RhodyRum
Mark Gassed-A-Heaux
Yeah the very first comic had her as a black woman
but then when they made the show the studios wanted her to be white
Glad you brought this up. I myself was a Ninja Turtle head WAY before the sterilized version of them hit the mainstream at the end of the 80s (due to growing up with an older brother throughout the 80s).
A few things most people don't know about TMNT:
1) TMNT was originally NOT for kids. When they cut rival ninjas / enemies open in the Mirage Studios publications, you best believe it wasn't robots they were fighting. There was blood and guts all over those pages. Mirage Studios was raw as fukk, unlike pu$$y ass Marvel & DC and their "Comics Code" obliging selves.
2) All 4 of them wear red headbands, elbow, and knee straps. All of them look like the mainstream Raphael except for Leonardo because his katana sheath straps wrap around his chest from shoulder to opposite hip.
3) As you already mentioned, April O'Neil was a Black woman, albeit most likely she was mulatto.
That's all for today folks. Funny thing is they didn't need to lean all the way and give April a "Gen Z SJW woke" makeover if they wanted diversity points. Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird had that already covered back in 1983.

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