Venus (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)
Venus or Venus de Milo is a fictional character in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles universe, a female mutant turtle. She only appeared in the television series Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation on Fox.
Venus was one of five turtles that were exposed to mutagen in the sewers. When Splinter gathered up all the turtles he missed Venus and she wandered off. Somehow making her way to China Town, she was discovered by a shinobi magician called Chung I. Chung I took the turtle with him to Japan were he raised her as a daughter and named her Mei Pei Chi. He also trained the turtle in the art of Shinobi.
Apparently, Chung I would on occasion travel the realm of dreams where he would encounter Splinter. Both of them swapped stories of their turtles but chose to keep this a secret from the turtles themselves until the time was right. Chung I also had in his possession a Glass Mirror, within it were trapped humanoid Dragons. It was Chung I's purpose to make sure that the Dragons could never escape the Mirror. The dragons eventually crossed over into the realm of dreams, attacking Chung I and kidnapping Splinter's spirit. On his deathbed, Chung I revealed to the female turtle her true origin and told her that her place was in New York.
The female turtle travelled to New York, where she encountered the four Ninja Turtles watching over the body of their Master, whose spirit was trapped in the realm of dreams. After helping the turtles put an end to the Shredder and the Foot Clan, she then led them on a dream walk to rescue their Master's spirit. Unbeknownst to the her, the Dragons used this opportunity to enter the physical world.
To celebrate their seeming victory, five turtles and Splinter went for a picnic in the park but were attacked by Dragons. In the struggle, a statue of a woman is damaged with her arms broken off. After the turtles win the battle, the female turtle takes the statue with her to the lair, earning her the nickname of Venus de Milo, after the famous Renaissance statue (see Venus de Milo) just as the other turtles were named after Renaissance artists.
Venus seemed to have lived a sheltered life in Japan. During the show, Venus was portrayed as blissfully ignorant of some parts of Western life and culture and at times, equally ignorant of life in general. While proficient in fighting techniques, Venus was not trained in Ninjitsu like her brothers; in battle, she would use mystical orbs to various different effects. It seems that the writers mistakenly thought that Shinobi was a mystical art of its own instead of essentially another word for Ninja.
It was established early on in the series that while the four turtles were raised as brothers, none of them (including Venus) were biologically related. This was done by the writers so as not to eliminate the possibility of a romantic relationship between Venus and one of the four male turtles.
Reaction to Venus among the fanbase was generally poor, at the time of the show's initial broadcast it was accepted among fans that the character was forced on the show against the wishes of Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. While Peter Laird has publically disavowed the character, it is now rumored that Venus was the brainchild of Kevin Eastman. He simply didn't want his hand in her creation to become publicly known as it broke a long standing "no girl turtle" rule within the Ninja Turtles franchise.
The introduction of a female turtle may have been intended to win over a wider audience, though in the process it helped alienate some of the franchise's long standing fans. An issue of the original comic involved April O'Neil's realization that the four brothers were the last of their species, but the existence of others (especially females) renders this concept void.
Some fans, however think that the addition female turtle could have been a good way to explore and redefine the turtles as individual characters, a team and a species had the idea been presented in a more mature format and with a better female turtle than Venus.
Despite the negativity surrounding the character from the fanbase, there are still a minority of loyal fans that enjoyed both the Next Mutation series and the character Venus de Milo.