April's diminishing role in the comics
 

Sometimes I feel like the only reason PL gave April a new origin story is, for the most part, April is becoming a useless character in the Mirage comics.

When you stop to think about it, April never really had that big a role in the comics to begin with. The cartoons/movies promote the hell out of April as if she's the second most important character after the Turtles, (even more than Splinter), but in the comics she's low-key.

I know she's the Turtles first human friend, but her "big roles" in the comics were just Baxter stories. #2 was her origin with Baxter, then in Volume 2 robot Baxter comes after her to get revenge, in Volume 4 Baxter's nanobots try to kill April. There was her stint in "City at War," which was her only major non-Baxter story.

How do you feel about April's role in the Mirage comics?

I'm not exactly sure anymore...but I will be curious to see what others have to say.

I do know I'm a hardcore Shadow fan now though.

I'm sure this has to do with #69, which I haven't read yet. If you talk about that issue please put it in spoilers, I don't want the story ruined. I gotta order that issue but I'm waiting till the end of the month so I can include #70 with it.

That's more or less how I've always felt about Mirage April.

She was important at the start of the series, helping the Turtles to adapt to human life and giving them someone "normal" to relate to.

But once that era of their lives ended, she became entirely superfluous and, quite frankly, dull.

The Fred Wolf series managed to keep April interesting with the reporter job, giving her an excuse to particpate in all of the Turtles' adventures or to go out and look for trouble on her own. The Archie comics and the 4Kids series turned April into a ninja so she could join with the Turtles as their (more or less) physical equal and never have to suffer the indignity of being a perpetual hostage like Fred Wolf April.

Mirage?

The character never grew or developed any skill or reason to continue participating in the Turtles' stories on any meaningful level. She faded intothe background and simply became "Casey's girlfriend". Casey could remain in the spotlight because his vigilante status allowed him to join in the Turtles adventures. April? She just became Casey's doting girlfriend and contributed nothing.

Even when they introduced Shadow and you'd think April would wind up with the "mother" role...that still didn't happen. She was hardly ever shown interacting with Shadow in a maternal way. Shadow remained "Casey's kid" and almost exclusively "Casey's kid" (that's not to say there weren't any April/Shadow moments, but they were very rare).

Once the Turtles had acclimated to human society, there was simply nothing left for April to *do* in the Mirage comics since she couldn't join in any of the action.


I also got the feeling that the "magical doodle" origin was a cheap means to try and make April relevant again. I despise the story as much now as when it initially happened. They didn't want to make April interesting in the Mirage comics by making her a reporter or a ninja apprentice because that would be "stupid", but a magical doodle? Sure, why not.

Ugh.

Mirage April is my least favorite incarnation of the character. The last time she was ever interesting was her arc during "City at War".

She did grow dull and always felt like a secondary character as the Mirage series progressed, but the Image run gave her a maternal side with Shadow, as well as continuing her relationship with the Turtles in a relevant way.

I feel she never was given much depth, overall, aside from the early stories, CAW, and Image, and she should have been allowed to take up another job (I honestly do not know what her occupation has been since she quit being Baxter's assisstant.) as a cimputer technician or even a *gasp* freelance writer for a paper or becoming a blogger. Her "fantastical stories" could have given her some means to support her and Casey as well as been a way to connect the Turtles to the outside world through "fiction". Something.

I'm not saying I dislike Mirage April, as she always felt the most real, the most mundane, to me. There is something appealing in that fact; but I do wish she was given more depth than "the Turtles human friend/Casey's girlfriend."

After City at War, she bought Casey's mom's apartment building and her new job became running that place.

...Yeah. Not an incredibly interesting occupation. It actually made her previous employment of "antique dealer" look exciting.

OOoohh yeah. I remember that now.

See!

Given such menial jobs! Gah, I can remember Casey's stint as a grocery store manager, but forgot about landlady April.

At least it explains how Casey can bum around the apartment all the time and run off with the Turtles. They must have some good tenants.

I always thought April would have had a bigger role in the TMNT had she not hooked up with Casey. I'm not one of those freaks into Turtle/Woman loving or anything, but I think had there been some potential love interest between April and one of the turtles, it could have branched out to more storylines. Instead she falls in with Casey pretty quick and then there's really no point in keeping her around.

Come to think of it, did April ever actually go on "adventures" with the Turtles in the Mirage universe?

In #32 she was a reporter in that Egyptian adventure, but that was a guest issue.

Even in Tales #7 when the Turtles go back in the time to the dinosaurs with Renet, April says she doesn't want to go and remains in the present.

April is the Zeppo of Team Turtle.

She's the normal, average, non-gimmicky character in a world of heroes, ninjas, and sociopaths. Her under-use in the Mirage books is one of the bigger problems I have with those stories.

It's not as if she's lacking in good story material. She's a gifted computer programmer who, because of circumstances she could in no way control, is forced to live off the grid entirely. Playing Wendy to a family of Lost Boys.

Is that exciting as going across the universe via Transmat and fighting Triceratons? No, but...it's hard not to see the human drama in that. Just...being the one "sane" thing in a crazy messed up world should be enough.

We get a hint of that in "True Stories" and in "Sons of the Silent Age". It's the overall character depth we get from April's insights that make these some of my all-time favorite Volume 1 issues.

And that's where the Zeppo's powers are, in their insight. I think one of Laird's biggest mistakes was making April something "special" by stripping her of her Zeppo'hood with her new and improved origin story. There was no reason to "re-imagine" her, just paying attention to her would have been enough.

But much as I hated that decision, it's still SOMETHING, which is more than the other writers did.

In Juliet's Revenge (Volume 1 #42) April and Casey track down the captured TMNT and Splinter and both get involved in the climatic battle with Savanti Juliet. That story may or may not have been part of the official Peter Laird canon.

It also doesn't seem like the Turtles care as much for April as they do with Casey. She was supposed to be their link to the outside world, but they seldom ever hang out with her.

it is not canon.

Word. These are the issues that DEFINE April as a character.

Double Word. With that move Pete took away the one constant "normal" character in the mirage continuity - the straight(wo)man who we can relate to, and who makes the chaos and adventure occurring around them seem all the more awesome as a result.

Nothing is contradictory in it, though... and I wouldn't be too beholden to what Peter says is canon and not post-sale.

has someone said what is and what is not canon? and if peter haven´t said so, who on mirage have the right to say what is canon.

Regarding what i say about issue # 42, dan gave me a canon list long time ago, so that´s why i said juliet´s revenge is non canon.