In the more recent events of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles canon, a new team of Mutant Turtles has been introduced who are posing as the iconic heroes while spreading chaos around New York City, effectively wrecking the Ninja Turtles’ reputation–and their real identities have finally been revealed.
Currently, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have found themselves in the middle of a war with a literal god–a war that has become known as the Armageddon Game (because that’s all it is to the deity, a game). This god, known as the Rat King, has cultivated a team of the deadliest TMNT villains imaginable, including Krang, Stockman, and Madame Null. Who the Rat King didn’t get was Shredder as he joined the TMNT to be their new leader against the Rat King and his team of villains. However, the Shredder’s presence hasn’t been missed within the Rat King’s ranks as he seemingly has all the pawns he needs to win his war–with Madame Null being one of the most important. Madame Null is an incredibly wealthy, influential, and morally corrupt businesswoman with ties to other dimensions (being from another dimension herself), and one of her greatest contributions to the team has been the group of imposters that became known as the Null Turtles. The Null Turtles’ purpose is to make humanity lose their faith in the Ninja Turtles, and as far as the Rat King is concerned, they’re doing a magnificent job, even if the truth behind who they really are has just been exposed.
TMNT’s Null Turtles are Actually the Gang of Four
In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #136 by Tom Waltz and Vincenzo Federici, Raphael has aligned himself with Old Hob and his team of morally gray mutanimals to track down the Null Turtles and put a stop to their villainy once and for all. When they find them, Raph and Hob battle the imposters–which is exactly when something very strange happens. Upon releasing their mutanimal allies the Null Turtles were holding hostage in their hideout, one of the mutants, Man Ray, shoots the Null Turtles with his barbs which causes one of them to transform into a human before all the Null Turtles successfully escape with their lives. When Raphael points this out as being odd, the other mutanimals tell him that this battle confirmed their suspicions about who these Null Turtles really are: the Gang of Four.
The Gang of Four is a team of human mercenaries who work for Madame Null and the Null Group. Their names are Deadaim, Fist, Lynch, and Waster, and each member of the team is a human born mutant who uses advanced technology to regulate their mutagen levels, which means they can turn into and maintain their mutanimal forms practically at will. For this specific job, the team was tasked with turning into the Turtles, though they have been depicted as wolf-like in the past. The Gang of Four is a legacy TMNT villain team as they have appeared in past Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics that predate the current IDW Publishing continuity–which is both exciting and disappointing regarding this reveal.
The Null Turtles were all-new characters within TMNT lore, and their potential was nearly limitless. Whether they were Madame Null’s newly created mutations or maybe even clones of the originals, the Null Turtles had no restrictions and could have been something totally original, completely independent of past storylines and legacy characters. On the other hand, the fact that this new threat is the lingering presence of iconic TMNT human villains is also very exciting as it fleshes out older characters in a new, fun way. Regardless of one’s stance on whom the Null Turtles should have been or why they are perfect the way they are, there is one thing that is indisputable: the reveal was shocking–and now, fans know exactly who these four new versions of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles really are.