Mutagen (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

Mutagen is a chemical that features in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles universe.

History

Mirage Comics

Mutagen was created by the Utroms while they were trying to create a machine that will allow them to escape Earth after they crash-landed on it. Disguised as the technology company T.C.R.I. in New York City in order to allow the funds acquired through their transactions to help them return home, they tried to create the machine secretly. However, during its creation, the waste turned into a mutagen, with their attempts to dispose of it resulting in a canister falling off the back of a truck and mutating the turtles and Splinter when it fell into a sewer and splashed all over them. It has a transformation property that mutates animals into intelligent beings. The mutagen causes explicit growth, both physically and intellectually.

IDW Comics

Mutagen was derived from a substance typically referred to as ooze, which accounts for its effect on those exposed to it. The most prevalent source of mutagen was from Stockgen, which was contracted by General Krang to generate a super-soldier serum that would allow him to have near-invincible troops. However, the mutagen was accidentally dropped during a raid on Stockgen by Foot Clan ninjas, causing the mutation of the Turtles, their father Splinter, and the cat Old Hob. The subsequent theft of mutagen from Stockgen allowed for the creation of many other mutants, both by other mutants and by the Foot Clan. It is also apparently available to the Null Group, though it is not clear how they came by it.

Users

• Leonardo :
• Donatello :
• Michelangelo :
• Raphael :
• Hamato Yoshi :
• Master Splinter :
• Bebop :
• Rocksteady :
• Mondo Gecko :
• Ray Fillet :
• Scumbug :
• Wyrm :
• Chameleon :
• Verminator-X :
• Armaggon :
• Tokka :
• Rahzar :
• Super Foot Soldier :
• Venus De Milo :
• Mona Lisa :
• Scratch :
• Mutagen Man :
• Leatherhead :
• Alopex :

Notes

• The Mutagen was created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird where it made its first appearance in Eastman and Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles v1 #1 (May, 1984).

In other media

Television

• In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Retromutagen Ooze appeared in the 1987 animated television series. It was made by mixing nyotrinaline with Taxon-9 alongside a third acidic ingredient called Bindex3. After encountering the four ninja turtles, the Shredder used Mutagen to transform Bebop and Rocksteady into animal hybrids. Mutagen was responsible for creating many mutants, such as Bebop, Rocksteady, the Punk Frogs, Leatherhead, Slash, Groundchuck, Dirtbag, and Mondo Gecko
• In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Mutagen appeared in the 2003 animated television series. It was shown to had been accidentally created by the Utrom race on Earth when they were attempting to create a transmat machine to allow them to return to their homeworld. They established a company called T.C.R.I. where underneath their headquarters they built the machine where part of its waste product was the Mutagen. Attempts were made to dispose of the waste safely but a canister of it fell into the sewers where it caused the mutation of Splinter along with the Turtles.
• In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Mutagenic Ooze appeared in the 2012 animated television series. It was shown as being a natural bio-product of massive worm-like creatures called Kraathatrogons that were native to Dimension X with the Mutagen having different effects in Earth's dimension. The Ooze also had ability to merge organic and inorganic substances. A mutant's exposure to a secondary dose of mutagen can accelerate the original mutation. The Kraang operative told Shredder that the effects of the Mutagen on Earth are unpredictable. If a human has not come into contact with another living being before being effected by Mutagen, their bodies will be molecularly broken down, turning them into a mutant blob made of acidic goo, with only their internal organs still remaining intact. Pulverizer also states that the Mutagen burns upon contact. The Kraang later perfected the mutagen, revealing it's true purpose; to "terraform" Earth into a new Dimension X. Objects such as rocks or trees sprayed with the perfected mutagen transform into Kraang elements; creatures including humans are mutated into Kraang monsters.
• In Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Ooze appeared in the setting of the 2018 animated television series. The inhabitants of the Hidden City were known to experiment with Ooze with Baron Draxum creating creatures called Oozesquitoes that infected humans with the Mutagen and transformed them into new animal mutants. Draxum engineered his mutagen in order to create an army of mutants that would fight to overtake the Earth's surface from humanity for the sake of the Yōkai population. He struggled to find a source of DNA that would bestow his mutants with the great combat abilities they needed until he encountered Lou Jitsu at the Battle Nexus. Draxum eventually used him in an experiment to mutate the Turtles when they were still ordinary turtles and the experiment ended in success. However, during a fight with Lou Jitsu, Draxum's store of mutagen was spilled and obliterated once his laboratory was set on fire by Huginn and Muninn. Draxum was able to recreate his mutagen and he tested it on a human named Stewart, affirming its success. He planned to make swarms of Oozesquitoes ingest his mutagen to carry it and mutate the human public. However, by "Shadow of Evil", Draxum had moved on from that aspect of his plan, instead deciding to eliminate the threat of humanity by donning the Kuroi Yōroi and simply eradicating humanity with the armor's power.

Films

• In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the ooze appeared briefly in the setting of the 1990 live-action film where canisters of it was shown to had been responsible for mutating Splinter and the Turtles into their forms. It was shown that the canister came from a comapny called "T.G.R.I." (Techno Global Research Industries).
• In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze, the ooze appeared in the setting of the live-action film sequel. Foot Clan spy within April O'Neil's news team discovered after an interview a mutant plant near the T.G.R.I. company premises. He immediately returned to The Shredder who orders the Foot Clan to procure the cause of this mutation. Having identified T.G.R.I. as the source of the ooze, the Turtles, who were also after the origin of the mutagen, could not prevent, because of numerical inferiority, Tatsu and the Foot Clan from saving the last canister from destruction and kidnapping professor Jordan Perry.
• In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Mutagen appeared in the setting of the 2014 live-action film. It was created at Sacks Industries where it could stimulate self-repair on a cellular level. It was intended as a universal cure that could reverse any damage. Years ago, it was responsible for transforming Splinter and the Turtles into their humanoid forms.
• In Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mutagen appeared in the setting of the 2019 animated film adaptation of the comic crossover story. The Shredder during his alliance with Ra's al Ghul offered to provide his Mutagen so that it could be mixed with Joker Venom and dispersed across Gotham City to mutate its inhabitants. The formula was tested on several of their followers along with the in-mates at Arkham Asylum after which it was deployed through a cloudseeder that was to go into the air. The Turtles came to learn of the Foot Clan's actions and later teamed up with Batman to stop them. In this time, Batgirl and Donatello managed to create a retro-Mutagen designed to reverse the changes on anyone within the last 12 hours. The Joker had injected Batman with the Mutagen turning him into a bat-monster until Michelangelo used the antidote to turn him back to normal.

Appearances

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:

External Links

• TMNT Wiki Entry

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