Wyrm: The Truth Behind the Myth – TMNT Comics

Wyrm: The Truth Behind the Myth – TMNT Comics

In 1990, the Archie Adventures of the Teenage 
Mutant Ninja Turtles introduced a mutant   flatworm with some suspicious similarities to 
a previous TMNT character named “BLOODSUCKER.” Over the years, fans have speculated 
that the character was created as an   in-house replacement for Bloodsucker 
due to the copyright issues around him. But is this a fact or a myth? Join me today as I explore the original WYRM, his 
toy adaptation, and the myth behind his creation. Wyrm was created by RYAN BROWN in 1987 
while working on possible stories for   “Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja 
Turtles,” a bi-monthly Mirage book. Ryan had already created another famous mutant for 
this comic—LEATHERHEAD—but the book was canceled,   and with it, any chances of Wyrm 
making it into the Mirage Universe. In the original concept, Wyrm was proposed 
as an antagonistic, mutated leech. According to Ryan, the inspiration 
for the character came from the   1959 movie “Attack of the Giant Leeches.” Another big visual inspiration for the character 
was the art style of ED “BIG DADDY” ROTH. As for the name, “Wyrm” is an Old English 
word that means “serpent,” as that was the   original form of what we now know as 
the Dragons from European tradition. In fact, the word comes from a medieval 
folk tale known as the “LAMBTON WORM.” A tale I will have to come 
back to later in this video. Wyrm had to wait until 1990 to make 
his debut in the Archie Adventures   Universe in a story plotted by STEVE 
MURPHY and Ryan Brown, with a script   by Murphy and art by KEN MITCHRONEY, DAN 
BERGER, GARY FIELDS, and BARRY GROSSMAN. Wyrm was the product of Bebop and Rocksteady’s 
careless dumping of toxic waste into the sewers. The ooze mutated him from a harmless planarian   flatworm into an ugly carnivorous 
monster that called itself “Wyrm.” Wyrm’s mutation included long, extendable 
fingers with a squid’s suction power. This was clearly a remnant 
of Wyrm’s original concept. Leeches use suction to eat, and 
the suction power of squids was   one of the attributes of the giant leeches 
from that 1959 movie that inspired Ryan. But since Wyrm was now a flatworm, a 
more accurate attribute was added to him:   an extendable suction tongue 
with its own set of teeth. Flatworms have an extendable pharynx 
that they use to eat other animals. Of course, Wyrm’s tongue looks like something 
out of an Aliens movie, but you get the idea. Wyrm has another ability that 
I will talk about a bit later. Unlike other mutants in this universe, Wyrm had 
a primal motivation—eating other living beings. He ran into the Turtles while they were 
looking for the Shredder’s underground lair. He lurked in the water, waiting for 
the right moment to attack them,   but his hunt got interrupted by the sudden 
appearance of another mutant: SCUMBUG. It was a stressful day for the Turtles, who were 
now being disputed as these two mutants’ dinner. Wyrm attacked Scumbug with his tongue and 
realized he was a much more interesting meal. The two got into a brutal fight, 
and in the heat of the battle,   they broke a natural gas pipe 
and a high-voltage switch. This caused an explosion that left the Turtles, 
assuming the two mutants had been destroyed. But the mutants weren’t dead. I mentioned earlier that Wyrm had a 
hidden ability—he wasn’t just a flatworm. He was a colony of them. Being able to divide into multiple mini-wyrms,   the mutated flatworm kept Scumbug alive to 
feed off him, never letting him die completely. This went on for years until they 
were found by MAC AND SQUINT,   two journalists who were following April and OYUKI 
with the mission of getting the Turtles on tape. After seeing the two humans, 
Wyrm merged back into himself,   interested in the surprise change of menu. But Scumbug was angry at 
him and hungry for revenge. Desperate, Wyrm convinced Scumbug that 
there was enough for both to eat and,   therefore, declared a truce and 
joined forces to hunt the two men. Chasing them, they eventually ran into the reason 
Mac and Squint were down there in the first place. The Turtles, April, and Oyuki, were being 
chased by a strange alien named TOXZEEM. The sight of this alien made the 
duo of mutants forget about the   two men and immediately try to eat Toxzeem. Unfortunately, they were 
completely out of their depth,   and the alien turned them into crystal 
structures before leaving the planet. It was unclear if this was the end of these two. When Mac and Squint tried to take the structures 
with them, these crumbled into a million pieces. Having said that, Wyrm and Scumbug 
survived an explosion before, so who knows? Wyrm never appeared again, 
or at least not officially. He was meant to return in the Forever War saga. This story was recently completed as part of a fan   project using pre-existing, 
never-published material. It was revealed that his appearance was on   an alternate timeline where he 
was working for the Shredder. It was in this fan project that Wyrm apparently   killed an alternate version of CARTER 
before getting eaten by rats himself. Wyrm was submitted to Playmates 
and later approved for development. After a few redesigns, Wyrm ended 
up having a similar but quite   unique look compared to his original incarnation. He was released in 1991. The action figure was designed by DAVE ARSHAWSKY, 
who was also going for a RAT FINK vibe. Unlike the Archie version, the Playmates’ 
origin seemed influenced by THE TOXIC AVENGER. Unsurprising, considering Playmates and Dave   were both working on the Toxic 
Crusaders around the same time. According to his bio, Wyrm was 
a mild-mannered garbage man   who slipped and fell headlong 
into Shredder’s garbage bin. This transformed him into a mutant planarian worm. Interestingly, he wasn’t part 
of the heroes or the villains. He was embarrassed by his current state 
and stench, so he moved into the sewers,   where he became the director of 
the “unsanitation” department. Down in the sewers, Wyrm fed on worms and rubbish 
he would tenderize with his compactor mallet. Wyrm was a loner, but given that they shared the 
same environment, he became friends with Muckman. Curiously, Muckman was a sewer worker in 
the toyline but a garbageman in the cartoon. This may have been an obstacle for 
adapting the character into the show,   but some characters were simply not 
popular enough to make the jump. Still, these action figures were sometimes   advertised with bits of animation 
showing the characters in action. Wyrm was just another character 
that was animated for advertisement. But unlike the other figures in his wave, he never 
appeared in the cartoon, and this made those few   seconds the only animated version of Wyrm until 
the 2012 show did its own take on the character. Based on the design of that brief appearance, 
NECA released an action figure this year. Back to the original action figure, Wyrm 
had some interesting play mechanics. His mouth could be opened, revealing 
worms coming out of his mouth. Additionally, pushing his hair 
could make his eyes bug out. Apart from his mallet, he came with 
a Porcuepounder—a mammal mallet that   looks like a wrench—a worm knife, a 
worm belt, and six worms to feed him. There was another possible reason for Wyrm not 
to have been adapted into the Fred Wolf cartoon. He was already a part of the Mighty 
Mutanimals animation bible in 1992. So, it would have made more sense to 
introduce him as a villain in that show. It was probably because of the existence of the   toy that the character was 
proposed in the same style. Unfortunately, the Mutanimals 
cartoon never materialized for   reasons I explained in my Mighty Mutanimals video. Earlier, I mentioned the “Lambton Worm” folk tale. The legend tells of John Lambton, a young man who 
skipped church to go fishing in the River Wear. Unfortunately, the only thing he 
caught was some sort of unearthly worm. Thinking it evil, the young man 
threw the worm into a nearby well. John would go on to join the crusades, only 
to return home to find it under the terror of   a huge mutated worm that polluted the well it 
was thrown into and started eating the cattle. To defeat him, John asked a witch for advice, 
and she suggested he cover himself with spiked   armor so that the worm would end up reducing 
itself to shreds while trying to crush him. This very old tale has many similar 
themes with “The River” trilogy. The story that Rick Veitch wrote 
and introduced Bloodsucker. It’s very likely that Rick knew about this 
legend when he wrote “The River,” which on   itself reminds us of how different creators could 
come up with similar characters and stories. Comic book history is filled with cases of 
characters being inspired by another work. This was the case of the Swamp Thing and 
Man-Thing, who came out simultaneously,   but both were inspired by a 
previous character named “The Heap.” In this case, the “Lambton Worm” 
legend inspired other literary   works like “The Book of the Dun Cow,” and 
Bram Stoker’s “The Lair of the White Worm.” Thanks to these stories, Ryan 
came up with the name “Wyrm.” However, apart from these connections between the   two characters, the question 
about their creation persists. Is the fan theory that Wyrm was created 
because they couldn’t use Bloodsucker… true? Well, we now know that Wyrm was created in 1987   as a possible antagonist for 
the “Tales of the TMNT” book. This predates Bloodsucker, who 
appeared in the main TMNT book in 1989. Of course, Wyrm didn’t appear until 1990—a   year after Bloodsucker’s debut—so Rick 
Veitch couldn’t have known about him. This makes me think we are looking 
at a Swamp Thing/Man-Thing situation. In terms of the fan theory that suggests 
that Wyrm was made in response to Mirage   not owning Bloodsucker—this is a weak argument. “The River” trilogy was created through 
an informal arrangement at the time,   and the story was reprinted and collected 
a few times around the world until 1992. Since the collected editions stopped that 
year, it is possible that this coincided with   the retroactive work-for-hire contracts sent by 
Mirage to own the stories made by other artists. By 1992 Wyrm had already appeared in 
the Archie comics, and the toyline. So, his creation wasn’t a reaction 
to those retroactive contracts. A more interesting argument 
would be that Wyrm could have   been created as an in-house version 
of Bloodsucker—another weak argument. Not because Wyrm predates Bloodsucker,   but because most of the characters created for 
the Archie comics were also not owned by Mirage. At least, not at the time. So, I don’t think Wyrm should be 
considered a copy of Bloodsucker. Both characters were created independently. I couldn’t find out why Wyrm was changed into a 
flatworm, but it was a good choice, as it helped   differentiate the two characters and gave Wyrm 
some interesting abilities and visual attributes. Given that the Adventures book was 
being published by Archie Comics,   it crossed my mind that perhaps the change from 
leech to flatworm had to do with the Comic Code,   which at the time was still limiting 
how graphic bloodsucking could be. However, all that Ryan could remember about this,   was that the comic code wasn’t 
a reason for the change. Another reason for not believing in this fan   theory is the lack of motivations 
to create a workaround character. This wasn’t a situation where the Turtles 
faced similar themes or challenges. The stories with Wyrm in them are 
very different from “The River.” This is a different case from THE CREEP, 
the character created for the 2012 cartoon. In the context of that show, it made sense to 
introduce a character within a similar premise,   because the story and the character 
were an homage to “The River.” So, hopefully we can put this fan theory to rest? What are your thoughts on Wyrm? Do you prefer the Archie or the Playmates version? Let me know in the comments. Thanks for watching… see you in the sewers!

Was Wyrm created to replace Bloodsucker? In this video, I explore the mutant’s twisted origin, from canceled Mirage plans to his Archie debut, toyline weirdness, and the fan theory that won’t die.

📇 EPISODE 198

✍🏻 WRITTEN AND EDITED BY
Javier S. Montano

🎙️NARRATED BY
Ian Smith
Fiverr: https://www.fiverr.com/ismithbwr

🔖 CHAPTERS
00:00 Behind the panels
01:47 Origin (Archie comics)
03:29 Further appearances
05:24 The action figure (Playmates Toys 1991)
07:35 Mighty Mutanimals
08:03 Coincidences aren’t unusual
09:29 Mythbusting: Was Wyrm a workaround character for Bloodsucker?

🔗 ADDITIONAL LINKS
This video uses a page from the
RAD PLASTIC book by @radplastic-tmnttoys6537

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