Casey Jones

Casey Jones is a character from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Mirage Comics
Casey first appeared in the Raphael solo issue "Me, Myself and I". Raphael runs into Casey beating some muggers and proceeds to stop him before the crooks are murdered. Jones and Raphael fight several times before making peace with each other. In the Mirage series, Casey is extremely violent, even more so than Raphael, but mellows throughout the course of the series. In "Shades of Gray," he accidentally kills a teenager who tried to mug him. The incident sent him into a drunken spiral, damaging his relationship with April O'Neil.

During City at War, Casey leaves town and eventually meets a pregnant woman named Gabrielle, with whom he falls in love and marries. Gabrielle dies during childbirth and Casey is left to take care of her daughter, whom he names Shadow. After spreading Gabrielle's ashes, Casey returns to New York with Shadow and repairs his relationship with April. Often Casey has been known to shout the term, "Goongala," as a sort of battle cry.

In volume four he and April are shown married. They raise Shadow as their daughter and try to have a child of their own.

1987 series
In the original TMNT cartoon, Casey Jones is a crazed vigilante who fights crime as horrific as murder to as petty as littering. He never takes off his mask in the series, but does take of his trousers revealing his blue boxers. This version of Casey does not play a central role in the cartoon, nor does he have a relationship with April O'Neil. He is, however, one of the few interpretations of the character to wield an actual weapon; in the episode "Cyber-Turtles," he duels Shredder with a sword (taken, ironically enough, from his golf bag). His most notable line is “When do I get to break something?”, and he also tends to call many villains "scuzzbuckets".

In America, Casey was voiced by Pat Fraley, while in the Japanese version, he was voiced by Issei Futamata and Akio Ohtsuka (NHK-BS2 Version). He was more of a side character and appeared in only five episodes:
 * "Casey Jones: Outlaw Hero"
 * "Corporate Raiders from Dimension X"
 * "Leonardo Cuts Loose"
 * "Night of the Rogues"
 * "Cyber-Turtles"

Movies
Casey Jones appeared in the first, third, and fourth TMNT movies.

First Movie
Jones was first introduced to the Turtles in an altercation with Raphael. The two of them actually fought each other in a New York city park, just after Raphael stopped some punk from stealing a woman's purse and Casey was about to beat them to a pulp for that. In the initial altercation, Jones used two Jose Canseco bats, which Raphael sarcastically asked if Jones in fact paid money for them, and a cricket bat to put Raphael in a garbage can.

Jones proved to be very useful in a fight when he joined the Turtles while they were being attacked by the Foot Clan above April's store. He also deliberately set the garbage truck to compact the Shredder.

After a rocky start, Jones developed a love interest with April O'Neil, and the two of them kiss at the end of the first movie. Casey Jones origins are not revealed, but he did tell April that he played hockey professionally before he got hurt less than a year afterwards.

Second Movie
Despite his significant role in the first movie, as well as his developing relationship with April O'Neil Casey is absent for the entirety of the second film. Oddly enough he isn't even mentioned despite the fact that without him, Splinter would still be in the grasp of Shredder, and Shredder wouldn't have been compacted.

Third Movie
When the Turtles made their decision to travel to feudal Japan to rescue April O'Neil, Michelangelo recruited Casey to help Splinter keep an eye on Kenshin and the Honor Guards back home. Although very much subdued from the original film, Casey was still very much himself, and helped teach the finer points of living in the 20th century to the visitors from the past.

It is implied that he had moved away for a long time and has finally returned to New York.



Fourth Movie
Casey is now living with April, and it is shown that he has commitment issues because April is ready to get married but he isn't. He is still pretty much the same person, but he is not as rough as he used to be. He assists the Turtles on rescuing Leo and saving the city from Max Winters' evil generals.

2003 series
Casey Jones is voiced by Marc Thompson.

Casey Jones first met the Turtles as a kid, though neither the Turtles nor Casey himself remember that fact. When he was pushed around by a group of bullies, they tried to teach him ninjutsu. They failed, but inspired him to stand up against the bullies, using a hockey stick to fight them. His modern day battlecry originated from Michelangelo, which Casey tries to pronounce "Goro Goro Sama!" which means Mr. Thunder, but eventually garbled it into "Goongala!". It is also revealed that Casey's real first name is actually Arnold, and Casey is his middle name.

While Casey was still a kid, his father refused to pay protection money to the Purple Dragons. His father's shop was burned down, and Hun told Casey to tell his father to pay up next time. His father, Arnold Casey Jones Sr., subsequently went to the police, but with no success; it is implied that the Purple Dragons later killed him for trying to turn them in. As a result, Casey developed a deep hatred for crime in general and the Purple Dragons in particular, and vowed to get revenge.

As he grew older, he became a vigilante. Eventually, Fate brought him across the path of Raphael once again. Raphael stopped him from seriously injuring a Purple Dragon, and the two fought with each other, but were brought together by their common enemy. Casey was at that occasion formally (re-)introduced to the Turtles; after that, they became close friends and allies. Casey Jones would help the Turtles out with various operations and the Turtles would return the favor. Through the Turtles, he met April O'Neil, for whom he developed romantic feelings.

Fast Forward
In Fast Forward, it is revealed that Casey and April got married. Their line of descendants leads up to Cody Jones in the year 2105, who has become one of the Turtles' greatest fans.



Back to the Sewer
Casy appears in Back to the Sewer. He and April have been taking care of the Turtles' lair during their year-long absence, and during this time Casey was brain-washed by Kahn, a member of the Foot Clan and associate of the Purple Dragons. In the end, things get back to normal, and Casey ends up marrying April, with Raphael as his best man.

4kids TMNT Blog post with concept art of Casey's various outfits here.

Video Games
Casey Jones is a playable character in the NES and Sega Genesis versions of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters, and he appears in the background in War's stage in the SNES version.

In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Manhattan Missions he rescues the Turtles if they lose all their health.

Casey Jones is in the 2003 video game and the 2003 Game Boy Advance game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He is a boss in Raph's story mode, and if the player inserts a cheat code or beats stage 1 as Raphael, he will become a playable character in story mode.

He is an unlockable alternate for Raph in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battle Nexus.

He is a playable character in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Melee.

He is a boss and a playable character in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Smash-Up.

Abilities
Casey is a fair hand-to-hand combatant, but his fighting speciality is the use of various battering sport implements, such as baseball bats, golf clubs, and cricket bats, of which he carries a fair selection in a spacey golf quiver.

In the 2003 series, Casey acquired some martial arts skills as an unwitting stooge of Master Khan during the year the Turtles spent in the future. However, he still prefers to go into combat with his battering equipment.

Trivia

 * Casey Jones was created as a parody of vigilante characters that were in comics. Instead of having something tragic happen in his past that helped him choose the path to go out and fight crime on his own, Casey Jones was inspired to do the same, but just from watching too much bad TV, like "TJ Hooker" and "A-Team". However, the 2003 series gave him a tragic backstory, as well as a semi-retconned backstory in Tales issue #59.


 * In the 2007 film TMNT Casey Jones was voiced by Chris Evans who also played Human Torch, another wisecracking superhero, in the 2005 film Fantastic Four and the 2007 film Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.


 * In the 2007 film there is a subplot, although very lightly touched upon, concerning Casey's uncertainty of his own maturity and ability to commit to a stable lifestyle with April O'Neil. In an alternate ending that got halfway through the animation stages, Casey ultimately proposes with a wedding ring taped to the inside of her motorcycle helmet. This implies that Casey's subplot may have been a much more prominent role in previous script versions. This ending is touched upon in the Game Boy Advance game based on the movie.

Gallery
The many versions of Casey Jones. Live Action Casey Jones, 1987s Casey Jones, and 2003 Casey Jones.