Rat King (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) cameo appearance in "Teenage Mutant Ninjas Turtles" Vol. 4, watching as Splinter succumbs to a heart attack and dies while retrieving milk from a refrigerator. Much of the Rat King's origin is later revealed in an issue of "Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" Vol. 2; the story reveals that a group of beings known as the Pantheon exists, with each member of the group having jurisdiction over a species of animal. When the time of the Pantheon member who rules the rats reaches an end, a new one is chosen, a scarred and heavily bandaged (explaining the Rat
Rat "Rattus". The best-known rat species are the black rat ("Rattus rattus") and the brown rat ("Rattus norvegicus"). The group is generally known as the Old World rats or true rats, and originated in Asia. Rats are bigger than most Old World mice, which are their relatives, but seldom weigh over in the wild. The term "rat" is also used in the names of other small mammals which are not true rats. Examples include the North American pack rats, a number of species loosely called kangaroo rats, and others. Rats such as the bandicoot rat ("Bandicota bengalensis") are murine rodents related