Shelton-Mason County Journal - Dedicated to the citizens of Mason County, Washington since 1886

When Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird co-created the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 1984, the most popular superhero comics on the market during the early '80s included Marv Wolfman and George Perez's "The New Teen Titans," Chris Claremont's "Uncanny X-Men" and Frank Miller's "Daredevil," so angsty teen heroes, outcast mutants and ninja crime-fighters were all the rage.

Ever since, the popularity of teenagers, mutants and ninjas in superhero stories has remained relatively strong, but what's been surprising in retrospect is how lightly those ostensibly defining traits have weighed on our four...