Mutant Turtles Not Part Of The Original TMNT- Explained

TMNT have been pop culture mainstays for quite some time. As popular and iconic as other superheroes like Power Rangers, Transformers, DC’s Trinity, and Spider-Man, ‘Mutant Turtles’ often evoke the image of the four main characters of the long-running franchise, which has had multiple adaptations.

However, in the the multiple versions that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have had, creators have sometimes tried to expand the roster of the turtles, either to spice up the story by providing a love interest for the characters that they can actually end up with (sorry April), or to expand the roster of the group itself, with the hopes of adding a new dynamic to the individual members with each other.

While the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle comic might have started out with just four mutant turtles, their numbers have swelled, even if they often do not become part of the main team. Every continuity the Turtles have been part of has toyed with the idea of mutant turtles (and sometimes alien turtles). This has prompted many creative teams behind the adaptation to add turtles to the story, for more turtle power in the script and the story.

1 Venus de Milo Was The First Female Ninja Turtle

Making her franchise and live-action debut in Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation, Venus was unique for a multitude of reasons. To begin with, she was the only female turtle in the entire franchise before Jennika and Lita were introduced in the IDW run of the franchise. When she was first introduced, Venus was the only turtle on the team who was not named after a Renaissance artist.

Unlike the original members of the team, Venus was named after Venus de Milo, a statue that apparently depicts the Greek goddess Aphrodite. This would make her the only turtle named after a work of art rather than a Renaissance artist. Now, members who have joined the brothers under Splinter’s tutelage are often treated like family. However, Venus was introduced specifically as a love interest that the four brothers compete for.

Venus is also unique because she was a turtle with actual superpowers, beyond her hybrid physiology. Apart from being a shinobi, Venus was also a shaman with abilities such as telepathy and spirit manipulation. The character was seemingly wiped from canon, but found a way back into the story in the IDW run on the Turtles, only to be remarkably different from the person who debuted in the Next Mutation.

2 Raphael Led Three Unnamed Turtles In One Future Timeline

Road Hogs was a story included as supplementary material in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness role-playing game, which was directly based on the comic by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. Published by Palladium Books, the story is set in the After the Bomb future, where a nuclear apocalypse has radically reshaped mutant and human societies.

A comic that came with the RPG depicted a young group of turtles being trained to stand up against the Road Hog Gang. The mentor that this group of turtles, a senile old master, refers to one of his students absent mindedly as Mike, and towards the end of the comic, picks up sai to carry into battle, strongly implying that the last surviving brother of the original TMNT squad was Raphael, training the next generation of Turtles in the distant future.

3 Slash Has Been Part of the Mighty Mutanimals and The Foot Clan

Slash is one of the few turtles who are not part of the main TMNT team but have appeared in multiple continuities in diverse roles. Having been an enemy and an ally of the turtles, depending on the canon that they are in, Slash is perhaps the most famous of the non-TMNT turtles.

Slash was originally conceived as an Alien from Dimension X and appeared as such in the Archie comics run of TMNT. However, later iterations, such as the ’87 animated series and the IDW comics, would imagine him as an experiment: a turtle that, like the core TMNT team, is a mutated earth turtle, but perhaps belonging to a different species.

In the 2012 animated series, Slash was rebranded as Spike, a box turtle that Raphael took as a pet. The character would grow to hate the turtle brothers for all the complaining Raphael would do, but would soon discover the error of his ways and become an ally to the turtles. He would become a part of the Mighty Mutanimals, one of the Turtles’ staunchest many allies. Slash also appears in multiple video games, including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project.

4 Jennika Was A Human Foot Clan Soldier

A recent addition to the Turtles, and one of the most popular fifth members of the group since, Jennika is the second female turtle to become part of the main crew. Becoming part of the team during the IDW run of the franchise, Jennika was recognizable thanks to her signature yellow mask and a clawed tekko-kagi, her weapon of choice.

Jennika was originally a member of The Foot and was turned into a turtle when Leonardo’s blood was used to save her from dying. The character received widespread critical acclaim, especially amid calls for greater diversity in comics. Jennika would also take up the mantle of Nightwatcher, a vigilante identity that was traditionally assigned to Raphael.

However, wider conversations around the character have been sparked thanks to her involvement with the main group of turtles. While some have seen her involvement with the group as a natural, modern rendition of the team, others have echoed criticisms that arose with the introduction of Venus into the franchise.

5 Tokka Is A Different Species of Turtle Than The TMNT

Tokka, like Slash, is a mutant turtle who often appears in a slew of adaptations of the TMNT universe. In most appearances, he is an alligator snapping turtle mutated by Shredder to be used against the turtles. He is often paired with Rahzar, another mutant created by Shredder. Rahzar is a mutated grey wolf.

Tokka has appeared in every significant adaptation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, save the Michael Bay movies. He has appeared in IDW comics spanning the length and breadth of Turtles’ history, along with several animated series, including the ’87 series and the 2012 CG animated run.

Tokka’s latest iteration in the IDW comics is a snapping turtle, just like Slash and his two clones, making the species the only other kind of turtle to receive a ‘full’ roster in the TMNT-verse. While all four of the snapping turtles have never served as a cohesive unit, they are the only turtles of the same species other than Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo to exist at the same time in continuity.

6 The Clone Turtles Aimed To Kidnap Splinter for Krang

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters for the Sega Mega Drive and Sega Genesis introduced four cloned turtles created by Krang and Karai, a character from the game. While Karai served as a boss battle, these clone turtles also posed hurdles in gameplay. Their purpose was to kidnap Splinter, who initially mistook them for the original TMNT before quickly realizing they were not his sons.

Largely perfect clones of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the characters don’t even have their own names; instead, they’re referred to by the names of the original turtles, with ‘Clone’ attached to distinguish them from the true turtles. The clone turtles use the same weapons as their original counterparts and are quite efficient at it.

7 Agent Bishop Created Two Slash Clones That Were Similarly Monstrous

The clones of the murdered Slash accompanied Agent Bishop when he was on his way to recruit Hun. These clones of the mutant turtle were made with the express idea of having turtles that Bishop could control. These turtles were just as big as Slash, belonging to the same species. However, these characters were specifically engineered to be mindless, such that they can be easier to control.

However, one of them is freed from the mechanism that was controlling them, turns out that at least one of these clones was not mindless at all, instead retaining the memories of the original Slash. He recognized Leonardo before he died, and remembered that Bishop had killed his own father through the original Slash, a move he would repeat to kill Agent Bishop himself.

8 Odyn Is The Biggest Member of A New Generation of Mutant Turtles

The Last Ronin has been one of the most popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles storylines in recent years. The story explores the grief and rage that Michelangelo feels after his brother’s passing, leaving him alone to fight against the future scourge of the Foot Clan.

It also introduced the next generation of the turtles, in the form of four children that Mikey’s student, Casey Marie Jones, ends up taking under her wing. One turtle would be named Odyn. Odyn is physically the biggest of all the turtles, part of the second generation; however, he remains the least skilled member of the group. In many ways, he is like Michelangelo from his early days. Odyn can turn parts of him into stone, which is a deviation from turtles not having powers.

However, in this second generation of Ninja Turtles, all team members have abilities. They stem from the manner in which they were mutated. Odyn is also obsessed with food, a trait he directly borrows from multiple iterations of Michelangelo, which fits well with the character.

9 Moja Is Raphael’s True Successor

Another difference for the new generation of turtles is that they are trained in all the weapons their predecessors used. Each of them is adept at fighting with katanas, sai, nunchucks, and the bo staff. Moja is fiercely protective of her siblings, just like Raphael. The character is a telepath, thanks to her mutation, which allows her to read minds and communicate telepathically.

While she might be reminiscent of Raphael, there is one thing that she takes directly from Donatello. The character can often be seen listening to old metal cassettes from Donatello’s collection, genuinely enjoying the music that her predecessor did.

10 Yi Follows In The Footsteps of Donatello

Much like how Donatello was the mechanical engineer of the group, Yi fits into the same niche very comfortably. The character is proficient with all the weapons of her predecessors and has a very keen interest in chess, which she tried to teach to Odyn with little success. She and April O’Neil bonded over fixing cars together. Thanks to her mutation, Yi is able to manipulate force fields, a power she found out about in the midst of battle.

The characters, despite being versatile with all the weapons that she has on hand, favor the bo staff, much like her counterpart in the original team. Much like her siblings, she is extremely devoted to the memory of the Ronin, the last surviving brother of the previous generation of the Ninja Turtles, who was actually Michelangelo.

11 Uno Is Leonardo’s Rightful Heir

Uno serves as the leader of the second generation of Ninja Turtles, favoring the katana like his predecessor, despite being proficient with all other forms of turtle weaponry. He is disciplined like Leonardo, devoting his free time to the practice of ninjutsu and taking suggestions for working out just as seriously.

However, while it has never been stated so in canon, Uno seems to take over the running gag of being a terrible cook from Leonardo. While not being a competent cook at all is canon for Uno, Leonardo was never canonically portrayed as a horrible cook. However, this could be seen as an homage from the creators to the popular fan theory.

However, Uno is also much blunter than Leonardo and slightly immature for his age. He called Odyn fat for his love of food, despite Odyn being a completely different species of turtle from him and hence bigger. Uno can shift his colors, going from stark white to obsidian black at will.

12 Lita Was Adopted By The Turtles As A Child

Mutant Town was probably one of the best additions to the world of TMNT that IDW could have made. After a mutagen bomb turned a large portion of New Yorkers into mutants, Lita was among them. Lita would be an albino child who would be affected by the mutagen bomb. She would turn into an albino turtle that Jennika and the brothers would adopt into their clan.

However, IDW run made her the most powerful character in the IDW timeline, thanks to her future self showing up with the ability to travel through time. Big Lita, as she would be called, is an apprentice of the Time Mistress Renet. While her future self appears as a mutant turtle, her current form in the IDW run is human. It is as yet unknown whether her future version is not a separate entity from a different timeline, or whether Lita will find herself turned into a turtle once again in some future issue.

13 The Dark Turtles Are Ugly Mirrors To The Original Gang

Debuting in the 2003 animated series’ sixth season, dubbed Fast Forward, the Dark Turtles were clones/hybrids of the original four brothers, commissioned by the intergalactic conqueror Sh’Okanabo. The turtles were loaned to Darius Dun, who implanted a post-hypnotic suggestion in their minds so they would never attack him.

Cultivated with mutant and alien kanabo DNA alike, the monstrous creatures did not resemble Earth’s mutant turtles overtly, but they still looked turtle-esque. Unlike other ninja turtle clones, who usually sport a variant of green, the Dark Turtles match the colors of the original brothers’ masks, with Leo, Raph, Donnie, and Mikey’s clones being respectively blue, red, purple, and orange.

While the characters were immensely powerful, being a mixture of mutant turtle and alien DNA, they were defeated by the four brothers thanks to their superior intellect and skills, rather than the brute force the dark clones relied on.

14 Hun Became A Mutant Turtle To Fight The Brothers

Hun’s mutant transformation came during an episode that followed a trend that has only recently been widely seen. Turtles Forever was an episode of the 2009 animated iteration of the turtles, which saw the previous adaptations of the characters all converge in a multiverse crossover, not unlike the Spider-Verse.

Hun would find himself intrigued by the mutagen in the hands of the 80s version of the Turtles. This mutagen would accidentally spill on him, turning him into a mutant turtle that sent him on a rampage. Despite the universes being restored to their former states, Hun remains a mutated turtle and does not have any speaking lines when he appears in the comics. All signs point towards him retaining his turtle form after the creators stopped following the events of the continuity.

15 Artemisia Started Out As A Fan Character

Unlike all the other characters on this list, who appeared in some or the other canon continuity from the official team behind TMNT, Artemisia got her start in a webcomic made by Sophie Campbell, who would go on to become an official TMNT creator for the IDW run of the comics.

She was initially introduced in the fan comic as a female turtle, the fifth member of the team. However, a lot of her traits were taken up by Jennika when she was introduced in the story, whose character design Campbell would end up consulting on. A canon version of the character, decked out in pink instead of yellow, would make her appearance in an alternate future that Lita takes Tokka and Rahzhar to, finally being canonized in the story.

Her preferred form of weapon as an official part of the Splinter Clan is a yumi bow, which she is depicted with in her short cameo.

16 The Null Turtles Have One Unique Ability

Technically, the Null turtles are not turtles exclusively. A special task force that works for Madame Null, the Null turtles are actually human mutants who have been granted cybernetic enhancements to regulate the mutagen levels in their body. This means they can switch between appearing like Mutanimals and appearing human.

The Gang of Four, as they are called when not in turtle form, comprises four trained killers: Deadaim, Fist, Lynch, and Waster. Their objective in turning into the turtles was to make humanity lose faith in the heroes in the half-shell. These mutants would wear bandannas of the same color when working as the turtles, rather than the signature multicolored eye masks.

17 Big Mama’s Assistant Had A Larger Role Which Was Cut

Big Mama’s assistant would have had a much bigger role had Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles lasted much longer. While the character was never referred to as a turtle in the show, Ron Corcillo, the show’s producer, himself confirmed that the character was actually a secret sister of the turtles, who would receive a redemption arc and join the Turtles in the show’s future.

Definitely Big Mama's Hench person, who is going to turn out to be a sister of the turtles.

— Ron Corcillo (@RonCorcillo) July 29, 2023

J.J. Conway, director of the show, confirmed that the female turtle who was Big Mama’s henchwoman was conceived as a wholly original sister to the turtles. She was not supposed to be an adaptation of Jennika or Venus De Milo.

As I recall, the plan was for their sister (Big Mama's assistant) to be an original character, not an adaptation of an existing character (so not Venus or Jennika).

I'm sure they could have used Venus or Jennika if they wanted to, but that was not the plan as I recall it.

— JJ Conway (@jj_conway) September 24, 2022

There was another sibling the team would have had, which would have led Draxum and Splinter to lead two separate TMNT teams, each watching for one lost sibling across time and dimensions. This was also revealed via X by Corcillo.

18 Honorable Mentions

While other entries on the list have been strictly about the mutant turtles that have appeared as such in at least one iteration of the franchise, there are several other turtles that are included in official material as turtles, but were either left out of the story, or were not mutant turtles, despite resembling them.

18.1 Kirby Was An Unused Character Concept…Twice

The first Kirby that was left out was supposed to make his appearance in the TMNT live action space, either in the Next Mutation, or in TMNT IV: The Foot Walks Again. This version of the character would have been an interdimensional immigrant and would have sported an extra finger and toe compared to the other turtles. This turtle was jettisoned so that Saban could have its female turtle, in the form of Venus.

Another Kirby was seen in the concept for IDW’s version of the character, who would have been depicted as a junior member of the Splinter clan, with pink face paint. Their weapon would have been a Húdié dāo.

18.2 Planet of The Turtles Depicted Them As Extraterrestrials

Appearing in the 1987 animated series, the turtles adventured onto an extraterrestrial world filled with turtle aliens that looked a lot like Earth’s turtle mutants. They were called turtleoids and had intelligence at par with human beings. Notable characters to come from the planet are the wrestling duo Flying Turtlenecker Brothers and Dr. Turtlestein.

18.3 The Blue Door Script Had A Eight-Feet Tall Turtle Warrior

The Blue Door script was a leaked script that depicted Splinter and the turtles as members of an extradimensional warrior race, hailing from Dimension X. It also included a turtle warrior who was supposed to be eight feet tall. The script is available to read online.

18. 4 Metalhead Remains One Of The Best Additions To The Team

While most likely deserving of a top entry in the list, the only reason Metalhead is rounding this list out is that he isn’t a mutant. Regardless, the list would not be complete without the character being mentioned in some way. Appearing as the ‘fifth’ turtle in multiple iterations of the character, the character is often a part of the team by either being made by Donatello, or being reprogrammed by him.

Character	First Appearance
Venus de Milo	Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation
Three Future Ninja Turtles	A Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Supplement- Road Hog
Slash	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) Season 4, Episode 18, “Slash – The Turtle from Dimension X,”
Jennika	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #31 (IDW) “Northampton, Part 3“
Tokka	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991)
The Clone Turtles	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters
Slash Clones	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #98 (IDW) “City at War, Part 6“
Odyn	The Last Ronin (IDW)
Moja	The Last Ronin (IDW)
Yi	The Last Ronin (IDW)
Uno	The Last Ronin (IDW)
Lita	TMNT #101 (IDW)
The Dark Turtles	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fast Forward, Episode 12, “Bad Blood”
Mutant Hun	Hun’s mutant form debuted in Turtles Forever (2009)
Artemisia	TMNT #117 (IDW)
The Null Turtles	As Null Turtles, in TMNT Vol. V – FCBD 2022
Big Mama’s Assistant	Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Episode 13, “The Evil League of Mutants“

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