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 King (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) new psychic abilities to manipulate Splinter into fighting and killing his own mutated turtle sons, but Splinter regain control of himself and knocks out Rat King with nothing but two fingers, whose unconscious body was carried away by his rats. In "Of Rats and Men," The Rat King returns and used his abilities to access Splinter's mind for knowledge of the mutagen to create an army of mutant rats under his control. Despite his increasing control of Splinter as he used him to attack the Turtles, Splinter continued to resist Rat King's control, which was broken when Michaelangelo threw his