Francis Snyder, a sales associate for Play the Game Read the Story in Syracuse, New York, writes in to comment on the Turtles' origin changes for Michael Bay's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film (see "Are the Turltes Ninjas from Outer Space?").

Just wanted to touch base and say that Michael Bay can't really call the Turtles aliens, but a by-product of alien technology.  For the die-hard Turtle fans (like myself) who have access to the original books, the mutagen that affected the Turtles and Splinter was from a race of aliens trying to escape Earth.  So the analogy of them being aliens is only partially correct.  The Turtles' origin should be left to this line, Mr. Bay.  It would change the attitude of the fans towards the film.  Also, you have no business pointing fingers at Paramount.  As far as the public (myself included) knows, Paramount changed the name, not the background story.

My recommendation: Keep to the initial story, and make money hand over fist.  This is a new generation, and bring in the original aliens.  Perhaps even have the Foot interfering in the aliens' attempt to return home, prompting the Turtles to help the little guys.  In so doing it would open up the floodgates to sequels, and more revenues.  Don't try to compress decades of Turtles into a single film.  DC/Warner Bros. tried that back in the 70's/80's and look what happened.  Now that they're sticking to no more than two villains and not necessarily killing them off (Ra's al Ghul could still be alive via the Lazarus Pits), and a Batman that is a bit more impressive and not as campy as the earlier versions, they're doing well.

While I'm sure Paramount is cringing at the thought of following WB, there is no shame in taking cues from successful comic book-based productions.

Best of luck and don't make me come back here again.

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.