The Other "Fifth Turtles" - Part Two
Welcome back! In the last article, which you can read here, we talked about four characters (Slash, Venus, Tokka and Metalhead) who could be considered fifth Turtle material before the newest official fifth Turtle, Jennika, appeared in the recent IDW ongoing TMNT comics. Let's take a look at four more characters!
KIRBY
After TMNT III the movie, plans were already on the way for a fourth film (actually quite a few plans for various potential fourth movies ended up being in the works, but that's another story). With the fourth film, there were plans of introducing a slew of new characters including Bug Man, Evil April, Fang, Lawson, Nano Spyder and a fifth turtle named Kirby.
Kirby, who was named after Eastman and Lairds favorite comic artist Jack "The King" Kirby, was suppose to be a turtle from another dimension. It's unclear if Kirby would've been blood related to the TMNT or not. As you can see from the many different examples of old concept artwork, Kirby doesn't seem to have a set physical identity. Various concept pieces exist all over the net as well as a few that were part of the inside of Eastmans' "Artobiography" book.
Most examples of Kirby can be seen with him sporting either a white, black or violet purple bandana. Some show him with green skin tiger striped flesh and others show him to be more of a blue green similar to Slashs' action figure skin color. Another note, in some cases Kirby is seen with an additional finger on each hand as well as an additional toe on each foot than the original TMNT have.
Unfortunately, concept sketches is all that exist of Kirby as a fourth movie cannon to the original 3 films never came to fruition. It's also stated that Kirby could have been a character in The Next Mutation series by Saban but, as mentioned earlier if you've followed along, Saban Entertainment refused to air the show without a female fifth turtle character.
APRIL
Three years prior to Venus De Milos' debut, In 1994 through Archie Comics, issue #11 of TMNT Adventures Special called "The 5th Turtle" shows the turtles long standing ally April being mutated into a turtle by aliens.
April and Perri Gray, who become suspicious of happenings at a laboratory, Mergenterprises, listen in on a conversation between Dr. Melvin Koss and an unknown individual. While listening, a Grem alien spots and captures them both. Both are put into cages and sprayed with mutagen. Perri mutates into a flying squirrel while April mutates into a snapping turtle.
They both manage to escape using their new animal abilities. April is seen sporting a white bandana and wielding a single katana. Eventually, April finds an anti-mutagen which she offers to Splinter and the turtles but refuse to use it. April then turns herself back into a normal boring human being.
HUN
Hun has a few different appearances in the TMNT universe, including Mirage and IDW comics, with his origin starting in the 2003 cartoon series.
In the IDW comics series, he goes by the name Arnold Jones making him the father of Casey Jones who is an out of shape alcoholic who leads the purple dragons.
He make his debut with the 2003 cartoon series episode "Attack of the Mousers." In this series he is not Casey's father at all and actually kills Casey Jones' father by setting his store on fire while he is still inside it. So, much like Metalhead, a few completely different back stories. Now, the one reason I'm bringing Hun into the picture for this article is because in the 4Kids Entertainment film TMNT: Turtles Forever, he is shown mutated into the thing he hates most, a turtle!
He gains interest in the mutagen that the 1987 turtles steal from Shredder. In an accident, Hun comes into contact with the mutagen and turning him into the last thing he touched, which was a turtle. Furious with this outcome, he rejoins Utrom Shredder until he learns that Utrom Shredders plan is to wipe out any reality where the turtles exist. Hun, eventually, helps the turtles before being wiped away from existence himself. I seriously love how Hun looks as a monstrous mutated turtle. He is absolutely massive, with sharp teeth, long claws and spikes all over his shoulders. This is the only instance where he is shown as a mutated turtle, but man what a sight it was.
ZACH
Last, and... certainly kind of least, we have Zach from the 1987 cartoon series. Zach appears in 7 episodes of the early series in episodes The Great Boldini, The Missing Map, Shredderville, Bebop and Rocksteady Conquer the Universe, Zach and the Alien Invaders, Night of the Rogues and his official first appearance in an episode called The Fifth Turtle. Being the turtles' biggest fan, for the most part, Zach is sort of a pest and gets in the turtles' way causing more trouble than good. He's not in any way a mutated turtle but later he proves himself worthy among the turtles and they dub him the fifth turtle.
And that's a wrap! Thanks for reading! How do you feel about these other fifth turtle characters? Think of any we missed? Let us know in the comments below!
