10 Comic Book Movies You Didn't Know Were Linked

5. Daredevil & Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Share The Same Origin Story

Believe it or not, but Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird were heavily inspired by Frank Miller's work on the Daredevil comics in the early 1980s.

This is to the extent that there are some glaring similarities between the two properties, which has naturally transpired through to many of the movies - in this case the original run of 90s-set live-action Turtles films and the 2003 Ben Affleck-starring Daredevil.

First and foremost, the comics make it clear that the Turtles were created by the very same "ooze" which caused Matt Murdock to go blind.

Similarly in the movies, it's stated that the Turtles were mutated by toxic waste, while Daredevil's opening sequence shows Matt blinded by a barrel of similar-looking toxic material.

It's entirely plausible that, after turning Matt blind, the waste leaked down into the sewers and mutated Splinter and the Turtles, no?

Given that Daredevil is set in the early 2000s but Matt's accident occurs in his childhood, the timeline even matches up with the Turtles movies well enough.

Furthermore, The Foot Clan, which appears in all three of the original live-action Turtles movies, started out as a parody of the ninja clan The Hand from the Daredevil comics.

Though The Hand wasn't actually introduced in the 2003 Daredevil movie, they did appear in the 2005 spin-off Elektra, and likely would've played a larger role in the Daredevil sequel had the first film actually made enough money to warrant one.

While the live-action Turtles and Affleck-starring Daredevil films are separated by around a decade of production time, it doesn't take too much finagling to slot the two together into the same snug continuity.