So how do you feel about the first LESBIAN kiss in the TMNT franchise?

[neatoman]

Hey guys! I realised something! It ain't easy being green!

[ZariusTwo]

Jennika is a 'literally who' that is never going to matter outside of these comics.

[Coola Yagami]

Originally Posted by IndigoErth

I recall seeing something of that and she got upset over it and mad at him, assuming that he and the other Turtles just can't understand the plight of all these people who have been mutated. (And a bit of a bitch imo, never giving a moment of thought to the difficult lives the Turtles had lived for years before now and had no one else, unlike the new mutants like her who are surrounded by other people.)

She's an idiot then. She never considered that if they find a cure, they can all turn human and rebuild their lives, but if that stuff touched Donnie he's back to being a regular turtle.

[CyberCubed]

Originally Posted by ZariusTwo

Jennika is a 'literally who' that is never going to matter outside of these comics.

I guess we'll see. She does seem to be gaining more traction than Venus did, and if Venus can be remembered 25 years after a failed TV series that only lasted 1 season, I wonder how Jennika will be remembered.

Not to mention now that they made her a lesbian, she's not just a female Turtle anymore. Now she's a LESBIAN female Turtle, making her part of the LGBT community, so all the LGBT people will probably try to keep her alive years in the fandom even after the IDW series ends. Venus was just the first female Turtle, now we have a LESBIAN female ninja Turtle...those things aren't really forgotten these days.

I can see people trying to champion Jennika for LGBT representation 10 years from now.

[sdp]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

I guess we'll see. She does seem to be gaining more traction than Venus did, and if Venus can be remembered 25 years after a failed TV series that only lasted 1 season, I wonder how Jennika will be remembered.

Despite being in a failed tv show it still aired on the biggest kids network at the height of saturday morning blocks and having a crossover with one of the highest rated action shows at the time. Anyone who also searched for Ninja Turtles or TMNT on netflix worldwide, the most popular way for people to watch tv would see The Next Mutation as the top choice for years. Not to mention constantly talked about since her inception to this day making people curious about her.

Or a literally nobody fanfic tier comic character that sells at most around 50k units mostly to an American market. This is of course sales numbers including people who buy multiple copies because of the predatory business model of having different cover art. She's not even the only female mutant turtle in the comic and literally everyone is a mutant in the comic now and only appeals to furries who are pretty much shunned by most communities.


Venus de Milo.

[IndigoErth]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

I guess we'll see. She does seem to be gaining more traction than Venus did, and if Venus can be remembered 25 years after a failed TV series that only lasted 1 season, I wonder how Jennika will be remembered.

Not to mention now that they made her a lesbian, she's not just a female Turtle anymore. Now she's a LESBIAN female Turtle, making her part of the LGBT community, so all the LGBT people will probably try to keep her alive years in the fandom even after the IDW series ends. Venus was just the first female Turtle, now we have a LESBIAN female ninja Turtle...those things aren't really forgotten these days.

I can see people trying to champion Jennika for LGBT representation 10 years from now.

I really doubt making her a fictional member of that demographic is somehow going to be of any particular interest to any real life member of it who isn't into TMNT.

If she (and her girlfriend) were the first ever characters in some kind of media, or at least in comics, then maybe, but by this point there is nothing new or original about shoehorning her into going that angle.

Originally Posted by Coola Yagami

She's an idiot then. She never considered that if they find a cure, they can all turn human and rebuild their lives, but if that stuff touched Donnie he's back to being a regular turtle.

Exactly, I don't think it crossed her mind that if they can ever go back to their old lives, these guys can't follow them and they're back to being alone in the world. (And she certainly won't be keeping Donnie then unless she's okay with that...) At best hopefully they'd come away with more human allies in the surrounding community who now know them and have their backs.

[Andrew NDB]

Yeah, you're talking about Venus, who literally millions of people watched for a couple of years and possibly bought toys of vs. someone in a comic a few thousand people (largely collectors, hobbyists) buy.

[mrmaczaps]

Y'all seen the straight up Mirage "in-house" comic porn right? I mean, that exists & some fans own copies even though it was never meant to get out of the hands of the Mirage guys...

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by mrmaczaps

Y'all seen the straight up Mirage "in-house" comic porn right? I mean, that exists & some fans own copies even though it was never meant to get out of the hands of the Mirage guys...

More of an....Archie porn, but yeah. The thread about it is still here somewhere.

[mrmaczaps]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

More of an....Archie porn, but yeah. The thread about it is still here somewhere.

I say Mirage cuz it was the Mirage guys who made it, but yeah, in the Archie style.

[Leo656]

That sh*t was glorious.

Also, minor pedantic correction to an earlier post, but as I recall The Next Mutation aired on weekday afternoons on Fox, not Saturday mornings. Unless there was something I missed.

I distinctly remember a bunch of friends rushing to get off the school bus in time to catch the first episode. Then the next morning on the bus everyone was like, "So, uh... did you catch it...?" and they're like "....(siiiiiigh) Yeah." And then everyone literally pretended the show never existed, we never spoke of it to each other again (other than to cite it as the turning point where the once-cool TMNT franchise had officially turned to sh*t), and that's when TMNT officially "died" for the first time.

Not fun times.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by mrmaczaps

I say Mirage cuz it was the Mirage guys who made it

I think it was just Bill Fitts? Who's primarily known for that Archie special.

[IndigoErth]

Originally Posted by mrmaczaps

Y'all seen the straight up Mirage "in-house" comic porn right? I mean, that exists & some fans own copies even though it was never meant to get out of the hands of the Mirage guys...

Yes, and what about it.

[Leo656]

Pretty sure I still have it on either my hard drive or a storage device somewhere. Good sh*t.

EDIT: ((Checks)) Yep! Haha, Ninjara's boobs. Awesome.

[CyberCubed]

Well this just came and went. Its been about a week since the comic came out and nobody is talking about it anymore.

I guess a lesbian kiss can't really remain "in the news" much anymore, so it feels like having a lesbian relationship in TMNT was just for publicity.

[Coola Yagami]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Well this just came and went. Its been about a week since the comic came out and nobody is talking about it anymore.

I guess a lesbian kiss can't really remain "in the news" much anymore, so it feels like having a lesbian relationship in TMNT was just for publicity.

No one really cares about TMNT. Plus they were both 'made-up' characters. Now if April locked lips with Karai or Raph shared a passionate kiss with Casey, that might have brought in more news, especially a few years back when the book was top selling.

But no one really cares about these 2 fanfic characters in an already dying book.

[CyberCubed]

If they ever made Casey gay I would have been devastated.

[IndigoErth]

Doubtful it "was just for publicity," more likely inclusiveness. But guess it did not impress people as much as they intended. I've seen like all of... one fan drawing related to it. I guess people just aren't that impressed with these characters, nor the need to give it any kind of fanfare. The story really didn't give anyone any reason to root for these characters to get together.

Jennika and Casey had more to root for, for them to somehow be together again someday (once she could theoretically be human again), but having awkward gray area relationship tension in the meantime.


edit: I'd think that would be kind of insulting though if it was only for publicity. Like characters that are intentionally like you in some way are just used as a gimmick. Ouch... lol

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

If they ever made Casey gay I would have been devastated.

Well why not. We seem to live at a time when people don't seem to think two characters can just be good friends anymore, like they have to believe they must want each other. So doesn't that mean Casey and Raph must want each other, too? lol

[Leo656]

Originally Posted by Coola Yagami

No one really cares about TMNT. Plus they were both 'made-up' characters. Now if April locked lips with Karai or Raph shared a passionate kiss with Casey, that might have brought in more news, especially a few years back when the book was top selling.

But no one really cares about these 2 fanfic characters in an already dying book.

April/Irma FTW

Originally Posted by IndigoErth

Doubtful it "was just for publicity," more likely inclusiveness.

Meh... Little of A, little of B. There's no way that this specific issue coming out during PRIDE month was any sort of accident, what with every comic book publisher going wall-to-wall gay on everything. Even if the intentions were pure, they were definitely hoping to get some favorable ink from it, no question.

I mean, could be worse. DC legit put a team together called "Justice League Queer" for this month's "festivities". Because that's not heavy-handed at all. Lord, have mercy.

Originally Posted by IndigoErth

edit: I'd think that would be kind of insulting though if it was only for publicity. Like characters that are intentionally like you in some way are just used as a gimmick. Ouch... lol

SOME of my gay friends think that kind of thing is incredibly offensive. Not all, mind you. But some, for sure. They think it's pandering bullsh*t and they don't think it's at all necessary.

[IndigoErth]

Yeah, inclusion is all well and good, but having to throw something like that on stage and throw a spotlight on it is stupid.

Just let it exist sometimes as anything else does... If they want it to be regarded as normal, then don't make a spectacle of it. How hard is that?

They could have suggested these characters were actually growing close over time, give it some actual build up in the background of the story, and left it to lots of insinuation instead of just suddenly throwing it out there and giving it center stage to say, "LOOK! THIS IS A THING! LOOK AT IT!"

They provided no reason to care about them happening. I hate to call that lazy writing, but, well... rushing into something like that is far too much like the tons of poorly written fanfic out there; all the junk that happens just because, with no nuance or explanation. Many people seem to like going with certain ideas they have, but don't like coming up with the details that surround it or support the reason for it to be happening...

I realize you can do only so much with only so many pages and only so many months to do it in, but really... making it something building in the background would have given it more time to have a reason to give it attention when the relationship became a thing.

Originally Posted by Leo656

There's no way that this specific issue coming out during PRIDE month was any sort of accident

Was this one not originally set for May? Did it get bumped to June (for obvious reason)?

Tried to figure that out, because it felt like a really log wait for this one (as someone who doesn't pay that close of attention but know the last one felt like a long time ago), but never saw any comments or complaints online about it being pushed back.

Originally Posted by Leo656

I mean, could be worse. DC legit put a team together called "Justice League Queer" for this month's "festivities". Because that's not heavy-handed at all. Lord, have mercy.

Well they may as well, everything else has gone full blast with it. Hell, I saw Kellogg's did a "TOGETHER...with pride" cereal. I mean, it's cute colorful hearts, but was special cereal really necessary.