Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26516813-20190711012913/@comment-995426-20190924222059

I don't necessarily mind there being more mutants or more mutant turtles. But what I really like in a TMNT story is a continual reminder of how vulnerably human they all are. I mean, sure, sometimes the inside of a lair or abandoned warehouse has an impressive home, but oftentimes that just means a relative measure of luck and success. In truth, there was never anything glamorous about squatting in a storm drain, or trying not to freeze to death in a. In Mirage, many of the Turtles' moments of relative comfort came from the kindness of their lasting friends like or, but even those friends could be startling vulnerable without warning. IDW has, for the most part, kept the human vulnerability and the difficult living conditions easy to remember, with safe and comfortable dwellings being more a latter of perseverence and luck than anything else.

Take the, for instance. They aren't wannabe superheroes living on an idyllic Caribbean island, living off what I can only assume is 's trust fund. No, IDW's Mutanimals are squatting in an abandoned building. is a serially traumatized revolutionary idealogue who just screams the word "damaged" in everything he says and does. And while the people who work under him are willing to sign on to his cause, even they want peaceful lives someday, not just for other vulnerable mutants, but for themselves as well. These Mutanimals for the large part have no superhero powers, and don't act like superheroes either. What they've been able to do is to pool determination, skills and resources towards their shared success and survival. Some of them are little more than children&mdash; with his crisis of purpose, with his happy-go-lucky cluelessness,  with his extreme mortal vulnerabilities, and stepford-smiling  who has become increasingly traumatized from being in one too many horrific situations. Of the more adult-like members, is never afraid to tell anyone what's on her mind, and how much she doesn't want Hob lying to friends or biting off way more than they can chew. is loved like family, but is no stranger to questionable ethics. can be friendly and kind, but at times disturbingly uncritical of Hob's strategies. And yet in all these characters, these attributes are very realistically human. None of them are perfectly good nor irredeemably bad, and they are all vulnerable, as we devastatingly saw in Slash's case.

So, sometimes in a TMNT continuity there can be too many throwaway mutant monsters-of-the-week, or characters whose abilities are too god-mode. These things may be part and parcel of a mutant superhero genre. But TMNT comics are for the most part neo-noir and shinobi genres, and many of its mutant characters, appearances aside, can be strikingly ordinary people in a less-than-perfect world. I've seen a bit of this down-to-earth mutant appeal bleeding a little into Rise of the TMNT, too, with characters like and  paying rent in an apartment that is perhaps too small for them, and  operating a low-revenue small business even as he struggles paying his bills and creditors, and  operating a shady but public salvage business, and the Hidden City having a significant and recognizable everyday-life aspect to it like any other city that isn't so hidden. No, more mutants and more mutant turtles are not necessarily a bad thing. They just need balance.