Daredevil and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Were Created in the Same Traffic Accident

Marvel Comics, Nickelodeon

Superhero crossovers are nothing new, but what makes this one special is the blatant illegality and in-story significance of it. Daredevil had existed for 20 years before the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles showed up in the '80s -- and yet their origins establish that they are both the product of the same traffic accident and the same mysterious goo.

Daredevil's origin, as shown in Daredevil #1, is that when he was young he saved a blind man from getting hit by a truck, only to have a radioactive canister fall off the same truck and hit him in the face. This was before, of course, the "Put Some Time into Securing Your Radioactive Shit" shipping laws that we take for granted now.

Marvel Comics
"Call an ambulance? No, I'd rather stand here and commentate."

Between the radioactivity of the substance, the impact of the hit and the cylinderness of the container, Daredevil was left blind. But he was extra good at his other senses, so he ended up a superhero, obviously. The real question wasn't "How is getting blinded by a can after saving a blind guy an origin story?" It was "What happened to the mysterious canister after it bounced off proto-Daredevil's kisser?"

Kevin Winter/Getty Images
It doesn't look like it did Ben Affleck any harm.

Fast forward 20 years: The creators of the Ninja Turtles were big fans of Daredevil, especially the issues by Frank Miller. Not content with simply borrowing Daredevil's origin, they went ahead and wrote their characters into it. In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1, we see the exact same scene as before, only from a different perspective. The radioactive canister hits the boy in the head ...

Nickelodeon

... then falls into a sewer and mutates some baby turtles into cowabunging ninjas.

Nickelodeon
As opposed to, say, sewer alligators.

Of course, the boy is never explicitly identified as the future Daredevil, but that's because the character belongs to Marvel Comics and the Ninja Turtles do not. Still, it's pretty obvious that it's the same kid, and the fact that the canister turned out to be full of mutating goo does explain how getting hit in the head by something could possibly give someone superpowers. (Life tip: It usually doesn't.)

Marvel Comics
You're usually advised to open the lid first, duh.

So if young Daredevil hadn't been there, the canister probably wouldn't have fallen into the sewer and those four regular turtles probably wouldn't be fighting crime today. All the TMNT cartoons and movies show variations of the same origin, and the radioactive ooze in particular has become an iconic part of the Turtle brand -- even though it was completely stolen from another comic.

kokos.com
"Warning: May cause irrevocable blindness."

Read more: http://www.cracked.com/article_21209_the-40-most-insane-easter-eggs-ever-found_p7.html#ixzz2zzPjJe82