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thelastraigeki · 5 years

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My Thoughts: TMNT’s Jennika

So... I am still in the process of digesting and trying to accept that now there is a fifth Turtle around in IDW’s TMNT Universe, and she’s certainly made a lot of buzz through out the entire comic book community. And I can even say that my initial reaction to this was.... perhaps uncalled for and even anger laced. I am not really good with certain additions or even subtractions in canon when it comes to my favorite franchises, case in point my negative reactions to the current Alien-Predator canon which... I’ve largely abandoned.

I want to talk about the craze for the new fifth and female Turtle, Jennika, who seems to have taken IDW’s TMNT universe by storm since IDW’s TMNT#95. Now... the news was spoiled to me on Facebook, but I went out and read the comics anyway, and understood the context better but... I’m still trying to process and accept this and it’s not easy for me.

I’ve been reading IDW’s TMNT comics since 2011 when the comic first came out, and have been a faithful reader since. I’ve collected the annual comics, I’ve collected the side story companions such as the Villains series, the Micro series, and the TMNT Universe series. All of them are well done, the comic has been such a treasure and an expansive one to that with newly created and fresh characters... From Alopex, Kitsune, Aka, Lindsey, Libby... And those are the new established female characters I’m talking about...

But Jennika... I haven’t been invested in. Nor have I really felt any gravity towards... And this is a question I am asking myself in order to accept this character with open arms and give her a chance.

Yes. I want to give this character a chance. I want to like this character. I really do... I honestly, really do like I appreciate Alopex, Kitsune, Lindsey and Libby, and all the other ladies of TMNT..

But... right now it’s just... hard for me. To even know she exist in the comics and possibly become a fixture in future TMNT projects.

Why?

The answer... is very, very simple...

Venus De Milo.... Let’s talk about the female Turtle who the entire TMNT fandom treats like the red headed step child that they keep locked up in the basement and occasionally feed fish heads to. Yeah... Let’s talk about the OTHER female and fifth member of the TMNT and the new kid, Jennika.

For the longest time, and I’ve known this in the back of my mind and in the forefront that IDW is pulling from EVERY known TMNT canon out there-- as TMNT has a multiverse, and every TMNT universe is as equally true as the other. Meaning... it’s ALL canon... At least, some universes more so than others. And I kept on asking myself: “So are they going to be pulling Venus into the IDW comics, or introduce a female Turtle?”

Venus De Milo showed up in Saban’s Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation and she wasn’t very well recieved. As a matter of fact, she’s become the object of hatred and mockery in the fandom... Even her conception as a character was something badly executed, as Saban and Fox Executives had wanted Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman to create a fifth and female Turtle, but also wanted her to be the love interest to the brothers...

...Who were no longer mentioned to be brothers related by blood, as she wasn’t really their blood sister because if she was, this would’ve made the romance between her and whoever of the brothers she wound up with be.... really, really, really, weird and well... wrong!

But Venus is the reason why we haven’t had a fifth Turtle in over twenty two years. Now, I could be wrong on this, so correct me if wrong but... the very memory of her and the experience of working with Saban had caused something of a distancing between Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, and Peter even had decreed a rule that there was to be no female Turtles.

Let’s face it... Venus was a bad idea...But she didn’t HAVE to be...

And for some reason, I am more okay with Venus than I am with Jennika. You heard it right... I am more for Venus than Jennika. No, I am not slamming or dumping on Jennika but what I am saying is... I think I would’ve preferred Venus.

IDW would’ve have to given her a complete overhaul in design and even backstory since she wouldn’t really be a sibling. And I would’ve been okay with that... I’d like to think I’d have been okay with that anyway.

So... Why am I having a hard time with Jennika?

She’s already got some great design points over Venus. Let’s face it, Jennika has Venus beat in ever department over Venus as a mutated Turtle... For one, no Turtle boobs because Turtles are reptiles and have no need for something like that, and biologically, female Turtles are almost indistinguishable from males unless you look at the claws and tails, and the plastron.

I think it may have something to do with her debut and what IDW did with the character. And IDW has given us a wonderful plethora of female characters through out the eight years they’ve been doing this.

I suppose... I feel, and this is my opinion and mine alone... That they really didn’t do a lot with her.

In her debut, she was shown to have some connection with Darius Dunn in an attempt to overthrow Splinter when he seized control of the Foot clan, then tried to assassinate Splinter herself but ultimately had been defeated... and then he took her under his wing to get her to see things differently. And she’s perhaps been seen in a few battles when Splinter tried to seize control of the criminal underground... Then she was focused to be a love interest to Casey.

Which... I kind of had an issue with since for me, it was all about Casey and April.

And when Michelangelo had decided to bring some orphans to the Foot clan after the whole Triceraton invasion and the Rat King arc, Jennika was more or less regulated to be a babysitter.

I suppose... this is why I feel like they didn’t do much with her when compared to characters like April, Angel Bridge, Alopex, Sally Pride, and Kitsune.

And then the blood transfusion happened and... the comparison to She-Hulk’s origin had come to mind and... I suppose I didn’t react to the news too well.

Another thing which I think contributed to my initial reaction to Jennika is... I hold the IDW TMNT Universe in such a high regard, to a high standard as I do with the original black and white Mirage comics.

I am used to there being just four Turtles, and only four Turtles because that’s what numerous TMNT media has always shown us, and since my focus is on the Mirage comics-- a storyline called the Sons of the Silent Age showed us why the Turtles were something special and unique, and that they are the first and last of their kind. This is something which even the 4Kids 2K3 series adapted though they toned down the tragic ending from the original story...

I guess what I am saying is... I’m such a fan of the Mirage continuity that... I wanted everything to more or less conform to what Mirage did but have their own spin on the mythology... and this was such a drastic change, I reacted badly... and I shouldn’t have.

I want to owe an apology to @idwpublishing, Tom Waltz, @mooncalfe for my initial negative reaction to the news on their new fifth Turtle.

I sincerely wish everyone the best of luck on the IDW comic and hope that I can warm up to Jennika as I have grown to love the other characters.

#Jennika #Venus De Milo #Mei Pieh Chi #Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #TMNT #IDW Publishing #Saban

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originallonemagpie · 6 years

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Well fuck

I dunno what to say today- I just got up to discover that my ex, who I was still good friends with, Gina (she was on here but recently changed the blog name to something unspellable - it used to be tyveksworld) died of a sudden massive stroke yesterday evening. She was only, what, 45 or something? I feel shocked enough, so I dread to think how her son Chris, her husband Eric, her brother Keith, and her mum - these things are supposed to go the other way round - must be feeling.

She had a lot of friends too, in Who fandom, turtle fandom (real and TMNT), in metal fandom (Nightwish were her favourites), and in her work community of school bus drivers. (I remember one time were chilling on the couch in front of Spae Ghost Coast To Coast in the 90s and Brak on the show was singing some song that had the line "you can drive a school bus and I can..." whatever he could, and I seriously thought I was hallucinating or tripping or something... I always remember that when I think of American school buses.

I remember that the first time we chatted was what stopped me stepping off a roof that evening. I remember much goofiness, like one time she needed to feed a white mouse to one of the snakes, and couldn't kill it - I swear that little bugger was immortal. I love that kind of thing in people- ecletic interests and goofiness, which is why I loved her, (and, like others, still will even though she's gone).

Shit, I don't even know how to end this post. I really don't.

#gina #gina gregory #love #ex #r.i.p.#you get the idea #personal #Yes this is the mother of my ex-stepson the closest thing I have to a child

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