M&N: Evolution

M&N: Evolution

Posted by Brian • November 29, 2016

Original Release Date: March 30, 2010

This page was an April Fool's Day gag. Allegedly, sponsors were upset that Mike and the Ninja was not getting enough website hits or generating enough ad revenue, so they demanded the comic be retooled into a franchise built around selling action figures, redesigned characters, eye candy, and a cool dinosaur sidekick for the kids.

This was a fun alternate universe to toy around with for a week. My biggest influences were early 90s action cartoons, early 90s dinosaur craze, and toy lines that included a collectible with each action figure, ensuring kids would be purchasing all the action figures to get all the collectibles included with them.

If you'll look closely at Mike's action figure accessories, you'll see he comes with a gun, a soda, and...a mace? That was me poking fun at action figure lines that would package bizarre accessories that didn't make any sense at all with the figures. I remember many of my X-Men figures being packaged with ususual weapons that the characters never, ever used in the comics or on the TV show.