And now it’s time for a quintet of characters from the 2003 TMNT series- I’m far less familiar with these guys, but I’ve seen a bunch of episodes starring the first two.

People love the 2003 series, but this is a complete failure of a design to me. It’s literally just a “Man In Black”. Who would want a toy of this character? The 1980s toyline had amazing designs all over the place, especially for major characters, and this is just a guy in a suit.

AGENT BISHOP (John Bishop)
Role: Dark Government Figure

-Agent Bishop is one of the top antagonists of the 2003 cartoon series- a dark government figure, Bishop works to protect the Earth from alien invasion, and immediately shows his hand by capturing the Turtles and trying to DISSECT them! We learn his full backstory later- he was a soldier during the early 19th century, and was abducted by “Grey Aliens” and given superhuman strength and agelessness, living to modern times but giving him extrerme paranoia. He created a cyborg Slayer, eventually becoming this show’s Rat King, tortured the mutant Leatherhead, and later lost an old friend to mutation and a fire. Allying with Baxter Stockman, he failed one too many times and had his funding cut by the President, but staged an alien invasion to regain it. He ends up a temporary ally of the Turtles in the battle against Demon Shredder, however.

-In the Fast Forward season, a further-altered Bishop still lives a hundred years into the future, where he is now President of the Pan-Galactic Alliance, keeping intergalactic peace through diplomacy- this eventually proves to the Turtles that he has changed. We eventually learn why- many years ago, Stockman was seemingly killed by an experiment and Bishop himself would have joined him had one of their alien test subjects not rescued him, despite Bishop’s inhumane treatment of it. Touched and changed, Bishop realized that not aliens were evil.

-Agent Bishop is shown to be a sadistic, calm, collected individual, but breaks down when anyone puts one over on him. He’s also apparently a good enough fighter to hold off all four Turtles simutaneously at one point.

HUN
Role: #2 Villain (to Shredder), Jobber To The Stars

-Hun was the 2003 cartoon’s version of Rocksteady & Bebop, in that he was Shredder’s chief lackey, but he was a much different sort of character. Rather than a bumbling buffoon, he was a competent, serious man, but still a punching bag for the main heroes, often being knocked off of something, to which he would respond “oh, crud”. He was Shredder’s protege and the leader of the Purple Dragons gang, sending him into a rivalry with vigilante Casey Jones, but he racked up loss after loss over time- the thing that befouls a lot of mid-tier villains in TV shows like this (Greg Weisman in Gargoyles ramped up “The Pack” with modifications in response to this). Eventually, he discovered that his respected boss was actually an alien Utrom- disgusted, he asked his rival Karai how she could serve someone like that, and broke off the Purple Dragons from the Foot Clan, forming them into a Foot-like criminal syndicate.

-Peter Laird was initially not a fan of Hun, but liked how the character developed and so included him in the Mirage Comics. A guy named Hun shows up in the 2012 Nick Toon as a recurring background nemesis- dressing and acting like Bruce Lee, he is still the gang leader of the Purple Dragons, and an affiliate of Shredder’s, low on the food chain. He gets into a rivalry with Casey Jones and appears in four episodes, becoming increasingly Jobber-y with each passing one. And then he showed up in IDW’s comics… but as Casey’s father! Arnold Jones is an abusive alcoholic and an ex-gang member, but is led by Shredder into taking some Mutagen and becoming super-strong.

-Hun is a very big, very strong man who is nonetheless a Jobber To The Stars (to use the wrestling parlance): He can be normal people just fun, but against the main heroes he’s usually toast. Though even the TMNTPedia openly cracks wise about how “However, his power level, as it is, has been inconsistently portrayed throughout the series: although sometimes he is able to hold his own against all four Turtles (in their first fight against him, he actually overpowered them, they were only saved by Casey Jones), at other times, he is able to be defeated by a single fighter. Generally, he is defeated more easily in the later episodes as he appears in the series, presumably due to the Turtles’ increasing skills.” He’s a competent, skilled criminal otherwise, but is somewhat limited in scope.

DRAKO
Role: Recurring Villain

-Drako is an red dragon encountered as an enemy in the “Battle Nexus” arc. In a tournament many years ago, he made it to the finals easily, but ended up fighting Splinter himself- though injured, Splinter was able to defeat Drako using his wits. Outraged, Drako attempted to kill Splinter the next night, but was chased off. He returns for the new tournament, manipulating the Ultimate Ninja and others to gain a magical staff, but it activates with too much power and sends him into a dimensional vortex, seemingly killing him. He and the Ninja returned, both having been fused together into “Ultimate Drako”. They are beaten again, but return to trap the Turtles across time and space. Ultimately, they were separated thanks to some magic stuff, but the Time Scepter they were using disintegrated Drako into dust.

THE ULTIMATE NINJA (Ue-Sama)
Role: Recurring Bad Guy

-Ue-Sama was a dirty fighter who threw Leonardo off a bridge at one point, dressed as “The Ultimate Ninja”. It turned out he was angry that Leonardo killed Ue-Sama’s intended victim, the Shredder. Leo came back and then defeated him handily. At the Battle Nexus tournament, it’s revealed that his father is The Daimyo, who runs the tournament- he pretends to have learned humility from his experience, but secretly plots to kill his father and usurp the Nexus. He allies with the evil Drako for this purpose, but the two are fused together when their plans are uncovered. He attempted to kill his father once more, but ultimately couldn’t go through with it, and this “Ultimate Drako” was killed after two Magical Macguffins were combined. A grieving Daimyo was given a second chance with his son when Ue-Sama was reborn into a younger form.

THE DAIMYO
Role: Mysterious Good Guy, Battle Nexus Leader

-The Daimyo is the father of the Ultimate Ninja, one of the show’s villains, but he was an old ally of Splinter and Miyamoto Usagi’s. He was in charge of the Battle Nexus tournament, crowning Michelangelo as its champion, and mourned his son after he was lost. Finally, his boy was returned to him as a young boy so they could start over.

NANO
Role: Super-Robot

-Nano is from the 2003 TMNT series, and is the name given to a set of nanobots that can materialize into a size-shifting super-robot. Only given the mind of a three-year old, Nano was uncooperative and escaped its creator, then was taken in by a burglar. The Turtles eventually realized the truth and the burglar was arrested. Nano later recovered and, desiring a “family” like the ones it was seenig on TV, broke out the burglar and abducted its creator and built a house for them. Donatello & April shocked Nano using a roller coaster’s electrical system and beat it. Later, Baxter Stockman accidentally reawakened Nano, but it eventually reformed and joined the Justice Force, becoming a superhero with some added maturity.

-Nano, as a living nanotech pile, can more or less build any device instantaneously, Regenerate from harm, and more. Effectively unkillable and with a high end of Variable.

MR. TOUCH & MR. GO
Role: Gentlemanly Powerhouse & Speedster

-Touch & Go are a pair of themed villains in the first season of the 2003 TMNT series, appearing to battle the Turtles after being hired by Hun. They are a pair of gentlemanly-dressed killers with a gimmick- they can touch hands and gain temporary super-powers: Mr. Touch gains super-strength and Mr. Go becomes super-fast. The Turtles split up, and Mr. Go actually does really well against the Splinter & Michelangelo at the beginning, dealing Splinter a debilitating leg injury, and Mikey is only saved by his hard shell protecting him from the worst of the rapid-fire punches that rain down on him. However, Mr. Go rapidly runs out of “battery power” and is easily dealt with- Mr. Touch then catches up to them and they power each other up again. The heroes are thought dead, and hide out while they track the villains to their hideout, where Hun gives them a briefcase full of money. Mike barges in and KO’s Hun in one shot, then tricks Touch into wasting all his energy on ill-timed punches. Splinter sprays the room with a fire extinguisher, and Mikey’s ninja training lets him easily deal with the three villains, knocking Touch & Go out the window.

-Touch & Go reappear in a later episode alongside some other one-off foes and fight Leonardo & Michelangelo, who again trick them into being unable to touch each other, and they beat the powerless villains.

-Touch & Go are fighters, and can provide a solo Turtle with a bit of trouble, but they are rapidly outmatched when their “power” runs out and they’re unable to touch one another. Mr. Touch is a powerhouse who hits hard, while Mr. Go is a Multiattack-themed guy (albeit at a lower level than most comic book ones).