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The first episode of the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon on Nickelodeon has aired today on the date September 29, 2012. I have not seen it, but I will watch this two-part episode the next chance I get, and I intend to do the same for the rest of the series.

To celebrate this new incarnation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I have decided to make summaries of the Turtles' origins in all incarnations of the group(I am excluding the Image Comics run because it is the one version of the Turtles I wouldn't touch with a forty-nine-and-a-half-foot pole, not that it's bad, I just don't find it interesting. I am also omitting the crummy musical Coming Out of Their Shells and the infamous Christmas special We Wish You a Turtle Christmas because they never told any origins, were mainly made to tie in with the 1987 Fred Wolf cartoon, and somehow made Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation, the third live-action movie, and the also omitted Operation Blue Line video look like masterpieces in comparison). And even though I was much more tolerant of the Red Sky seasons of the 1987 cartoon and the Fast Forward and Back to the Sewer seasons of the 2003 show, I will avoid mentioning them as well since they have little to contribute to the Turtles' backstory.

We know that the origins of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles tend to vary depending on the incarnation, but the elements that usually remain consistent are that they were ordinary turtles who mutated after exposure to mutagen, they were raised and trained by a mutant rat named Splinter, and their signature weapons are also pretty consistent(Leonardo uses katana swords, Raphael uses sai, Donatello has a bo staff, and Michelangelo has nunchucks).

As a fair warning, the following descriptions contain tons of spoilers, so read at your own risk.

Mirage Comics- As some of you may know, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles originally began as a comic book published by Mirage Studios. The Turtles were created by two great men named Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. To those of you who are familiar with the television shows and the movies, the original TMNT comic was a lot darker and lacks many things we know the Turtles for today, such as their fondness for pizza and their multi-colored bandannas(the Turtles in this incarnation all wore red, not just Raph).

In the original comics, the Turtles' story begins with a young member of the honorable Foot Clan named Hamato Yoshi. He had a rival named Oroku Nagi, who fought with him over everything, including the love of a young woman named Tang Shen. Tang Shen only returned Yoshi's feelings toward her, so one day Oroku Nagi beat Shen up and demanded her to love him. Enraged, Yoshi killed Nagi and was forced to flee to America with Tang Shen and his pet rat Splinter.

Being intelligent for a mere rat, Splinter learned ninjitsu by only copying his master's moves. Hamato Yoshi, Tang Shen, and Splinter all lived as one big happy family, until Yoshi and Shen were killed by Nagi's vengeful younger brother Oroku Saki, who had trained to become the leader of the American branch of the Foot Clan and also started donning bladed armor and dubbing himself The Shredder. Splinter was let out of his cage in the struggle and fled to the sewers.

One day, a blind man was unknowingly crossing into traffic. A young man pushed the blind man out of the way of an incoming truck, which dropped a canister of a glowing green ooze labeled T.C.R.I. The canister falls down the sewers along with four baby turtles belonging to a young boy named Chet, who dropped them when the young man who saved the blind man pushed him in order to save the blind man.

The turtles and the canister fell into the sewers, where they were found by Splinter. The mutagen burst out of its canister and got all over the turtles and Splinter, mutating them into humanoid forms. Splinter trained the four turtles in martial arts so that they would one day kill The Shredder to avenge the deaths of Hamato Yoshi and Tang Shen and named them using an old book on Renaissance art he found: Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo.

After the Turtles have become 15 years old, Splinter tells them their origins and why he trained them to be ninjas. The four proceed to go on the mission they've trained their whole lives for and they succeed in killing The Shredder and many of his Foot Ninjas. Eventually, the Turtles would also learn the origins of the canister of ooze that mutated them in the first place.

They find out that T.C.R.I. stands for Techno Cosmic Research Industries, a research building that is really the hideout of a race of tentacled, brain-like aliens known as Utroms, who use specially-made robotic exosuits they control from the stomachs to appear human. And even though The Shredder was killed during his first battle with the Turtles, the Foot Clan would continue to menace the TMNT in an effort to avenge their leader and Shredder himself would come back from the dead a few times only to be killed again every instance.

1987 Fred Wolf Animated Series- The most popular and well-known incarnation of the Turtles, which also introduced many elements used in later incarnations of the team, such as their love for pizza and their individually-colored bandannas(Leonardo's bandanna became blue, Donatello's bandanna became purple, Michelangelo's bandanna became orange, and Raphael's stayed red).

This show's version of the Turtles' origin was drastically different from the one in the Mirage comic book, but is still very remarkable. In this version, Hamato Yoshi was once the leader of the honorable Foot Clan. One of his students, Oroku Saki, plotted to get him booted from the clan so he could gain control.

When a sensei visited the Foot's school, Oroku Saki went and used a knife to pin Yoshi to a wall. This made Hamato Yoshi unable to bow before the sensei, and he was immediately seen as disrespectful. Yoshi removed the knife that was holding him back only to be then accused of plotting to kill the sensei. Yoshi was promptly kicked out of the Foot Clan and Oroku Saki took over, turning it into an organization of crime.

In disgrace, Hamato Yoshi fled to America, where he was forced to live in the sewers and made friends with the rats. Oroku Saki, meanwhile, donned his trademark suit of bladed armor to become the Shredder and somehow teamed up with an alien brain named Krang. Krang was inspired by the Utroms from the Mirage comics, but he was a ruthless warlord from Dimension X who was stripped of his body and left as a brain, while the Utroms were benevolent aliens from a planet in our galaxy who were naturally brain-like. Using the incredible battle fortress the Technodrome as their base of operations, Shredder and Krang started scheming evil plots that were assisted by an army of robotic Foot Soldiers and a gang of punks, two of which were named Bebop and Rocksteady.

Hamato Yoshi's pet rats were his only company until one day a clumsy boy tripped and dropped four pet turtles down a sewer grate. Yoshi lived happily with his new pets while Shredder dumped a canister of mutagen into the sewers, hoping it would kill Hamato Yoshi. Instead of killing him, the mutagen mutated Hamato Yoshi and the Turtles. The Turtles had most recently been with Hamato Yoshi, so they instantly mutated into humanoid forms. Yoshi, however, had more recently been with the rats, so he was mutated into a rat-man.

Hamato Yoshi began to train his students in martial arts and named them after his four favorite Renaissance artists. In turn, they named him Splinter for his skill in breaking through wood with his combat moves. The Turtles would then meet a reporter named April O'Neil, who they rescued from Bebop and Rocksteady's gang, and she becomes a formidable ally to them.

After the Turtles defeated a horde of Foot Soldiers, the Shredder tried a few other plans in stopping the Turtles. He first tried mutating Bebop and Rocksteady into a warthog and a rhino respectively, but that failed because they were still bumbling idiots even as super-strong mutants. He would then try recruiting mad scientist Baxter Stockman to build Mousers to destroy the Turtles and Splinter, but that too failed and Stockman ended up being sent to the nuthouse.

As the first season progressed, Krang begged Shredder to build him a new android body. The Shredder refused for a bit because he did not trust him entirely. After trying to beat the Turtles with the aid of Rock Soldiers General Traag and Granitor, which gave the Turtles three more allies in the alien teen rebels known as the Neutrinos, Shredder finally relented and gave Krang a new android body. The Turtles continued to defeat Shredder, Krang, Bebop, and Rocksteady throughout the run of the show.

The Archie Comics comic book Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures, originally starting as a loose adaptation of the cartoon, had the exact same origin for the Turtles, but after the comic started going its own direction, it was retconned so that the Turtles were still babies after their mutation and grew over time like normal people, which was the case in most other continuities. Also, Yoshi was framed for actually killing one of his own disciples instead of merely attempting to kill the visiting sensei.

Movies- The original film, released back in 1990, had an origin that was very similar to the Mirage origin, except Oroku Saki was Yoshi's rival instead of Oroku Nagi and Splinter struggled with his master's killer before fleeing to the sewers, resulting in Saki having a scar on his face from Splinter scratching him and Splinter having one ear missing due to Shredder slashing it off. While mainly influenced by the Mirage comics, the movie was still more light-hearted and utilized some elements from the cartoon(multi-colored bandannas, pizza-loving, April being a news reporter instead of a former assistant of Baxter Stockman).

The sequel released in 1991, subtitled Secret of the Ooze, had the Turtles learn the origins behind the canister of ooze that mutated them, but the institute was renamed T.G.R.I.(Techno Global Research Institute) and was run by human scientists instead of Utroms, the CEO being a man named Professor Jordan Perry.

Shredder returns, somehow surviving his demise at the end of the previous film, learns of the Turtles' origins, and kidnaps Professor Perry, forcing him to use a tube of the mutagen to mutate a snapping turtle and a wolf, creating the duo of mutant dullards Tokka and Rahzar. The Turtles help Perry de-mutated the two, but Shredder then drinks the last of the mutagen as a last resort and mutates into the monstrous Super Shredder. He is killed once more, this time for good.

The third entry of these films did not mention anything about the Turtles' origins, not even Shredder. The 2007 CGI film TMNT mentions The Shredder as having been defeated for good and features Karai and the Foot Clan, with the ending having Karai imply that Shredder will return.

A reboot movie is coming out May 16, 2014, entitled simply Ninja Turtles, directed by Johnathan Liebesman, produced by Michael Bay, and the script written by Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec. Contrary to popular belief, the Turtles will still be mutants, the title was shortened to Ninja Turtles for the sake of simplicity, and Donatello will still be a boy. Bebop, Rocksteady, and Krang have been confirmed to be antagonists alongside Shredder and the Foot Clan.

Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation- A short-lived and widely panned live-action television series that was loosely based on the live-action movies, as made evident by Splinter missing his right ear and the Turtles living in an abandoned subway station as in the second and third movies. It aired on Fox and was made by Saban, better known for the shows they made for the Power Rangers franchise.

In this continuity, it was revealed that there was actually a fifth turtle that mutated with the other four and Splinter. When they mutated, this fifth female terrapin wandered off and was found by a Chinese Shinobi master named Chung I. Apparently, the writers had no idea that shinobi was a synonym for ninja, and rather than look it up to see what it meant, they made it so that Shinobi was a kind of magic.

This fifth turtle is raised by Chung I as his surrogate daughter, and she is named Mei Pei Chi, meaning "beautiful turtle of radiant energy". The whole time, Splinter and Chung I have been friends and they talked to each other by means of astral projection. One day, a mirror acted violently. As it turns out, this mirror was magic and had been imprisoning an army of dragon warriors called the Rank, as well as their leader Dragon Lord.

Dragon Lord and his minions manage to escape the enchanted mirror and go to New York, killing Chung I and rendering Splinter comatose in the process. Before he dies, Chung I tells his surrogate daughter her true origins and tells her to go to the sewers of New York.

Mei Pei Chi reunites with the other four Turtles and goes with them on another mission against Shredder and the Foot Clan. She uses her Shinobi powers to open Shredder's eyes to the horrible things he has done, leaving him traumatized. Leonardo proceeds to tell the Foot that they are a joke, disbanding them. With Shredder and the Foot Clan out of the picture, Dragon Lord and the Rank become the new central antagonists. Too bad they were essentially cheap imitations of Shredder and the Foot.

Splinter, after regaining consciousness when the Turtles defeat Dragon Lord for the first time, reveals that he knew Mei Pei Chi existed the whole time and the Turtles accept her as their newest member, naming her Venus de Milo, which they got the idea for frome an armless statue(but not THE armless statue) that got involved in their battle with the Rank.

The show ran for one season before it was cancelled, which is really too bad. Sources say that Season 2 would have been animated, introduced April O'Neil and Casey Jones to the cast, kill off Splinter for the sake of drama, and have Shredder resume his position as the archnemesis of the Turtles(which was implied in the ending of the episode Enemy of My Enemy). There was, however, a crossover with Power Rangers in Space, which is kind of mediocre(in short, you should find it neither good or bad, even if you loathe Venus, unlike me).

There are many reasons fans hate this show, but most of them hate Venus de Milo, the fifth Turtle. I didn't mind Venus much and actually think she's an interesting character. I'd like her to come back, which is somewhat possible now that Nickelodeon owns the rights and her number one hater Peter Laird no longer has a say in what is done with the Turtles, but I would not get my hopes up on account of the scores of fans who still despise her. This show was in fact the very first version of the Turtles I saw in my life, but I don't like it anywhere near as much as I like the cartoons and the movies.

I would have put up with most of the changes, but the only things most people hate about Next Mutation that I agree were terrible were Dragon Lord replacing Shredder as the main villain, the Turtles being not-blood siblings so Venus could hook up with them without worrying about incestuous implications(even though making her a love interest sort of defeats the purpose of making her one of the original mutated turtles), and the changes made to the Turtles' weapons(Donatello's hi-tech bo and Raphael's sai combining into one weapon were acceptable, but nobody gives Leo a double-bladed katana instead of two katanas. And nobody replaces Mikey's nunchucks with a sucky pair of tonfa!)

2003 4Kids Animated Series- This incarnation is perhaps the second most well-known and popular incarnation. It stayed more faithful to the Mirage comic book's continuity, even having a ton of episodes based off issues of the original comic, but it was also something of its own and had numerous, yet subtle, nods to the 1987 Fred Wolf cartoon and the live-action films.

Being more faithful to the Mirage series, this show had an origin for the Turtles that was very similar to the origin used in the original comics, but many details differed. One was that the Purple Dragons, in the comic originally a one-shot street gang that got massacred by the Turtles in the first issue, were now a gang that assisted Shredder alongside the Foot Ninjas, their leader being a large muscle-bound thug named Hun, notable for his blond hair, ponytail, and Purple Dragon tattoo.

This particular incarnation of The Shredder at first seemed to be a human named Oroku Saki in bladed armor as in most incarnations, but his true nature was hinted at during his final appearance in Season 1, where he somehow survived Leonardo decapitating him. The three-part episode Secret Origins eventually revealed that the Shredder was not human at all, and was in fact an Utrom criminal named Ch'rell. This revelation became a major base-breaker among fans, as most prefer Shredder being human.

After being banished to the ice asteroid Mor Gal Tal for his crimes, the Shredder's legacy continued with Karai, his adopted human daughter. Karai became the new Shredder for a bit, but then we were introduced to the original Shredder, who predated the Utrom Ch'rell's use of the identity.

As it turns out, there actually was a man named Oroku Saki who lived hundreds of years ago with four other ninja warriors. Together, the five were known as the Ninja Tribunal, and they fought a powerful Tengu called The Shredder. Oroku Saki made a deal with the Tengu before delivering the final blow that killed it, and as a result the Tengu and Saki became one. Thus was born the ruthless Demon Shredder. To keep him from causing too much chaos, the other members of the Ninja Tribunal immediately killed the Demon Shredder and sealed away his corpse, his helmet, and his gauntlet. As the years went by, the Tribunal became spirits and the Utrom crook Ch'rell assumed the identity of Oroku Saki and The Shredder, using this alias to earn fear and respect from others.

The Demon Shredder returns eventually, but the Turtles succeed in killing him once again with help from old friends, some new ones, and even some of their enemies.

Hamato Yoshi's story was changed a bit, since The Shredder really being an Utrom would make it impossible to justify the existence of Oroku Nagi. In this continuity, Nagi was replaced by Yukio Mashimi, a young man who was Yoshi's closest friend. As was Nagi in the Mirage comics, Mashimi was jealous of Yoshi winning Tang Shen's heart, so he got even by siding with the Foot Clan and murdering Shen. Hamato Yoshi defeated Yukio Mashimi, but the Shredder would eventually seal his fate. At least Yoshi's last words had meaning: "He who lives without honor, ends without honor."

IDW Comics- First published in 2011, this new comic book series chronicles a very interesting and unique take on the Turtles' background. Here, Hamato Yoshi succeeded in marrying Tang Shen and had four sons. The Shredder ruthlessly kills Tang Shen, her last words to Yoshi being a request that he moves elsewhere with his sons.

Shredder eventually finds Yoshi and his sons and kills them all. Years later, Hamato Yoshi is reincarnated as a rat, and his four sons are reincarnated as turtles. As it so happens, they are being experimented on at a research facility known as Stockgen, run by Baxter Stockman. The Turtles and Splinter mutate as a result of Stockgen's ooze. They later find allies in Stockgen employees April O'Neil and Dr. Chet Allen(the latter was later revealed to really be this continuity's version of Professor Honeycutt aka Fugitoid, who previously appeared in the original Mirage comic book and the 2003 cartoon).

The Turtles, however, find out that things are serious when they learn that the Shredder, despite his death years ago, has come back as well thanks to being resurrected by Karai, who is his granddaughter in this continuity.

The comic has also introduced some new mutants, namely the cat Old Hob and the arctic fox woman Alopex, and has also introduced its own versions of Bebop, Rocksteady, and Krang. I might consider actually getting this comic when Leatherhead and the Rat King start appearing in it.

2012 Nickelodeon Animated Series- The new show that has premiered today. This incarnation of the Turtles is heavily influenced by the 1987 cartoon(Splinter is once again a mutated Hamato Yoshi, the robot turtle Metalhead will appear, and the theme song is even similar). It does, however, still pay its respects to the other incarnations of the Turtles and it is intended for this show to sometimes throw the older fans a bone. All the Turtles still have their traditional weapons, but Michelangelo's nunchucks can extract blades from its ends to become a set of kusarigama, whereas Donatello's bo staff can also have a blade eject from one end to transform into a naginata. It's pretty cool that Donnie and Mikey still get to use their old weapons and that they now have retractable blades. A very acceptable change!

I have not seen this show yet, but I will when I get the chance. All information comes from preview clips I have watched and announcements I have read on the internet over the past several months.

In this version, Hamato Yoshi made the hit list of Oroku Saki, who blames Yoshi for being responsible for the death of his one true love. Saki hated Yoshi so much, he killed his whole family out of spite(though Yoshi does have a daughter whom he is unsure whether she's alive or not). Hamato Yoshi was so grief-stricken by his family's demise, he moved to New York to start a new life. This time, though, Yoshi does not have to live in the sewers right now and he's able to live a middle-class life.

One day, Hamato Yoshi exits a pet shop with four turtles, hoping that his new pets would fill in the empty void his dead family left. Suddenly, he comes across a pair of mysterious men carrying a glowing green canister of ooze. Yoshi inadvertently gets their attention when he mistakenly steps on a rat's tail.

Hamato Yoshi gets in a fight with the two men, in the process dropping the turtles while the men drop the canister of mutagen. As the two mysterious men flee, the mutagen gets all over Yoshi and his pet turtles. The mutagen mutates Hamato Yoshi into the rat-man known as Splinter because of the rat who's tail he stepped on earlier, while the four turtles he had mutate into humanoid children.

Splinter spends the next years of the turtles' lives raising them as his own children and training them in ninjitsu, knowing that Oroku Saki, the Shredder, and his Foot Clan are out to get him and his sons and that his boys must be ready to defend themselves when Shredder strikes.

April O'Neil also appears, but is now different, even moreso than her previous incarnations. She is now a teen and wears a yellow shirt with a 5 on it to represent how she's sort of the fifth turtle(personally, I would've liked it if they gave her a 6 on her shirt as an allusion to working for Channel 6 in the 1987 cartoon and the Archie comic books). Here, her parents have been captured and possibly mutated by Shredder's minions, so she sides with the Turtles and Splinter in hopes that one day she will reunite with her parents and give the people who kidnapped them what they deserve.

The Utroms will not be in this incarnation. Instead, the mutagen is manufactured by the Kraang, an alien race based loosely on both Krang and the Utroms. But don't get all bent out of shape. T.C.R.I. still exists and many fans are hoping that the Kraang may have a leader named Krang, as awkward as it sounds(a friend of mine pointed out to me that a Kraang named Krang would be like a human named Human, but given how narcissistic Krang was in the old show, I wouldn't put it above him to create a race that resembled him and then name them after him).

The new show looks pretty awesome from what I've seen, heard, and read about, and I can't wait to see it. Cowabunga! Booyakasha! Turtle Power!

TMNT (c) Nickelodeon

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The first episode of the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon on Nickelodeon has aired today on the date September 29, 2012. I have not seen it, but I will watch this two-part episode the next chance I get, and I intend to do the same for the rest of the series.

To celebrate this new incarnation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I have decided to make summaries of the Turtles' origins in all incarnations of the group(I am excluding the Image Comics run because it is the one version of the Turtles I wouldn't touch with a forty-nine-and-a-half-foot pole, not that it's bad, I just don't find it interesting. I am also omitting the crummy musical Coming Out of Their Shells and the infamous Christmas special We Wish You a Turtle Christmas because they never told any origins, were mainly made to tie in with the 1987 Fred Wolf cartoon, and somehow made Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation, the third live-action movie, and the also omitted Operation Blue Line video look like masterpieces in comparison). And even though I was much more tolerant of the Red Sky seasons of the 1987 cartoon and the Fast Forward and Back to the Sewer seasons of the 2003 show, I will avoid mentioning them as well since they have little to contribute to the Turtles' backstory.

We know that the origins of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles tend to vary depending on the incarnation, but the elements that usually remain consistent are that they were ordinary turtles who mutated after exposure to mutagen, they were raised and trained by a mutant rat named Splinter, and their signature weapons are also pretty consistent(Leonardo uses katana swords, Raphael uses sai, Donatello has a bo staff, and Michelangelo has nunchucks).

As a fair warning, the following descriptions contain tons of spoilers, so read at your own risk.

Mirage Comics- As some of you may know, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles originally began as a comic book published by Mirage Studios. The Turtles were created by two great men named Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. To those of you who are familiar with the television shows and the movies, the original TMNT comic was a lot darker and lacks many things we know the Turtles for today, such as their fondness for pizza and their multi-colored bandannas(the Turtles in this incarnation all wore red, not just Raph).

In the original comics, the Turtles' story begins with a young member of the honorable Foot Clan named Hamato Yoshi. He had a rival named Oroku Nagi, who fought with him over everything, including the love of a young woman named Tang Shen. Tang Shen only returned Yoshi's feelings toward her, so one day Oroku Nagi beat Shen up and demanded her to love him. Enraged, Yoshi killed Nagi and was forced to flee to America with Tang Shen and his pet rat Splinter.

Being intelligent for a mere rat, Splinter learned ninjitsu by only copying his master's moves. Hamato Yoshi, Tang Shen, and Splinter all lived as one big happy family, until Yoshi and Shen were killed by Nagi's vengeful younger brother Oroku Saki, who had trained to become the leader of the American branch of the Foot Clan and also started donning bladed armor and dubbing himself The Shredder. Splinter was let out of his cage in the struggle and fled to the sewers.

One day, a blind man was unknowingly crossing into traffic. A young man pushed the blind man out of the way of an incoming truck, which dropped a canister of a glowing green ooze labeled T.C.R.I. The canister falls down the sewers along with four baby turtles belonging to a young boy named Chet, who dropped them when the young man who saved the blind man pushed him in order to save the blind man.

The turtles and the canister fell into the sewers, where they were found by Splinter. The mutagen burst out of its canister and got all over the turtles and Splinter, mutating them into humanoid forms. Splinter trained the four turtles in martial arts so that they would one day kill The Shredder to avenge the deaths of Hamato Yoshi and Tang Shen and named them using an old book on Renaissance art he found: Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo.

After the Turtles have become 15 years old, Splinter tells them their origins and why he trained them to be ninjas. The four proceed to go on the mission they've trained their whole lives for and they succeed in killing The Shredder and many of his Foot Ninjas. Eventually, the Turtles would also learn the origins of the canister of ooze that mutated them in the first place.

They find out that T.C.R.I. stands for Techno Cosmic Research Industries, a research building that is really the hideout of a race of tentacled, brain-like aliens known as Utroms, who use specially-made robotic exosuits they control from the stomachs to appear human. And even though The Shredder was killed during his first battle with the Turtles, the Foot Clan would continue to menace the TMNT in an effort to avenge their leader and Shredder himself would come back from the dead a few times only to be killed again every instance.

1987 Fred Wolf Animated Series- The most popular and well-known incarnation of the Turtles, which also introduced many elements used in later incarnations of the team, such as their love for pizza and their individually-colored bandannas(Leonardo's bandanna became blue, Donatello's bandanna became purple, Michelangelo's bandanna became orange, and Raphael's stayed red).

This show's version of the Turtles' origin was drastically different from the one in the Mirage comic book, but is still very remarkable. In this version, Hamato Yoshi was once the leader of the honorable Foot Clan. One of his students, Oroku Saki, plotted to get him booted from the clan so he could gain control.

When a sensei visited the Foot's school, Oroku Saki went and used a knife to pin Yoshi to a wall. This made Hamato Yoshi unable to bow before the sensei, and he was immediately seen as disrespectful. Yoshi removed the knife that was holding him back only to be then accused of plotting to kill the sensei. Yoshi was promptly kicked out of the Foot Clan and Oroku Saki took over, turning it into an organization of crime.

In disgrace, Hamato Yoshi fled to America, where he was forced to live in the sewers and made friends with the rats. Oroku Saki, meanwhile, donned his trademark suit of bladed armor to become the Shredder and somehow teamed up with an alien brain named Krang. Krang was inspired by the Utroms from the Mirage comics, but he was a ruthless warlord from Dimension X who was stripped of his body and left as a brain, while the Utroms were benevolent aliens from a planet in our galaxy who were naturally brain-like. Using the incredible battle fortress the Technodrome as their base of operations, Shredder and Krang started scheming evil plots that were assisted by an army of robotic Foot Soldiers and a gang of punks, two of which were named Bebop and Rocksteady.

Hamato Yoshi's pet rats were his only company until one day a clumsy boy tripped and dropped four pet turtles down a sewer grate. Yoshi lived happily with his new pets while Shredder dumped a canister of mutagen into the sewers, hoping it would kill Hamato Yoshi. Instead of killing him, the mutagen mutated Hamato Yoshi and the Turtles. The Turtles had most recently been with Hamato Yoshi, so they instantly mutated into humanoid forms. Yoshi, however, had more recently been with the rats, so he was mutated into a rat-man.

Hamato Yoshi began to train his students in martial arts and named them after his four favorite Renaissance artists. In turn, they named him Splinter for his skill in breaking through wood with his combat moves. The Turtles would then meet a reporter named April O'Neil, who they rescued from Bebop and Rocksteady's gang, and she becomes a formidable ally to them.

After the Turtles defeated a horde of Foot Soldiers, the Shredder tried a few other plans in stopping the Turtles. He first tried mutating Bebop and Rocksteady into a warthog and a rhino respectively, but that failed because they were still bumbling idiots even as super-strong mutants. He would then try recruiting mad scientist Baxter Stockman to build Mousers to destroy the Turtles and Splinter, but that too failed and Stockman ended up being sent to the nuthouse.

As the first season progressed, Krang begged Shredder to build him a new android body. The Shredder refused for a bit because he did not trust him entirely. After trying to beat the Turtles with the aid of Rock Soldiers General Traag and Granitor, which gave the Turtles three more allies in the alien teen rebels known as the Neutrinos, Shredder finally relented and gave Krang a new android body. The Turtles continued to defeat Shredder, Krang, Bebop, and Rocksteady throughout the run of the show.

The Archie Comics comic book Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures, originally starting as a loose adaptation of the cartoon, had the exact same origin for the Turtles, but after the comic started going its own direction, it was retconned so that the Turtles were still babies after their mutation and grew over time like normal people, which was the case in most other continuities. Also, Yoshi was framed for actually killing one of his own disciples instead of merely attempting to kill the visiting sensei.

Movies- The original film, released back in 1990, had an origin that was very similar to the Mirage origin, except Oroku Saki was Yoshi's rival instead of Oroku Nagi and Splinter struggled with his master's killer before fleeing to the sewers, resulting in Saki having a scar on his face from Splinter scratching him and Splinter having one ear missing due to Shredder slashing it off. While mainly influenced by the Mirage comics, the movie was still more light-hearted and utilized some elements from the cartoon(multi-colored bandannas, pizza-loving, April being a news reporter instead of a former assistant of Baxter Stockman).

The sequel released in 1991, subtitled Secret of the Ooze, had the Turtles learn the origins behind the canister of ooze that mutated them, but the institute was renamed T.G.R.I.(Techno Global Research Institute) and was run by human scientists instead of Utroms, the CEO being a man named Professor Jordan Perry.

Shredder returns, somehow surviving his demise at the end of the previous film, learns of the Turtles' origins, and kidnaps Professor Perry, forcing him to use a tube of the mutagen to mutate a snapping turtle and a wolf, creating the duo of mutant dullards Tokka and Rahzar. The Turtles help Perry de-mutated the two, but Shredder then drinks the last of the mutagen as a last resort and mutates into the monstrous Super Shredder. He is killed once more, this time for good.

The third entry of these films did not mention anything about the Turtles' origins, not even Shredder. The 2007 CGI film TMNT mentions The Shredder as having been defeated for good and features Karai and the Foot Clan, with the ending having Karai imply that Shredder will return.

A reboot movie is coming out May 16, 2014, entitled simply Ninja Turtles, directed by Johnathan Liebesman, produced by Michael Bay, and the script written by Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec. Contrary to popular belief, the Turtles will still be mutants, the title was shortened to Ninja Turtles for the sake of simplicity, and Donatello will still be a boy. Bebop, Rocksteady, and Krang have been confirmed to be antagonists alongside Shredder and the Foot Clan.

Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation- A short-lived and widely panned live-action television series that was loosely based on the live-action movies, as made evident by Splinter missing his right ear and the Turtles living in an abandoned subway station as in the second and third movies. It aired on Fox and was made by Saban, better known for the shows they made for the Power Rangers franchise.

In this continuity, it was revealed that there was actually a fifth turtle that mutated with the other four and Splinter. When they mutated, this fifth female terrapin wandered off and was found by a Chinese Shinobi master named Chung I. Apparently, the writers had no idea that shinobi was a synonym for ninja, and rather than look it up to see what it meant, they made it so that Shinobi was a kind of magic.

This fifth turtle is raised by Chung I as his surrogate daughter, and she is named Mei Pei Chi, meaning "beautiful turtle of radiant energy". The whole time, Splinter and Chung I have been friends and they talked to each other by means of astral projection. One day, a mirror acted violently. As it turns out, this mirror was magic and had been imprisoning an army of dragon warriors called the Rank, as well as their leader Dragon Lord.

Dragon Lord and his minions manage to escape the enchanted mirror and go to New York, killing Chung I and rendering Splinter comatose in the process. Before he dies, Chung I tells his surrogate daughter her true origins and tells her to go to the sewers of New York.

Mei Pei Chi reunites with the other four Turtles and goes with them on another mission against Shredder and the Foot Clan. She uses her Shinobi powers to open Shredder's eyes to the horrible things he has done, leaving him traumatized. Leonardo proceeds to tell the Foot that they are a joke, disbanding them. With Shredder and the Foot Clan out of the picture, Dragon Lord and the Rank become the new central antagonists. Too bad they were essentially cheap imitations of Shredder and the Foot.

Splinter, after regaining consciousness when the Turtles defeat Dragon Lord for the first time, reveals that he knew Mei Pei Chi existed the whole time and the Turtles accept her as their newest member, naming her Venus de Milo, which they got the idea for frome an armless statue(but not THE armless statue) that got involved in their battle with the Rank.

The show ran for one season before it was cancelled, which is really too bad. Sources say that Season 2 would have been animated, introduced April O'Neil and Casey Jones to the cast, kill off Splinter for the sake of drama, and have Shredder resume his position as the archnemesis of the Turtles(which was implied in the ending of the episode Enemy of My Enemy). There was, however, a crossover with Power Rangers in Space, which is kind of mediocre(in short, you should find it neither good or bad, even if you loathe Venus, unlike me).

There are many reasons fans hate this show, but most of them hate Venus de Milo, the fifth Turtle. I didn't mind Venus much and actually think she's an interesting character. I'd like her to come back, which is somewhat possible now that Nickelodeon owns the rights and her number one hater Peter Laird no longer has a say in what is done with the Turtles, but I would not get my hopes up on account of the scores of fans who still despise her. This show was in fact the very first version of the Turtles I saw in my life, but I don't like it anywhere near as much as I like the cartoons and the movies.

I would have put up with most of the changes, but the only things most people hate about Next Mutation that I agree were terrible were Dragon Lord replacing Shredder as the main villain, the Turtles being not-blood siblings so Venus could hook up with them without worrying about incestuous implications(even though making her a love interest sort of defeats the purpose of making her one of the original mutated turtles), and the changes made to the Turtles' weapons(Donatello's hi-tech bo and Raphael's sai combining into one weapon were acceptable, but nobody gives Leo a double-bladed katana instead of two katanas. And nobody replaces Mikey's nunchucks with a sucky pair of tonfa!)

2003 4Kids Animated Series- This incarnation is perhaps the second most well-known and popular incarnation. It stayed more faithful to the Mirage comic book's continuity, even having a ton of episodes based off issues of the original comic, but it was also something of its own and had numerous, yet subtle, nods to the 1987 Fred Wolf cartoon and the live-action films.

Being more faithful to the Mirage series, this show had an origin for the Turtles that was very similar to the origin used in the original comics, but many details differed. One was that the Purple Dragons, in the comic originally a one-shot street gang that got massacred by the Turtles in the first issue, were now a gang that assisted Shredder alongside the Foot Ninjas, their leader being a large muscle-bound thug named Hun, notable for his blond hair, ponytail, and Purple Dragon tattoo.

This particular incarnation of The Shredder at first seemed to be a human named Oroku Saki in bladed armor as in most incarnations, but his true nature was hinted at during his final appearance in Season 1, where he somehow survived Leonardo decapitating him. The three-part episode Secret Origins eventually revealed that the Shredder was not human at all, and was in fact an Utrom criminal named Ch'rell. This revelation became a major base-breaker among fans, as most prefer Shredder being human.

After being banished to the ice asteroid Mor Gal Tal for his crimes, the Shredder's legacy continued with Karai, his adopted human daughter. Karai became the new Shredder for a bit, but then we were introduced to the original Shredder, who predated the Utrom Ch'rell's use of the identity.

As it turns out, there actually was a man named Oroku Saki who lived hundreds of years ago with four other ninja warriors. Together, the five were known as the Ninja Tribunal, and they fought a powerful Tengu called The Shredder. Oroku Saki made a deal with the Tengu before delivering the final blow that killed it, and as a result the Tengu and Saki became one. Thus was born the ruthless Demon Shredder. To keep him from causing too much chaos, the other members of the Ninja Tribunal immediately killed the Demon Shredder and sealed away his corpse, his helmet, and his gauntlet. As the years went by, the Tribunal became spirits and the Utrom crook Ch'rell assumed the identity of Oroku Saki and The Shredder, using this alias to earn fear and respect from others.

The Demon Shredder returns eventually, but the Turtles succeed in killing him once again with help from old friends, some new ones, and even some of their enemies.

Hamato Yoshi's story was changed a bit, since The Shredder really being an Utrom would make it impossible to justify the existence of Oroku Nagi. In this continuity, Nagi was replaced by Yukio Mashimi, a young man who was Yoshi's closest friend. As was Nagi in the Mirage comics, Mashimi was jealous of Yoshi winning Tang Shen's heart, so he got even by siding with the Foot Clan and murdering Shen. Hamato Yoshi defeated Yukio Mashimi, but the Shredder would eventually seal his fate. At least Yoshi's last words had meaning: "He who lives without honor, ends without honor."

IDW Comics- First published in 2011, this new comic book series chronicles a very interesting and unique take on the Turtles' background. Here, Hamato Yoshi succeeded in marrying Tang Shen and had four sons. The Shredder ruthlessly kills Tang Shen, her last words to Yoshi being a request that he moves elsewhere with his sons.

Shredder eventually finds Yoshi and his sons and kills them all. Years later, Hamato Yoshi is reincarnated as a rat, and his four sons are reincarnated as turtles. As it so happens, they are being experimented on at a research facility known as Stockgen, run by Baxter Stockman. The Turtles and Splinter mutate as a result of Stockgen's ooze. They later find allies in Stockgen employees April O'Neil and Dr. Chet Allen(the latter was later revealed to really be this continuity's version of Professor Honeycutt aka Fugitoid, who previously appeared in the original Mirage comic book and the 2003 cartoon).

The Turtles, however, find out that things are serious when they learn that the Shredder, despite his death years ago, has come back as well thanks to being resurrected by Karai, who is his granddaughter in this continuity.

The comic has also introduced some new mutants, namely the cat Old Hob and the arctic fox woman Alopex, and has also introduced its own versions of Bebop, Rocksteady, and Krang. I might consider actually getting this comic when Leatherhead and the Rat King start appearing in it.

2012 Nickelodeon Animated Series- The new show that has premiered today. This incarnation of the Turtles is heavily influenced by the 1987 cartoon(Splinter is once again a mutated Hamato Yoshi, the robot turtle Metalhead will appear, and the theme song is even similar). It does, however, still pay its respects to the other incarnations of the Turtles and it is intended for this show to sometimes throw the older fans a bone. All the Turtles still have their traditional weapons, but Michelangelo's nunchucks can extract blades from its ends to become a set of kusarigama, whereas Donatello's bo staff can also have a blade eject from one end to transform into a naginata. It's pretty cool that Donnie and Mikey still get to use their old weapons and that they now have retractable blades. A very acceptable change!

I have not seen this show yet, but I will when I get the chance. All information comes from preview clips I have watched and announcements I have read on the internet over the past several months.

In this version, Hamato Yoshi made the hit list of Oroku Saki, who blames Yoshi for being responsible for the death of his one true love. Saki hated Yoshi so much, he killed his whole family out of spite(though Yoshi does have a daughter whom he is unsure whether she's alive or not). Hamato Yoshi was so grief-stricken by his family's demise, he moved to New York to start a new life. This time, though, Yoshi does not have to live in the sewers right now and he's able to live a middle-class life.

One day, Hamato Yoshi exits a pet shop with four turtles, hoping that his new pets would fill in the empty void his dead family left. Suddenly, he comes across a pair of mysterious men carrying a glowing green canister of ooze. Yoshi inadvertently gets their attention when he mistakenly steps on a rat's tail.

Hamato Yoshi gets in a fight with the two men, in the process dropping the turtles while the men drop the canister of mutagen. As the two mysterious men flee, the mutagen gets all over Yoshi and his pet turtles. The mutagen mutates Hamato Yoshi into the rat-man known as Splinter because of the rat who's tail he stepped on earlier, while the four turtles he had mutate into humanoid children.

Splinter spends the next years of the turtles' lives raising them as his own children and training them in ninjitsu, knowing that Oroku Saki, the Shredder, and his Foot Clan are out to get him and his sons and that his boys must be ready to defend themselves when Shredder strikes.

April O'Neil also appears, but is now different, even moreso than her previous incarnations. She is now a teen and wears a yellow shirt with a 5 on it to represent how she's sort of the fifth turtle(personally, I would've liked it if they gave her a 6 on her shirt as an allusion to working for Channel 6 in the 1987 cartoon and the Archie comic books). Here, her parents have been captured and possibly mutated by Shredder's minions, so she sides with the Turtles and Splinter in hopes that one day she will reunite with her parents and give the people who kidnapped them what they deserve.

The Utroms will not be in this incarnation. Instead, the mutagen is manufactured by the Kraang, an alien race based loosely on both Krang and the Utroms. But don't get all bent out of shape. T.C.R.I. still exists and many fans are hoping that the Kraang may have a leader named Krang, as awkward as it sounds(a friend of mine pointed out to me that a Kraang named Krang would be like a human named Human, but given how narcissistic Krang was in the old show, I wouldn't put it above him to create a race that resembled him and then name them after him).

The new show looks pretty awesome from what I've seen, heard, and read about, and I can't wait to see it. Cowabunga! Booyakasha! Turtle Power!

TMNT (c) Nickelodeon