Shredder Accidentally Handed the TMNT Their Fifth Turtle

Shredder is the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' oldest enemy, yet at the height of their conflict, Shredder accidentally created their Fifth Turtle.

Shredder is perhaps the most iconic enemy of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, yet while their rivalry was at its strongest point, the villainous leader of the Foot Clan practically gave his enemies one of the most skilled and deadly additions to the team: Jennika aka the Fifth Turtle–and he did so completely by accident.

Jennika began her TMNT career as a member of Shredder's Foot Clan, and, in fact, as one of his most skilled assassins. Jennika murdered a historian simply as a job for the Shredder before she was even really introduced in the series, and she tried to murder the TMNT leader after Splinter killed Shredder and took his place as the new leader of the Foot Clan. However, once Shredder was out of the picture, Jennika was free to use her ninja training to fight alongside Splinter and his children, as she was shown the light by the wise and kind mutant rat. No longer was Jennika a hardened killer who would murder anyone her master told her to. She found friendship, family, and love after aligning herself with the Ninja Turtles. Then, once she was mutated and became an anthropomorphic turtle just like the original four, Jennika officially became the Fifth Turtle. While much of her current position can be attributed to the wise leadership of Master Splinter as well as her own willingness to change, she still needed that initial base-training to begin with, and no one other than Shredder is responsible for that.

In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #93 by Kevin Eastman, Bobby Curnow, Tom Waltz, and Dave Wachter, the Ninja Turtles are at war with Oroku Karai–Shredder's granddaughter–as she wants to take the role of Foot Clan leader away from Splinter and claim the title for herself. Since Karai was Shredder's chunin, and she worked with Jennika for some time before Shredder was killed, Karai reached out to Jennika to join her in the fight against Splinter and the TMNT. Karai noted that it was she and Shredder who first took Jennika in when she had nothing and no one, how the Foot Clan gave her a purpose in her otherwise aimless life, and how Shredder turned her into the ninja she is today.

While Karai's methods here were textbook emotional manipulation, everything she said was accurate. The only reason Jennika is the historic Fifth Turtle of the iconic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is because of the Shredder. Shredder took her in, trained her, and put her in the position to cross paths with the Turtles. Sure, Jennika made the choice to join the Turtles when the time came, but she wouldn't have even been an option for them if she wasn't as skilled as she was. What's interesting about this situation, however, isn't the simple fact that the Fifth Turtle was originally with the Foot Clan. It's that in an effort to make the TMNT weaker by recruiting Jennika, Shredder accidentally made them stronger.

Shredder's efforts since his introduction were hyper-focused on destroying the Turtles, and training Jennika to be one of his best soldiers was done in that effort. But, little did Shredder know that in trying to turn Jennika into the ultimate killing machine against the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, he inadvertently handed them their Fifth Turtle.

Spencer Connolly is a Staff Writer for Screen Rant. With years of writing and journalism experience under his belt, Spencer joined Screen Rant in 2020. Prior to writing for Screen Rant, Spencer was a Photojournalist and News Producer. Throughout his career as a journalist and even his entire life, Spencer always had a deep love for comics and is now applying everything he has learned throughout his career to the fun and informative articles he writes for Screen Rant. You can follow Spencer on Twitter: @TheSpencerVerse.