Shredder is perhaps the most iconic villain within the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise as he and his entire ninja clan, the Foot, are the antithesis of everything Splinter and the TMNT stand for–which is why Shredder’s Foot Clan successor is so unbelievably shocking.
The story of Oroku Saki aka the Shredder has gotten a bit muddled over the years with the plethora of TMNT reboots and new continuity across every medium from comics and television to movies and video games. While the specifics change slightly depending on what TMNT story is being told, the broad-strokes always remain the same: Shredder leads the Foot Clan, and he is arch enemies with Splinter and his small ninja clan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This fact is well established in every iteration, including within the ongoing continuity of IDW Publishing’s TMNT series. However, it is within this series that the relationship between Shredder and Splinter gets a complete overhaul the likes of which TMNT has never seen before–leading to the surprising reveal of Shredder’s unexpected successor.
In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #50 by Kevin Eastman, Tom Waltz, and Mateus Santolouco, the Turtles are facing off against Shredder and the Foot for the final time in a battle royale-style tournament. This tournament was ‘to the death’ unless one were to submit before a killing blow was delivered–and neither Shredder nor Splinter were inclined to do that. This means that this issue was going to end with one of them dead, and the other free to do whatever they pleased in the streets of New York City without interruption or conflict. In the end, Splinter is victorious and Shredder dies an honorable death in combat–and the entirety of the Foot Clan is then left to none other than Master Splinter himself.
When Splinter first agreed to take over as leader of the Foot Clan, it was immediately shocking as he quite literally became the very thing he swore to destroy. However, upon further thought, it actually makes a lot more sense than it does at first glance. For one thing, it was never the Foot Clan Splinter hated, but how Shredder led the clan of ninjas. In fact, within the IDW TMNT continuity, Splinter (in his past life) was a member of the Foot Clan alongside Shredder (before he was resurrected in the modern day). This meant that Splinter had personal ties to the clan, and they weren’t just a rogue group of villainous ninjas. The Foot Clan had the capacity to be a force for good, and under Splinter’s leadership, he intended to see that it was.
While Splinter taking over for Shredder does actually make sense when considering the lore of this particular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, it’s still really shocking when looking at the events with the other iterations still in mind. In the original Mirage Studios Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Splinter hated Shredder and the Foot so much that he trained the four Turtles as hardened assassins and sent them to kill Shredder in cold blood–which they did to brutal perfection. So, when going from the original version of Splinter and his relationship with Shredder to the one established in the IDW series, one can’t help but feel taken aback by Splinter’s position as the leader of the Foot no matter how poetic it is in the ongoing comic–proving that (at least to some) Shredder’s Foot Clan successor is the last Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles character fans would expect.