April's ethnicity moving forward

[Leo656]

Patience is a Virtue.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Leo656

Boy oh BOY, did I hate Vol. 4.

When you look at Laird you'd never think so, but that whole thing REALLY makes me think that he did some stuff when he was younger and that it has caught up to him throughout the years.

After all, there's no way someone was sober that day/night they created the TMNT concept. No way.

[neatoman]

Originally Posted by Leo656

Patience is a Virtue.

I guess, I assumed it was inevitable given his stance on trying to act/pretend to be respectful.

[Leo656]

Originally Posted by Prowler

When you look at Laird you'd never think so, but that whole thing REALLY makes me think that he did some stuff when he was younger and that it has caught up to him throughout the years.

After all, there's no way someone was sober that day/night they created the TMNT concept. No way.

Oh, they were definitely, definitely stoned outta their gourd. 100%.

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

Originally Posted by Leo656

Boy oh BOY, did I hate Vol. 4.

Which is a shame, because there are a LOT of good TMNT ideas in there. Utrom First Contact, the Battle Nexus, Splinter dying, Mikey and the Regenta, Mikey and the alien princess, Mikey and the Triceraton commandos, Don and the Utroms in South America...

But man. Yeah, you can't convince me drugs aren't somewhere involved in that whole "April is a magic drawing and becomes a cockroach in the past and YES, she and Renet attended cockroach parties."

C'mon, Pete. C'MON.

[Leo656]

I feel like TMNT in general could be summed up as, "Kevin and Pete had some interesting ideas... and then a bunch of other people executed those ideas way, WAY better than they ever could."

It's okay. Siegel & Shuster's Superman stories weren't the best ever, and neither were Kane and Finger's Batman stories. Respect for the original author should always be observed, but most of the time, their ideas are refined and better-executed by others who came after them.

It happens.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by Leo656

I feel like TMNT in general could be summed up as, "Kevin and Pete had some interesting ideas... and then a bunch of other people executed those ideas way, WAY better than they ever could."

I'd sum it up as more, "Kevin and Pete had some great ideas... then a bunch of other people turned them into kiddie mush, then Pete sold all the rights so that bunches of additional people can make more and more kiddie mush."

[Leo656]

Well, SOME of that is also true.

Okay, a lot of it. Still... when it comes to Kev & Pete, neither one of them is capable of presenting TMNT as I'd prefer it, apparently.

Kevin's stuff is too over-the-top goofy and "edgelord" hyper-violent, and Pete's is far too dry and political-preaching, with tons of characters talking to each other and nothing ever happening. And when stuff DOES happen, it's stuff like the April/drawing/cockroach stuff, and it's like "Y'know... this isn't good."

Once, for like 5 minutes, they came together and their collaboration gave birth to something generally even-handed and pretty good. But altogether that's like a blip on the radar. Individually, I don't like either of their work very much.

[sdp]

I didn't mean this thread to be another black april thread, but I certainly didn't help with the Fox News transcript in the OP. The point of the thread is not if April should be black but if you'd want her as black in future installments or if you thought it was likely that she'd continue to be black. The discussion of whether she is black or not has already been beaten to death.

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

Originally Posted by sdp

I didn't mean this thread to be another black april thread, but I certainly didn't help with the Fox News transcript in the OP. The point of the thread is not if April should be black but if you'd want her as black in future installments or if you thought it was likely that she'd continue to be black. The discussion of whether she is black or not has already been beaten to death.

Once you go black, you never go back.

No, I don't think we'll see much of white April in new incarnations, moving forward.

[Leo656]

Hopefully we won't always have "Tasmanian Devil April" stinking up the joint, either.

[Dejablue]

Originally Posted by Leo656

On this we agree.

But the only thing that stays consistent about April, iteration to iteration, is her race. She's a radically different person every single time.

As far as future iterations, no doubt she will default back to white. But I don't have a problem with her not being white. Wasn't she originally supposed to be of Asian ethnicity? So to all the people frothing at the mouth at the thought of April being black, would you be just as ass pained if the next April ends up being Chinese? In my mind it works like this. In MOST universes characters look a certain way.I.E. April is white 90% of the time. But every once in a while you will have variables. I.E. Baxter Stockman ends up being white like that one time.

But even then I have small rules that contradict this. In my mind Karai, Oroku Saki, Hamato Yoshi obviously have to be Japanese every time. (Maybe chinese/chinese mix but that is getting into ridiculous details) Because Ninja are exclusive to Japan, these characters can't come from anywhere else. Their race is important to who they are as characters.

As far as volume 4 is concerned. It does have PROBLEMS. But as I read it I think it had good ideas (not April being a drawing cuz wtf) By the time it ended (on its cliff hanger) I could tell that Laird had written himself into a corner.

[Leo656]

To your point, as I and others have stated, it would be nice if SOMEthing - ANYthing - about April could stay consistent from one version to the next. Her race, her hair color, her job, her personality... ANYthing.

She's worse than goddamn Donna Troy.

[Chet]

I think new ethnicities should be new characters. Reskinning regulars seems pointless.

[Dane E5R]

So, this conversation is 85% likely to just piss me off in the end, but what the heck. It doesn’t matter to me what race she is. When I saw that she would be black, I was excited; unfortunately, I hate Rise. C’est la vie.

When it comes to her last name, it’s whatever. My last name is German; and that’s because the slave owners who owned my ancestors were German. Simple as that.

When it comes to race changing- The “create new characters” gripe annoys me. When new POC characters are introduced, they generally don’t last. White comic fans decide its a “black” book, and ignore it. The way to get new black characters with a possibility of sticking around? Slip them into something you’re already consuming like a pill coated in peanut butter.

Sometimes it doesn’t work, sometimes we get Sam jackson playing Nick Fury and an Oscar winning Spider-Man film.

[Xav]

Originally Posted by Candy Kappa

I too prefer a redhead April, but she never was a redhead until 2012 show, and Mirage April albeit partially based of a Black person and might have had some Black coding in the art was intended to be White.

Are you trying to tell me, Archie April, 2k3 April, and 2k7 April weren't redheads?

[Dejablue]

Originally Posted by Xav

Are you trying to tell me, Archie April, 2k3 April, and 2k7 April weren't redheads?

Nope they were definitely red heads.

[IndigoErth]

Originally Posted by Dane E5R

When it comes to race changing- The “create new characters” gripe annoys me. When new POC characters are introduced, they generally don’t last. White comic fans decide its a “black” book, and ignore it. The way to get new black characters with a possibility of sticking around? Slip them into something you’re already consuming like a pill coated in peanut butter.

I can't speak from that perspective, so not trying to debate or step on any toes or anything, but, that said, I imagine it may not be entirely unlike when male characters are turned female?

From that angle I kinda get what you're saying, because in a similar vein its always seemed, and been bothersome, that if a woman is the central role (and not sexualized to make men like it) then people tend to decide that it's "for women" the majority of the time. (Or in this day and age labeled "feminist" for being female centered and shoved away in horror. )

It doesn't bug you at all though that a character revamp is probably just temporary? It's something I'm kind of torn on over this trend of doing that for these superhero films and whatnot with the gender switch.

On one hand, I think whatever, it's just temporary fun (even though the fanboys will be throwing a fit), on the other hand it's the fact that it IS just temporary, like a brief novelty, and I almost feel a little insulted because it seems to suggest we're not allowed or that we're somehow incapable of having original stuff that is equally awesome that everyone will love.


I dunno... To each their own on this matter, but definitely some growing up society still has to do to come to terms with the fact that women and POC are part of the NORM, not a niche novelty that's only for the people who look like those depicted. I kinda see what I assume you mean (correct me if I'm wrong) with, in a sense, weaning viewers into better acceptance in this regard via taking that peanut butter-coated pill. I just feel like revamping a character for better diversity is a bit of a cheaper route to take and a lost opportunity to add to the franchise in the long run if a character is likely to just revert back to their usual depiction.

[Candy Kappa]

Originally Posted by Xav

Are you trying to tell me, Archie April, 2k3 April, and 2k7 April weren't redheads?

Archie has more auburn hair, 2k3... magenta is not a real hair color so not really. I’ll give you 2007 April, I forgot about her existence when I wrote my post.

[Dejablue]

Originally Posted by Candy Kappa

Archie has more auburn hair, 2k3... magenta is not a real hair color so not really. I’ll give you 2007 April, I forgot about her existence when I wrote my post.

Sweetie honey, auburn and magenta fall under the spectrum of "red" .