Rat King
Encyclopedia
The Rat King is a fictional character
from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
multimedia franchise. The character was created by Jim Lawson
and first appeared in the comic Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
#4 written by Kevin Eastman
and Peter Laird
and has made various appearances since, in the comic books and other mediums, such as animated series and video games.
The Rat King remains one of the more enigmatic characters in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, with various appearances depicting him as either a villain, a neutral character and even an ally of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The Rat King has a distinguishable attire, which consists of filthy, tattered rags and, most prominently, various bandages covering his body. As his name implicates, the Rat King has apparent telepathic influence over rat
s, with his only other consistent power being his immense strength (which varies throughout incarnations of the character).
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics, the Rat King makes his first appearance in Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #4 as the story's main antagonist. After residing in a swamp for several months, the Rat King (who remains unnamed until the end of the issue) decides to venture into a nearby abandoned industrial park
and use it as shelter against the oncoming winter. There, the Rat King happens upon the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and their friend Casey Jones
, who had come to the industrial park to train. Believing the Turtles and Casey to be other "monsters" who wish to take his territory, the Rat King proceeds to stalk them throughout the park, even capturing Michelangelo
and leaving him to be devoured by the rats (Michelangelo later escapes). The Rat King is eventually defeated by Leonardo
who, in a duel with the Rat King, flings several shuriken
s at him, which impale the Rat King and knock him off balance, sending him plummeting into the bowels of a silo
.
In the multi-part storyline "City at War", the Rat King appears in a major role. After entering the silo where Leonardo defeated the Rat King, Splinter
falls into a pit and injures his leg; left helpless, Splinter is found by the Rat King, who appears before him multiple times throughout the story-arc, often debating philosophically with him and giving him cryptic advice in dreams. Splinter soon has a dream in which the Rat King appears before him as a demonic rat-like entity, and tells him to devour a rat
to regain his strength. Rat King also tells Splinter that eating rats has allowed him to "find what he was looking for", and also states that he had been waiting for Splinter to come to him for some time. Two months later, after the Rat King stops appearing to him he gets enough strength and leaves the silo. Splinter finds, much to his surprise, the heavily decayed corpse of the Rat King buried under rubble, its limbs twisted and several shurikens imbedded in it.
After several years of absence, the Rat King (in ghost form) reappears in a brief cameo appearance in Teenage Mutant Ninjas Turtles Vol. 4, watching as Splinter succumbs to a heart attack and dies while retrieving milk from a refrigerator. Much of the Rat King's origin is later revealed in an issue of Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vol. 2; the story reveals that a group of beings known as the Pantheon exists, with each member of the group having jurisdiction over a species of animal. When the Pantheon member who rules the rats time reaches an end, a new one is chosen, a scarred and heavily bandaged (explaining the Rat King's appearance) patient at a hospital. Becoming the Rat King, the man challenges Splinter to a battle, which he loses after a long fight. With the Rat King defeated, Splinter is offered to take his place in the Pantheon, which he refuses. Accepting Splinter's decision, the Pantheon and Rat King leave, though not before stating that Splinter will be offered membership in the Pantheon one more time, at the moment of his death.
Despite being a minor character in the comics at the time of its initial airing, the Rat King (voiced by Townsend Coleman
) is featured as recurring character in the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series
, being one of the few villains from the comics to make the transition into the cartoon (the others being the Shredder
, Leatherhead
and Dr. Stockman
). The cartoon counterpart of the Rat King was somewhat inconsistent in some regards to his comic version, being shown with blonde hair instead of black and having a slightly altered costume; his first few appearances on the show also had him controlling rats with a flute (à la The Pied Piper of Hamelin
) instead of his mind as in later episodes. Even Splinter was affected by the music and almost killed the TMNT in a fight. The cartoon version of the Rat King was also depicted as highly intelligent, shown to be able to create such things as various chemical concoctions and bombs.
In the series, the Rat King is shown living in a dilapidated portion of the New York City
sewer system near the Turtles and Splinter. In episodes featuring him, the Rat King would often enact some sort of plot to establish his own rat-controlled government and bring human rule to an end, believing that rats (which he counted himself as) were superior to all other species, whom he described as "inferior non-rodents." He occasionally joined other villains in group efforts that would, he thought, ultimately help his own goals. In some episodes of the show, the Rat King is depicted as somewhat of an anti-hero
, with him, on one occasion, even helping the Turtles rescue a captured April O'Neil
. When not actively seeking to expand his "empire," the Rat King eventually seemed content to simply remain underground with his loyal rats and, it seems, realized it was more to his advantage to have the Turtles as allies than as enemies. His final appearance is in early season 8, with new attire, and mutated rats with the help of Shredder, however, the Turtles manage to capture him and turn him in.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures series, the Rat King is given the name Lord Ha'ntaan. The Rat King's first appearance in the Archie Comics is in issue eleven, where the Turtles encounter him while searching for the Shredder in the sewers. The Rat King allows the Turtles to pass him unhindered and tells them where the Shredder is, after Leonardo proves that he and his brothers mean him and his rat subjects no harm.
The Rat King has an extended role in the "The Future Shark Trilogy", which reveals him to be still active several decades in the future (showing no signs of having aged at all). After the future version of Donatello
exterminated most of the world's rat population, in a future where floods following global warming
cuasing rats to enter the house
s in the town
s, the Rat King declares war on him and his allies for killing so many of his "children". Though mentioned throughout "The Future Shark Trilogy", the Rat King only appears in person in the story-arc's last issue, which has him engaging in a battle royal
with the Turtles, their allies and several other villains. The Rat King is defeated in the issue after Verminator X accidentally floods the room everyone is in, washing the Rat King and his rats away.
In the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
the Rat King (who is never referred to as such and voiced by David Zen Mansley) appears in the episode "I, Monster", which is an adaptation of his first appearance in the Mirage Comics. Instead of dying like in the comics, the Rat King survives the fall into the silo after his fight with Leonardo.
Throughout "I, Monster", various flashbacks reveal the origin of this series' version of the Rat King; the episode reveals the Rat King was originally the Slayer, from the episode "Bishop's Gambit", a prototype bio-mechanical super soldier created by Agent Bishop using his own and Splinter's DNA. The Slayer was meant to be used to fight off any alien threats and was given a test run against the Turtles, who broke into Bishop's laboratory looking for the kidnapped Splinter. The Slayer was presumed destroyed when a fight between it, the Turtles, Splinter and Bishop flooded the agent's lab. In actuality, the Slayer survived and was sent hurdling through the sewers, eventually being deposited near the industrial park the events of "I, Monster" take place in. Losing several of its robotic parts, cloaking device and regenerative abilities, the Slayer degenerated into an even more monstrous form, becoming the Rat King.
The Rat King makes a later appearance in the episode "Wedding Bells and Bytes", secretly watching the wedding near the end of the episode with a smile.
version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time
, battling the player using the Footski equipped with missiles and spiked buoys. The Rat King also appears as a boss and secret character in the Super Nintendo version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters
.
The Slayer version of the Rat King from the 2003 animated series also appears as the boss of Episode Two in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: Mutant Nightmare
.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are a fictional team of four teenage anthropomorphic turtles, who were trained by their anthropomorphic rat sensei in the art of ninjutsu and named after four Renaissance artists...
multimedia franchise. The character was created by Jim Lawson
Jim Lawson
Jim Lawson is an American comic book artist best known for his work on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. Lawson created the Rat King and also co-created the series Planet Racers with Peter Laird. He is also the writer/artist of the black-and white-comic series Paleo: Tales of the Late...
and first appeared in the comic Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is an anthology comic book series published by Mirage Studios presenting additional stories featuring the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and their supporting cast as a companion book to the main Turtles series filling in the gaps of continuity in the TMNT...
#4 written by Kevin Eastman
Kevin Eastman
Kevin Brooks Eastman is an American comic book artist and writer, best known as the creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Eastman is also the current owner, editor and publisher of the magazine Heavy Metal.-Early life:Eastman was born on May 30, 1962 in Springvale, Maine...
and Peter Laird
Peter Laird
Peter Alan Laird is an American comic book writer and artist. He is best known for co-creating Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with writer and artist Kevin Eastman.-Early life and career:...
and has made various appearances since, in the comic books and other mediums, such as animated series and video games.
The Rat King remains one of the more enigmatic characters in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, with various appearances depicting him as either a villain, a neutral character and even an ally of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The Rat King has a distinguishable attire, which consists of filthy, tattered rags and, most prominently, various bandages covering his body. As his name implicates, the Rat King has apparent telepathic influence over rat
Rat
Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus...
s, with his only other consistent power being his immense strength (which varies throughout incarnations of the character).
Mirage Comics
In the Mirage StudiosMirage Studios
Mirage Studios is an independent American comic book company founded in 1983 by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, based in Northampton, Massachusetts and best known for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book series.-History:...
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics, the Rat King makes his first appearance in Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #4 as the story's main antagonist. After residing in a swamp for several months, the Rat King (who remains unnamed until the end of the issue) decides to venture into a nearby abandoned industrial park
Industrial park
An industrial park is an area zoned and planned for the purpose of industrial development...
and use it as shelter against the oncoming winter. There, the Rat King happens upon the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and their friend Casey Jones
Casey Jones (TMNT)
Arnold Bernid "Casey" Jones is a character from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. Like the turtles, Casey Jones is a vigilante, and was created as a parody of vigilante characters that were in comics. Casey wears a hockey mask and cut-off biking gloves and carries his weapons in a golf bag...
, who had come to the industrial park to train. Believing the Turtles and Casey to be other "monsters" who wish to take his territory, the Rat King proceeds to stalk them throughout the park, even capturing Michelangelo
Michelangelo (TMNT)
Michelangelo is a fictional character, one of the four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles . His mask is typically portrayed as orange outside of the Mirage/Image comic series and his weapons are dual nunchaku, though he has also been portrayed using other weapons, such as a grappling hook, tonfa, and a...
and leaving him to be devoured by the rats (Michelangelo later escapes). The Rat King is eventually defeated by Leonardo
Leonardo (TMNT)
Leonardo is a fictional character that appears in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics and all related media.In the Mirage comics all four turtles wear red bandanas, but in other versions, he wears a blue bandana. His signature weapons are two ninjaken , which are universally referred to as...
who, in a duel with the Rat King, flings several shuriken
Shuriken
A shuriken is a traditional Japanese concealed weapon that was generally used for throwing, and sometimes stabbing or slashing...
s at him, which impale the Rat King and knock him off balance, sending him plummeting into the bowels of a silo
Silo
A silo is a structure for storing bulk materials.Silo may also refer to:* Silo , a 3D modeling software* Silo , a defunct chain of retail electronics stores* SILO , used in Linux...
.
In the multi-part storyline "City at War", the Rat King appears in a major role. After entering the silo where Leonardo defeated the Rat King, Splinter
Splinter (TMNT)
Master Splinter, or simply Splinter is a fictional character in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles universe. -Origin Story:Splinter has two origin stories, and which one is used depends on the medium...
falls into a pit and injures his leg; left helpless, Splinter is found by the Rat King, who appears before him multiple times throughout the story-arc, often debating philosophically with him and giving him cryptic advice in dreams. Splinter soon has a dream in which the Rat King appears before him as a demonic rat-like entity, and tells him to devour a rat
Cannibalism
Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...
to regain his strength. Rat King also tells Splinter that eating rats has allowed him to "find what he was looking for", and also states that he had been waiting for Splinter to come to him for some time. Two months later, after the Rat King stops appearing to him he gets enough strength and leaves the silo. Splinter finds, much to his surprise, the heavily decayed corpse of the Rat King buried under rubble, its limbs twisted and several shurikens imbedded in it.
After several years of absence, the Rat King (in ghost form) reappears in a brief cameo appearance in Teenage Mutant Ninjas Turtles Vol. 4, watching as Splinter succumbs to a heart attack and dies while retrieving milk from a refrigerator. Much of the Rat King's origin is later revealed in an issue of Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vol. 2; the story reveals that a group of beings known as the Pantheon exists, with each member of the group having jurisdiction over a species of animal. When the Pantheon member who rules the rats time reaches an end, a new one is chosen, a scarred and heavily bandaged (explaining the Rat King's appearance) patient at a hospital. Becoming the Rat King, the man challenges Splinter to a battle, which he loses after a long fight. With the Rat King defeated, Splinter is offered to take his place in the Pantheon, which he refuses. Accepting Splinter's decision, the Pantheon and Rat King leave, though not before stating that Splinter will be offered membership in the Pantheon one more time, at the moment of his death.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987 - 1996)
Townsend Coleman
Townsend Coleman is an American voice actor who performed in many animated series and TV commercials beginning in the early 1980s...
) is featured as recurring character in the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987 TV series)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is an American animated television series produced by Murakami-Wolf-Swenson. The pilot was shown during the week of December 28, 1987 in syndication as a five part miniseries and began its official run on October 1, 1988...
, being one of the few villains from the comics to make the transition into the cartoon (the others being the Shredder
Shredder (TMNT)
The Shredder is a fictional character and primary antagonist from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. At one point or another in every incarnation of the TMNT stories, he has been the archenemy of Splinter and the Turtles...
, Leatherhead
Leatherhead (TMNT)
Leatherhead is a fictional character in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. He was created in 1987 by Mirage Studios artist Ryan Brown, who also went on to create the Saturday morning cartoon series Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa for the ABC television network...
and Dr. Stockman
Baxter Stockman
Dr. Baxter Stockman is a fictional scientist who has appeared in several versions of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shows, videogames, and comics. In each version, he is depicted as the creator of the Mousers, machines meant to seek out and destroy sewer rats...
). The cartoon counterpart of the Rat King was somewhat inconsistent in some regards to his comic version, being shown with blonde hair instead of black and having a slightly altered costume; his first few appearances on the show also had him controlling rats with a flute (à la The Pied Piper of Hamelin
The Pied Piper of Hamelin
The Pied Piper of Hamelin is the subject of a legend concerning the departure or death of a great many children from the town of Hamelin , Lower Saxony, Germany, in the Middle Ages. The earliest references describe a piper, dressed in pied clothing, leading the children away from the town never...
) instead of his mind as in later episodes. Even Splinter was affected by the music and almost killed the TMNT in a fight. The cartoon version of the Rat King was also depicted as highly intelligent, shown to be able to create such things as various chemical concoctions and bombs.
In the series, the Rat King is shown living in a dilapidated portion of the New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
sewer system near the Turtles and Splinter. In episodes featuring him, the Rat King would often enact some sort of plot to establish his own rat-controlled government and bring human rule to an end, believing that rats (which he counted himself as) were superior to all other species, whom he described as "inferior non-rodents." He occasionally joined other villains in group efforts that would, he thought, ultimately help his own goals. In some episodes of the show, the Rat King is depicted as somewhat of an anti-hero
Anti-hero
In fiction, an antihero is generally considered to be a protagonist whose character is at least in some regards conspicuously contrary to that of the archetypal hero, and is in some instances its antithesis in which the character is generally useless at being a hero or heroine when they're...
, with him, on one occasion, even helping the Turtles rescue a captured April O'Neil
April O'Neil
April O'Neil is a fictional character in the Mirage Studios franchise Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In each of the many TMNT continuities, she is a good friend of the Turtles: Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo.-Comics:...
. When not actively seeking to expand his "empire," the Rat King eventually seemed content to simply remain underground with his loyal rats and, it seems, realized it was more to his advantage to have the Turtles as allies than as enemies. His final appearance is in early season 8, with new attire, and mutated rats with the help of Shredder, however, the Turtles manage to capture him and turn him in.
Archie Comics
In Archie ComicsArchie Comics
Archie Comics is an American comic book publisher headquartered in the Village of Mamaroneck, Town of Mamaroneck, New York, known for its many series featuring the fictional teenagers Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Reggie Mantle and Jughead Jones. The characters were created by...
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures series, the Rat King is given the name Lord Ha'ntaan. The Rat King's first appearance in the Archie Comics is in issue eleven, where the Turtles encounter him while searching for the Shredder in the sewers. The Rat King allows the Turtles to pass him unhindered and tells them where the Shredder is, after Leonardo proves that he and his brothers mean him and his rat subjects no harm.
The Rat King has an extended role in the "The Future Shark Trilogy", which reveals him to be still active several decades in the future (showing no signs of having aged at all). After the future version of Donatello
Donatello (TMNT)
Donatello is a fictional character and one of the four main characters in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics and all related media. He is co-creator Peter Laird's favorite Turtle....
exterminated most of the world's rat population, in a future where floods following global warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
cuasing rats to enter the house
House
A house is a building or structure that has the ability to be occupied for dwelling by human beings or other creatures. The term house includes many kinds of different dwellings ranging from rudimentary huts of nomadic tribes to free standing individual structures...
s in the town
Town
A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size a settlement must be in order to be called a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world, so that, for example, many American "small towns" seem to British people to be no more than villages, while...
s, the Rat King declares war on him and his allies for killing so many of his "children". Though mentioned throughout "The Future Shark Trilogy", the Rat King only appears in person in the story-arc's last issue, which has him engaging in a battle royal
Battle royal
Battle royal traditionally refers to a fight involving three or more combatants that is fought until only one fighter remains standing. In recent times the term has been used in a more general sense to refer to any fight involving large numbers of people that are not organized into factions...
with the Turtles, their allies and several other villains. The Rat King is defeated in the issue after Verminator X accidentally floods the room everyone is in, washing the Rat King and his rats away.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003 - 2009)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003 TV series)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is an American animated series, mainly set in New York City. It first aired on February 8, 2003 and ended on November 21, 2009...
the Rat King (who is never referred to as such and voiced by David Zen Mansley) appears in the episode "I, Monster", which is an adaptation of his first appearance in the Mirage Comics. Instead of dying like in the comics, the Rat King survives the fall into the silo after his fight with Leonardo.
Throughout "I, Monster", various flashbacks reveal the origin of this series' version of the Rat King; the episode reveals the Rat King was originally the Slayer, from the episode "Bishop's Gambit", a prototype bio-mechanical super soldier created by Agent Bishop using his own and Splinter's DNA. The Slayer was meant to be used to fight off any alien threats and was given a test run against the Turtles, who broke into Bishop's laboratory looking for the kidnapped Splinter. The Slayer was presumed destroyed when a fight between it, the Turtles, Splinter and Bishop flooded the agent's lab. In actuality, the Slayer survived and was sent hurdling through the sewers, eventually being deposited near the industrial park the events of "I, Monster" take place in. Losing several of its robotic parts, cloaking device and regenerative abilities, the Slayer degenerated into an even more monstrous form, becoming the Rat King.
The Rat King makes a later appearance in the episode "Wedding Bells and Bytes", secretly watching the wedding near the end of the episode with a smile.
Video games
The Rat King appears as a boss in the Super NintendoSuper Nintendo Entertainment System
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...
version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time, released as Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles: Turtles in Time in Europe, is an arcade video game produced by Konami. A sequel to the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game, it is a scrolling beat 'em up based mainly on the 1987 TMNT animated...
, battling the player using the Footski equipped with missiles and spiked buoys. The Rat King also appears as a boss and secret character in the Super Nintendo version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters, or Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles: Tournament Fighters in Europe, is the title of three different fighting games based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, produced by Konami for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Genesis, and Super NES and...
.
The Slayer version of the Rat King from the 2003 animated series also appears as the boss of Episode Two in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: Mutant Nightmare
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: Mutant Nightmare
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: Mutant Nightmare is a video game published by Konami for the PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, and Nintendo DS, featuring the crime-fighting heroes, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It is the last TMNT game to be made by Konami.It is the first Teenage Mutant Ninja...
.