Today's Article - The Shredder

This article is for quizzes on Monday April 18th...

The Shredder (Oroku Saki) is a fictional character and main antagonist of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics and all related media. At one point or another in every incarnation of the TMNT stories, he has been the archenemy of Splinter and the Turtles. He is also known as the leader of the New York City branch of the Foot Clan.

Shredder's physical appearance remains fairly consistent in most incarnations of the character. Saki is a muscular Japanese man, most frequently seen in the "Shredder" persona, wearing a suit of armor vaguely based on that of a samurai, sometimes with a cape. The armor consists of blade-covered metal plaques on his shoulders, forearms, hands (sometimes just his left hand, because he is left-handed), and shins; he wears a purple, gray, blue, or red robe that variously appears to be simple fabric or a form of chain mail. He also tends to wear a metal helmet with a trident-shaped ornament on top, and a metal mask that covers his face, leaving only his eyes visible.

In the 1987 animated series, Oroku Saki and Hamato Yoshi were both members of the Foot Clan in Japan. After Saki framed him for the attempted murder of a visiting sensei, Yoshi was forced to exile himself to New York City, where he lived in the sewers with four pet turtles that were accidentally dropped down a storm drain.

In the following years, Saki took leadership of the Foot Clan, and took on his Shredder persona. He also met a trans-dimensional alien called Krang, and used the advanced technology at his disposal to replace the Foot Ninja with robots called the Foot Soldiers. He secretly moved to New York, where he found Yoshi still alive. In an attempt to kill his old foe, Shredder dumped mutagen in the sewers. This mutates Yoshi into Splinter, and he starts training the also mutated Turtles in ninjutsu.

Shredder was voiced by The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air co-star James Avery (Uncle Phil) for seasons one to seven.