15 Most Important Battles from IDW's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2024)

While the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise has been captivating audiences for forty years at this point, not one of the many iterations of the series has had anywhere near that much time to establish itself. Even Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird's original comic book series, which saw print across four decades, suffered from sporadic release dates and long periods without any new material.

That being said, IDW's still ongoing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has redefined the entire franchise in over a decade. Considering the series' sprawling story and numerous branches, this isn't all that surprising. However, its impact on the wider franchise is still impressive. Even more so are some of the battles that these specific incarnations of the Heroes in a Half Shell have faced, which helped make IDW's take on the franchise so unforgettable in the first place.

Updated on October 24, 2024 by Scoot Allan: While IDW's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise has recently relaunched, fans are still looking back to some of the best battles from the first series. This list has been updated to add even more incredible battles from TMNT's IDW history and to conform to CBR's current standards.

15 Baxter Stockman's Assault Almost Cost The Turtles Everything

Joining forces with a dangerous mutant cleared the way for Stockman's big debut

Baxter Stockman isn't just another iconic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles villain; he is arguably the very first true nemesis that the Heroes in a Half Shell ever had. Rather than relying on any overt strength of his own, Baxter Stockman put his genius-level intellect to use by creating a variety of mechanized monstrosities. None were more of a threat to IDW's Turtles than his Minefield Ordnance Unarming System Enhanced Robots or MOUSERS.

The Turtles first came into conflict with these pint-sized terrors in the pages of 2012's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #6 (by Kevin Eastman, Tom Waltz, Dan Duncan, and Ronda Pattison). With the help of Old Hob, Stockman unleashed a swarm of MOUSERS into the Turtles' subterranean lair, leading to a battle that ran the course of two entire issues. By the time the dust had settled, the Turtles were lucky to have survived the encounter, while Stockman was replete with new information that he could use to his advantage in his ongoing war against the Heroes in a Half Shell.

14 Leonardo Fought Oroku Saki in the Past

They Also Faced Their Former Selves During Turtles in Time

The Splinter Clan's ongoing feud with Shredder was the focus of much of IDW's TMNT run and stretched across history. Their history tied into IDW's new canon that Splinter and the four Turtles were reincarnations of Hamato Yoshi and his four sons, who were brutally slain by Oroku Saki. They had trouble believing this at first but couldn't ignore it when they found themselves lost in time. The Turtles made a friend from the future named Renet, who could travel across the timestream with her time scepter. When it malfunctioned, the Turtles were shot into the past.

The Turtles disguised themselves as masked warriors and even saved someone from the Foot, earning an invite for dinner. However, they were astonished to discover that he was Hamato Yoshi and was living with his four sons, their former selves. Leonardo decided to end the Shredder's threat in the past and attacked the Foot Clan's compound, forcing his brothers to follow him. However, Raph convinced Leonardo that he couldn't change the past without risking the future. It was a huge moment that helped them understand their former lives and the feud that consumed their father.

13 Casey Faced Years of Abuse When He Fought Hun

IDW Added A New Twist to Casey Jones' Life By Making His Father A Powerful Gang Leader

When readers first met IDW's take on Casey Jones, he was a youthful vigilante and close friend of Raphael. However, it soon became obvious that Casey Jones was escaping his abusive home life by putting on a mask and taking down criminals. Casey's father, Arnie, started drinking heavily after his wife died, which kicked off the cycle of physical abuse. Casey Jones eventually left home and joined the Turtles as his new family, though he wasn't done with his father. Arnie had a past as the leader of the Purple Dragons known as Hun, which made him a target for Shredder.

Hun cleaned up and used mutagen to greatly increase his strength. He took over the Purple Dragons once again and worked for Shredder and the Foot against the Turtles, leading to a confrontation with his son. While he claimed to want to bring Casey back into the fold, the ignorance of his abusive nature led to a brutal fight between father and son. Casey Jones stood up to his father on the streets of New York City alongside his new family, though this fight ultimately turned Hun into a more brutal opponent with nothing to lose.

12 Leonardo and Splinter Had To Heal Each Other

The Rat King Tried To Drive A Wedge Between A Fractured Relationship

Shredder and Kitsune did a number on Leonardo when they mentally manipulated him and created the Dark Leo persona during the "City Fall" storyline. While the Turtles convinced Leonardo to abandon Shredder and the Foot, the scars left by his brainwashing ran deep. Even after they left New York City to recover at April O'Neil's parent's house, Leonardo had trouble reconnecting with his family, especially his father Splinter.

Only through an intense battle orchestrated by the Rat King between Leonardo and Splinter could they finally get through to each other. Splinter realized that his vendetta against the Shredder had continued to cause pain to his reborn family. At the same time, Leonardo finally shook the dark images that Shredder and Kitsune used to poison his mind. They not only healed each other by facing the worst parts of themselves, but they were also able to break free of the Rat King's manipulations.

11 Shredder and Krang Ignited A Deadly War

While they Worked Together in Other Continuities, Everything Changed After This Fight

While the Turtles faced threats from all sides during the early stages of the IDW's story, they weren't the only ones involved in a looming war. Shredder and the Foot Clan also actively competed against General Krang and the Utrom Empire for resources. This led to a tense negotiation between the two that ultimately erupted into a violent battle that ignited a lasting war between two of the Turtles' deadliest villains.

Shredder fought Krang aboard the Utrom's tanker ship while his Granite soldiers and the Foot Clan fought around them. Much like Shredder and Splinter's age-old rivalry, Krang and Shredder also had a listing history that gave this first fight even more weight. While Shredder and Krang would face each other a few more times over IDW's epic run, their first battle truly showed each other their measure and completely departed from previous iterations of the characters who usually worked together.

10 Raphael Let His Rage Turn Him Against Alopex

The Future Romantic Duo Had A Rough Road to Romance Filled With Violence

Splinter and the Turtles weren't the only ones mutated by the ooze in the IDW comics. An alley cat named Old Hob was transformed alongside them, and other parties like the Foot Clan and Baxter Stockman used the mutagen to crate their own mutants as well. Alopex was one of the first of the new mutants. She was an arctic fox mutated by the Foot Clan who was trained to become Shredder's private assassin. She faced the Turtles a few times, though she ultimately turned on Shredder when he burned down her former home and killed her fox family to test her loyalty.

During the Turtles' time at the O'Neil's in Northampton, Raph discovered that Alopex had followed them there from New York City. While they welcomed her to stay, the arrival of the Foot caused Raphael to lash out. He attacked the former Foot Clan member, letting his rage consume him. Raphael concluded that Alopex hadn't betrayed them when she saved him from a Foot Assassin. However, it took him some time for him to regain her trust. This fight helped them move past their beginnings as enemies and laid the foundation for their future relationship.

9 Their Fight Against Slash Introduced Them to Abject Tragedy

Facing off against one of their own nearly broke the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' spirits

While Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael are the four core members of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, they are far from the only turtles to grace their own series. One of the most infamous ancillary turtles is Slash, whose IDW iteration was bigger, badder, and ultimately better than any version that came before him. In the IDW continuity, the hulking mutant snapping turtle was created by Baxter Stockman's StockGen. Before Slash could be weaponized or experimented on further, April O'Neil unwittingly freed him.

In the following weeks, Slash lurked in the shadows where he could and, by nature, terrorized everyday New Yorkers. Along the way, Slash witnessed the Turtles in action, inspiring him to take up a black bandanna. In 2012's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #15 (by Kevin Eastman, Tom Waltz, Andy Kuhn, and Ronda Pattison), the Turtles and Slash crossed paths properly for the first time, leading to an epic confrontation between the amphibious fighters. Tragically, Slash was stabbed down through the shoulder by Leonardo, which the latter hadn't intended whatsoever. After watching Slash seemingly fall into the water to his death, the Turtles were left enraged, confused, and heartbroken by the experience, albeit for vastly different reasons.

8 City Fall Marked a Turning Point for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

The Foot Clan's rise to power drove IDW's Splinter Clan away from their own home

2013's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #21 (by Kevin Eastman, Tom Waltz, and Ronda Pattison) quietly kicked off the events of IDW's "City Fall" storyline by reuniting the Shredder with his long-lost love, the immortal witch Kitsune. Over the next seven issues, Kitsune, Shredder, and Karai manipulated the various figures and forces within New York City's underworld to make the Foot Clan into the city's most prominent force.

Unfortunately for the Turtles, their malevolent foes succeeded in doing exactly that. The villains even managed to sink their hooks into one of the Turtles' own by brainwashing Leonardo and giving rise to his Dark Leo persona. Throughout "City Fall," readers watched as the Splinter Clan and their allies waged war on the Foot Clan across nearly every battlefield the city had to offer. "City Fall" also drew out less ominous threats, such as the Purple Dragons, ensuring the conflict spilled over into the streets rather than being relegated to the shadows. In the end, the Turtles were forced to retreat to the relative safety of Northampton. This move definitively proved that the Turtles weren't shielded in nearly as much plot armor in the IDW universe as fans may have expected.

7 Attack on Technodrome was the First Time IDW's Turtles Truly Save the World

IDW's Attack on Technodrome storyline introduced the Turtles to a whole new league of heroics

For as long as Krang has been a part of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, his towering Technodrome has stood as a testament to the true power wielded by the diminutive alien menace. And, while the Technodrome hasn't always played a prominent role as a weapon unto itself, IDW's version of it absolutely has. The Technodrome has even been a problem as recently as 2023, though it was almost a decade prior when IDW's Turtles first learned exactly how big of a problem it poses.

2014's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #41 (by Kevin Eastman, Bobby Curnow, Tom Waltz, Cory Smith, and Ronda Pattison) jump-started IDW's "Attack on Technodrome" storyline with a display of the eponymous construct's destructive capabilities. Together with Baxter Stockman, Krang repaired and reconfigured the Technodrome, leaving them with a weapon that could terraform the entire planet, leaving it a barren wasteland reminiscent of Krang's homeworld of Utrominon. Thankfully, this destruction was relegated to Burnow Island. Krang was imprisoned on the Planet Neutrino for his crimes, yet neither of those outcomes could ever make up for the horrors that the Turtles had seen the Technodrome wreak.

6 IDW's Vengeance Storyline Redefined the Turtles' Place in Their Own World

Throughout the Foot Clan's Gauntlet, the Turtles discovered what they were truly capable of

In the immediate aftermath of their experience with the Technodrome, the Turtles were caught up in another world-shaking event in the form of IDW's "Vengeance" storyline. Much like "City Fall" saw the Foot Clan take hold over New York City, "Vengeance" saw the Splinter Clan deal multiple devastating blows to their opponents. So many that the Foot Clan would never be the same again.

Beginning just after Bebop and Rocksteady's brutal assault on Donatello that left the Turtle on the verge of death, "Vengeance" saw the Splinter Clan come under siege in their own home once more, only to respond with greater ferocity than fans had ever seen. Following the multiple attacks lobbed at his family by the Foot Clan, Splinter took it upon himself to challenge the Shredder to the ancient ritual known as the Gauntlet. What ensued was a series of individual bouts of combat that saw Leonardo clip Koya's wings, Donatello permanently blind the mutant hammerhead Bludgeon, and the Shredder decapitated by Splinter, making way for the latter to take his place as the new leader of the Foot Clan.

5 The Triceraton Invasion Nearly Tore the Entire Planet Apart

IDW put the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the middle of someone else's alien war

2017's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #76 (by Kevin Eastman, Bobby Curnow, Tom Waltz, Damian Couceiro, and Ronda Pattison) came hot on the heels of "The Trial of Krang," which saw the would-be dictator gruesomely consumed by the mutant Leatherhead rather than serve a proper sentence for his crimes. Unfortunately, this was not enough to ensure peace with the Triceratons, who had spent so much time enslaved by the Utrom Empire. When a band of the former landed in the middle of New York City, it was clear they had no intentions of stopping there.

For as much as the Turtles did during the events of the "Invasion of the Triceratons" storyline, they took a backseat to the agents and soldiers of the Earth Protection Force on multiple occasions. Of course, this particular storyline was bigger than any other that IDW's Turtles had been a part of up until then, at least in terms of its immediate global impact. Apart from being objectively outmatched, "Invasion of the Triceratons" saw the Turtles come to terms with the fact that some battles were simply too big for them to keep contained in any manner.

4 City at War Redefined the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' Entire World

New York City was never the same after the Turtles' war against its biggest threats

"City at War" has serious connotations concerning the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. While the original "City at War," which has been remade and retold numerous times, was the basis for IDW's "City Fall," the publisher's take on a story of the same name wouldn't begin until 2019's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #93 (by Kevin Eastman, Bobby Curnow, Tom Waltz, Dave Wachter, and Ronda Pattison). IDW's "City at War" involved every single faction that called New York City home, and by the time it was over, it had added several more.

Though the storyline began with an otherwise ordinary albeit bloody encounter between the Turtles and the Foot Clan, things quickly became much more complicated than that. In the following issues, Baxter Stockman was elected to the mayor's office, and Old Hob unleashed a mutagen bomb that transformed a large swathe of NYC into Mutant Town. Kitsune also very nearly resurrected her immortal father, the Dragon on Earth. It was only because of Splinter's sacrifice that the Dragon was defeated, marking not just the last battle he would ever fight but quite possibly the most important turning point in the history of IDW's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

3 Jasper Barlow Introduced a New Breed of Horror to IDW's TMNT Universe

One of the Turtles' worst enemies also gave rise to one of their closest allies

The Heroes in a Half Shell have tangled with enemies over the years, but Doctor Jasper Barlow is a unique specimen. Formerly a world-renowned reconstructive surgeon, Barlow was transformed into a mutant mouse when Old Hob's mutagen bomb fell. In the following years, Barlow made a home for himself in the shadows of Mutant Town and began perfecting new techniques. At first, Barlow hoped to find a way to give mutants in need their humanity back, which seemed like a perfectly reasonable endeavor.

Unsurprisingly, Barlow soon turned his attention to more malevolent practices, including turning unwitting subjects into grotesque amalgamations of their former selves, technology, and whatever other scraps he had. This led to the creation of IDW's Venus de Milo, comprised of the corpse of the Punk Frog Bonnie, Donatello's old carapace, and a shard of a scale left behind in the wake of the Dragon's defeat. By the time things came to a head between the Turtles and Barlow in the pages of 2023's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #143 (by Sophie Campbell, Kevin Eastman, Gavin Smith, and Ronda Pattison), the villain had turned his procedures on himself, transforming a previously meek but twisted menace into an abject threat in his own right.

2 IDW's Armageddon Game Pushed the Teenage Mutant Turtles Past All Previous Limits

The Turtles' biggest storyline unlocked powers that none of them knew they were capable of wielding

Despite everything they had already lived through up until that point, the Armageddon Game stood as the biggest event ever to engulf the Turtles and their world, and it is hard to imagine anything ever eclipsing it as such. Orchestrated by the immortal Rat King, the Armageddon Game was the latest iteration of the same kind of contest that the entirety of the Pantheon used to play and stopped partaking in for the sake of the entire world.

After bringing together the Turtles' worst enemies in the forms of Krang, Baxter Stockman, and Madame Null, the Rat King embarked on a destructive crusade to leave the Earth scorched and in ruins. In their quest to stave off absolute destruction, the Turtles embraced their old enemies, Shredder and Kitsune, with the former becoming the Splinter Clan's new mentor in the ways of the arcane arts. When the Turtles and Rat King finally came face-to-face for their final battle, the Splinter Clan was backed up by every ally possible and one unlikely member of the Pantheon who ensured their victory.

1 The Fight Against Armaggon was a Fight for the Future of IDW's TMNT

The Turtles' latest time-traveling saga set the stage for everything to come

Though there was never any doubt that the Rat King was the one masterminding the events of Armageddon Game, his place as the greatest threat to the Turtles' future was surprisingly usurped by the time-traveling mutant megalodon known as Armaggon. During his travels through time, Donatello uncovered the threat of Armaggon, kicking off one of the hero's darkest chapters while ushering in the beginning of a whole new era for the Heroes in a Half Shell.

The ongoing battle against Armaggon wasn't just one of the most important that the Turtles have ever fought; it was one of the most mind-bending experiences they have ever lived through. Throughout their fight, the Turtles encountered future versions of themselves, possible successors to their legacy, and the most desperate versions of some of their closest allies. Worst of all, even though the Turtles could quell the threat of Armaggon, they couldn't prevent the profound damage he and his twisted follower inflicted along the way. Now that the fight is over, the Turtles have been left to reconcile with whatever their future holds, knowing that everything they have seen of it already is coming to pass for reasons far worse than they could have imagined.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Brothers Leonardo, Raphael, Michaelangelo and Donatello are the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, fighting evil in comics, television, movies and more.

Created by

Kevin Eastman , Peter Laird

First Film

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Latest Film

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

First TV Show

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987)

Latest TV Show

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

First Episode Air Date

December 14, 1987