Foot Clan


Foot Clan is a fictional ninja clan in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics and all related media. It is led by the devious Shredder and his second in command Karai. The Foot Clan was originally a parody of the criminal ninja clan The Hand in the Daredevil comics. In addition to the obvious similarity in their names, both clans originate from Feudal Japan, practice ninjutsu and black magic, and are now powerful global organized crime rings who are familiar with multiple illegal activities such as; drug smuggling, counterfeiting of money, gunrunning, murder, assassination, computer hacking, theft, and terrorism.

Eastman and Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

In the universe of Eastman and Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Foot Clan was founded in Feudal Japan by two men named Sato and Oshi. In Volume 1 Issue 47, the Turtles and Time Mistress Renet traveled to a time prior to the Foot's creation. There, Raphael met Sato and Oshi, and, not realising who they are, he taught them about Ninjutsu. After the Turtles returned to the present, Sato and Oshi decided to follow the ways of the ninja. Oshi declared: "We must never again mention the strange shelled creatures. In time, others will join us and we will become a force to be reckoned with. So just as every journey begins with a single step... we shall call ourselves The Foot."
The Foot Clan are the most feared clan of warriors and assassins in Japan. Both Hamato Yoshi and Oroku Nagi were members, until one day, Nagi attacked Yoshi's love Tang Shen and Yoshi killed Nagi. Dishonored, Yoshi and Shen fled to New York City, while Nagi's younger brother Oroku Saki was adopted by the clan and was trained to become a fierce ninja. When he was ready, Saki was sent to America to head the New York branch of the Clan. Under his leadership, it took only a year for it to become a powerful and fearsome group.
Saki also sought vengeance for his brother and, using the persona of "The Shredder", he assassinated Yoshi and Shen. Over a decade later, the Ninja Turtles challenged Shredder to a rooftop duel to avenge Yoshi and Shen. Shredder sent his Foot Ninja to fight the Turtles, but they were no match for the Turtles and were eventually defeated. Shredder then fought the Turtles himself, and although he was a more skilled ninja than them, he was killed when he fell off a building carrying a grenade. In the later issues, Shredder was revived to take revenge on the turtles and then revived again as a clone made of worms with mutating as a shark before perishing for good.
After Shredder's death, the American Foot fell apart, and the Foot Soldiers began fighting against Shredder's elite guard. Karai, a clan leader from Japan, came here to stop the clan war. She enlisted the Turtles' help in this, in exchange for promising that no Foot shall ever try to avenge the Shredder again. This peace treaty is still in effect in Volume 4 of the comic.
In Volume 4 the Foot were given a security contract by the Utroms for their base because the Utroms have a no weapons policy and the Foot are skilled at hand-to-hand combat. At some point, mysterious Aztec warriors started to attack the Foot all over the world. Karai informed Leonardo that the New York Branch of the Foot was all that was left.
The Foot Clan's logo is a drawing of a left foot. Issues 3 and 4 of the new Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles feature a Foot mystic with magical abilities, including the power to resurrect the dead.

1987 series and ''TMNT Adventures''

The 1987 series and the spin-off TMNT Adventures comics share a similar continuity, and thus the same version of the Foot Clan. The Foot is an ancient ninjutsu clan, founded in Japan in 1583. The Shredder, followed by the Turtles and Splinter, went back and forth in time to try to kill the creator of the Foot Clan. In 1583, Shredder's ancestor Oroku Sancho led a small group of samurai, and Shredder offered to help him find magical artifacts that would give him power and wealth beyond his wildest dreams. Meanwhile, Splinter's ancestor Hamato Koji had been sent to find the same artifacts and did find them with the help of his descendant and the Turtles. One of the artifacts released a dragon, which headed for nearby villages; Splinter and Koji went to stop it while the Turtles went to fight Shredder. Sancho's men captured the Turtles and were about to execute them when Koji arrived, riding the dragon, which he had tamed. Seeing this, Sancho fled in fear, and Koji offered to lead Sancho's men and teach them the ninjutsu art of Shibana-Sama, founding the Foot Clan, so named for the footprint of the dragon in which he stood as he made his speech..
In 1960s Japan, both Oroku Saki and Hamato Yoshi were part of the Clan. Saki framed Yoshi for trying to murder a visiting sensei and had him exiled to New York City, thus clearing the way to take over the Foot Clan. He then proceeded to turn the Foot Clan into an army of criminals. Over the years, Saki, who became known as The Shredder, moved to the US, allied himself with the alien warlord Krang, and replaced the human Foot Ninja with robotic Foot Soldiers. However, these robots are no match for the Ninja Turtles, who destroy them at every encounter.
In the cartoon, The Shredder once considered making more intelligent Foot Soldiers, capable of learning and taking decisions by themselves. However, the idea was quickly abandoned when the first intelligent prototype, named Alpha 1, rebelled against The Shredder.
The Foot Clan's logo is a drawing of a right foot, and the Foot Soldiers wear purple and black uniforms featuring the logo on their foreheads. The Foot logo can also be seen on the Technodrome.
The Archie TMNT Adventures comics features more advanced Foot Soldiers in addition to the basic model. In the comics, The Shredder also built a giant Foot Soldier, who fought against the Warrior Dragon in New York City. The robot was destroyed when it crashed into the Statue of Liberty.
The Foot robot concept allowed the Turtles to destroy the Foot soldiers without any moral thoughts, allowing Leonardo and Raphael to use their weapons more offensively. Meanwhile, the series could keep its younger audience and remain a "family show". This principle also benefited the video games.

IDW Publishing

In the IDW Publishing adaption, the Foot Clan existed since the time of feudal Japan where it was founded by a ronin by the name of Takeshi Tatsuo who had been betrayed by his master. The sorceress Kitsune helped Tatsuo, to recover from the severe wounds he had suffered in the assassination attempt. The name of the clan was created by the bloody footprint of Tatsuo whose leg was completely healed by Kitsune ministrations.
When Tatsuo was betrayed by his clan are learning that he made a pact with a magician, his mind was born again in the son of his murderer Oroku Saki, the uprooting of the reawakening of his old memories powered over the communities and with Kitsune's counsel the Foot was revived in modern times.
In more recent times, the clan under the leadership of Oroku Saki tried to expand its supremacy in New York City. Its Foot Ninja were therefore often sent to amass any science that could help the Foot and also to find new test subjects. In this way, it led to the creation of the mutant arctic fox Alopex.
In this endeavor, the Foot Clan also came into contact with the extradimensional warlord General Krang who also wanted to create a mutant army to meet his objectives. An attack by the Foot Clan in the laboratory of Krang's ally Baxter Stockman led by a combination of circumstances to the creation of the Turtles and their father Splinter.
Besides Shredder, Kitsune, and a substantial number of Foot Ninjas, other members of the Foot Clan include Karai, Masato, Dr. Miller, Alopex, Rocksteady, Bebop, Koya, and Bludgeon.
IDW also did a crossover issues with Batman called Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles where the Foot Clan appeared. The first crossover showed the Foot Clan collaborating with the League of Assassins.

Movies

1990–2007

In the first and movies, the Foot Clan is a group of ninja thieves founded by the Shredder in Japan, but later stationed in New York. The Shredder had taken what Foot Soldiers he had from Japan, and began taking kids from the streets upon moving to New York and training them in Ninjutsu himself. His second-in-command is another Ninjutsu master called Tatsu. In the films, the Foot use the kanji, which translates to "demon" or "ogre", as their symbol, worn in their hachimaki or on their backs. The Foot Ninja were no match for the Turtles individually, however their first major confrontation with the Turtles resulted in Raphael beaten nearly to death and the remaining Turtles forced to retreat; all confrontations after showed the Turtles being able to defeat the Foot easily. After the Shredder's apparent death and massive arrests by the NYPD, the clan was reduced to a fraction of its former size by the second film.
In the second film, Tatsu tried to take command. He relinquished his claim when the Shredder returned. The clan then kidnapped Professor Jordon Perry of TGRI and forced him to use a mutagen so the Foot Clan could create two mutant warriors named Tokka and Rahzar to fight the Turtles. Although these two mutants were a match for the Turtles in physical strength, the Turtles defeated them by de-mutating them back into normal harmless animals. The Shredder himself apparently died shortly after, while fighting the Turtles.
In the fourth film, the Foot is now under leadership of Karai, who has taken control after the Shredder's demise. They have grown in numbers and skill, and offer their services as mercenaries in the film. They are hired by Max Winters to track down and bring in the 13 monsters arriving in New York City. Eventually, they later learn of his intention to send the monsters back to their world with a portal, and that his stone generals have betrayed him by substituting Leonardo for the thirteenth monster in order to use the portal to bring in a new army of monsters to take over the Earth. It was then the Stone Generals demand that Karai and the Foot Clan serve them, but they refused, as they want to honor their deal with Winters. Without hesitation, Karai orders the Foot Clan to help April and Casey find the last monster and lure it into the portal while the Turtles fights the Generals as well as Winters and Splinter warding off new more coming from the portal. After the final monster is sent in to the portal along with the Stone Generals, Karai and the Foot Clan peacefully part ways with the Turtles, reminding them of the Shredder's possible return.

2014 film

In the 2014 live-action film, the Foot Clan are no longer considered an international ninja cult, but rather a modern American terrorist organization. Besides Shredder and Karai, the film also introduced Eric Sacks who is Shredder's student, Dr. O'Neil's former lab partner, and the CEO of Sacks Industries. Instead of black unitard-clad masked ninjitsu warriors, they are portrayed as fully armed men that wear black military-like uniforms and often wore kabuki style masks to conceal one's identity.
In , the Foot Ninjas make their appearance, under leadership of Baxter Stockman to free Shredder.

''Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation''

In the 1997-1998 series, the Foot Clan is a street gang, similar to the movies. After Venus defeated The Shredder, Leonardo told the kids that the Foot is a lie, and the clan was disbanded.

2003 series

In the 2003 series, the Foot Clan is more similar to its original comic version. The Foot Clan are a group of warriors and assassins that Shredder created 700 years ago in Japan. The Shredder, who in this series is a long-lived Utrom named Ch'rell, has led the Clan since its creation and has turned it into a fearsome and secret group present across the world. The Foot emblem is a red, trident-like footprint, an inverted version of the "Three-Toed Sign of the Dragon", the symbol of the five warriors who had defeated the original demon known as the Shredder in 300 AD. Thanks to Shredder's knowledge of Utrom technology, the Clan has weapons and equipment centuries ahead of human technology. They once created Foot Mechs in Rogue in the House which were based on Master Splinter, the President, the Prime Minister, and some others.
The Foot Clan is divided into several branches:
Towards the end of the Ninja Turtles magazine published at the same time as the series, the Foot Mystics are killed by Splinter, when he uses the Sword of Tengu on them. He causes the Fire Mystic to melt the Metal Mystic, the Water Mystic to quench the Fire Mystic, the Earth Mystic to swallow the Water Mystic, the Wind Mystic to scatter the Earth Mystic, and the Metal Mystic is killed by Splinter. However, he is drained by the Sword's power.
The Foot Clan itself is under the ultimate command of The Utrom Shredder Ch'rell, and his second in command is his adopted daughter Karai. Prior to Karai's appearance, Hun served as Shredder's second and chief enforcer as well as leading the Purple Dragons. But when Karai appeared, she was quickly shown to be higher in Shredder's favor than Hun. After The Shredder was exiled to the ice asteroid belt of Mor Tal in the episode "Exodus, Part 2", Karai assumed command of the Clan and the mantle of the Shredder giving the Foot Ninja and Foot Elite new designs while Hun evolved the Purple Dragons from a street gang to an organized criminal organization.
Somehow after the events of the defeat of the Demon Shredder and the year the Turtles were stuck in the future in Fast Forward, Khan gained control of the Foot, who now dressed in Cyber Foot armor. Under Khan's rule, they were in a gang war against Hun and the Purple Dragons. Once Cyber Shredder appeared, he took control and it was Khan's mission to bring him back into reality. Many believe Khan was once an Elite Foot since his theme is the same theme used whenever the Elite Foot appeared.
Khan must have lost control of the Foot after Cyber Shredder's defeat because Karai was in control of the Foot once more in the movie Turtles Forever. At this point, the Utrom Shredder returned by means of his counterpart, the Shredder of the 1987 series. The Technodrome became the headquarters for the Foot Clan of the 2003 series and the robotic foot soldiers were added to the Foot's fighting force after an upgrade with Utrom technology. Using Krang's mutagen reverse-engineered from the mutagen that affected Hun, they also added mutated some of the Cyber Foot where they were classified as Mutant Foot Soldiers and were not seen coming in contact with whatever they mutated into. While two of these mutants resemble Tokka and Rahzar, the rest of the Mutant Foot Soldiers consist of a sea creature-like mutant, a one-eyed mutant, a tiger-like mutant, a mutant with an octopus-shaped head, an insect-like mutant, a bat-like mutant, and some unspecified mutants. The Utrom Shredder kept the 1987 Shredder and Krang on, as well as Bebop and Rocksteady to help lead the Foot. However the Utrom Shredder turned on his counterpart and Krang later in the movie. The Utrom Shredder was eventually destroyed by the Technodrome's weapons. Karai most likely retook control of the Foot at this point.

2012 series

In the 2012 series, the Foot Clan's origins are expanded on in the second season of the series. The clan was founded in 512 A.D. in Japan by a master martial artist named Koga Takuza, who used the swords of his fallen foes to forge a helmet stronger than steel, dubbing it the Kuro Kabuto. The Kabuto helmet is a symbol of the leader of the Foot Clan, passed down to the various rulers in the Foot's history. The Foot Clan would end up in a lengthy war against the Hamato Clan, which reached a boiling point when Oroku Saki was raised alongside Hamato Yoshi. Though the two were raised as brothers, Saki discovered his true heritage as being an orphaned Foot Clan member, and when his love Tang Shen wed Yoshi, he inadvertently killed Shen leaving Yoshi to perish while saving his infant daughter Hamato Miwa. Saki rose in the ranks to become the leader of the Foot Clan, tutoring several worthy pupils such as world-famous martial arts star Chris Bradford and Brazilian street thug Xever Montes and sharing business with business partners such as Russian arms dealer Ivan Steranko, Chinese-American Purple Dragons leader Hun, and Italian mafia boss Don Vizioso. In this series, the Foot Clan is a global ninjutsu clan answering only to the Shredder, though others run the various factions of the Foot Clan across the globe.
Shredder commanded the Foot from Japan until he learned that Yoshi was training his own ninjas in New York City, and moved his inner clan there with the objective of finding and killing Yoshi and his students. However, Shredder, Karai, Dogpound, Fishface, and their reluctant new conscript, former TCRI inventor Baxter Stockman, fail time and again to do so. Karai learned of the Kraang, an alien race responsible for the mutations of Splinter and the Turtles, who are secretly plotting to conquer and terraform Earth, but Shredder dismisses them until he captures one himself and learns from it that the Turtles guard April O'Neil, whose half-Kraang genetics were need for their invasion. After another failed attempt to kill the Turtles, Shredder allies the Foot Clan with the Kraang, as they share a mutual enemy in the Hamato Clan.
In the second season, Shredder left the New York clan under Karai's command, citing urgent business to attend to in Japan. Karai, having been lied to by Shredder to believe that Splinter killed Tang Shen, uses her new position to aggressively hunt the Hamato Clan until her father's return. Shredder reshuffles the Foot Clan's hierarchy upon his return, installing mutated Japanese mercenary Tiger Claw as his new second-in-command and stripping Karai of the position, though Tiger Claw was briefly trapped in various other dimensions before eventually returning to the fold. Baxter Stockman was later mutated into Stockman-Fly upon his mutagen collar being set off by Shredder for his 74th attempt at making a mutant army for him. However, having been told of her true nature by Splinter and the Turtles, Karai betrayed her father, and when she was brought before him, he admitted that she was Splinter and Tang Shen's biological daughter and imprisons her. The Foot Clan would on one notable occasion be fully mobilized when the Kabuto was stolen by professional thief Anton Zeck on behalf of Steranko. Karai was soon used in a hasty plan to gain vengeance on Splinter by Shredder, resulting in her mutation into a snake-like mutant, further strengthening the violent split between the Foot Clan and the Hamato Clan.
As a result, Shredder opted to aid the Kraang in their invasion of New York and the Earth, dismissing the likelihood that the Kraang will turn on him. In exchange for their aid in taking New York, Kraang Prime promised to cure Karai of her mutation. The invasion was successful, and though Leonardo defeated the majority of his men in battle, Shredder critically wounded him and was able to finally defeat Splinter, having lost to him on several prior occasions.
In the third season, Shredder reveals that they will betray the Kraang and has the entire clan search for Karai before learning that Splinter had survived but lost his memory. It was returned to him by April when she, the Turtles and Casey Jones came to rescue him and she used her physic Kraang powers to bring Splinter to his senses. Shredder later mutated Anton Zeck into Bebop and Ivan Steranko into Rocksteady for Anton's theft of the Kuro Kabuto and Ivan's hunting of Karai. When the two of them tried to attack Shredder in retaliation, Shredder beat them up and told them to either serve him or fall at hand. Ivan and Anton agreed to Shredder's terms—for now. Following a fight with the Turtles, Rocksteady and Bebop successfully captured Serpent Karai and brought her to the Shredder. After the Kraang were defeated and driven back to their home dimension by the Turtles and the Mighty Mutanimals, the balance of power over the Manhattan underworld is shifted over to the Foot Clan. This was done for Shredder by gaining control over the Purple Dragon and other Asian gangs through Hun, several South American gangs through Fishface, the Russian Mafia through Rocksteady, and the Italian Mafia through Don Vizioso. By using this power, Shredder had these crime groups aid him with collecting various chemicals from a chemical company called Aumen, an abandoned Kraang lab and Vizioso for a mind control serum that he planned to create and use on the Turtles, the Mutanimals and Karai. The Foot were also served on at least two occasions by a trio of mutants created from the Shredder's DNA and that of several crustaceans, but these were later destroyed after being fused into the so-called "Mega Shredder."
The Foot later formed an unlikely alliance with Splinter and the Turtles to deal with the threat of the Triceraton's Black Hole Generator, only for Shredder to violate the truce and murder Splinter before he could deactivate the device. As a result, the device went off, and all the Foot Clan members were drawn into the black hole along with the entirety of Earth's population-with the exception of April, Casey, and the Turtles-and the planet itself. Due to the Fugitoid using a device on his ship at the start of the fourth season, time was reset to six months before the Triceraton invasion so that the Turtles, April, and Casey could prevent the Triceratons from assembling the Black Hole Generator. The heroes later teamed with their past selves to save the Earth, during which they were able to alert Splinter to Shredder's murderous intent, leading to a duel between Splinter and Shredder. Splinter achieved victory, but Tiger Claw recovered his master and warned that the Foot Clan would return.
Karai started to lead a splintered branch of the Foot Clan with the witch Shinigami which goes into battle against Shredder's branch. Shredder recuperates by taking mutagen which transforms him into Super-Shredder in order to turn the tide against Kara's branch. Super-Shredder managed to kill Splinter. When most of its members are defeated, Super-Shredder is hit by some retro-mutagen which failed to work and is beheaded by Leonardo.
In the final season, Tiger Claw started to lead the Foot Clan and their new Foot Cultists into summoning the mystical dragonoid Kavaxas from the Netherworld with a special talisman. After gathering Shredder's helmet and heart from Tatsu's branch and Don Vizioso's group, Tiger Claw had Kavaxas revive Shredder as a sentient zombie. Zombie Shredder started to take Kavaxas as his second-in-command. During the fight against the Foot Clan, Fishface left after explaining the Foot Cultists' origin to the Turtles, a revived Rahzar fell into the Netherworld, and Kavaxas was forcefully dragged back into the Netherworld by Zombie Shredder who states that they belong dead. Afterwards, Tiger Claw calls a truce with the Turtles.
The Foot Clan also has a variation in their soldiers:
In Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Foot Clan are hired mercenaries. Its known members are the Foot Lieutenant and the Foot Brute. They can make origami ninjas out of paper and have the power of teleportation through hidden gateways. They serve an unknown sensei and are collecting ancient artifacts for some purpose.
In the episode "The Evil League of Mutants," the Foot Lieutenant and an origami ninja were shown committing a heist which the Turtles couldn't stop. Later on, the Foot Lieutenant and the Foot Brute teleported Baron Draxum away from the Turtles as both sides see that they have a common enemy in them.
The episode "Shadow of Evil" revealed that the Shredder is their master and the Foot were trying to collect pieces of the Kuroi Yōroi, Shredder's mystical armor, to revive him. It is also revealed that the Foot uses a shoe store called the Foot Shack as a front for their activities.
In "Warren and Hypno, Sitting in a Tree," Draxum claimed the gauntlet Warren Stone had that turned out to be part of the Kuroi Yōroi for the Foot.
In "Operation: Normal," the Foot Brute and the Foot Recruit targeted the slime Yōkai Sunita because the boots she was wearing were part of the Kuroi Yōroi. They managed to claim them.
In "How to Make Enemies and Bend People to Your Will," Draxum and the Foot Recruit find out that a Kuroi Yōroi fragment is at the botanical gardens. They claimed it after setting up events where the Foot Lieutenant and the Foot Brute would fail. After obtaining the fragment, Draxum declared himself the Foot's leader, via exploiting a loophole in the clan's rulings of leadership.
In "One Man's Junk," the next piece of the Kuroi Yōroi was in the possession of Repo Mantis who claimed it from a Yōkai and held in his salvage yard. After trapping the cat/mantis mutant who was owned by Repo Mantis, the Turtles learn from him that two fire-headed guys working as shoe salesmen bought the metal from him. This caused the Turtles to learn that the Foot Lieutenant and the Foot Brute claimed the metal.
In "End Game," Draxum donned the restored Kuroi Yōroi with the intention of destroying humanity once and for all. The Foot Lieutenant and Foot Brute addressed him as Shredder, but he rejected the title, confused with the name "Shredder". Due to a Jupiter Jim action figure being wedged in a hole in the back of the helmet, the Turtles and April managed to attack that part and caused the armor to fall off of Draxum, though the armor reconstitued itself after siphoning some of Draxum's life force. It is later explained by the Foot Lieutenant that the clan was just manipulating Draxum into donning the Kuroi Yōroi so it could drain his life energy to reassemble and resurrect the Shredder.
In "Many Happy Returns," Shredder acted like a feral beast, likely due to the damage the armor received when it was worn by Draxum. After being attacked by the out of control demon, the Foot Lieutenant, Foot Brute, and Foot Recruit retreat to find out what went wrong.
In "Battle Nexus: New York," the Foot Recruit discovered that Big Mama has been controlling Shredder with a control device and it's associated magic ring. When Big Mama is disarmed of the ring, the Foot Recruit claims it and uses the Shredder to make Big Mama lose everything. As the Shredder destroys the Grand Nexus Hotel, the Foot Recruit can be heard shouting "Foot Clan" as she flies off on Shredder's back.

''Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles''

The Foot Clan appear in the film Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Sato and Oshi are mentioned as founders of the Foot Clan. The Foot Clan collaborated with the League of Assassins in a plot that involved using a stolen Wayne Enterprises cloud seeder to spread a compound containing a mixture of mutagen and Joker venom on Gotham City. A select number of Foot Ninjas were mutated into mutant animals where two of them were mutated into a mutant pigeon and a mutant Tyrannosaurus.

Video games