reddit post by AuntieJamima. They posted a rad CGI video that looks like a gritty claymation of the fight mechanics if the TMNT were in a Batman game. I think it would be cool if the turtles borrowed some of Batman’s tech and could fly up and glide down on hoverboards from the future too. It would be so fun to go on five person online adventures as Batman, Leo, Raphael, Donny, and Mikey. If this ever becomes a real game, please leave me a NFT tip in the future…

BATMAN -vs- MIKE TYSON

The Joker had tried to trick the bat with low level thugs in the past. Not this time. Now he has recruited the hardest hitting man on the planet who also owns a tiger.

Batman put the cat to sleep with a gas explosion that he’d built up an immunity to, but it didn’t affect the champ at all. He was able to get a batarang into his chest, but Batman still has a chin and Mike knocked him out with his best uppercut and swung him around by his cape like a rag doll.

Mike asked the Joker if he wanted to take the mask off the sleeping hero, but neither of them cared. They were just happy to defeat the Batman and humiliate him on social media showing his enemies that he CAN be beat.

Tools:

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A4 paper
crappy Chinese painter’s tape
pencil
ruler
eraser
technical pen
iPad
Procreate

Inspiration:

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Mike when he was young and the heavyweight champion.

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Mike today.

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The image that showed up after Googling, “Batman gets knocked out.”

Process:

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I sketched Batman first and was afraid he took up too much of the frame, but Mike fit in nicely too.

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If I couldn’t get Mike’s face right five minutes into this sketch, I was going to quit, but he looked fine.

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I then used the technical pen for the important dark lines.

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I was watching a movie on the sofa next to my drunk friend who wouldn’t stop moving around, so I just added a bit more pencil shading before going digital. I told him, “I can’t draw with you moving around like this. Fuck it! I’ll do it digital! We’ll do it digital!”

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I copied the colors from the inspirational photos to colorize it. I then used the blur tool and some airbrushing. Thanks for reading and a great day!