Reaction to April being a drawing
 

What were your reactions when you discovered that April was a drawing that came to life?

I didn't like the idea and the implications of it (wich were never actually explored), but for some reason I really liked the issue in which it was explained. Thinking about it now, it was probably a pointless thing to do.

Didn't care for it, no.

In retrospect, though I didn't like it, I'd have been willing to see where Laird took the concept and how he explored the idea.

...But nah, he went absolutely nowhere with it because he lost interest in the series shortly after going through the trouble of introducing the new origin. So it winds up being this random non-sequitor with nary any impact or repercussions. (Unless you count "April being sad" as a major narrative consequence.)

It was pretty dumb on its own, but it could have at least been mined for some decent storytelling and maybe over time proven its value. But it didn't even do that.

Vol. 4 is really where I began reading the comics except a few when I was a kid. So these issues hold a special place in my heart. As far as the question at hand....I actually enjoyed it. I think the whole inking the lines at the end to make her "real" was a nice touch considering it kind of mirrors what comic book artists do to bring their drawings to "life".

I was never aware of this concept until after I joined this forums, and since I never followed Vol. 2+ of the comics, just took it as a "This is more ridiculous than the cartoons and third movie" idea. This was breaking the FIFTH wall. Remember that Looney Tune where an eraser got rid of Daffy Duck only that he was really being controlled by Bugs (he was basically Kirby)?

BTW, this is my 3,000th post! Hope for many more.

Congradulations.:D

I would have liked an issue or two of her kicking ass as a female Nobody. The should have lasted longer.

Indeed, that would be sweet.:D

Not to mention, have they explained how April somehow knew how to fight? I think her brief role as Nobody was the first instance of Mirage April being a fighter. Or maybe she was just suicidal at that point and didn't care what happened since she wasn't real anyway.

I think there are much deeper implications present in Vol. 4 Issue 22 than April being a drawing.

Initially I love the idea of bringing back a plot device from the very very early years of the Ninja Turtles. The Donatello Micro-Series is one of my favorite early Mirage stories and the fact that Peter found a way to bring back the magic crystal and make it more relevant in the mythos was great as a long time fan.

Where it loses me though is the fact that clearly it wasn't a prospect thought of from the beginning and that fact makes it feel tacked on for the sake of shock value. While I am all about TMNT being Peter's creation and his to do with what he wants, the entire development while I can see it having great story potential just wasn't followed through on (don't even get me started on the events of Tales Vol. 2 issue 27 bleh).

The other major problem I have with it is it is meant to explain why she is infertile and it doesn't do that. Discounting all of the other things I need to suspend disbelief for (the fact that as a drawing she ages, has a complete set of fully functioning internal organ systems except reproduction, and the entire nastiness about her avoiding the fate of the other Proto-April's because she was drawn in ink.) the biggest one is something mentioned in passing that completely undermines the entire explanation.

This is the fact that while April and Renet are there as Cockroaches watching they mate with other cockroaches. It is a completely throwaway line, but the simple fact that April is able to mate while in the form of a cockroach, means that drawing or not she should also be able to mate as a human being. It takes the wind out the sails completely regarding the argument that it is her origins that make April infertile. In fact it means that the nanobots probably had a long term effect on her ability to procreate, or maybe that it is just something biologically wrong with her that could also effect any woman living in the modern world that translates into an inability to breed.

She could fight at the beginning of Volume 4 when she was throwing the Utroms/guards off of her when they detected Baxter's nanomachines in her.

My guess is she learned to fight between the end of Volume 2/Image and Volume 4.

Did they actually turn into cockroaches or did they possess two normal roaches? Plus I always thought it was kinda wtf in the sense that how does time travel turn you into an insect. Plus wow. That whole ordeal lasted months right? Talk about heavy need of therapy. Just ew.

'Omg renet, I think this roach is trying to mate with me!'
'Just close your eyes and go with it April.'

You do bring up a good point, it may have been possession, I'd have to reread the book to be sure, but as I recall it was a part of Renet's magic that gave them the form of cockroaches so they could observe without fear of disrupting the timeline

I disliked the move as it stripped April of her "Zeppo" aspect. It hints to me of a problem with the writing of compelling female characters.

April didn't really have much of a role in Mirage to begin with outside a few select issues. This isn't like the April of the cartoons who constantly went on adventures.

I concur. Mirage April post-Volume 1 was probably one of the dullest characters in comics. I felt like Laird's twist in Volume 4 was a desperate attempt to make the character relevant again, but it just fell flat.

Ditto.

This is exactly how I feel.

Ultimately, it was kind of a pointless wrinkle that, even if its disturbing implications had been explored, felt like a disingenuous way to trigger a story arc for the character. April could have been interesting without it if we'd instead had an organic arc born out of her own character and goals.

However, Vol. 4 #22 itself? It's pretty great. A highlight of the run. And while I wouldn't have picked it as a route myself, I think interesting plots could indeed have come of it. I'd still place money on the idea that it was going to tie into Leonardo's discovery of the Battle Nexus at some point (access to the alternate universe the other Aprils had vanished to).

I wish we got a Tales story where they visit the Kirby dimension and they see 50+ different versions of April there all at different ages. It at least would have been SOME payoff even if small.

I think one reason why #22 feels like a breath of fresh air to the narrative is that it's pretty much the only issue in the run that actually devotes its entirety to a single storyline. Volume 4 could have used a bit more of that.

I really hate to say this about the main female character in the franchise (feel like I'm betraying my ovaries over here), but April O'Neil has never been all that interesting a character. Describing her as an individual personality, outside of her jobs, her relationships, her inherent contrast to the weirdness of the Turtles' lives, is hard. She just feels like an extra pair of hands a lot of the time, as various writers struggle to find what to do with her.

And loading her with new gimmicks is an extension of that. April doesn't have to be a ninja in training, or a living drawing, in order to be interesting, but it seems that she keeps having to be something besides an ordinary person, because writers don't know what to do with her otherwise.

Which is 1) true, but also 2) weird, because her two best story lines (Vol. 1 #11 and "City at War") are all about her being a normal person reacting the way a normal person would to the craziness around her. I wish Mirage, which wasn't adverse to these type of material, had embraced the appeal of her slice-of-life stories more often.

I thought it was a pretty lame idea. I don't think any of the various TMNT writers (except maybe the first movie) have explored how April works best, which is taking on the role of a normal person being introduced to this insane world of mutant Turtles. April should really serve as the reader's perspective on the incredible events happening during the Turtles' adventures... Not as a drawing or a trained ninja fighting alongside them or whatever.

It isn't that she can't "mate" (she and Casey were trying to have a baby of their own), it's that she can't get pregnant for some reason, which probably has to do with the fact that she doesn't "belong" in this dimension. Renet's has the power to put her subjects in whatever dimension she wants, and felt that they'd only "belong" in April's past as cockroaches, probably because she didn't want anything to happen that would alter or affect the past. Besides, it only says they mated as cockroaches, not that either of them laid eggs.

I've always wondered if Renet weren't a male cockroach while they were in the past, and if Renet and April mated with one another as cockroaches. :tlol:

It´s weird twist but i don´t mind, we just need to see her story developed

This isn't the character's fault, but that of the writers', and it's what happens when you can't write compelling female characters and rely on their tokenism.

Why was the cockroach mating part really necessary? To indicate the trauma April experienced?

I referred to the fact that April was infertile which is a more clinical way of saying "can't get pregnant for some reason."

Mating in terms of biology means to create offspring. The very act of mating means that April laid eggs as that is how Cockroaches take part in mating.

They weren't in the past just having casual sex with cockroaches to pass the time between relevant plot points. They were actively participating in the procreation of the Roaches that lived in the walls of the O'neil's home. Which if you think of it doesn't affect the course of human events in the time line would probably have an affect on the Cockroach's which in turn could mean an affect on humanity down the line (butterfly effect and all that)

I feel like the fact that very casually and for no real reason, other than I believe shock value or to inject realism into the situation by Peter Laird, the line about matng being added is a problem with the whole idea. Since it effectively says that April can in fact bear offspring. If the fact that magic changing her form is involved in that then why couldn't magic have been used to fix the problem she was having in the present.

I do like the idea that she can't breed because she belongs in a different dimension, since her psysiological makeup would differ on a genetic level and thus mean she couldn't have a child with a human.

Still I feel like the whole idea behind it was to make April that much more like the turtles, since the whole last of their kind thing was a big reason behind "no female turtles." If April is doomed to that same existence then it could have added another layer to her relationship with the gang

Right, mating=reproducing, if technically she's not human it makes perfect sense that she can't have a child. As for April being a drawing, I like the concept, but the execution was kinda flimsy. I think the best thing about the whole story was how Renet dealt with the information she already knew.

Er...that's how I was putting it.

I never thought much about the contradiction of April being fertile when in the body of a 'roach...and I don't WANT to think about it. :P

It was a pointless retcon. It would be like Superman suddenly discovering he's not from the Planet Krypton.

Not quite...What Laird did was give April an origin story where one had not been in the past. Superman not being from Krypton, would be a fundamental change in origin.

As dumb as people may think it is, it doesn't change anything, it just fills in a gap in the story.

Quiet not the same.

And Superman had changes worse than not being from Krypton, for example turning into an energy being.


I liked her being a drawing, I liked even the roach thing, it's wierd and disturbing as ****, but I think mirage TMNT always had that kinda aspect, and it was interesthing, and noticable in a way.( You know it still makes a hundred times more sense to me, then Batman not killing mass murderers after they easlily escaped from the 34234th time from Arkham.)
The sad is, the storyline is just left hanging on, it's never finished, we never saw the final result of it.

What I wonder is... April had some strange alien heritage in Nick, or something else, dunno, but she is not standard human genetically that's for sure. So, what I wonder is if this Mirage retcon gave an idea to Nick writers, to play with April's origin in that show?