Rocksteady is an animal-born mutant rhino who is an antagonist turned ally of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.
Physical appearance[]
Personality[]
History[]
Details in this section are currently from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem The Junior Novelization and may not completely reflect the content in the film itself. If any divergence is found, the information will be split accordingly.
Rocksteady is one of the many mutant experiments rescued by Superfly. With nobody else to guide Rocksteady and the others through life, Superfly raised the mutants on his own, becoming a father figure and elder brother to them. After Superfly and his found family attempted to make contact with humans and were treated like monsters, Superfly was convinced - and convinced his family - that humans were the real monsters, piling on the slaying of his father as additional evidence.
So Superfly and his crew of mutants went to build a machine that would mutate all of the world's animals and allow them to overpower and eliminate humanity. Superfly preferred to work under the radar most of the time and hire human thugs to steal things for him, but when that wouldn't suffice, his family would use their talents. Rocksteady would often be paired with his "brother" Bebop as the gang's muscle.
When the Ninja Turtles decide to investigate and take down Superfly, they track him down and end up meeting him and his crew. Initially calling them their "cousins", the crew gets along well with the Turtles at first, with Raphael becoming impressed by Bebop and Rocksteady's strength and calling them his new best friends. However, once Superfly reveals his plan to the Turtles, they had to quickly fake getting on with his plan to save their necks. Superfly sent the Turtles with him, Wingnut, and Mondo Gecko to deliver the final piece of his assimilator to their hideout at the boat graveyard at Staten Island. The rest of Superfly's crew followed in other vehicles - Bebop drove his massive monster truck.
The Turtles manage to wreck the van they're in, and Bebop rushes over to make sure Rocksteady is okay. They try to force Bebop off the road, but his truck is more powerful than the van. Rocksteady is later scene on his motorcycle with Leatherhead being his sole passenger and attacking the van. Superfly ends up sending the Turtles over the overpass and the villains all retreat.
After the Turtles regroup and are joined by their Master Splinter, they head to the boat graveyard and battle Superfly and his crew. They convince the other mutants that killing people and mutating the animal population is not the best way to go, and they reluctantly turn on Superfly. Not wanting to hurt their brother, they instead turn their focus to the assimilator. Superfly, however, keeps trying to swat them away and hit the ignition button. They smash him into the machine and he is stuck to it while it shocks him. He ends up pressing the button, but Bebop and Rocksteady knock the machine - and Superfly - off the boat and into the water. When Superfly fails to resurface, Donatello wonders if he's gone, but Bebop says he doubts it as he's tough enough to survive that. After Superfly's resurfacing as Superduperfly, Rocksteady was in support of a speech from Splinter for motivation as both him and Bebop question the situation to stop their former leader.
Superfly's former crew then goes to stay with the Turtles and Splinter.
Notes and trivia[]
- This character is an adaptation of Rocksteady, first created by Peter Laird, David Wise and the Murakami Wolf Swenson team. This version was developed by Brendan O'Brien and designed by Woodrow White.
- Rocksteady is voiced by John Cena, who has previous experience in the franchise voicing Baron Draxum in the first season of Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He is also the second professional wrestler to portray the character after Stephen Farrelly from the 2016 film, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows.
- Unlike past incarnations, this is the first depiction of Rocksteady to be a fully mutant creation of Baxter Stockman. As Rocksteady is usually mutated in a Rhinoceros from a caucasian human in previous versions of the franchise.