Slash

Slash is an anthropomorphic snapping turtle that appears in the first animated series and Archie comic book series. In both continuities he is at some point been at odds with the turtles, and is obsessed with palm trees.

1987 Series
In the animated series, he was a mutant turtle, created by Bebop and Rocksteady to do chores Shredder had assigned that they didn't want to do. In this incarnation his obsession with palm trees was in particularly focused on the plastic tree in his bowl before mutated which he called his "Binky". When Bebop dropped it down an airduct he went berserk, stealing Shredder's Shaolin swords and wrecking the Technodrome before being sent to Earth due to some quick thinking on the original mutants' parts. There, Slash ran into some corrupt business men that wanted to build condos in the sewers, and after being thwarted by the TMNT several times, they decided to tarnish the Turtles' reputations. They decide to send Slash to destroy the Freedom Bell, a patriotic symbol in the city, which would give the Turtles a bad name. The Turtles eventually found Slash, and the evil turtle was able to take on all four of them himself. He was eventually sent into space aboard a trash rocket, but the trash contained a small plastic palm tree, so he was content. Slash returned in "Donatello Trashes Slash" where he apparently ran into an alien race of super intelligent beings that put Slash into a machine that gave him genius level intelligence. He returned to Earth with all sorts of fancy weaponry of his own design, and planning to turn everyone on the planet into turtles, so he would be the supreme turtle. Slash managed to turn Vernon and Burne into turtles and was planning to use the Channel 6 satellite dish to turn the entire city into turtles. Donatello tricked Slash by telling him that if he just turned the TMNTs into humans, then Slash would already be top turtle. When Slash tried to blast Don, the heroic turtle threw Vernon and Burne into the way to revert them to normal. As Slash fought the turtles, he fell off the roof and onto his head, which reverted him back to his low-level (even moreso) intelligence. The turtles led him back to the trash rocket and sent him back to space. Slash also appeared in "Night of the Rogues" along with other TMNT villains like Leatherhead, Rat ing, Tempestra, Scumbug, Antrax, and Chrome Dome. Like the others, he left when he found out he wasn't getting paid after the TMNT defeated the Shredder.

Archie Comics
In the Archie series, Slash was merely an alien that happened to be an anthropomorphic snapping turtle. Originally he lived on a world filled with lush palm trees. Slash's paradise would be shattered when invaders came and cut down all of his his precious trees. Slash soon came across the banished Krang and made a deal to help him back to Earth. Under Krangs leadership Slash teamed with Bellybomb and fought the turtles while Krang sought a new body...that of Shredders.

Later in the series, Slash went on a rampage which drew the attention of the Mutanimals. After he was captured and imprisoned the Mutanimals broke him out and took him back to their island. Once awakened Slash continued his violent spree until subdued by Leatherhead. Now in a somewhat more peacefull state, the Mutanimals were able to calm him enough to inform him that he would be allowed to stay in a grove of lush palm trees he so loved. A grateful Slash strode off happily and would become an ally of his rescuers.

Later, Slash sacrificed himself to save the TMNT, Ninjara, and their future counterparts from a fiery death aboard a spacecraft that was hurled toward the sun.

Video Games
Slash appeared in two video games. The first was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project for the NES, as one of the bosses. Here Slash fights with a long kris, and leaps around the screen, making him hard to hit. He also rolls himself into a ball and rolls up and down the screen. He returns in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time, the SNES version of the 4-player arcade game of similar name. He is the boss of the Prehistoric stage replacing the Cement Man boss from the arcade version. Considered one of the strongest bosses of the game, he slices with his Psycho Sai in combo attacks and can block the player's attacks. If Slash blocks too often, he suddenly busts out rolled in a ball, knocking the player to the floor. Slash, in both appearances, is based more on his action figure design and original concept, rather than the cartoon version. In addition to his kris, and unlike the other turtles, he has a pair of twin metal claws attached to a band on his hand, which is likely the origin of his name Slash, since the kris is a stabbing weapon. In both gaames he resembles his toy and Archie appearances more so than the cartoon.



Trivia

 * Oddly enough, both his toy appearance AND his bio picture on the back of the card has little resemblance to his appearance in the 1987 TV series and more closely resembles that of his Archie Comics counterpart.
 * Even though Slash himself doesn't appear in Turtles Forever, Hun's mutant form bears a passing resemblance to him. The producers toyed with the idea of making him the Slash of the 2003 show since the dragon on his belt is in the shape of an "S".
 * Leonardo's evil clone from Fast Forward also looks a lot like Slash.
 * In the Back to the Sewer episode Identity Crisis the turtles are brainwashed by Cyber Shredder and all four of them wear black headbands that resemble Slash's.