Purple Dragons

The Purple Dragons (or Purple Dragon Gang) are a fictional street gang in several of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles continuities. They appear in the original comic books and the 2003 animated series. They do not appear in the movies, though the Foot Clan of the movies somewhat resembled a street gang. The Purple Dragon Gang is from the East Side in New York City. In all continuities, the Purple Dragons are the toughest gang on the East Side, and are, in fact, the only street gang that receives any attention. They are identifiable by their tattoos of purple dragons. They often have some connection to The Shredder, though not always.

Mirage Comics
The Ninja Turtles fight them in the first issue of the original comic where they insult the turtles repeatedly and discover that guns and bats are usless against them,eventually the turtles manage to kill them all before the police arrive. The 1984 TMNT comics is the only TMNT version where the Purple Dragons do not work for the Shredder.

The Purple Dragons would appear again 25 years later in Tales of the TMNT #56. A man named Hunter Mason was the leader decades ago, and delivered a brutal beating to a teenaged Casey Jones prior to being thrown in jail.

1987 Series and Archie TMNT Adventures
In the 1987 series (and the Archie TMNT comics that followed), the Turtles save Channel 6 news reporter April O'Neil from a street gang that bears a remarkable resemblance to the Purple Dragons, though it is not named. This gang is in the employ of the Shredder, though they are seen only in the first, second, fourth and fifth episodes. It is from the members of this gang that the Shredder selects the humans that will later transform into Bebop and Rocksteady. In the fourth episode, Shredder started to use the other gang members to create more mutants to defeat the Turtles. They were briefly seen with the Foot as Shredder and Krang summoned the Rock Soldiers to Earth before the Turtles had the Technodrome sucked itself into Dimension X. These particular thugs were never seen since.

In "The Gang's All Here", Bebop and Rocksteady recruit help from their old gang to rob a ship. Whether they were their previous gang before joining the gang working for the Shredder or these thugs weren't under the Shredder's employ wasn't clarified. At first they didn't recognized them due to their mutation. Among them are Lugnut (the gang leader) and Jersey Red (a large tough woman). They made a second appearance in "Once Upon A Time Machine" as Bebop and Rocksteady recruited them once again to help the Shredder take over the future.

2003 Series
In the 2003 series, the Purple Dragons are, along with the Foot Clan and the Mafia, one of the three powerful factions in New York that serve Oroku Saki (The Shredder). The gang is led by Hun, Shredder's right-hand man. Because of Hun's loyalty to the Shredder, they work in conjunction with the Foot Clan.

In order to join the Purple Dragons, prospects would have to commit several crimes with gang members. After that, they had to battle each other in an elimination match. If they did well enough, they would be given the tattoo and become a full member.

The Purple Dragons have been around for a while.

For much of the first season, the Purple Dragons were the most obvious enemies of the Turtles. They were also the hated enemies of Casey Jones. When Casey Jones was a kid, his father's shop was burned down by the Purple Dragons when Casey's dad refused to pay protection money.

When the Purple Dragons, the Foot and the Mafia, along with other street gangs, went to war to take over the Shredder's territory, Hun led the former.

In the aftermath of the Shredder's exile, Hun began to strengthen the Purple Dragons, evolving them from just a street gang to an organized crime syndicate. They began to steal high tech Triceraton and Fedceration weaponry from the government, but accidentally brought a mutant, Finn.

When the Tengu Shredder turned New York into a demonic capital, the Purple Dragons were holded up in their stronghold. They joined forces with the Turtles, EPF, and the Justice Force to stop the Shredder.

Fast Forward
The Purple Dragons appear in the episodes Clash of the Turtle Titans and The Journal.

Back to the Sewer
A year later, there has been word that the Shredder is coming back, so Hun has the Purple Dragons locate the Ring of Yin to grant him the power to stand up against the Shredder. They get the wrong one and the right one gets on April. Hun captured her to extract it but she turns into a monster and flies off.

Hun struck an alliance with Baxter Stockman to hack the Foot data vaults to steal and replicate Foot power technology to steal valuable funds.

Members of the Purple Dragons

 * Hun
 * Dragon Face
 * Two Ton
 * John
 * Sid Jones
 * Spuds