The following contains spoilers for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #140, on sale now from IDW Publishing.
While the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have always lived on the fringes of society, they were never so far removed from it as when the walls surrounding Mutant Town went up. Now that they have come down, however, the heroes of the Splinter Clan can't help but be pulled into the outside world along with the rest of New York City's mutant population. Unfortunately, the Heroes in a Half Shell still don't know what life above ground really looks like, and it's beginning to seem like some of them never will.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #140 (by Kevin Eastman, Sophie Campbell, Gavin Smith, Ronda Pattison, and Rus Wooton) drops into the middle of Mutant Town almost one month after the Rat King's defeat at the hands of the eponymous heroes. However, there are no longer any walls separating it from NYC proper, leaving the Turtles free to confront all manner of threats, human or otherwise. While this is great in terms of building up tension and action packed sequences, it is also proving to be a change that the mutant members of the Splinter Clan are woefully unprepared for. As adept as they might be on the battlefield, the Turtles are in over their heads nearly everywhere else, including the Big Apple.
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Don't Know What "Normal" Looks Like
With nothing keeping them from stepping out into the streets and getting acquainted with human society, the Turtles have found that it is a concept they have only the most limited understanding of. This isn't to say that they are so far out of their element that they are an embarrassment to themselves or the people around them, but rather that the basic rules that actually govern how the world works are entirely foreign to the Heroes in a Half Shell.
Whereas Michelangelo has big dreams of moving out of the sewer and onto bigger and better things, Leonardo is set on finding a way to continue fulfilling the Splinter Clan's duties, while the overtly realistic Raphael scoffs at his leader's ambitions. On the surface, these interactions are little more than signs of the brothers' differing personalities, yet they reveal so much more than that when examined further. This goes to show that the Turtles' overall understanding of human life has been almost solely informed by outside media and scant interactions with the residents of the city.
The Ninja Turtles are Out of Touch With the Real World
What Splinter taught the turtles largely came from his experiences in feudal Japan, while what they've picked up elsewhere was similarly skewed either by its supernatural nature or by being literal fiction. Simply put, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles don't know what a normal life is supposed to look like, nor how to begin carving one out for themselves. Although they have April O'Neil and Casey Jones to help ease their transition, adjusting to their new lives is sure to be one of the biggest tasks they have ever tackled.
Thankfully, most of the Turtles are willing to learn as they go when it comes to living alongside the rest of the world. It's true that Jennika and Leonardo seem the hardest pressed to embark upon a "normal" life, but they are also the two who have gotten the closest to actually reaching the goal. As it currently stands, each member of the Splinter Clan will now be given the unique chance to explore life outside of their lair and potentially shape new and exciting existences for themselves.