[Meeting…] Slash

I have always been a big fan of Ninja Turtles in practically all its versions, so it is not strange that I have taken advantage of this section to talk about some of its characters. Rat King, Bebop and Rocksteady and Krang.

Today I am going to add another character to that list, specifically the turtle Slash, who despite appearing on television, comics, video games and dolls, never achieved a fame similar to those mentioned above, which makes it more rewarding to tell the story of the character in its different versions.

The Fifth Mutant Turtle: The Original Slash

As happened with Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady, Slash does not appear in the original Ninja Turtles stories, since it was created for the animated series, where it only participated in a few episodes.

The always clumsy and ineffective Bebop and Rocksteady have gotten on Krang and Shredder's nerves a hundred times, so it's not unusual for these two mutants to have to endure humiliations such as cleaning up the Technodrome (Krang's high-tech base) often from the messes they make themselves.

On one of those occasions, they both realized that If they had their own mutant they could send him to do his duties, thus being able to rest while his lackey does the work. At that moment, Bebop shows Rocksteady his pet, (a small fish tank turtle) that he hides for fear that Shredder will find it and destroy it. Considering that this pet will be a good servant, Rocksteady puts mutagen on it, thus creating Slash.

Slash seems to fulfill what is necessary to be a good servant, since He is tremendously strong and not very intelligent. However, it doesn't take long for him to stand up to his masters, who can only make the turtle obey them by blackmailing him with the only thing he cares about: the plastic palm tree he had in his fish tank.

Slash's inevitable rebellion ends with a fight between him and the four Ninja Turtles, who managed to get rid of him temporarily. A long time passed until this character returned to the series, now with enormous intelligence and a large arsenal of extraterrestrial weapons, once again becoming a threat to be taken into account by his four ninja "cousins."

Criminal alien and environmentalist: Slash in Archie Comics

Although the original Slash is the one from the television series, the version that appeared in toys and video games was not that one, but the one from TMNT Adventures, from Archie Comics. It may seem like a strange decision, however once you read the Archie comics, you see that his version of Slash is much more interesting and his design is more aggressive and evil.

This time the one who finds Slash is Krang, who is trapped on a dump planet that is also used as a prison. When the pink dictator is about to fall into some unpleasant toxic waste, he finds the enormous turtle, who agrees to help him in exchange for taking him to a world full of palm trees.

Although the fixation on the palm trees and the violent appearance of the character remains, This new version of Slash is something deeper and more interesting, largely due to its origin. Apparently Slash lived peacefully on Palmadise, a planet full of tropical palm trees, until an alien invasion devastated his world, leaving him completely traumatized. From there, this character traveled through space in search of a new world of palm trees, but his past, together with his aggressive character, led him to be caught for his crimes and condemned to the landfill planet. Eventually Slash is taken to Earth by Krang, thus giving rise to the inevitable confrontation with the four ninja turtles.

Contrary to what happened in the television series, This version of Slash had a deeper development, with several moments that demonstrate that his villainous status is largely due to having been a victim of circumstances and that behind his violent nature is a character whose priority is to find a home (with palm trees) to live in peace and who is even capable of doing heroic acts, such as sacrificing himself to help the ninja turtles.

Other versions of Slash

Slash was one of the many characters who had the opportunity to appear in new versions of the Ninja Turtles, such as the Nickelodeon animated series or the comic book collection published by IDW Publishing.

He Nickelodeon's Slash recovers part of the story of the original version, since this character is once again a pet that mutates until it becomes its final form. This time Slash (or rather, Spike) is Raphael's pet, the most aggressive and problematic turtle of the four trained by Splinter.

Spike listened carefully to Raphael's stories, where he always turns out to be misunderstood and ignored. These stories cause the little turtle to develop a certain rivalry and even hatred towards the rest of the turtles, for having treated Raphael so badly, so that as soon as he sees the opportunity to mutate, he does so to be able to be on an equal footing with his owner and thus be able to be his friend and companion.

After his mutation, Spike goes from being a small turtle to being a huge and scary mutant and after changing his name to Slash, he asks Raphael to abandon the rest of the turtles so that, finally, the two of them can live in peace together. Once again the confrontation between Slash and the turtles is inevitable, and he, after understanding that Raphael does not want to be with him (and that his stories were totally partial and exaggerated to blame his brothers for his own failures) decides to embark on his own solitary path, which he only abandoned when he became part of the Mutanimals group.

IDW also brought back the character and rewrote his story again, drawing to some extent on previous versions. On this occasion, Slash is a mutated turtle at Stockgen Laboratories. His enormous physique and confused brain mean that this character ends up causing enormous chaos that will result in the inevitable confrontation with the Ninja Turtles.

Posteriormente Slash llegó  a aliarse con las Tortugas Ninja e incluso formó parte de la nueva versión de los Mutanimals. Es curioso como casi todas las versiones de este personaje terminan estando relacionadas con el grupo de mutantes marginados.

Conclusion and recommendations

Aunque su creación se basó seguramente en la básica idea de “hacer una tortuga ninja mala”, Slash es un personaje un tanto curioso, especialmente por los diferentes enfoques que se le ha dado, conservando siempre un origen un tanto inocente y un posterior paso al mal camino. Si tuviese que elegir a mi Slash favorito de todos los comentados, este sería sin duda el de Archie comics, pues considero que es una versión mejorada de la original (incluyendo su amor por las palmeras) y al mismo tiempo siendo un personaje más complejo que no se puede definir como bueno o malo, cualidad que han heredado las versiones posteriores.

Podéis encontrar a Slash en la serie original de las Tortugas Ninja (episodios 83 y 137) y en la de Nickelodeon y en los cómics de Tortugas Ninja publicados por Archie Comics e IDW.

Tambien es relativamente facil encontrarlo en juguetes y videojuegos relacionados con las Tortugas Ninja, como en la versión de Super Nintendo de TMNT Turtles in Time o en TMNT Mutants in Manhattan.