Reaction to April being a drawing

[Cipher]

Originally Posted by Pterobat

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.

[cartoonistaaron]

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.

[***First of Two Latin Kings***]

Originally Posted by FoxZerro

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.

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.

[TMNachoT]

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

[plastroncafe]

Originally Posted by Pterobat

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.

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.

[Rooish]

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

[FoxZerro]

Originally Posted by ***The One True Shredder***

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 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

[liugeaux]

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.

[Pterobat]

Originally Posted by plastroncafe

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.

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.

[CyberCubed]

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

[liugeaux]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

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.

[Tazi]

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?