Are IDW introducing too many characters?

[myconius]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Oh man, I completely forgot about Zodi till you mentioned her. I think that proves this topic, there's now a lot of new characters or mutants introduced that only have one or two appearances so far and are difficult to remember. And now we have Ocho tagging along with Karai too, which is another character in the pile.

I mean it's easy to remember the major characters, Mutanimals, and the main villains, but a lot of these side characters are getting lost in the shuffle. That's one of the reasons I wouldn't mind a "bloodbath" of sorts around issue 100, just to clean out the main cast a bit.

Cubed, i really like your idea of a culling!

[MikeandRaph87]

This has come up before and I agree there is an excess of characters some of them are relatively minor and its fine. Null has been mentioned is the one plot thread I keep thinking will be added to,but nothing yet. As for addition of Malinga with the Triceratons finally getting attention it seems unnecessary. I can create a good guess as to what Null will do I have no idea how Malinga will fit into the story going forward.

Bobby said the Punk Frogs were coming up sooner than later however its been four to five months since then. I also believe those frogs severants were not being passed off as them under the Toad Baron so where will they be? Its hard to think its "sooner" with Trial of Krang wrapping up and the focus shifting to the Triceraton invasion. It would be in TMNT Universe's December issue at the earliest.

[Powder]

I not only don't recall Bobby saying that but believe he in fact said they would not likely appear...

[MikeandRaph87]

Originally Posted by Powder

I not only don't recall Bobby saying that but believe he in fact said they would not likely appear...

I am going by a response in his Q&A thread which he was asked if the grog servants were to serve as the Punk Frogs analog in IDW. He said they are not and the Punk Frogs are scheduled to appear separately soon. I will have to dig through his thread for it. I believe it was during the solicits of TMNT Universe#9.

[ChosenOne]

Originally Posted by MikeandRaph87

This has come up before and I agree there is an excess of characters some of them are relatively minor and its fine. Null has been mentioned is the one plot thread I keep thinking will be added to,but nothing yet. As for addition of Malinga with the Triceratons finally getting attention it seems unnecessary. I can create a good guess as to what Null will do I have no idea how Malinga will fit into the story going forward.

Bobby said the Punk Frogs were coming up sooner than later however its been four to five months since then. I also believe those frogs severants were not being passed off as them under the Toad Baron so where will they be? Its hard to think its "sooner" with Trial of Krang wrapping up and the focus shifting to the Triceraton invasion. It would be in TMNT Universe's December issue at the earliest.

I do believe the Punk Frogs will pop up in the new TMNT/Ghostbusters crossover next month.

What is your guess regarding Null's role, if you don't mind me asking?

[MikeandRaph87]

Originally Posted by ChosenOne

I do believe the Punk Frogs will pop up in the new TMNT/Ghostbusters crossover next month.

What is your guess regarding Null's role, if you don't mind me asking?

I am guess ing she will play the unexpected third party in the storyline with Agent Bishop. She processed the mutagen for Shredder and she would be a target of Bishop. Bishop might want to confiscate the mutagen properties from her and that can bring her into the main title.

I noticed a lot of old characters on the cover of #4 of #5 including alternate versions of both Mondo Gecko and Ace Duck. I did not see them featured but that does not mean they are not going to be featured. Perhaps it's a quick reference and then move on? That would suck as they were favorites of mine growing up. Better than nothing though and if Mondo and Ace having an alternate version it does not rule out a proper appearance.

[CyberCubed]

Originally Posted by MikeandRaph87

I noticed a lot of old characters on the cover of #4 of #5 including alternate versions of both Mundi Gecko and ACE Duck. I did not see them featured but that does not mean they are not going to be featured. Perhaps it's a quick reference and then move on? That would suck as they were favorites of mine growing up. Better than nothing though and if Mondo and Ace having an alternate version it does not rule out a proper appearance.

I'm not sure what you mean here, you do realize IDW's versions of Mondo and Ace Duck exist, right? Unless I'm reading what you're saying wrong, the alternate ones on the cover will probably only be in that issue as a one-shot thing.

[MikeandRaph87]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

I'm not sure what you mean here, you do realize IDW's versions of Mondo and Ace Duck exist, right? Unless I'm reading what you're saying wrong, the alternate ones on the cover will probably only be in that issue as a one-shot thing.

Take a look at the cover, Ace Duck, Mondo Gecko, and Leatherhead appear on the cover, but they are not the IDW incarnations so they are obiviously alternate versions. If we meet The Punk Frogs there in a cameo it will be an alternate version of them leaving room for an IDW proper version to still appear in the future. I will take the bone as they are childhood favorites, but I still await their proper introduction once some story-lines have played out.

http://www.imagebam.com/image/628091629193733

[PApagreg]

I personally say yes but they do make up for it by developing most of them, now don't get me wrong a lot of them don't have the same level of depth like our main heroes but we do get a good understanding on why they do what they do.

[CyberCubed]

This thread is from nearly 6 years ago from 2017 and the IDW comic has doubled down and gotten even worse in terms of introducing 100 characters they have no time to juggle or give screentime too. Made even worse that most of the old characters are still around in addition to all of Sophie's characters and then all the characters Waltz keeps introducing.

If you told me back in 2017 we'd have 3 female Turtles in the series (Jennika, Lita and Venus) I would have laughed.

[Coola Yagami]

Lots of series have huge casts, I think the TMNT series needs to do a better job in separating them by location and circumstance.

Like don't have the turtles live in mutant town. That ways you restrict all the mutant town characters to whenever the story calls for it. Make the Mutanimals set up base in LA or something. Little things like that will help spread them out some and not have 100 or so characters per issue. Save the huge all-hands-on-deck situations for stuff like the Armageddon Game, but not in regular issues.

Like FMA had a huge cast spanning different countries. We don't see all these characters cross paths until the final chapters where the story came to the final boss fight.

[Sir5R]

I definitely think there are too many characters & mutants and the guys have been sidelined mostly to make room for them. While up to 100 was still relatively done well, 101 to 120ish has been terribly bogged down and only barely come back with this new storyline across, what 3 books now? Its too slow & dragged out. My hope is that at the end of this storyline, I'd like to see 90% of the characters gone or spun off into its own book separate from the Turtles book.

[staypuftweepel]

Yes, there’s way too many now. I haven’t really been enjoying Armageddon Game and the over abundance of new characters is part of the problem. It’s got the Mortal Kombat Annihilation (film) problem where they keep throwing as many new characters as they can in to the story and they move along so quickly it seems like there was no point in them being there at all. The Turtles roles are significantly reduced and out of the first 5 issues only Donatello’s arc stands out.

My biggest problem with the series is 5 issues in and it’s all been set up with not much of anything happening. I have 6 but haven’t read it yet. I think the alliance comics have been pretty pointless too.

[CyberCubed]

Its been a problem prior to issue 100 as well. Bringing Shredder and Krang "back to life" also complicated things, and it took them way too long to give Ch'rell something to do. Rat King and Null have essentially been stagnant for over 50+ issues for the most part.

[TheLabRat]

Another problem is how would they kill these villains, or remove them from the story in a way they can't come back? I can't expect The Turtles willing to kill these villains, since even Leo refuse to kill a demon. Most turtles can't even beat some minor vilains, like Gang of Four. These villains are either killed by other characters or be consumed by their own evil doings.

[Andrew NDB]

Leo won't kill a demon?

[ChosenOne]

More like an alien in this iteration but yeah, the Gang of Four schooling the Turtles was utter BS. Maybe if they'd kept them at a range it would've looked better.

[Dangv]

Yes.

Just the turtles alone. How many are there now? 12?

I can't keep up with the story, characters and spin-off/side releases anymore.

I gave up a while ago, keep trying to get back into it but there's too much going on. At the same time it feels like nothing is really happening (if that makes sense). I lost interest and hope this event will kill off many of these useless characters and things will go back to normal.

[CyberCubed]

There's more side characters than anything else.

[Jeff]

For a 40 year old franchise and a 12-year-long comic run that has about 300 issues in the main title, minis/one-shots/etc, there are not too many characters. I think the issue sometimes is focusing on certain characters (Rat King/Old Hob, for example) for too many issues takes away the possibility of highlighting some of the other characters that haven't had space to grow.