Splinter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)
Splinter is a male comic character who features in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Contents |
Biography
Mirage
Splinter was the pet rat of a ninja named Hamato Yoshi in Japan. Intelligent for his species, in his cage Splinter was able to learn his master's art by mimicking his movements while he practiced. Yoshi became embroiled in a dispute with a fellow ninja by the name of Oroku Nagi. When Yoshi had to go to America into exile, years later he was eventually murdered at the hands of Nagi's brother Oroku Saki, who sought revenge for the death of his brother Nagi. Without a home, Splinter was forced to run away and live in the New York City sewers. Due to a traffic accident, four baby turtles and a canister of radioactive ooze were sent down into the sewer, where they were exposed to the strange substance that mutated both Splinter and the turtles. Within hours Splinter and the turtles were intelligent, humanoid mutants. Splinter named the four turtles: Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michaelangelo after a book on Renaissance artists that he found in a storm drain and in the following years trained them in the arts of Ninjutsu so that they should take revenge for his dead master, while still raising them as his own sons. Although Splinter at the beginning was very careful to keep his existence and his foster sons secret from the rest of the world rates, the four little turtles made friendly contacts with the upper world, in particular with April O'Neil and Casey Jones.
Archie
Hamato Yoshi loved Renaissance art, was tricked into being kicked out of the Foot Clan by Oroku Saki, and eventually mutated into a rat and witnessed four turtles mutate into humanoid forms after the five of them were exposed to mutagen.
IDW
Centuries later, all five were reincarnated as laboratory test subjects at Baxter Stockman's StockGen, a bioengineering firm in New York City. Yoshi had been reborn as an ordinary rat who was allowed to run wild through the laboratory. Eventually a psychotropic compound that gave the cognitive characteristics of a person to an animal as tested on Splinter, allowing him to remember who he was and recognize his sons, now reincarnated as baby turtles. When agents of the Foot Clan break into StockGen and attempt to steal an alien mutagen, Splinter and the Turtles were also picked up and nearly stolen. But Splinter was able to escape with his sons, who were dropped into a pool of mutagen and slipped away in the sewers, save for the second-eldest son, Raphael, who was lost in an alley due to Old Hob. Splinter found himself mutated into a more human-like rat, with more human capabilities such as the power of speech. His sons Leonardo, Donatello and Michelangelo had likewise been mutated into humanoid turtles, and though they did not immediately remember their old life as he did, he taught them ninjutsu and emphasized the importance of their family bond. When they were ready, Splinter commanded them to find their brother Raphael in the streets, which they eventually succeeded in doing. With their family reunited, Splinter found himself endangered by his old enemy, Hob. Not only did the mutant alley cat want revenge for his lost eye, but he had been tasked by Baxter Stockman to retrieve Splinter's blood, which held the untainted psychotropic compound. He was then kidnapped by the Foot Clan, and found himself face-to-face with his supernaturally-resurrected old enemy, Oroku Saki, now known as the Shredder.
Overview
Personality and attributes
In appearance, Splinter was often portrayed as an elderly male rat who was dressed in robes.
He was shown as being a stern, yet patient, sensei. He had devoted his entire life to a single goal; gaining vengeance for his beloved master Yoshi. Once his sons had achieved this goal, Splinter found himself somewhat bereft of purpose. Therefore, he spent much of his time in meditation, contemplating his place in the larger scheme of life.
Splinter will often use his skills of stealth and deception to avoid confrontations and trouble. However, when forced to intervene directly in a situation Splinter acts with focused and precise action. He wastes little motion and attempts to defeat his foes with as little effort as possible.
Powers and abilities
Notes
- Splinter was created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird where he made his first appearance in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles v1 #1 (May, 1984).
- As noted in Turtle Power: The Definitive History of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014), Splinter's name and character is a reference to Daredevil character Stick.
In other media
Television
- In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Splinter appeared in the setting of the 1987 animated television series where he was voiced by actor Peter Renaday and by actors Hideyuki Umezu (TV), Yuzuru Fujimoto (NHK-BS2) and Kiyoshi Kobayashi (VHS) in the Japanese versions. This version was a merger between Hamato Yoshi and his pet rat where he was originally a human martial arts instructor for the Foot Clan in Japan where he had a passion for Renaissance art. During this time, Yoshi came to be framed for the murder of the common dojo master with this being done by Oroku Saki. Unable to prove his innocence, Hamato Yoshi came to be expelled from the Foot Clan and moved to New York City where he lived as a hermit in the sewers where he befriended rats. One day, he came across four baby turtles that were dropped by a boy through a sewer gate. Yoshi came to keep them as pets and treated them like his children where one day he found them near some broken barrels of oozing chemical liquid. Contact with it transformed the turtles into humanoid mutations due to having been in contact with humans from the pet store. Meanwhile, Yoshi who had been mostly in contact with rats was transformed into a humanoid rat.
Films
- In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Splinter appeared in the setting of the 1990 live-action film where he was voiced by actor Kevin Clash.
Video games
- In TMNT, Splinter appeared in the setting of the video game where he was voiced by actor Terrence Scammell.
Appearances
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:
External Links
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