Thread:Gilgameshkun/@comment-25262453-20180410165809/@comment-995426-20180411151938

Yeah, that's complicated. It was supposed to be primarily for children, but it became a magnet for a lot of now-adult fans of the 1987 TV series. Now, though there are TMNT works for adults, there's now two kinds of adult TMNT fans: In the end, the 2012 TV series (and the more recent films) ended up pandering to that second adult audience. The show was no longer all that kid-friendly, but it was still far too bubble gum for most serious TMNT comics readers. I mean, I don't mind TMNT works being more accessible to different age groups, but that second group of adult TMNT fans has earned an established reputation for their TMNT interests not really maturing with age...though they're still adults, and few things are easier and cheaper to pander to adult audiences than sex, but that doesn't technically require maturity to be marketable.
 * TMNT fans who like TMNT as adults for adult reasons, much like the original comics readers.
 * TMNT fans who became fans as children and are now chasing their childhood nostalgia.

Me? I'm more of the first kind of adult TMNT fan&mdash;my primary interest for decades has been Mirage TMNT. I dared like the 2012 TV series, at least earlier on, because it actually overlapped with the same kind of interests I've long had as a TMNT adult comics reader. Serious stories, depth of character and plot, and at least a veneer of a coming-of-age story. But it's impossible to come of age when the characters and writers aren't allowed to grow up&mdash;there's too many lucrative toys to market to 7-year-olds, after all.

The adult comics were never super-profitable by comparison, but they actually treated their audience like adults with adult experiences, adult priorities, adult lives, etc. (Well, mostly&mdash;I've heard it argued once or twice that Kevin Eastman's interest in blood and gore never matured past that of a 12-year-old.)