Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans have been left in tears after getting official confirmation that the four teens are Black in their human form.
The hugely popular media franchise, which is sometimes abbreviated to TMNT, was created in 1984 by comic book artists Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. It follows four anthropomorphic turtle brothers named after Renaissance artists: Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael who are trained to become crime-fighting ninjas by their anthropomorphic rat Sensei Splinter.
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The turtles live in the grimy sewers of New York City and creators Eastman and Laird were inspired by the Big Apple - which has prominent Black and Latino cultures - plus a variety of sources such as comic books films and Japanese culture.
Fans have long suspected that the four main heroes were Black in their human forms and a new TMNT comic has confirmed this theory.
The Ninja Turtles are partnering up once again with the Power Rangers, this time in the Boom Studios Power Rangers comic book series.
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Until now, only Michelangelo and Donatello’s origins were known however we now know even more about Leonardo and Raphael, and to the joy of fans across the world, they are all Black teenagers.
A picture of a panel from the comic book showing the four heroes in their human forms has gone viral on Twitter. They appeared to have been turned into holograms to make them look less turtle-like.
“It’s official and canon that every member of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in their HUMAN FORMS are ALL BLACK TEENS!
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“Holy f—k I’m gonna go cry because at first their only showed Mikey and Donnie, but now Raph and Leo are too!!”
One fan replied: “......... I'm emotional for a weird reason. It's been so fucking hard to even look at the boys recently. I lost a friend in october who loved the turtles so much....seeing them hurts. but they would've loved this so much. sorry, I'm rambling. this makes me happy.”
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A third long-time fan tweeted: “As a TMNT fan since the 80s, I believe we should all agree that this is the *only* acceptable human representation of the guys in green."
A fourth gushed: “whoever designed their human forms I love you they look so good.”
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One Twitter user replied: “This is crazy. I have never thought of what they’d be if they were human but this is dope."
Topics: Film and TV
Gregory Robinson