The Shredder was a villain named Oroku Saki from the world of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He was the leader of The Foot, a clan of ninjas who stole just about everything they could get their hands on all throughout New York. His true identity is concealed by a shiny metal mask and helmet (which earn him the nickname, chrome dome.)
On a side note, the writeup Oroku Saki discusses a very different past than what is revealed in any of the movies in the live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles trilogy.
In the first movie of the trilogy, Splinter has his first encounter (in which he is not silent) with Shredder. Having figured out his secret identity, he tells the story of his last distant encounter with a man named Oroku Saki.
The way Splinter now tells the story, Oroku Saki was in competition with Splinter's owner, Hamato Yoshi for a woman whose name is never revealed. As to be expected, she chooses Hamato. Oroku Saki furiously kills Hamato Yoshi and the woman. Splinter (a pet rat) leaped from his cage and clawed his face. Oroku cleaves Splinter's left ear.
Shortly after revealing The Shredder's true identity, and telling everyone the shameful and embarassing story about Oroku's unpopularity, Oroku loses his mind, and charges Splinter standing at the edge of the rooftop. Predictably, Splinter dispatches him with ease, and Oroku falls to his probable death in the back of a garbage truck. KC Jones then engages the trash compactor of the truck, leading The Shredder to a slightly more probable death.
But no matter how probably dead villains get, they always seem to be ready for a rematch in the inevitable sequel. In TMNT 2, he discovers the secret to the turtles' mutations, and decides to create his own mutants. Unfortunately for Oroku, serious physical growth, (almost) verbal communication, and upright walking, (resulting from copious amounts of the Mutagenic Ooze,) don't make a warthog and a rhino better than the turtles.
In my opinion, Oroku's death in the second movie is even less conclusive than falling 6 stories, or being crushed inside a garbage truck, but I guess third time's a charm, because he doesn't return for the last installment of the TNMT trilogy of live-action movies.
Conversely, in the cartoon series, The Shredder never sees the kind of action he did in the movies. Most of his work seems to be carried out either by his foot soldiers, or the animated (and more verbal) Bebop and Rocksteady. He is also joined by Krang (more often known as Krane) who is a strange pink brain with two tiny useless tentacles and a face, who gets around in a few different mechanical movers throughout the series. |
