Utroms



The Utroms are an alien species in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles universe.

Description
Physically, an Utrom is a small and light creature. They are hairless and are usually pink, but there are also yellow, orange, purple, and red ones. They look like a human brain. They have eyes, a mouth with sharp teeth, no nose, and a number of tentacles. The tentacles serve as both hands and feet. However, most Utrom dislike walking, preferring to use an human-shaped exosuit or a hover pad. Unless injured or diseased, Utroms have a long lifespan, lasting centuries or millenia in Earth years.

Utroms are usually extremely peaceful and non-interfering.

History within TMNT
The Utrom have appeared in both the comic and the 2003 cartoon series. They were not present in the 1987 cartoon series. Krang resembles an Utrom, but is really just a disembodied brain.

Comics
The Utroms were stranded on Earth and interacted with humans through the company, T.C.R.I.. They are responsible for creating and losing the canister of mutagen that transformed Splinter and the Turtles. When they were stranded, the Utroms contacted their homeworld. They were ordered to stay and observe humanity. Eventually, they were forced to leave Earth by teleporting to another world. They later returned and opened official relations with humans and other alien races.

2003 Series
Seven hundred years ago, an Utrom ship was transporting the dangerous criminal Ch’rell. Unfortunately, Ch'rell escaped and sabotaged the ship, causing it to crash on Earth. Landing in feudal Japan, the ship was damaged beyond repair and Ch'rell escaped in the confusion.

The Utroms decided to disguise themselves as humans and wait until humans developed the technology needed to go back home. To hide, they developed human-shaped exosuits and revealed themselves to a select few humans who they named their guardians. However, one exosuit was captured by Ch'rell. Centuries later, Hamato Yoshi would become a guardian. The Shredder would kill him in an attempt to find the Utrom's location.

At the present, the Utroms operate through T.C.R.I.. The company's official business is never revealed, but it serves as a place to hide their advanced technology, such as the Transmat and the Oracle Pod. T.C.R.I. is also responsible for the mutagen that transformed the Turtles and Splinter, which was the fuel for their transmat.

The Utrom later helped the Turtles with the Shredder. Thirty seconds before the Shredder's ship blew up, they put the ship in a stasis field and used the Transmat to transport everyone out. On their homeworld, Shredder stood trial and was sent to an icy asteroid prison, Mor Tal.

In the dystopian future seen in Same As It Never Was, amongst Shredder's soldiers are brainwashed, and apparently undead Zombie Utroms. Some of these Zombie Utroms are fitted into giant, winged, mecha-like exo-suits, and are known as Utrominators.

Fast Forward
Some time in the future the Utroms have joined the Pan Galactic Alliance and live as middle class people on earth.

Video game
Utroms are a basic enemy in many levels of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battle Nexus. They appear both on hoverdiscs, and in their exo-suits. Slashuur, an Utrom bounty hunter, appears as a reoccurring boss, and later, unlockable character.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Smash-Up includes an Utrominator amongst its selectable roster. This Utrominator's exo-suit is similar to the one seen in Same As It Never Was, with small differences such as a lack of wings. The Utrom in the exo-suit is also pink, unlike the "Same As It Never Was" version, which is an unhealthy pale color. The Utrominator in Smash-Up still retains its backstory of being an Utrom controlled by Shredder.

Comic

 * Dr. X: An Utrom which first appeared in the non-canon (by Mirage standards) Volume 3 of the series. He was left behind on Earth after the Utroms left to their homeplanet, and befriended Leatherhead. He also played chess with Splinter. Dr. X later began making appearances in Tales of the TMNT vol. 2, where he is often seeing accompanying Leatherhead.
 * Korobon: Korobon is an Utrom who declared himself ambassador to Earth from the Utrom Confederation. He addressed the U.N. on live television and explained what the Utroms had planned to do on Earth. He appeared in Volume 4 of the comic.
 * Glurin: Glurin is a young Utrom scientist who was stationed on their Earth base. When April O'Neil was infected by nanobots placed in her body by Dr. Baxter Stockman, he came up with the idea of using other nanobots to combat them. He designed the new nanobots after the Turtles and called them the nanoturtlebots. He appeared in Volume 4 of the comic.
 * Professor Obligado: Obligado was a brilliant Utrom scientist whose life and death is shown in the back pages of the new Tales of the TMNT.
 * Klag: Klag is an Utrom who helped Michelangelo in Michelangelo: The Third Kind mini-series. During the first contact with the Utroms he helps the prevent the escalation of violence within xenophobic hate groups through fighting them alongside Michelangelo and eventually using Utrom technology to kidnap and impersonate their leader and deliver an anti-hate speech.

2003 Cartoon

 * Mortu: Mortu was the captain of the Utrom ship that crashed on Earth. After the crash, he remained the field-leader of the marooned Utroms, and worked as their liaison to the Humans. In the modern day, this makes him CEO of the front company TCRI. His name is "Utrom" backwards.
 * Council of Three: These three otherwise unnamed Utroms are the highest leaders of the Utroms on Earth. It is not clear if they are the same as the brain-navigators that Captain Mortu took orders from 700 years ago.
 * Ch’rell: The most ruthless criminal the universe has known. Ch'rell dreams of galactic domination, and wants vengeance against the Utroms for imprisoning him and denying him his dreams by building an army and attacking their homeworld. This is the true identity of The Shredder in the 2003 series.
 * Krang: A Utrom by the same name as the villain from the 1987 cartoon makes a brief cameo appearance in the episode Secret Origins, Part 2. He mentions how he hates walking on his tentacles.

2003 Video Game Series

 * Slashuur: Originally, the Turtles fought this samurai-esque warrior, as he is a bounty hunter, and was hired to attack them. However, after a couple of encounters, the Turtles learn that he is actually an Utrom whose family was attacked and killed by The Shredder/Ch'rell. He then assists the Turtles in attacking the Foot freighter. His name is reminiscent of Shredder's, with the two "u's" possible to emulate the double "d" in Shredder's name. He appeared only in the video game TMNT 2: Battle Nexus.