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Baxter Stockman is a major antagonist in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. He is a mad scientist in New York who terrorizes the city for his sick enjoyment, one of the greatest and most dangerous enemies of the Turtles, and the reason how they met April O'Neil in the first place.
Biography[]
In the comics, Stockman was a scientist who used his inventions to achieve his selfish schemes. Appealing to the people that his mousers were to be used to exterminate rats but his real plan was to use them to rob banks and threaten the city because he viewed it as fun. His assistant April O'Neil learned about Stockman's true intentions, and his involvement in the numerous robberies. In response, Stockman sent his mousers to kill her so that she couldn't jeopardize his scheme. The TMNT managed to defeat the Mousers and rescued April, leading to their first meeting. Baxter then sadistically causes one of the World Trade buildings to collapse on live television, much to the horror of both April and the live reporter witnessing the event. The Turtles then followed Stockman to his lab, defeated his Mousers, and knocked him unconscious before leaving him to the police.
In the next volume, he escaped prison and snuck inti D.A.R.P.A headquarters where he implanted his brain into new cybernetic body, taking his glasses and killing several guards along the way with his weaponized machines. Stockman goes back to New York and seeks revenge on April by injecting her with volatile nanites. Stockman then decides to face off against the Turtles with his newly weaponized body on a rooftop. He embeds a threatening message into a nearby skyscraper via gunfire that he intends to go after April tonight. In a four-way standoff, Stockman was tailed by the Turtles and Casey Jones. He managed to defeat both Michelangelo and Raphael, then dropped the latter off the platform. The Turtles were assisted by a masked vigilante named Nobody, who threatened to fire a bazooka at Stockman. Stockman attempts to escape by grabbing onto a police helicopter, only to cause it to crash due to his sheer weight.
Stockman travels through the sewer, with his mechanical arm mangled and rendered inoperable. He eventually blacks out, only to awaken and discover that he regenerated from the damages that were incurred upon him. He fought the Turtles in the sewer, until Donatello electrocutes him by throwing Leonardo's sword at Stockman holding a wire and was presumed to be destroyed. However, it is revealed in the Brain Thief mini-series that Stockman was still alive - the remnants of his cyborg shell were confiscated and held captive by Donatello after the other Turtles left him to dispose of Stockman’s parts. Donatello's motive at the time was to interrogate Baxter about the whereabouts of his missing brother, Raphael, whom he threw from the rooftop of the building they fought on. Meanwhile, within Donatello’s secret laboratory, the nano-regenerative fluid from Stockman's body proceeds to assimilate a cockroach and mutates into a large biomechanical imitation of it. Donatello fights off the monstrosity, only to discover to his horror that it can not only regenerate, but self-replicate and multiply if it is damaged. The autonomous nanites proceed to assimilate with multiple hosts, including a homeless man, as it is drawn to Stockman's signal and seeks to re-integrate with him. After locating Stockman in Donatello's lab, the nanomachine worm attempted to leech onto Baxter’s brain. However, before it could do so, it was lured into a trap by Donatello who then tricked it into fusing with a dog who was also named "Baxter". Disturbed both by his own actions and the possibility of a "Grey Goo Effect" occurring, Donatello proceeds to lock the robotic Baxter dog inside of the vault and destroys the key remote.
Baxter made his last appearance in Issue #9 of the 2001 TMNT Mirage series. Four years later, Donatello returns to his hidden lab where he left Stockman in complete solitude and requests Stockman's assistance in saving April from the nanomachine virus that is slowly killing her. Stockman adamantly refuses to disclose any information to Donatello about the properties of the nanites that he injected April with several years prior, even sadistically crowing over the prospect of her impending death. Resignedly accepting that Stockman would always be irredeemably evil after years of viewing him as something akin to a scientific protege, Donatello coldly tells him to "Rot in Hell" after destroying his cybernetic remains for good with a high-powered laser gun. His melted remains appear in Volume 4.
Trivia[]
- Unlike most incarnations of Baxter Stockman that still retained a semblance of their humanity in spite of their villainous actions and were somewhat sympathetic, the original depiction of Baxter Stockman was shown to be gleefully malicious, depraved and irrepressibly psychopathic. He felt no shame or remorse for the crimes he committed and openly reveled in causing suffering, destruction and mayhem simply because he found it entertaining. He even admits to April that the only reason that he had the Mousers rob banks (after April rightfully points out that his invention would easily make him one of the wealthiest people in the world without engaging in illegal activity) and destroy public property was simply because "It's fun!". Even in his final moments when Donatello tries to appeal to his sense of decency and perceived humanity in order to save April's life, he only relishes the idea that she would suffer in excruciating agony from his nano-virus, proving that he was always a vindictive, inhuman monster.
