When fans think of the villains in the Turtles’ villains originated.
In the microseries Fugitoid by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, a scientist named Honeycutt is working on an experiment with his little robot, Sal. The scientist’s latest work is a helmet that offers the minor telekinetic abilities, but during the demonstration a bolt of lightning strikes the doctor and transfers his mind into Sal’s, creating Fugitoid. The later adventures of the robot have Fugitoid cross paths with an alien race that would later be integrated into the TMNT lore, an alien race known as the Triceratons.
The Triceratons are an alien empire that have taken over large portions of the Milky Way Galaxy. The Triceratons are orange in color and look like they are human/Triceratops hybrids with the body of a large, physically fit human and the head and tail of a Triceratops. The TMNT villains were created by Eastman and Laird to go up against their hero Fugitoid, but the Fugitoid series lacked publisher interest and wasn’t published until 1985 whereas their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, which was created after Fugitoid but published in 1984, was a hit with fans. So, the writer/artist duo decided to use the visually striking aliens to battle the Turtles in one of their earliest adventures. The Triceratrons made their first TMNT appearance in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #5 along with their fellow early Eastman and Laird creation.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #5 depicts the Turtles teaming up with Fugitoid who explains to them his origin, which acts as a soft reboot of the universe. The Turtles then stow away on a strange alien ship and arrive on an unknown planet where they meet the Triceratons. In the very next issue, Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael are forced to take part in a tournament of combat with the Triceratons and prove how skilled they are as fighters, cementing the Triceratons as semi-regular TMNT antagonists throughout the Turtles’ history.
The initial introduction of the Triceratons in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is handled almost like a crossover issue, with established characters who previously existed in Fugitoid making guest appearances in a Turtles issue. Over time, however, the Triceratons have become only associated with TMNT in the minds of fans. Outside of their comic book history, the Turtles tangled with the Triceratons on numerous occasions, from the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series to the video game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Nightmare 3. villains, the Triceratons, actually predate the Turtles, but quickly became established of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles family.
