TMNT Artist Reveals Their Dream Crossover With Surprise Marvel Hero

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have crossed over with their fair share of iconic characters, like Batman, the Ghostbusters, the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Street Fighter, and more. In an exclusive interview with Screen Rant, TMNT artist Gavin Smith divulged his ideal comic project would focus on the team-up of the Turtles and Marvel’s Man Without Fear, Daredevil.

Recently concluding his work on the longest-running series to feature the stylish ninja antics of Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael, Gavin Smith was the interior artist for IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #140-144 and is showing no signs of stopping his artistic contributions to this popular franchise. Speaking with Screen Rant about his time on TMNT as it approaches its milestone 150th issue, Gavin was asked about a dream crossover that he would most like to see, let alone draw.

“I would like to do a project that I write and draw…. As far as crossovers I’d like to see… that we’d all like to see… I think that’s obvious. We all want to see the Daredevil crossover! Actually… I’ll put that out there as a dream project I’d like to draw.”

Having also drawn covers for TMNT: The Last Ronin – Lost Years and an upcoming cover for TMNT: The Last Ronin II – Re-Evolution, Gavin’s reveal that Daredevil would be the one hero he’d like to draw most alongside the Turtles is an exciting one, to say the least.

Related: TMNT’s ‘Kingpin’ Proves the Turtles are More Hardcore than Daredevil

Considering that the original origin story for the Turtles saw them exposed to mutagen after a blind man crossing the street was almost hit by a truck carrying the ooze — an eerily similar origin story as Daredevil — a lot of the initial grittiness and more violent undertones of the Turtles’ early days were influenced by Matt Murdock and his alter ego, specifically Frank Miller’s legendary run with the character. Furthermore, it makes sense that Daredevil would be Gavin’s crossover character choice, as in the interview, he makes it clear he’s been a TMNT fan since childhood and no doubt already knew about the Turtles’ many parallels to Daredevil (including Splinter’s similar mentor role as Daredevil’s Stick), turning this prospective comic story into one that would bring his love for both worlds full-circle.

To make this hopeful crossover idea even better, TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman has already echoed Gavin Smith’s sentiment to see Daredevil and the brothers interact in the comic space, a tale that could potentially see these iconic heroes battle it out with the likes of Kingpin, Bullseye, Shredder, or even Krang, further whetting the appetites of fans wanting to see an official team-up event.

While it remains to be seen if Marvel and IDW will ever be able to bring the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Daredevil together for a miniseries of epic proportions, Gavin Smith is absolutely the right person for the job.