And then there was that time the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic strip became self-aware.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic strip, 8-12-1992, by Dan Berger & M. Kelleher,
as reprinted in Comics Revue #80
Not quite at Morrison’s Animal Man / “I can see you!” levels of “we’re all just characters in funnybooks” awareness, but still a somewhat amusing and unexpected (if certainly not intentionally critical) bit of self-commentary on the “final battle” cliché.
check outnthe Tv movie they had last year. It got very meta with the various incarnations of TMNT meeting up.
Nor even at John Byrne’s She Hulk levels of self-aware. Boy, that was an annoying comic, even if it made me laugh occasionally…