Leatherhead (TMNT)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Leatherhead is a fictional character in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. He was created in 1987 by Mirage Studio's artist Ryan Brown, who also went on to create the Saturday morning cartoon series the Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa for the ABC television network. He is a 13'4" mutated alligator. He appears in all TMNT versions except for the movies and live action series.

Contents 1 Mirage Comics 2 Image Comics (Volume 3) 3 1987-1996 Cartoon 4 Archie Comics 5 2003 Cartoon 6 Video Game Appearances

[edit] Mirage Comics

Originally Leatherhead was nothing more than a small alligator which had somehow found its way into the sewers. While in the sewers Leatherhead was found by a group of TCRI Utroms who decided to bring the creature to their headquarters. During his stay with the Utroms Leatherhead was exposed to Mutagen which caused him to mutate into a humanoid and intelligent being.

Living with the Utroms, Leatherhead ended up being separated from his "family" when the TCRI building self-destructed. The now homeless Leatherhead was forced to live in the sewers where he was continually attacked by a big-game hunter. During one attack by the hunter, Leatherhead met the Turtles. Aiding Leatherhead in defeating the hunter, the Turtles decided to allow Leatherhead to live in their old home.

Eventually two Foot Clan ninjas encountered an eye-patch wearing Leatherhead in the sewers. Fearing that Leatherhead would kill them, the ninjas tried to get on Leatherhead's goodside by promising to aid him in creating his Transmat Device. Accepting the help, Leatherhead and the ninjas set to work creating the Transmat, only to be interrupted by the Turtles.

After a brief skirmish, the Turtles learned that the Foot ninjas were actually helping Leatherhead. Embarrassed by the incident the Turtles decided to aid the mutant alligator. Eventually the Transmat Device was complete, Leatherhead could finally reach the Utrom Homeworld. Unfortunatly instead of teleporting Leatherhead, the device simply blew-up in his face.

This failure was too much for Leatherhead to handle and in a fit of rage, Leatherhead killed his two Foot assistants and vowed revenge on the Turtles, whom he blamed for wrecking his attempt to get "home".

Leatherhead later resurfaced in Volume 4. He makes an appearance at Master Splinter's funeral. He is then seen wrestling a mutated Raphael in the sewers before swimming off. It is unknown what his current relationship with the Turtles is, but Raphael's comment that he hopes he didn't hurt Leatherhead would make it seem as if they're at least on good terms.

He has also appeared in two issues of Tales of the TMNT volume 2. In issue eight, a mentally unstable and delusional Leatherhead is discovered by Raphael to be building another transmat device. Leatherhead seems to harbor an insane grudge against Donatello, and nearly kills Raphael when he mistakes him for Donatello. Once the Transmat Device was finished, it suddenly kicked into operation and caused three Utroms to appear; these Utroms blasted Leatherhead with a ray gun, and took him away, destroying the Transmat Device as they left.

In issue 23, the Turtles are recruited by the Utroms to save Leatherhead from a renegade group of Utrom radicals called "The Illuminated", the same ones who took him away in issue eight, in attemps to clone him into an army of mutants to aid in their world "cleansing" agenda. It is revelead that the illuminated where secretly drugging Leatherhead, which caused him to subconsciously to build the second transmat device he was working on in issue #8, then wake up and remember little. It also caused his missing eye to heal and gave him a mass increase in size. The Turtles rescue Leatherhead, defeated the clones, and aided in the destruction of the Illuminated. Leatherhead returns to Earth with the turtles rather than going back to the Utrom homeworld. These events all take palce between volumes 2 and 4 of the Mirage series.

[edit] Image Comics (Volume 3)

After two children are found slain and half-eaten in the sewers Leonardo comes to believe that Leatherhead may have been responsible. Tracking down Leatherhead, Leonardo was surprised to find the mutant alligator unconscious and bound. Before he could free Leatherhead, Leonardo was attacked by King Komodo and his Monitor lizard minions, the actual killers of the children.

Engaging King Komodo in battle, Leonardo successfully managed to kill King Komodo's minions, only to end-up being knocked unconscious with his hand biten off. Waking up hours later, Leonardo managed to free Leatherhead and the two, with help from Michaelangelo and Casey Jones managed to defeat King Komodo.

Afterwards Leatherhead, his feud with the Turtles forgotten, introduced them to Dr. X, an Utrom left behind from when the TCRI building collapsed. Together with Dr. X and the Turtles, Leatherhead managed to assemble a new Transmat Device, unfortunatly, energy projected from the device ended-up luring a group of Triceratons to Leatherhead's lair.

Engaging the Triceratons in battle with the Turtles, Leatherhead managed to viciously maul several of them. Unfortunately, while battling the last remaining Triceraton, Dr. X and Leatherhead's Transmat Device malfunctioned and transported Leatherhead and the unamed Triceraton to parts unknown.

[edit] 1987-1996 Cartoon

In the 1987 series, Leatherhead is an enemy of the Turtles who fought them on several different occasions. He started off as a giant alligator until he swam through a Mutagen polluted (thanks to a previous botched mission by Krang & Shredder, the one that gave birth to the punk frogs) part of the swamp where he mutated to he current humanoid form. He resides in the swamp area of Florida, commonly known as "the Everglades". He hunted the turtle's allies, the Punk Frogs (Napoleon, Ghengis, Attila, and Rasputin) and then went after them. He then hunted the turtles on their own turf in the sewer. Later, he partnered up with the Rat King, after their attempts to kill each other failed, to eliminate the turtles. In one episode called "Night of the Rogues," Shredder hired him, Rat King, Slash, Tempestra, Anthrax, Scumbug, and Chrome Dome to help him and Krang destroy the Turtles. His overall clothing is a vest, rubber waders (rubber pants that go over your boots & regular pants, held up by straps over shoulders), and a beat up hat; he speaks in a cajun accent. Usually carries bear traps & large crayfish on his person. He is depicted as survivalist and tracker. Original creator Ryan Brown went back and redesigned his Leatherhead character for this particular incarnation of the Ninja Turtles.

Leatherhead was voiced by Jim Cummings who also, coincidentally, went on to voice more of Brown's characters, such as the Dakota Dude and Saddlesore Scorpion from the Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa.

[edit] Archie Comics

Leatherhead starts as an animal mutated by mutagen in all versions except from the Archie TMNT Adventures Comics, where he starts as a poor human named Jess Harley who lived in the swamps, and became transformed when the "witch" Mary Bones used the Turnstone on him. At first the the Shredder lures Leatherhead to work with him until Leatherhead discovers that the Shredder is a villain. Leatherhead later becomes a wrestling hero at the Stump Asteroid and later a member of the Mighty Mutanimals. He and the other members of that group were killed before the end of the Archie Comics run with the Turtles characters.

[edit] 2003 Cartoon

In the 2003 series he's shown as a friend of the Turtles. He is voiced by Greg Carey.

Going back to his original black and white beginnings in the 6th issue of the 1987 Mirage Studio's comic book title "Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" Leatherhead was originally an exotic pet who got flushed down to the sewer, somehow ending up in an Utrom base. After being exposed to the same mutagen that would eventually change the turtles, Leatherhead became a massive, humanoid croc. With intelligence mirroring that of Donatello's, he lived with the Utroms who he considered his family. He was accidentally left behind during the Shredder's attack, which forced the Utroms to flee Earth. Accidentally befriending Baxter Stockman, he helped him create a new body while working on a transmat device so he could rejoin the Utroms. By accident, Leatherhead met and befriended Michelangelo, who found him living in the Turtles' old lair. After a battle between the Turtles and Stockman, Leatherhead learned that Stockman worked for the Shredder and attacked him. The resulting battle caused a cave-in, and Leatherhead seemingly gave his life for his friends.

Leatherhead later reappeared, surviving because of his tough skin, in the lab of Agent Bishop after the Turtles had been captured by him. After being freed, he helped his old friends escape, and for a time lived in the Turtles' lair. However, Leatherhead's animal rages, already dangerous, were made more so by Bishop's experimentation. While asleep, Leatherhead struck Michelangelo, and woke up to believe that he had killed his friend.

Leaving the Turtles in a suicidal mood, Leatherhead found himself hunted by an extreme game hunter through the sewers. Luckily, he was saved by his friends, and they sent the hunter packing. Leatherhead chose to live away from his friends due to his Jeckyl and Hyde affliction, living in a nearby chamber (an abandoned subway station resembling the Turtles' lair from the second and third TMNT movies) so he would always be nearby, but still able to ensure their safety.

Leatherhead appeared several more times to help the Turtles, primarily in their battles with the Foot and Agent Bishop. He even joined them in attacking the Shredder's secret launch pad, and attacked his family's enemy with unmatched fury. However, the Shredder's minion Hun got in the way, and the two fell into the silo. Both survived, and Leatherhead returned to his lair. He is later revealed to have helped Donatello create the Monster Hunter gear used by the Turtles against Bishop's mutant creatures. He is also shown to have formed a deep friendship with Don, and is deeply saddened when his friend is mutated and he cannot cure him.

Leatherhead worked together with the other Turtles to capture Donatello. Soon after, he helped them penetrate Bishop's headquarters at Area 51. There, he was forced to fight the mutated Donatello. He later proved his brilliance by using Bishop's resources to devise a cure for Bishop's outbreak, despite his personal grudge against Bishop. Leatherhead is not brought up in Fast Forward, and presumably died, or finally found a way to return to his "family" on the Utrom homeworld, sometime before the events in 2105.

[edit] Video Game Appearances

Leatherhead made an appearance in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project as a boss in the sewer level, his appearance is that of his action figure. He also appears in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time, both arcade & SNES versions, as the boss in the train level; before the fight, Leatherhead says, "Oh goodie, fresh turtles for lunch." In this appearance he looks like his cartoon counter part from the original animated sereis.

Leatherhead has also made an appearance as a boss in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battle Nexus.