Every child who grew up in the 1990s can recall watching the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on television. These anthropomorphic turtles have captured the hearts of everyone who encounters them.
It all began with American comic book creators Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman’s creations, and the enthusiastic reception that Donatello, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Leonardo received quickly snowballed into a vast franchise that today includes television shows, movies, toy lines, and live-action features. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ exploits in New York City as they confront evil are chronicled in this franchise.
This video, on the other hand, is not about the four heroes. It’s about The Rat King, the biggest villain the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have ever fought. When it comes to this series, the Rat King is the embodiment of evil. Keep watching to learn everything there is to know about this evil character and what makes him such a dangerous foe!
The first comic book appearance and origins explored
The Rat King is a fictitious character from the multimedia property Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Jim Lawson came up with the character of the Rat King who first showed up in the comic Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #4, written by Jim Lawson.
He appears as the story’s main antagonist in his comic book debut. In the opening pages, we see a large humanoid monster shambling out of a swamp. He emerges covered in mud and weeds and believes that he is a specter of the man he once was. It is important to note that this monster is simply referred to as ‘monster’ in this issue and not as Rat King, as he is better known.
After spending several months in a swamp, the Rat King chooses to walk into a neighboring derelict industrial park and use it as a wintertime refuge. He makes his rounds which he calls an ‘adventure’ as he roams around the deserted area however, he is not the only one there. The Rat King comes across the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and their pal Casey Jones, who had come to the industrial park to train. They explore the abandoned area and speculate about a ghost and the area being haunted which catches the attention of the Rat King.
He says that he was ‘the ghost’ a year ago and now he was the ‘monster’, a moss encrusted mockery of the man he once was. However, this coincidence arouses his suspicions and he decides to tail the heroes. The Rat King follows the Turtles and Casey all around the park. As he keeps overhearing their conversation and assesses their demeanor and body shape, he mistakes them for other “monsters” who want to take over his kingdom, the derelict industrial park that he had claimed as his own territory.
As he follows them, Michelangelo detects movement, someone using the shadows to tail them and goes off behind him. As Mike explores the abandoned buildings in search of their mysterious stalker, The Rat King lies in wait for him, hiding. The moment Michelangelo approaches his hiding spot, he hits him on the head, knocking the ninja turtle unconscious.
At that moment, he decides to protect his territory and in retaliation for the intrusion, he captures Michelangelo and takes him away. He interrogates him to find out what he and his comrades were doing in the park, quite ruthlessly, I might add, and refuses to believe that they had no ill intentions. He got angry with Michelangelo and decided to leave him in the park so that the rats could devour him.
The Rat King here is shown to be quite off the rails because he truly believed he was a monster who had lied in wait for several years. He believed that the industrial park was his territory and that he had transcended from man to monster where now he was a creature of instinct rather than intellect.
Coming back to the story, Michelangelo eventually escapes and comes back with the rest of his companions as they plan their battle strategy to defeat this ‘monster’. The Rat King is ultimately vanquished by Leonardo, who throws multiple shurikens at him in a duel, knocking him off balance and sending him plunging into the depths of a silo. As he sits at the very bottom of the silo surrounded by rats, he calls himself the Rat King, coining the name and taking on the moniker because he says that everyone is afraid of him, apart from the rats.
It is important however to know that the Rat King has appeared in many different iterations and has later been given various different backstories and origin stories. However, as far as his first appearance goes, his origin is ambiguous and shrouded in mystery. All we see is a deranged man who looks like a swamp monster.
Rat King in the animated universe
Rat King appears in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in many forms over the years. He first appeared in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series that aired from the year 1987 to the year 1996. Here he was shown as a homeless man who wanted to put an end to human rule and set up a rat-ruled government.
The Rat King’s cartoon equivalent was inconsistent in some ways with his comic counterpart, having blonde or orange hair rather than just black and slightly different clothing; his first few appearances on the program also had him commanding rats with a flute, rather than his thoughts, as later episodes did. The song had an effect on Splinter, who nearly murdered the TMNT in a fight. The Rat King in the cartoon version was also shown to be extremely intelligent, capable of concocting numerous chemical cocktails and explosives.
He then appeared in the animated series that ran from 2003 to 2009. The Rat King makes an appearance in the episode “I, Monster,” which is based on his debut appearance in Mirage Comics. The Rat King endures the plunge into the silo after his struggle with Leonardo, and lives, unlike in the comics.
Finally, when he appeared in the 2012 animated series, the Rat King was given an origin story that fans had been looking for, for decades. The Rat King was voiced by Jeffrey Combs in the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon.
In this series, we are introduced to a man named Victor Falco, a scientist researching a brain chemical that would allow him to discern thoughts straight from people’s minds without them even realizing and thus would eventually be able to foresee every move the Turtles made. This unstable scientific genius was introduced to audiences as the man who would go on to become the Rat King in this series.
In the episode titled “Monkey Brains,” the Turtles discovered that Falco had been experimenting on his lab and research partner, Dr.Tyler Rockwell. Via his experimentation, he had turned Rockwell into a humanoid mutant chimpanzee who could read emotions.
This brought him face to face with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The episode ended with Donatello defeating him in a fight using Splinter, their mentor and adoptive father’s lessons about how to avoid thinking in a fight which helped him bypass Falco’s neurochemical.
Falco then goes into hiding to conduct his research in a rat-infested laboratory before being subjected to an explosion produced by a rat chewing through an electrical wire that dropped into the neurochemical in the episode titled “I, Monster.” Falco was unfortunately left blind and badly deformed by the explosion, but it also granted him the ability to telepathically manipulate rats and see through their eyes. Falco thus renamed himself The Rat King and attempted to use his new psychic talents to influence Splinter into battling and killing his own deformed turtle offspring. However, during battle, Splinter regained control of himself and knocked Rat King out with only two fingers, whose limp body was then taken away by his rats.
The Rat King reappears in the episode titled “Of Rats and Men.” Here he seems triumphant after having successfully utilized his talents to enter Splinter’s mind for information on the mutagen in order to construct an army of mutant rats under his command. He also was successful in capturing Splinter’s mind. However, Splinter continued to fight Rat King’s grip despite his increasing authority over him as he used him to assault his own sons, the Turtles.
Rat King’s hold over Splinter was shattered however when Michelangelo intervened. Though the Rat King had the advantage against Splinter due to his sight and his pet rat “Aristotle,” Splinter was able to overcome the Rat King’s advantage when the Rat King’s final attempt on Splinter resulted in his falling over a high ledge and dying.
In the episode named “Darkest Plight,” the Rat King reappears after a wounded Splinter falls into the pit where the Rat King dwelt. Rat King tortures Splinter until he is defeated. However, all of this is revealed to be the result of a fever-induced nightmare when we see Splinter awaken and uncover the real Rat King’s skeletal remnants.
His weird mannerisms and his sidekick Aristotle
Through his appearances in the television series, we have been able to pick up on his unique appearance and specifically, his habits and mannerisms. Especially his appearance in the 2012 animated series of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Falco is depicted as a middle-aged man with greying hair at the temples, and bloodshot eyes due to the effects of the neuro-chemicals. He is almost always seen wearing a long lab coat and tan pants. He is also shown to be an expert in the field of neurology. In fact, interestingly enough Victor Falco looks a lot like Herbert West from H.P. Lovecraft’s “Re-Animator” film series, which was played by Falco’s voice actor, Jeffrey Combs.
His appearance changed dramatically once he transformed into the Rat King. Rat King appears to be very thin, pale, and zombie-like, with wrinkled and dry flesh, rotting teeth, mostly charred hair, and hypnotic eyes. He’s dressed in a long black coat with a matching helmet, bandages over his eyes to keep his powers in check, and bandages on other parts of his body like his arms. Notably, the clothing worn by the Rat King is virtually identical to that worn by plague doctors in the dark middle-ages. This is significant since the plague was transmitted by fleas that were carried by rats.
As far as his personality and mannerisms are concerned, Falco was a power-crazed, dangerous sociopath who was only interested in achieving his own objectives. However, due to his figurative cloak of normalcy, his severely psychopathic tendencies were practically unnoticeable. He was a gifted liar, a deviously brilliant mind capable of convincing April, Donatello, and the entire city of New York that he had no knowledge of his colleague, Doctor Rockwell’s disappearance.
Falco was corrupt, vicious, harsh, and egotistical, capable of abducting and altering his partner in order to create a psychic serum. Falco had great pleasure in seeing Rockwell suffer, and during his confrontation with Donatello, he mercilessly taunted him over his passionate emotions for April. He was thus an extremely sadistic person as well.
He gave himself the moniker of The Rat King after being transformed while attempting to reproduce his psychic serum and was granted a telepathic connection to rats. Post this, Falco became a full-fledged misanthrope who grew to perceive humanity as nothing more than an infection, and as a result, he found satisfaction in terrorizing New York, mutating or killing anybody who crossed his path.
However, he did also have a soft and decent side. When his enemy, Splinter had kicked his beloved rat and pal, Aristotle, over a ledge, Falco yelled in wrath – showing that despite his intense evil nature, he cared about rats and in particular, his friend and companion – Aristotle.
A white rat is seen frequently sitting on the shoulder of the Rat King. Now the Rat King is known to be blind. However, he has the ability to see through the eyes of his beloved pet rat, Aristotle. As seen in Of Rats and Men, Aristotle makes it possible for him to see an opponent right next to him and also assists him in fighting them. He is named after Aristotle, the Greek philosopher whose name means “best purpose.” The rats he keeps are his only friends and comrades.
What makes him so powerful?
One of the main things that make him so extremely powerful is the simple fact that he cares about absolutely no one barring his rats. He truly believes that the human species is useless and should not exist at all. Thus, he would go to any lengths to torture humans without any feelings of sympathy or empathy for any of his targets or victims.
As far as his powers and abilities go, he is capable of communicating with and telepathically controlling rats. These rats became his only friend after his transition into the Rat King and he depended on them to carry out all his grand evil plans. He in fact also depended on them to see and lived with them in his lair in the sewers.
He also has enhanced strength and speed along with increased agility, ever since he transformed into the Rat King. He also has his Cloaking ability. This one is extremely important for him because it hides his psychopathic nature and makes him appear as if he were normal, allowing him to carry out his activities without scrutiny. He also has an inhuman healing factor due to his changed physiology as a result of his transition from Victor Falco to the Rat King.
It is often claimed that New York has more rats than it has people. Imagine a villain that can control all of them, yes even the giant ones New Yorkers claim to have seen – well, that is a recipe for disaster when it comes to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Rat King has been one of their most notorious foes for a long, long time now, mainly because of his telepathic control over rats.
The Rat King was actually a minor character when he was first introduced in the Mirage comics however, the character gained popularity and has since appeared all across Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles media. He continues to be one of the franchise’s most well-known villains due to his peculiar appearance along with his terrifyingly evil nature. He always makes it an entertaining battle whenever he goes up against the four crime fighters. It is also quite tough to forget a character named Rat King, don’t you think so? Do you remember this villain from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series? Let us know in the comments section below!