Every Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle series has had an antagonist that is on par with the turtles. The turtles are up against the most dreadful collection of villains in the 2003 series, who are arguably their greatest nightmare. It is only fair that we get to witness more potent foes since this version turned out to be darker than the earlier versions.
The Dark Turtles are a group of four brothers that have the power to scare you with their mere appearance. They frequently bring the Ninja Turtles to the brink of defeat and are quite similar to them in many ways.
You may be wondering at this point where these evil brothers originated from and why they have a grudge against turtles. In this video, we will cover everything there is to know about the Dark Turtles, from their history to an in-depth examination, in order to address all of your inquiries. So let us watch the video now without further ado.
Origin of The Dark Turtles
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is an animated television series that debuted in 2003. In season 6, episode 12, which was published in December 2006, we first encounter the Dark Turtles. The episode, named Bad Blood, was written by Roland Gonzalez and directed by Roy Burdine. Now let us look at what transpires in this episode.
The story opens with Cody Jones, a descendant of April O’Neil and Casey Jones, the turtles’ human pals, and the four turtles—Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael—going to practice. Cody, however, is soon cut off when his uncle Darius contacts him on the hologram projector known as the Holovid. Darius Dun feels he is losing control over Cody because of the turtles and considers Cody to be his favourite nephew.
A mysterious alien power unexpectedly contacts Darius at his home. He addresses Darius as Sh’Okanabo and claims that the two of them share an interest in destroying the four turtles. It comes out that Sh’Okanabo has used his alien technique of cloning species to produce four improved copies of the four turtles. He has effectively recreated the physical and psychological characteristics of the original four turtles in these super clones.
The Dark Turtles are a group of four super-clones that have been created particularly to eliminate the original turtles. Darius is presented with Sh’Okanabo’s work for a meeting with the turtles. Additionally, Sh’Okanabo demands payment in exchange for the usage of the Dark Turtles if they turn out to be valuable. Cody is now practicing on the rooftop of the turtles’ apartment with Donatello and their trainer, Master Splinter.
Uncle Darius soon visits the penthouse, where he is met by Serling, Cody’s robot butler and guardian from the future. He then pretends to make a phone call just when the turtles are arriving in order to make them suspicious of his actions. His plan works as the turtles fall into his trap and decide to follow his limo Downtown at 9 pm. As the turtles are pursuing Darius in their Hovershell, they get hit by a missile and are forced to eject while the Hovershell crashes to the ground.
Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael then follow someone into a building who they think could be responsible for their crash. Soon after, they are greeted by their four evil super clones, the Dark Turtles. They introduce themselves as being cloned from the tissues of the original turtles. Now, as the turtles get ready for battle, the Dark Turtles bring out a giant magnetic device that pulls away all of the weapons that the turtles have.
The battle begins with a lot of verbal abuse as well as some great punches. The Dark Turtles decide to fight their respective doppelgangers, and everyone engages in a one on one fight. However, it looks like the Dark Turtles have the upper hand because they are using their weapons and are also bigger in size. The Dark Turtles manage to defeat the original turtles by knocking them unconscious and then destroying their wrist gauntlets before kidnapping them.
Now, at the penthouse, Master Splinter and Cody start to get suspicious because the turtles have been gone for several hours, which is quite unlike them. When Cody tries to track them down, he is only able to receive signals from Michelangelo’s trackers. So, Cody, Master Splinter, and Serling head toward the location to gather more information about the whereabouts of the turtles. After reaching the battle sight, Cody uses his O’Neill nanotech device to look for more clues.
However, the only clue words they find are sea water and sewage. The team is then attacked by a giant alien frog who tries to devour Cody, but Master Splinter saves him. As Master Splinter fights the alien, Cody searches the city’s sewer system through his wrist computer and finally finds the location of the turtles. However, the place is soon raided by the police, so Master Splinter stays back to deal with them, and Cody goes in search of the turtles.
He enters the sewer system, where he hears the Dark Turtles talking about sending Donatello’s body for science. Cody then follows the four super clones and spots the turtles, who are handcuffed to the wall. He frees them, but the Dark Turtles arrive and capture Cody. However, Cody uses his ninja training and smoke bombs to get away from the Dark Turtles. This gives the original turtles enough time to get ready for the fight.
Now since the turtles are equipped with their weapons, they are evenly matched with the Dark Turtles. During the battle, they realize that since the Dark Turtles are made from their tissue cells, they must have the same weaknesses. So, the turtles use this to their advantage and the tables are turned on the Dark Turtles because they lack intelligence. The enemies soon realize that they are no match for the real turtles, so they release a bomb that causes a cave in, which allows them to escape successfully.
As the battle ends, the turtles decide to confront Darius since they believe that he was the one who led them to the trap when the Dark Turtles first attacked. However, when Cody confronts his uncle about being in Downtown at the same time the turtles were attacked, he shows them that he went there to get a surprise birthday present for Cody, which is an old Justice Force comic book.
The episode comes to an end with Darius agreeing to pay the alien Sh’Okanabo his fees despite the loss of the Dark Turtles because Darius believes that in battle, they are superior compared to the real turtles.
Every Dark Turtle on The Roster
The four Dark Turtles in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles consider themselves to be the evil brothers of the real turtles. Now, let us take an in depth look at their characters.
Dark Leo
The character of Dark Leo is voiced by Michael Sinterniklaas. He is the leader of the Dark Turtles and the evil clone of Leonardo. The only visible similarity between the two is that Leonardo wears a blue eye mask and Dark Leo’s body is blue in color. We saw earlier that the first battle between the real turtles and the Dark turtles was an unfair battle since the weapons of the real turtles were taken away from them.
So, when Leonardo came face to face with Dark Leo, he accused him of not being a true clone since he had no honor or values. To this, Dark Leo proudly stated that he has a lot in common with Leonardo, but he has no interest in having honor or a moral code. This suggests that even though Sh’Okanabo created him using Leonardo’s tissue cells, Dark Leo still lacks the ethics and personality of Leonardo.
However, when it comes to fighting styles, Dark Leo knows all of Leonardo’s moves and beats him in the first battle by using his own tricks against him. The weapons that he usually carries are a giant katana and a twin bladed short sword. His sword fight is on par with Leonardo’s and that is why he is able to defend himself against all of Leonardo’s attacks. He also possesses the same level of dedication towards anything that he is expected to do, just like Leonardo.
When he has to fight the turtles, he does not waste time on idle chit chat and is quick to throw the first punch. Now, despite being an evil killing machine, Dark Leo has shown signs of redemption which we shall discuss later in the video.
Dark Don
The character of Dark Don is voiced by Sam Riegel. He is the evil clone of Donatello and is also known as Brain boy. He has a lot of similarities with Donatello, including his interest in gadgets and technology. In fact, he is the one who created the Terrorpin, the vehicle that the Dark Turtles use. He also made the rest of the gadgets that we see the Dark Turtles using during their fights, like the giant magnetic that zapped the weapons of the original turtles and the smoke bombs.
However, when he fights his doppelganger Donatello, he does not use any weapons like his brothers. He takes the analytical approach in his fights and relies heavily on his brain power to figure out the patterns of his opponents. He then uses his metal wrist guards to block the attacks of his opponent and then uses his muscle power to counterattack. Dark Don is also the only Dark Turtle who has a tail and a long one at that! He uses it as a weapon to surprise his enemies.
He fights comparatively better than his brothers since he relies more on battle tactics than weapons. Dark Don is the most intelligent and smartest of all the Dark Turtles. Although he often acts completely opposite as he constantly argues with their leader, Dark Leo, and also gets into silly fights with his brothers for food. Despite the fact that his brothers resemble a lot with their respective doppelgangers, Dark Don looks almost nothing like Donatello.
Dark Raph
The character of Dark Raph is voiced by Greg Abbey, who also goes by the name Frank Frankson. He is the evil clone of Raphael and, just like his counterpart, gets easily offended by small things like someone making a comment on his appearance or intellect and acts out in a rage. Just like Raphael, Dark Raph is also very hot headed and short tempered.
The weapons that he usually carries are twin talon knucklers. The only visible similarity between Raphael and Dark Raph is that Raphael wears a red eye mask and Dark Raph’s body is red in color. He is the only Dark Turtle who has the most in common with his doppelganger, including their fighting styles, personalities, as well as lack of common sense. However, Raphael is obviously more astute as compared to Dark Raph.
Since Raphael is aware of his own weaknesses, he is able to use that knowledge to his advantage in the battle against Dark Raph. On the other hand, Dark Raph lacks the emotional intelligence to comprehend his thoughts and easily gets his pride hurt when Raphael tells him that he has bad breath. In fact, Dark Raph looks deadlier than he actually is. He does not deal well with criticism and does not know how to hide his weaknesses from his enemies because he simply believes he has none.
This superiority complex often costs him many battles as the turtles have figured out his weak spot and almost always manage to defeat Dark Raph. He also has an affection for annoying his enemies with his words and horrible grammar due to which people often call him Psycho.
Dark Mike
The character of Dark Mike is voiced by Wayne Grayson. He is the evil clone of Michelangelo and is actually quite different from him. Michelangelo loves the Justice Force comic book series, whereas Dark Mike seems to hate it and told Michelangelo that “that book sucked eggs.” Through this encounter, Dark Mike quickly figures out what the ticking nerve of Michelangelo is as Mikey totally flipped when Dark Mike insulted Justice Force.
Dark Mike is always seen carrying double bladed clubs and a triple headed whip mace during battles. Another fighting advantage Dark Mike possesses is his two foot long tongue through which he can actually grab anything he wants. Just like Dark Don’s unique tail, the extremely long tongue is Dark Mike’s distinguishing feature. His body is also different from the color of Michelangelo’s eye mask since that is orange, and his skin color is yellow.
Dark Mike shares a lot of weaknesses with Michelangelo as both are very gullible and unaware that they can easily be tricked. His personality is like the psychotic version of Michelangelo as he tends to talk a lot, laughs hysterically out of nowhere, and is constantly jumping around. He is the most hyperactive among all the other Dark Turtles and often lies to them and hides food.
Amazing Story of Dark Leo Showing Humane Nature
In the twenty third episode of the sixth season, we see a different side of Dark Leo that you would not expect from a Dark Turtle. Let us now take a look at what happens in this episode that is titled DNA is Thicker than Water.
The story begins with a look at Dark Mike, who seems to have hidden some food from his brothers underneath the floor board. When he goes to retrieve it, the other Dark Turtles find him and start fighting over the food. Their quarrel is soon interrupted by the arrival of their new employer, Uncle Darius. He calls the Dark Turtles’ genetic mishaps and yells at them.
When Dark Raph talks back to Darius and tries to land a blow on him, Darius uses his battle suit to stop him hypnotically. So, it looks like the Dark Turtles can never hurt Darius Dun. He then orders them to annihilate the turtles immediately and leaves the planning to them. Dark Leo, as the leader, promises himself that he will deliver the heads of the turtles on a platter and tells his brothers that if they cannot beat them, they need to join them.
Now, at the turtles’ penthouse, they are all training with Master Splinter and Cody when the penthouse auto defenses and alarms go off. They rush to the rooftop and spot the Terrorpin. As it turns out, the Dark Turtles have chosen to attack the original turtles in broad day light. Now, in the middle of fighting the turtles, the Dark Turtles appear to be having a disagreement regarding their current plan.
Dark Raph then sees that Cody is defenseless, so he tries to attack him but Dark Leo yells at him for going after the boy since that would be a time waste. Soon after, Dark Don is flying the Terrorpin and makes Cody his target, and shoots a laser beam at him. The turtles are too far away to save him, and immediately Dark Leo leaps in front of Cody and takes the blast in the chest. He is now lying unconscious on the ground and the three Dark Turtles escape in the Terrorpin leaving Dark Leo behind.
Since Dark Leo’s injuries are fatal, the turtles decide to take him inside the penthouse and give him the medical attention he requires. They place him inside a portable force field so that when he wakes up, he will not be able to break free. After a week, Dark Leo finally wakes up and the turtles send some food for him. But Dark Leo believes that if they were his brothers, they would have poisoned his food. So, he refuses to eat.
After some time, Cody asks Dark Leo why he saved him. Dark Leo seems unable to answer but ends up saying that his fight is with the turtles and not Cody, so attacking him does not feel right. Cody then goes to the turtles and suggests that maybe they can help Dark Leo in order not to be so evil since he clearly seems to be going through some inner struggle. The turtles then decide to treat Dark Leo less like a monster and more like a regular guy.
They let him sit with them for lunch, but Dark Leo ends up eating everyone’s share of food from the table. He tells them that where he lives, they have to fight for food and eat whatever they get or else they end up starving. So, Michelangelo and Leonardo say to him that at the penthouse, they look out for each other and share things. So, Dark Leo spits out the food that is in his mouth and offers it to Leonardo. Now that is definitely not what you would expect from the evil clone who was created to kill the turtles.
After they send Dark Leo back to another room, Raphael states his suspicions about Dark Leo’s true intentions and reminds everyone that he is evil. We then see Dark Leo smirking and laughing as he hears this. So, it looks like tricking the turtles into believing that he is turning over a new leaf has been his plan all along. After some time, Dark Leo and Raphael end up having a heated argument.
Later, Leonardo visits Dark Leo and tells him a story about the scorpion and the frog. The scorpion needed to cross a stream, so he asked the frog to carry him across on his back. But the frog is afraid because what if the scorpion stings him? The scorpion then promised that he would not do any such thing. So, the frog carried the scorpion on his back, but half way across the stream, the frog started to feel a burning pain in his back. Apparently, the scorpion had stung him, and as a result, both the frog and the scorpion began to sink. When the frog asked him why he did it, the scorpion replied that he did it because it was his nature.
Leonardo was telling Dark Leo this story so that he would try to change his mind and make efforts to become a good turtle. Leonardo then tells him that he now has two choices, either he can leave in the custody of the peace keepers, or he can stay with the turtles. While Leonardo is leaving the room, he ends up dropping the remote that locks Dark Leo in the force field.
Now, as any villain would do, Dark Leo unlocks the force field and immediately notifies the other Dark Turtles that they have to attack the turtles at night. When the Dark Turtles arrive, Dark Leo tries to shut down the security fail safe but finds himself unable to do so. Just then, Leonardo comes and tells Dark Leo that he purposely dropped the remote to test him. He again gives Dark Leo a chance to step away and go back.
At first, Dark Leo seems confused but then yells that he is a scorpion and destroys the security fail safe. Now, when the other Dark Turtles arrive inside the penthouse, the original turtles, Master Splinter, Serling, and Cody are already waiting for them. As they engage in a fight, Dark Leo alone battles Leonardo and realizes that he failed the test. The Dark Turtles then retreat in their Terrorpin, having failed miserably in their plan of laying a surprise attack on the turtles.
The episode comes to an end as Darius throws a piece of meat at Dark Leo and asks him to choke on it since he failed once again. Dark Leo surprises everyone as he picks up the meat, tears it into four equal parts, and shares it with his brothers. So, it looks like Leonardo did manage to get through to Dark Leo, even if it was just by a small fraction. This change of personality in Dark Leo clearly suggests that if he consciously tries to become a good turtle, he will succeed, despite his purpose of creation.
Trivia Time
There are some interesting facts about the Dark Turtles that are going to leave you mesmerized by this incredible bunch of villains.
The story arc in which the Dark Turtles appear is known as Fast Forward. Now, the creators had also thought of an alternate plot line for the second season of Fast Forward which was titled “Turtles, Turtles Everywhere.” In this segment, the Dark Turtles were going to be replaced by beings known as the Tech Turtles. These are four robotic turtles based on each of the original turtles and they were created by Darius Dunn.
Darius created the Tech Turtles because the Dark Turtles would always fail in their battles against the original turtles and return empty handed. So, he ordered the Tech Turtles to go after the Dark Turtles and destroy them. Further into the episode, the Dark Turtles would be forced to take the help of the original turtles in order to save their own lives. However, we never got to see this episode because it was never produced since the second season of Fast Forward had been canceled.
Due to the cancelation of the second season, we also never find out the ultimate fate of the Dark Turtles, but we can assume that they probably never succeeded in defeating the original turtles. Now, you might have realized that the evil super clones sound different compared to their counterparts. Well, the voice actors who voiced the original turtles are the same ones who also voiced the Dark Turtles. They obviously added more depth and gruffness to their voices to sound like the bad guys.
The vehicle of the Dark Turtles which is known as the Terrorpin, is actually named after a huge snapping turtle monster that appears in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic books. There are also some similarities between the Dark Turtles and other creatures from different franchises. For example, they are quite similar to the Psycho Rangers from the Power Rangers franchise. Another franchise that comes to mind is Space Jam, which is a hybrid animated sports comedy film.
The major antagonists of Space Jam are the Monstars, who are also a group of mutated copycat aliens just like the Dark Turtles. They also share the same skin color as the Dark Turtles. Dark Leo and Blanko are Blue, Dark Raph and Nawt are Red, Dark Don and Bupkus are Purple, and Dark Mike and Pound are Orange.
Special Mention – The Dark Turtles from 1987
In the 1987 animated cartoon series of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, we get a glimpse of a certain dark turtle with a twist. Let us now find out what happens in the 14th episode of the seventh season which is titled “Night of the Dark Turtle” and written by David Wise.
The story begins with the turtles watching April on the television. Soon Donatello’s early warning system alarm goes off in their lair and after checking he realizes that there seems to be a strong vibration under the Earth. The turtles immediately suspect that it could be their long time enemy, Shredder, so they head out to look for him.
Now, at a government research lab, we see Shredder receiving a tiny cylindrical object that he calls the Micro Blaster from a scientist. Apparently, this micro blaster is such a powerful weapon that it can destroy an entire building with a single blast. However, his two minions, Rocksteady and Bebop end up damaging the micro blaster. Now, as Shredder is trying to fix the micro blaster, Donatello’s technology brings the turtles to the lab.
Soon after, they encounter Shredder and engage in a fight. Donatello goes after Shredder while the other turtles fight his guards. Just then, Shredder pushes Donatello into an electrified machine which ends up electrocuting him and puts him in a temporary coma. After retreating to their lair, Donatello wakes up while yelling Shredder’s name. He immediately tries to head out in pursuit of Shredder but his brothers stop him.
Donatello seems extremely angry and hell bent on destroying Shredder all by himself. But when everyone asks him to rest, he pretends to go to his room to lie down. He then throws away his purple eye mask and assumes a new identity in order to strike fear in his enemies. He has now dressed himself in a somewhat Batman like black colored costume and calls himself the Dark turtle. The inspiration for this costume came to him through his comic book Midknight Avenger.
When his brothers ask him if he has lost his mind, Donatello tells them that he is saner than ever. He then throws a smoke bomb at them and leaves in search of Shredder. So, it looks like the electrocution had a severe impact on Donatello’s mind and it has altered his personality. When the other three turtles try to follow him, he pushes them away and makes a quick escape.
Now, a new enemy arrives in the city in star cruisers from space and calls themselves the Triceratons. It looks like they want to take over the Earth as their empire. The turtles then head over to Midtown to fight the Triceratons. In the meantime, Donatello, who has now become the Dark Turtle, is successful in finding Shredder’s location and easily finishes off Rocksteady and Bebop when he encounters them.
On the other hand, Leo, Mikey, and Raph are trying their best to fight the Triceratons but they are too powerful. They want to transport the Earth to their Triceraton Homeworld so they begin opening a Star Gate through which the Earth will be consumed. Now, back at the government research lab, the Dark Turtle finally comes face to face with Shredder and engages in a battle.
The other turtles soon arrive since they need Donatello in order to defeat the Triceratons. The Dark Turtle seems to have the upper hand in the battle as he is just about to destroy Shredder but the turtles save him. Now, when Michelangelo tries to grab the Dark Turtle, he accidentally falls on an electrical machine and gets electrocuted once again. Shredder, Rocksteady, and Bebop quickly escape in the middle of this chaos.
When Donatello wakes up, he is surprised to see himself in a strange costume and does not seem to remember anything that happened. As it turns out, the second electrocution brought Donatello back to his right mind and he devises a plan with his brothers to stop the Triceratons. Now, apparently, the Triceratons do not attack a planet where the dominant species are reptiles.
So, Donatello makes use of his Dark Turtle costumes and with the help of the micro blaster that he fixed, he is able to convince the head of the Triceratons that he is the ruler of this planet and the mightiest reptile in the universe. The episode comes to an end as Donatello again yells “Shredder” back at the lair. Leo, Mikey, and Raph get scared but we find out that he is just looking for his electric cheese shredder since he is dying for a pizza.
The group of the Dark Turtles as replicas of the original turtles indeed left the fans amazed. After all, they have repeatedly proved to be formidable enemies to the turtles. While having their own minds, each of the Dark Turtles certainly lacked the emotional maturity of their counterparts. So, perhaps that is what made them evil. However, through Dark Leo’s change of behavior, it is evident that if the Dark Turtles show sympathy towards their own brothers and a bit of team work, they could someday become successful in defeating the original turtles.
Well, guys, that is all for today; we hope you enjoyed watching this video as much as we enjoyed making it for you. Have a fantastic day ahead!