Making a chronlogy for Mirage TMNT

To anyone not familiar with the Mirage series, this will probably bore you to tears. Even for most that are familiar, this probably still will bore you to tears.

If you're going by the actual dates in the issues, I've already found tons of self-contradictions. Here's the first few actual date references in the issues themselves :

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TMNT Vol. 1, #4 : "Of that day fifteen years ago... a speeding truck on a potholed street.... a heroic act by a young boy..."

TMNT Vol. 1, #7: "It all started almost a month ago, as you all know, when Baxter Stockman let loose his little metal monsters in the stormdrains..."

TMNT Vol. 1, #7: "Your Master Splinter told us that you are fifteen and one half years old... exactly that many years ago we had our accident."

(TMNT Vol. 1, #7.5) Michaelangelo Special: Christmas #1

TMNT Vol. 1, #8: "1986!" "Isn't this supposed to be New York in the year, 1986?

(TMNT Vol.1, #9.5) Leonardo Special: "This is only our second real Christmas..."

TMNT Vol. 1, #11: (dates from April's journal, which she writes during the issue) "Jan. 15, 1987" - "May 1, 1987."

TMNT Vol. 1, #19: (Newspaper next to Raphael) "December 23, 1988"

TMNT Vol. 1, #21: "Three years ago I saw you die--why do you haunt us?!"

TMNT Vol. 1, #46: "Massachusetts 1992"

TMNT Vol. 1, #52: "Account past due 2-31-92 Blue Flag" "Seven months overdue!" "I wonder why the computer took so long to flag it." (7 months after February would place this issue in September, 1992)

TMNT Vol. 1, #54: "... Christmas Day..."

TMNT Vol. 1, #57: "One year ago, when you killed Oroku Saki..."

TMNT Vol. 1, #58: "Two months" (referring to how long Splinter had been laying semi-conscious)

TMNT Vol. 1, #59: "May 1993" (calendar on the wall)

TMNT Vol. 1, #59: (response in lettercol) "Yes, the Turtles are [now] 16. The chronology is based on issue 48 picking up sometime shortly after issue 21 and 'Return to New York' left off."

TMNT Vol. 4, #1: "Is it just me... or was this a lot easier fifteen years ago?"
TMNT Vol. 4, #1: (to Shadow) "I well know how impatient teenagers can be...."

TMNT Vol. 4, #3: (Shadow) "I've known Jay for three years"

TMNT Vol. 4, #6: "I've spent most of the last twenty years in the company of ninja masters..."
TMNT Vol. 4, #6: (lettercol) "When did April and Casey get married?" "Sometime in the last fifteen years."
TMNT Vol. 4, #6: (lettercol) "and as far as Karai's relationship to the Turtles goes... well, it's been fifteen years" (that seems to indicate fairly well it's been 15 years since "City at War")

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I mean, what seems *certain* if we're to assume the dates from the first few issues are gospel is the following:

1972 - TMNT are born/exposed to mutagen / TMNT Age 0
1985 - Shredder's first death / TMNT Age 13
1988 - Shredder's 2nd death / TMNT Age 16

But then it gets tricky...

#46 and #52 seem to indicate it is, at that point, 1992... which would make the Turtles about 20 years old at this point. *But then* #59 (which then indicates the year is then 1993 from a calendar on the wall on the first page) in the lettercol plainly says, quote unquote: "Yes, the Turtles are [now] 16. The chronology is based on issue 48 picking up sometime shortly after issue 21 and 'Return to New York' left off." Which then, saying the Turtles are 16 in "City at War," MUST mean that it's only been a little less than a year since #21 and the second death of Saki... but that would STILL put the year of the present at that point at late 1988, early-to-mid 1989.

I mean, it's got to go one of two ways: consider the early dates given through "Return to New York" the true dates, or the dates that appear from #46 throughout "City at War" ... we can't have it both ways.

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WAY #1 (assuming the dates through "Return to New York" are the accurate ones)

1972 - TMNT are born/exposed to mutagen / TMNT Age 0
1985 - Shredder's first death / TMNT Age 13
1988 - Shredder's 2nd death / TMNT Age 16
1988-89 - "City at War," peace with Foot Clan / TMNT Age 16 into 17
1989 - Volume 2
1989-90 - Volume 3
2004 - Volume 4

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WAY #2 (assuming the dates given from #46 thru the end of "City at War" are the accurate ones)

1976 - TMNT are born/exposed to mutagen / TMNT Age 0
1989 - Shredder's first death / TMNT Age 13
1992 - Shredder's 2nd death / TMNT Age 16
1992-93 - "City at War," peace with the Foot Clan / TMNT Age 16 into 17
1993 - Volume 2
1993-94 - Volume 3
2008 - Volume 4

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WAY #3 (assuming Image Comics' Volume 3 really does happen this timeline is the only working one)

1981 - TMNT are born/exposed to mutagen / TMNT Age 0
1994 - Shredder's first death / TMNT Age 13
1997 - Shredder's 2nd death / TMNT Age 16
1997-98 - "City at War," peace with the Foot Clan / TMNT Age 16 into 17
1998 - Volume 2
1998-99 - Volume 3
2013 - Volume 4

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Considering several factors, including Plastron Cafe #1 (published Dec. 92), in which a future Don enters a fight simulation that Don says is "New York City, circa 1985" in which it appears to be a loose reinactment of the very first issue of TMNT, complete with Shredder (further cementing Vol. 1, #1 as 1985), I would have to say that Way #1 is the only way to go. HOWEVER... I do think the year 2008 or 2013 makes the most sense for the purposes of Volume 4, so I'm leaning toward Way #2 or #3.

What do you folks think?

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