Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #54 (1992)

Michelangelo is the one with the nunchaku, right?

I remember the buzz in my local comic shop after TMNT #1 was released in 1984 (I was just a wee lad), but I was a reader of mainstream Marvel and DC at that time.  Apart from the main characters, I have to admit I don't know much about the TMNT universe.  (There's a good chance, though, that I was at the comic convention where Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles premiered). I'd love to hear from readers who can say more about the importance of Karai in the pantheon of TMNT characters, and whether they consider this book particularly collectible.

Karai debuted in TMNT #54 ("City at War, pt. 5"), published in Dec. 1992.  Within a year the original run would conclude with issue 62.  In May, it was announced that Brittany Ishibashi will play Karai in 2016's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2, taking over from Minae Noji, who portrayed her briefly in the 2014 relaunch of the franchise. (When I get around to seeing that, it will be my first TMNT film!)

In this blog, we give you the inside scoop.  We open books and turn pages.  In that spirit, here is the entirety of Karai's debut in issue 54, pages 16-17.  No costume, no hint of abilities, but I have to give a nod to those earrings. And she is definitely up to no good:

1st appearance of Karai, Shredder's (sometimes?) daughter

According to Turtlepedia, Karai is flying from Japan to New York to "unify the warring factions of the Foot Clan that had risen following the death of Oroku Saki."

There are a few copies on eBay as of this writing as well as two here.  I would avoid myComicShop as their prices for all available copies are very high.  GP Analysis lists sales of 2 CGC 9.8 copies in June/July for $100 and $110.  CGC has graded 9 copies to date.  I checked Comichron for the print run, but data for 1992 doesn't seem to exist.  I didn't find this title in the top 300 sellers for that year, however.

Thanks for reading!

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Other useful links:

Karai on Wikipedia ("...in her original comic incarnation, Karai was completely unrelated to the Shredder and was actually higher in the Foot Clan's global hierarchy." Error: says #54 is "City At War No. 1")

Karai on Turtlepedia (implies she first appeared in #52???)