#tmht

Mirage

The Stockman that started it all 40 years ago. With his seemingly innocent gift for humanity only to reveal his true fucked up & evil nature practically making himself a millionaire in weeks robbing banks with the said gifts & when he's confronted about it & asked the justifiable question as to why, all he had to say for himself was "cus it's fun". The man was evil just for the laughs of it. And if we recall him stealing the nano tech from the Utroms years ago, he always was. Granted we never know why or what even led him to be like this & I remember my younger self being a little irked by this. But my current adult self however, I can't help but actually LIKE that we don't know that much about him. Sometimes in media less is better & Baxter in this case is a good example of that. I mean sometimes villains especially the most famous ones don't really need a reason to do what they did or we don't have to know why either. Ironically enough another example of this would be the 2003 Shredder. Sure we get A backstory about him but we never got the reason as to WHY he was such an evil little shit & it worked. And I really don't see why Baxter shouldn't get this same pass. Still maybe even a tiny glimpse of his past would have been interesting but I digress. Especially when his acts outweigh them heavily. I mean in his first issue he made a terrorist ransom & then proceeded to demolish an entire building (& also unintentionally predict a certain day in September 2001..). And granted it took a few years but he managed to outdo himself with his revenge arc. Escaping prison somehow & then breaking into DARPA to willingly turn himself into the cold heartless monster he really is. Leaving 24 bodies in his wake. The first & sadly only version of Baxter with a high body count or a body count at all & I desperately need more of it. Even when it looked like he lost he still had tricks up his sleeve like poisoning April with the aforementioned nanobots those years ago if he wasn't successful in killing her in his new body. The lengths this man was willing to go for his schemes. Not even stopping with just the turtles if we count the Stranger Things crossover as canon, which I do for 2 reasons. First being the time period, 1985 which is just a year after the events for the first few mirage comics even mentioning an event or 2. Plus all the turtles & Baxter look like their mirage selves I can buy it honestly. Another reason is we get to see Baxter in action again & as the big villain. No Shredder or Krang to share the spotlight with it's all him & it's what I want since we were honestly robbed of more stories with him in the original series, this along with other examples in the mirage continuity being perfect reasons why he's a perfect main villain for a story especially when properly written. It's because of these I've grown more appreciative of mirage Baxter & the impact he made even if it's a small one he still made an impact on Baxters everywhere 2003 & IDW being prime examples of this. For that I give this first iteration a good 9/10. A great & intimidating villain & character but if only we saw more of him.

Archie comics

I admit I don't really have that much to say about Baxter in the Archie comics & that mainly is because of the fact that he's literally a bar for bar copy of his 1987 counterpart only difference being he's spared from becoming a mutant fly. Originally that's all the Archie comics were. Just written down copies of the first few 87 episodes. It wasn't until the 8th issue I think that they finally got a reboot & became its own separate thing & making original stories & characters. However Baxter himself didn't survive this reboot. Not that he's dead, apparently the turtles arrested him right after the events of "shrinking turtles" & we never see or hear of him again after that. Why they didn't use Baxter in the reboot stories I genuinely have no idea. But I mean. At least we can assume he got rehabilitated & lived a happy normal life again since neither the Foot or Turtles bothered him anymore. Again, aside from being a copy of 87, he doesn't have anything to work with, so his rating is gonna be the same as last time a solid 8/10

Cereal box comics

This guy however is not as lucky as his Archie counterpart. Already being a mutant fly we don't know anything about him, granted we could assume it's the same background as 87 since that's what every TMNT writer did around this time period before 2003, the cereal comics themselves were relatively short only lasting 3 issues, Baxter only being in the first 2, kidnapping Casey Jones & bringing him Shredder to turn him into an octopus (Because why not) & then he just dipped. Not like there was really much he could do or wanted to do & I feel the same way so he's just ok to me. A decent 5/10

Teenage mutant Hero Turtles

I've only recently learned of this guy and the newspaper comics from the early 90s in general, & like other Baxters around this time period his appearances were relatively short only popping up twice & the second time was him nearly getting his ass beat by April like the bad bitch that she is. So like others at this point I don't really have much to say about this one since we don't see or know much about him except that apparently according to Michaelangelo he eventually becomes a fly too & the two times we saw him was before that happened. This'll just be another 5/10 then

IDW publishing

Bro... Where do I even begin with this man? I guess for starters. I absolutely love him. When I was still first getting into TMNT especially looking up the different Baxters I think the 3rd or 4th thing I was introduced to was the IDW comics and from the images I saw on Google at the time I was intrigued. This Baxter was different from the other 3 I've seen so far (the 3 cartoons). "Not wearing glasses?" Well. Ok yeah that too but there was something else about him that just stood out from those 3. Every picture I had seen of him so far he looked MENACING. Like he was always up to some shit or worse. And then I saw the flyborgs which was also insane yet cool making me curious/worried as to how his fate is going to work out in terms of mutating or losing his body, especially with some fans that read the comics claiming he was "Krang's bitch" but that never happened. Nor was it ever the case. When I finally started to read the IDW continuity in either my sophomore or junior year of highschool I was instantly hooked. I was loving the story, the characters, the changes, & a whole bunch more I wish I read em sooner, but that's not why we're here, we're here to discuss Baxter & let me know say: he continued to blow me away. When I finally got to see him in action for myself I fell in love with him. My intuition from when I was 12 was right all along he IS different from the other Baxters I saw previously. For starters for that one person who said he was Krang's bitch uhh that was

B U L L S H I T

I mean yeah sure, he did work for him in the beginning couple of issues & he did need to play it safe around Krang considering he needed more information about Krang & his army & he y'know. Had to stay alive? But he was anything but sniveling or abused by him. It was NOT a "slave relationship" like he usually is with Shredder, & any time it looked like it was, Baxter was faking it because he's just a level 10 manipulator like that. At the end of the day Baxter got the last laugh as it was his betrayal & attempt to take over the technodrome that led to Krang losing everything & Baxter's freedom. He is anything but anyone's bitch. Not Krang's, Not Shredder's (I've already posted that panel of him putting him in his place multiple times), not Angel, Not old Hob's. This man doesn't take shit from ANYBODY & his human ass will let you know that in more than 2 ways. Keyword on human as the IDW continuity thankfully never fed into the 87 bullshit & mutated him nor did he become a cyborg, tho he did get a mech suit to defend his building in the "TMNT UNIVERSE" arc. The writers themselves confirming they had zero intention or interest doing so & saying he's staying human. Which was such a relief to me, as I mentioned here I genuinely believe Baxter doesn't have to be a mutant or a robot to be considered a threat or a good character especially this version of him. Hell in this universe he's basically Lex Luthor & I feel like that should be the default writing direction for him. Hell Lex is a human & he's still considered one of the greatest threats in DC, & there's plenty of more examples like him. I also remember I was skeptical about Baxter becoming mayor mostly out of fear of him biting more than he can chew as I still have PTSD of his luck inevitably running out in the TMNT mythos but once again I was happily proven wrong. He's still in office, he still has some tricks up his sleeve, he has his own Mercy Graves now, & the public still views him as a hero & such. In hindsight it really was a smart move for him. IDW Baxter is an amazingly fresh breath of fresh air in terms of the Stockmanverse as he's broken the cycle of the numerous mischaracterizations of the character along with breaking the misery cycle too cus it's so nice to finally have a Baxter Stockman that's thriving & not having you wish someone would put him out of his misery. He's the second version to do his mirage counterpart true justice, even SURPASSED him in my opinion & I just find a new reason to love him every single day, making him my second favorite version of the character. It's a shame he's underrated but at the same time it also makes him more special & personal to me. 10/10 without a damn doubt.

Batman vs TMNT II

So this guy exists. That's alI can really say about him tbh. Nothing about him seriously stood out except that he was apparently "a disgraced scientist". Does this mean he was famous in this continuity like Mirage & his true nature was exposed to the public too? Idk, it's never touched upon nor is anything else regarding him. He's just there to help Bane & yeah that's it. I've said this in the past & I don't mind repeating myself here. They literally could have just made up a random scientist & put them in his place instead. That's how little he mattered here. Actually when you do consider that fact, you could have just erased him from the story entirely & literally nothing would change, I would have actually preferred he'd have not been there at all & that says a lot coming from me. oh & he gets mutated for literally zero fucking reason so there's that too. 2/10

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/TMNT

Another crossover, another Stockman. I thought this version was also pretty ok. When I talked about him during my 40 years of Baxter I did mention that his role is pretty small there too, yet oddly enough I'm ok with this one. Unlike DC, they make it clear they need Baxter's talents specifically & he does deliver. Not to mention this version has some snark and bark to him. I mean hell, the first time we meet bro he's attempting to mutilate the Green ranger & the rest of time is him occasionally snapping at some other characters. We don't see him again after issue 3 of the second one & I think it's for the best tbh. Would I have liked to have seen more? Sure, but it's probably for the best anyway. Writers knew what they wanted & when they were done with him & I can prefer dismissing him over having him be a nostalgia prop. 6/10

The Last Ronin

Aura at its best. So as we all know & learned, everybody in the Roninverse is on demon timing & Baxter is thankfully no exception to this. In this continuity he's just as cold & heartless as his Mirage counterpart & as a really huge obsession with the fugitoid for some reason (I mean they I eventually explained why in the sequel but still a little random) & he makes it pretty crystal fucking clear he'll stop at nothing to get what he wants & this has been going on for decades as we see above. However he realized he wasn't gonna get what he wanted so his decision was a rather simple & reasonably understandable one. And that was to simply blow the entire fucking place up taking as much bodies as he could with him. Leonardo & Casey Jones' included.

So uhh yuh. This nigga's crazy. But hey. A Baxter that's a menace is always welcomed with opened arms in my book. And it's nice to FINALLY have another Baxter with a bodycount after 28 years. Yeah all the way to mirage, despite what you might think IDW never killed anyone. He's attempted but never succeeded. But Roninverse Baxter did. And it being the leader in blue himself too. It's honestly really cool. What's also cool is his designs. From his young self resembling mirage which, is VERY Fitting in my opinion, to his off putting old man self & finally his Freddy Krueger meets the Terminator look. Another plus actually. We finally got another Cyborg Baxter after 13 years! A fate I'm seriously confused as to why it's not explored more but I'm still gonna take the wins I get & be happy when it shows up, just wish we got to see more of it & him. Which reminds me that all good things come to an end & Honeycutt did get his lickback in his second appearance ending the tyranny... unless?👁️ No seriously with the upcoming game & movie who knows what might change. Until then this man gets a 8/10

TMNT x Street fighter

This is both yet: Another random fucking crossover & 2. A good example of what you can do with Baxter on his own.... To an extent. While yes he's mostly partnered with M. Bison (who he's constantly going back & forth with like an old married couple), Baxter was basically one of if not the main villain in this story, having an active role in ALL 5 ISSUES. Not being a prop & disappearing like DC, & not one bit sniveling either. Once again we have yet another Baxter who will bark back at you even if it bites him in the ass. He's egotistic, manipulative, quick tongued & overall funny in this whole comic & he's just about what I've been craving for in modern Stockmans. With this, The stranger things crossover & even Mutant Mayhem, 2023 & 4 really were Baxter's years to shine without being Shredder's shadow. I've never noticed until now & I'm honestly grateful we got it. Because it really shows what he's capable of doing outside the foot clan. What he's basically been doing for decades in Mirage & IDW. Hell I think it might even be the case here since it looks like he's not working with the foot clan or at least not anymore since he recognized Shredder's voice & knew what he was capable of. Maybe this takes place after his traditional betraying the foot arc which we've seen him do 3 cartoons in a row & considering how this version of him is I can honestly see him pulling that shit too. Without saying more, he was honestly a delight in this crossover & if there's ever a sequel I really hope we see him again especially if he's gonna be written the same way. He is worthy of a 8/10

And with that that concludes part one of my Baxter Stockman re-ranking. I'm aware we have a new counterpart in our mists but I want to wait until we see him again/the story concludes first before I give him a proper rating & review but I will say I do like what I see so far.