Victor Falco (2012 TV series)

The Rat King is the latest incarnation of the character in the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. This version of the character has a more malnourished and corpse-like appearance, wearing a plague doctor-inspired costume of a black cloak and a wide-brimmed hat. He is voiced by Jeffrey Combs.

History
Rat King started out as a human scientist named "Dr. Victor Falco", and debuted in the episode Monkey Brains. He and his colleague Dr. Tyler Rockwell were working on an experiment that involved Mutagen, a neuro-chemical, and monkey DNA when they were approached by the Kraang. When it was mentioned on the news that Dr. Tyler Rockwell was missing, Dr. Falco alluded that he was oblivious to the situation.

Falco pretended to help April O'Neil and the Turtles and gain their trust. The Turtles later figured out what Dr. Falco was really doing experiments with mutagen on his former colleague Dr. Tyler Rockwell, turning the latter into a mutant monkey with psychic powers. Falco gained the same psychic powers temporarily by extracting a neuro-chemical from the mutant's brain and injecting himself with it. With his new power, Falco was able to defeat the Turtles in combat by reading their thoughts and predicting their moves. Donatello finally defeated him by fighting without thinking, but Falco escaped before the Turtles could ask him what he knew about The Kraang.

In episode 13, I, Monster, Falco was shown living in hiding, and continued to work on his psychic neuro-chemical in a secret laboratory with only sewer rats to experiment on. One day, the rats chewed through some cables and started a fire in the lab. Falco was injured by the flames, but the neuro-chemical splattered on him, giving him a psychic connection to rats. Falco used his new ability to control the rats in his lab and they saved him from the fire. Some time later, Falco went into hiding in the sewers, nicknamed himself as The Rat King, and began plotting to use his powers to take over New York City. He launched a full scale assault on the city with his hoards of rats. Eventually Rat King became aware of Splinter through telepathy. Knowing that the Turtles would come to stop him, Rat King used psychological warfare to control Splinter's mind. When Splinter fights the turtles, they are overconfident because they were actually able to land a blow on him (though they lost soon after), but soon realize that Splinter was going easy on them all those years. They manage to snap him out of it and Splinter beats Rat King with two fingers. Rat King was last seen being carried off by his rats. He may still be alive.

Powers and Abilities
Like previous versions of the character Rat King has psychic control over rats, being able to precisely command single individuals to large swarms. His powers were even able to control Splinter, but Splinter was able to fight it because Splinter still has some human in him.

Rat King also has bandages covering his eyes. However, it has been shown that his powers allow him to see through the eyes of rats, both negating the need for his own eyes and making any rat a potential spy.

Gallery
See: Rat King (2012 TV series) / Gallery

Trivia

 * The Rat King's appearance somewhat resembles the appearance of Scarecrow from The New Batman Adventures (1997), a character who was, incidentally, also voiced by Jeffrey Combs.
 * The Rat King's outfit (long black coat and black wide-brimmed hat) is nearly identical to the standard outfit worn by medieval plague doctors. This is noteworthy in that the Bubonic plague was spread by fleas being carried by rats.
 * He is a possibal archenemey for Donatello.
 * Altho he sufferd injury it is likely that he is still alive.