Baxter Stockman

Dr. Baxter Stockman is a fictional scientist who has appeared in several versions of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shows, videogames, and comics. In each version, he is depicted as the creator of the Mousers, machines meant to seek out and destroy sewer rats (not mice, in spite of their name). Nevertheless, there are several differences among his various appearances.

Mirage Comics
In Volume 1 of the comic series, Dr. Stockman was a sociopathic African American "off in his own world" with no relation to the comic Oroku Saki, also known as the Shredder. He developed the Mousers with the help of his computer programmer April O'Neil. Around the time of the Mousers' invention, strange bank robberies were being held, with small tunnels leading into the vaults. When April questioned Stockman, he led April to an underground factory where hundreds of Mousers were being made. Stockman revealed he had been using the Mousers to rob banks, not because of the money (he could use his invention to make millions legally), but because "it was FUN!" April tried to escape through the elevator, but the scientist sent the elevator to sewer level. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles saved her from the Mousers that Stockman had sent to kill April. They then successfully infiltrated Stockman's lab, and managed to stop him. He was taken into custody. Later, he reappeared in Volume 2 of the comics as a major villain who had used technology from DARPA to place his brain in a robot body, making him a cyborg. Stockman tried to get revenge on the TMNT, but his new body was electrocuted and assumed to be destroyed; only the glasses he had retrieved earlier remained.

In Volume 4 of the comics, however, it is revealed that Donatello kept the remnants of Stockman's cyborg body and mind hidden from his brothers for years. It was discovered that Stockman had, in Volume 2, injected April with nanobots in her shoulder during an encounter. These nanobots eventually activated and began to destroy her body; they were destroyed but are suspected to have made her sterile (although whether or not she will remain sterile after their destruction has not been explored). Donatello finally destroyed the remnants of Stockman to avenge April, including his mind; however it is possible that Baxter Stockman's entity still somehow exists and is capable of manipulating electronics and devices.

TMNT Animated Series: 1987
In the original TMNT animated series, a more lighthearted show, and the Archie comics, Stockman was a misguided blond European-American inventor (as opposed to a dark-haired African-American, as he was portrayed in the Mirage comics) who tried to bill his Mousers to the Ajax Pest Control company. They did not like his suggestion, saying it would put them out of business (the Mouser was too effective and there would soon be no more rats to kill), and threw him out of the building.

The Shredder had watched this via his cameras, and offered Stockman a job. Baxter promptly accepted, and Shredder ordered him to create a "master control device" for the Mousers. Shredder, not being able to wait, used a replication device at the Technodrome to assemble twelve Mousers. He then programmed the Mousers to find and destroy Splinter, the mutant rat who was the Turtles' master. The Mousers were destroyed by the TMNT, and they found Stockman's name on the devices. The Turtles and Splinter found Baxter with April O'Neil's help, and he told them his part of the story. They then proceeded to take Stockman's van, later to become the Turtle Van.

After a failed Mouser attack led to his arrest, Baxter's tales of a giant talking rat and talking ninja turtles landed him in an insane asylum. Shredder soon returned to break him out, and Baxter, now a lot more evil-minded and insane than he had been before his incarceration, became his sidekick and lackey, helping him to get the "Three Fragments of the Eye of Sarnath", an alien artefact that would grant the owner virtually limitless power.

Ultimately Baxter, tired of being abused by Shredder during their numerous attempts to gather the fragments, would betray Shredder and take the "Eye of Sarnath" for himself once Shredder acquired the three segments of the powerful artifact. Shredder ultimately puts Baxter in his place and regains the powerful artifact, only moments before Donatello's Sarnathometer destroyed the Eye via a massive explosion. Baxter would crawl back to Shredder's side, but the damage would be done as Shredder began conspiring to rid himself of the turncoat scientist.

The final full episode with Baxter as a human would be "Case Of The Killer Pizzas" where he helps Shredder unleash killer monsters from Dimension X to attack the city.

Baxter's big change occurred in the second season episode, "Enter: The Fly", in which, after a failed attempt to generate a force field between the towers of the World Trade Center, Shredder decided he required brawn to replace Baxter's brains. Instructing Krang to send his mutant flunkies Bebop and Rocksteady through a dimensional portal to Earth, Shredder was warned that the dimensional interface was unstable, and required that someone be sent back through the portal to maintain the balance. Baxter was elected, and much to the scientist's horror, was hurled through the portal to Dimension X. Krang had no use for Baxter's scientific talents, and simply chose to kill him, tossing him in a disintegrator unit. However, in a reference to the 1986 movie The Fly, a common housefly that had been on Baxter's clothes when he was tossed through the portal was also trapped in the chamber with him, and their molecules wound up being intermingled, cross-mutating Baxter into a giant, humanoid fly-creature. Immediately determined to get revenge for his mutation, Baxter fled Dimension X and attacked both the Turtles and Shredder, but his addled, not-entirely-sane mind was open to suggestion, and Shredder managed to talk him down by convincing him that the Turtles were responsible for his condition (Ironically, the Turtles never recognized Baxter in his new state). Baxter then aided Shredder in a plot to trap the Turtles a micro-second forward in time, forever out of phase with the rest of reality. During the battle that ensued, however, Baxter wound up accidentally flying between the two pylons of the device, and disappeared in a flash of energy.

Baxter returned in the third season episode "Return of the Fly", beginning a series of episode titles that referenced and homaged those of typical horror B movies. Having been shunted out of phase with our dimension, the invisible, intangible Baxter could still observe the world around him, and spent months searching the sewers as a wraith, eventually locating the Turtles' lair and forming a plan to get revenge on both them and Shredder at the same time. Realigning his molecules with the rest of reality by allowing himself to be struck by a lightning bolt, Baxter kidnapped April O'Neil in order to lure the Turtles into his trap, but once again, Shredder was able to smooth-talk the addle-brained fly into teaming up with him again. Unfortunately for Baxter, an accident with a freeze ray foiled his scheme and entombed in a block of ice. Sent tumbling into the Technodrome, Baxter burst free from his icy prison just as Shredder and Krang were mocking his ineptitude, and flew out of the base in a rage.

Later in the third season, Baxter reappeared in "Bye, Bye, Fly", eking out a miserable living in the catacombs beneath the city, feeding off trash. As the episode began, he stumbled across a group of archaeologists, who had unearthed what appeared to be an ancient temple beneath the city. Enraged that his catacombs had been invaded, Baxter chased the archaeologists out and investigated the temple, which, in actuality, turned out to be an interdimensional space ship that had crashed on Earth centuries ago. The ship's sentient computer was happy to have some company at last and befriended Baxter, providing him with a trans-mutation gun that allowed him to have his revenge on Shredder by transforming him into an ordinary housefly. Baxter also used the gun on Michelangelo, turning the Ninja Turtle into a pet gerbil, but Mikey's brothers managed to save the day and return their compadre to his regular reptilian state. The Turtles escaped the ship just before it took off for Dimension X, taking with them a key component of the ship's warp drive, without which the ship disintegrated in mid-flight, stranding Baxter in interdimensional limbo, with a giant alien spider bearing down on him.

Baxter had managed to escape the spider by the time he appeared the next year, in season four's "Son of Return of the Fly II". Although he still had the ship's computer for company, the exile evidently didn't do Baxter's mind any good, as he steadily began to act more and more like a fly, being fascinated by bright lights, craving sugar, being unable to focus on complicated tasks, and not even being able to remember exactly who it was he wanted revenge on, or why. With the computer's help and guidance, he was able to return to Earth through a small rift in the fabric of space-time, and captured the Turtles in order to lure Shredder into combat. Unable to bear the thought of anyone other than him destroying the Turtles, Shredder answered Baxter's challenge, but in the battle that ensued, the computer was destroyed, leaving only a circuit board that housed its intelligence behind. Shredder fled back to Dimension X, but when Baxter attempted to pursue him, Krang shut the portal down before Baxter emerged, again stranding the fly in interdimensional space.

Baxter's next appearance, in season five's "Landlord of the Flies," was a distinctly anomalous one. Without the computer at his side or any explanation for how he escaped his interdimensional banishment, Baxter was already back on Earth when the episode began, with a new ability: his continually devolving fly-like mentality had given him the ability to communicate with other flies, and he assembled the insects into an army in a plot to get revenge on Shredder. By this time, however, the Technodrome was stranded in the polar wastes of the arctic, and the frigid air proved distinctly inhospitable to Baxter and his fly family, stopping his scheme before it even got started. Krang was intrigued by his new ability, however, and struck a deal with Baxter, promising to transform him back into a human again if he helped them. Baxter proceeded to terrorize the city with his family army, but was one again shot off into another dimension at the episode's conclusion by Donatello's portable portal generator.

In his final appearance, in season seven's "Revenge of the Fly", it was as if "Landlord of the Flies" had never happened: Baxter was in limbo, with the computer's remains, and with Krang credited for trapping him there. It was, ironically, Krang who was responsible for releasing Baxter, when he attempted to open a portal between Earth and Dimension X, and the malfuncioning device wound up opening a gateway to Baxter's prison. Quickly escaping, Baxter plugged his computer friend into the Technodrome's databanks, giving him complete control over the fortress, allowing him to lock up Shredder and his cohorts. Seeking revenge against the entire world, Baxter stole a sample of Krang's mutagen, and combined it with the genetic material of various insects stolen from a research lab, using the resultant concoction to transform humans into mutant insects, including the crew at Channel 6. The computer reminded him that he had forgotten about the Turtles, and he used his insect minions to capture them, but when questioned about what, exactly, they had ever actually done to him, Baxter admitted he couldn't even remember. Eventually, the Turtles were able to overpower Baxter, and forced him to lead them back to the Technodrome so that they could steal Shredder's retro-mutagen ray and return the mutated humans to normal. In the chaos that ensued, the computer was destroyed, and once the retro-mutagen ray had been found, Baxter snatched it up and flew off through a dimensional portal, intending to use it to return himself to normal. While the Turtles gave chase, Shredder attempted to close the portal of the group before they could re-emerge, but the Turtles beat the clock, reclaiming the ray and making it back through in time, Baxter, however, was not so lucky, and was once again lost in limbo, never to appear again.

Baxter was voiced by Pat Fraley in the show. He also had a twin brother named Barney Stockman, also a mad scientist and with the same voice, who threw fits whenever the Turtles confused him with Baxter. Barney Stockman appeared in the episode "Raphael Knocks 'Em Dead".

Archie comics
Since the first issues of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures Archie Comics follow the 1987 cartoon, the first stories are almost identical (from "Turtle Tracks" until "The Incredible Shrinking Turtles"). He is never mutated into a fly, and after the first issues he is only seen in a short flackback in the Future Shark trilogy.

TMNT Animated Series: 2003
In the 2003 series, Baxter Stockman, voiced by Scott Williams, is portrayed as he was in the original Mirage comic series, except that he now has connections to the Shredder. Throughout the first season, he is subjected to various punishments by the Shredder involving the mutilation and removal of parts of his body. Later in the series, Stockman returns in various forms as his numerous bodies are continuously replaced.

In A Better Mousetrap and Attack of the Mousers, Stockman uses his Mousers to rob banks while telling the city the Mousers are to help get rid of the city's rat problem. He also works as an officer of science for the Shredder. The Turtles and April (his assistant at the time) discover this and seek Stockman out at his headquarters, the Stocktronics building. The Turtles and April finally corner Stockman, who calls his Mousers, and retreats. Hun catches the fleeing Dr. Stockman, and turns him over to the Shredder who punishes him accordingly by ordering Hun to remove his eye.

Stockman later captures Raphael, with the help of "Foot Tech Ninjas" (ninjas with the ability to become invisible); he had made the special Foot Tech garb out of an old exoskeleton found by members of the Foot Clan. Hun interrogates Raphael, but allows him to escape to allow the Foot Tech Ninja to follow Raphael back to the Turtles' lair. The Turtles successfully fend of the cloaked ninjas and Stockman is again punished for his failure by the Shredder. Carried off by the Foot Tech Ninja, Hun punishes him. Stockman's left arm is removed and replaced with a robotic prosthesis and his back broken (noted by a neck brace and required usage of a motor-driven wheelchair).

Stockman is in a severely debilitated state at this point, but he still works for the Shredder hoping to gain access to an artifact (an Utrom exosuit) picked up by the Foot in Darkness on the Edge of Town. Following a surprise attack in The Shredder Strikes Back, the Shredder wants proof positive that the Turtles have perished. Stockman volunteers to perform a DNA analysis proving the Turtles' demise in exchange for access to the Utrom exosuit. The Shredder agrees, but threatens Stockman with a "final punishment" if he doesn't come back with conclusive evidence. Stockman performs a survey of the antique store, but finds no human or mutant DNA. Distraught at this finding, Stockman manufactures his own evidence and presents it to the Shredder. Convinced that the Turtles are dead, the Shredder gives Stockman access to the exosuit.

Stockman's work for the Shredder was always about personal gain and his loyalty only went as far as his personal benefit. Having been subjected to punishment by the Shredder on more than one occasion, Stockman quickly develops an animosity for the Shredder and Hun. With newfound and unfettered access to the Utrom exosuit, Stockman plans to use the suit to create something that will give him more power. This plan comes to fruition in Return to New York when Stockman implants his body into a large four-armed exosuit. He uses the surprise attack by the Turtles as an opportunity to launch his plan of revenge against the Shredder. Stockman attacks the Shredder's throne room and battles the Shredder, Hun and the Turtles. Stockman is seemingly defeated twice, but returns until Donatello uses the gun that was chopped off his arm. Despite being a near indomitable foe, Stockman is defeated and seemingly explodes in the night sky.

Stockman resurfaces in Secret Origins, but with only his head left intact within a robotic spider. Unlike his previous appearances, Stockman is controlled remotely by the Shredder with a robot eye implant that covers up his previous wound that shocks Baxter when he disobeys his orders or becomes arrogant. Under the Shredder's control Baxter infiltrates the TCRI building, the secret hideaway of the Utroms. He shuts down the security of the base, sabotages the oracle pods and leads the Shredder and his men to an underground path that allows them to enter the building unseen. Stockman regains control when he is freed by the Fugitoid, an ally of the Turtles, when he alters his voice to override the Shredder's commands. Now free, Stockman attacks the Shredder, whom he still holds a grudge against, and in part contributes to the Shredder's defeat. After this incident, Stockman escapes and disappears.

He is not seen again until the Turtles encounter the mutant crocodile, Leatherhead, in What a Croc! His head is now in the chest cavity of an Utrom exo-suit, protected by a glass jar. Working independently, Stockman befriends Leatherhead and helps the crocodile build a transmat device in exchange for help with his robotic body, and Turtlebot, a robot created to fight the Turtles. Stockmans Robot is completed but Stockman's ruse is revealed when Leatherhead finds out that Stockman used to work for the Shredder. Stockman's Turtlebot is destroyed, but he escapes.

By this time, Stockman no longer has the financial backing and material support of the Foot, thus he contracts out his technical expertise to the Mob in City at War. His head is now on the shoulders of an Utrom exo-suit. And the chest cavity is covered up. With the Shredder gone, a turf war develops and Stockman creates robots to get rid of the Foot and the Purple Dragons. Stockman's robots are destroyed and he survives the turf war. Stockman again disappears, but returns again, but without a body, or head. As a gift to the Shredder, who returns in Rogue in the House, Hun has Stockman's brain placed inside a tank. At this point, Stockman is just a brain connected to an eyeball and spinal column. The tank housing his brain allows him to speak, hear, and communicate with other foot techs, but it is also equipped a volume button, and electrical shocking device, which Hun and the Shredder use to torture the scientist. This form of coercion was used to get Stockman to create a group of Foot Mechs, robotic soldiers. The Foot Mechs are eventually destroyed along with the Shredder's Freighter Headquarters, and with it, Baxter Stockman sinks to the bottom of the ocean. He is eventually fished out the water and continues to work under the Shredder. Still a brain in a tank, Stockman has upgrades added to his tank, which include a modified self-propulsion system, a crude robotic arm, and a 360° hologram of his head.

Despite an enmity shared between Stockman and the Shredder and the likelihood that Stockman will turn on him, Saki keeps him around because he considers him to be useful. This attitude begins to change when Saki hires Dr. Chaplin in New Blood. Chaplin admires Stockman and looks up to him; however, due to threats by Saki about making Chaplin a permanent replacement, Stockman keeps a wary distance from Chaplin. Stockman even goes as far as sabotaging Chaplin's inventions so that Chaplin's success won't negatively affect him. Nonetheless, Chaplin considers Stockman to be a role model and eventually creates a humanoid exosuit with a holographic head for Stockman in Mission of Gravity. Not one for gratitude, Stockman continues to plot against Chaplin but his attempts backfire and only boost Chaplin's worth in Saki's eyes.

Stockman's tries to sabotage Huns mission to rescue Karai in Hun on the Run, but he soon becomes a contact within the Foot for Agent Bishop. A significant act of sabotage is seen when Stockman places a program that locks the controls of Saki's starship in Exodus. When the ship is finally destroyed, and believing his enemies to have perished, Stockman joins with Agent Bishop in hopes of creating a new body.

For the time being, Stockman upgrades his robotic body with four legs and four arms. Despite being an expert in robotics and engineering, Bishop changes Stockman's role and has him create clone aliens controlled by remote control in Aliens Among Us. The genetic material from these aliens inadvertently leads to a mutant outbreak. Stockman, who had been promised the tools he would need to create a new human body, is told that he can't work on his new body until the outbreak is neutralized. Stockman is then sent to New York in Outbreak to contain the threat.

Despite working with EPF forces to contain the outbreak, Stockman is unsuccessful. Although Stockman is told that he can't work on his body, he divides his time between creating a new body and the outbreak. Agent Bishop warns Stockman that he shouldn't go through with the process given the outbreak he caused; Stockman disregards Bishop's warnings goes through with a cerebral transfer into his new human body in Insane in the Membrane.

The new body seems fine at first, but Stockman becomes delusional as his body begins to rapidly decompose. The deterioration of his body, but more so his mind, leads to Stockman having visions of his mother and eventually leads him to assert that April O'Neil is the cause of everything that went wrong in his life. Stockman heads on a lone mission to seek revenge on April, but due to his continued delusions, Stockman is defeated and drowns in the East River.

Agent Bishop has Stockman's body recovered and his brain placed in a new cyborg body. However, when Stockman is brought back to life, he is mortified that he wasn't left to rest in peace. Under Agent Bishop, Stockman is forced to work on a cure for the outbreak. Stockman never figures out the cure, as Leatherhead discovers the cure in "Good Genes". After the outbreak is neutralized, Stockman and Bishop inadvertently destroy the Heart of Tengu, an artifact that used to control the Foot Mystics. This act sets off a chain of events leading to the return of the original Shredder.

Stockman reappears in the fifth, "Lost" season of the series, still under Bishop's employ. During his first appearance of the season, in the episode "Membership Drive", he attempts to reprogram the reactivated Nano (found during a fortuitous E.P.F. salvage operation), with disastrous results (When Nano escaped, Bishop commented that he was beginning to understand why the Shredder kept removing Stockman's body parts). Later, in the two-part season finale, he forms part of the turtles' offensive against a resurrected demon Shredder. In these episodes he has a tank like body.

In "Head of State", an episode taking place in 2105, it is revealed that Stockman, while still under Bishop's employment in the Earth Protection Force, created the organic Mousers to fight off aliens. When he accidentally triggered a bio-chemical reaction which destroyed the lab, Stockman was left behind by Bishop when he became trapped under rubble and one of his alien captives saved him. Stockman, in a form of an alien brain, returns later to exact revenge with the help of his organic Mousers. Still incapable of building himself a new body, wished to take Bishop's (now President Bishop) body as his own. He almost kills Bishop by renovating his head with the help of his brain transplanting device; but convinced by Leonardo that the world Bishop helped create was one where even he could live a normal life, he abandons his plan. When another explosion is triggered, Bishop redeems his previous actions by saving Stockman personally. After this event, Stockman is told be Bishop the Department of Agriculture, has expressed interest in his Mousers, and he will eventually get a new body. Stockman asks President Bishop if there is a vice president.

In the present-day episode "Hacking Stockman", he appears to be working for Hun in a new cyborg body, only to be hacked by the Cyber-Shredder, who controlled his body through cyberspace, until Donatello attacked Cyber-Shredder, and Stockman uploaded a firewall. Stockman also appears in a notable role in the series of shorts that were edited together as "Mayhem from Mutant Island".

TMNT Animated Series: 2012
Baxter Stockman is confirmed to appear in the upcoming 2012 animated series, voiced by Phil LaMarr.

Video games
Baxter Stockman frequently appears in the classic TMNT video games, which are mostly based on the 1987 cartoon. He is almost always portrayed as a boss or mid boss character:
 * In the original TMNT arcade game, the Turtles face the human version of Baxter on the third level (The Sewer). He flies around the screen in a flying contraption throwing Mousers to attack the Turtles. When the game was released on the NES, the rematch with Rocksteady and Bebop on the parking garage level was replaced with a second battle with Baxter Stockman in his mutated fly form.
 * In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan for the Game Boy, Baxter the Fly is fought on the third level (The Highway). He swoops back and forth across the screen and shoots fireballs.
 * In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Back from the Sewers for Game Boy, Baxter is the mid-boss in Stage 5.
 * In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Manhattan Missions human Baxter can be seen in his lab while you fight Usub Gerstalk.
 * In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time, Baxter once again returns in fly form on the first level (the construction site). He first appears on screen and says, "Terminate the turtles!" He attacks from the air and walks around and shoots at you with an Uzi. First he attacks with his Uzi, but after being damaged enough to lose the Uzi, he pulls out a weapon he used in the original cartoon (which bears similarity to a revolver), which fires 'solid energy' fists and feet to strike at the turtles, snickering whenever he lands a hit with it.
 * In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist for Mega Drive/Genesis, Baxter appears in human form as the fourth boss. He flies around in a machine while dropping Mousers on the player (much like the first arcade game).
 * The fly version of Baxter appears in the background of "Metalworks" stage in the SNES version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters.
 * In addition to cutscenes, he was a boss in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003 video game) which was based on the 2003 animated series.
 * He appeared in the cut scenes of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Game Boy Advance) which was based on the 2003 animated series.
 * He appeared as a boss in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battle Nexus for the Game Boy Advance as the penultimate boss bout.
 * He appeared as a boss in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Arcade Attack he uses his Back to the Sewer design.