{"id":1824592,"date":"2025-05-17T17:00:33","date_gmt":"2025-05-17T17:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/anime\/1824592\/"},"modified":"2025-05-17T17:00:33","modified_gmt":"2025-05-17T17:00:33","slug":"wyrm-the-truth-behind-the-myth-tmnt-comics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/anime\/1824592\/","title":{"rendered":"Wyrm: The Truth Behind the Myth \u2013 TMNT Comics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\"  width=\"580\" height=\"385\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/M9FJ89CavFY\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\n<br \/>\nWyrm: The Truth Behind the Myth \u2013 TMNT Comics<br \/>\n<br \/>\nIn 1990, the Archie Adventures of the Teenage\u00a0<br \/>\nMutant Ninja Turtles introduced a mutant\u00a0\u00a0 flatworm with some suspicious similarities to\u00a0<br \/>\na previous TMNT character named &#8220;BLOODSUCKER.&#8221; Over the years, fans have speculated\u00a0<br \/>\nthat the character was created as an\u00a0\u00a0 in-house replacement for Bloodsucker\u00a0<br \/>\ndue to the copyright issues around him. But is this a fact or a myth? Join me today as I explore the original WYRM, his\u00a0<br \/>\ntoy adaptation, and the myth behind his creation. Wyrm was created by RYAN BROWN in 1987\u00a0<br \/>\nwhile working on possible stories for\u00a0\u00a0 &#8220;Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja\u00a0<br \/>\nTurtles,&#8221; a bi-monthly Mirage book. Ryan had already created another famous mutant for\u00a0<br \/>\nthis comic\u2014LEATHERHEAD\u2014but the book was canceled,\u00a0\u00a0 and with it, any chances of Wyrm\u00a0<br \/>\nmaking it into the Mirage Universe. In the original concept, Wyrm was proposed\u00a0<br \/>\nas an antagonistic, mutated leech. According to Ryan, the inspiration\u00a0<br \/>\nfor the character came from the\u00a0\u00a0 1959 movie &#8220;Attack of the Giant Leeches.&#8221; Another big visual inspiration for the character\u00a0<br \/>\nwas the art style of ED &#8220;BIG DADDY&#8221; ROTH. As for the name, &#8220;Wyrm&#8221; is an Old English\u00a0<br \/>\nword that means &#8220;serpent,&#8221; as that was the\u00a0\u00a0 original form of what we now know as\u00a0<br \/>\nthe Dragons from European tradition. In fact, the word comes from a medieval\u00a0<br \/>\nfolk tale known as the &#8220;LAMBTON WORM.&#8221; A tale I will have to come\u00a0<br \/>\nback to later in this video. Wyrm had to wait until 1990 to make\u00a0<br \/>\nhis debut in the Archie Adventures\u00a0\u00a0 Universe in a story plotted by STEVE\u00a0<br \/>\nMURPHY and Ryan Brown, with a script\u00a0\u00a0 by Murphy and art by KEN MITCHRONEY, DAN\u00a0<br \/>\nBERGER, GARY FIELDS, and BARRY GROSSMAN. Wyrm was the product of Bebop and Rocksteady&#8217;s\u00a0<br \/>\ncareless dumping of toxic waste into the sewers. The ooze mutated him from a harmless planarian\u00a0\u00a0 flatworm into an ugly carnivorous\u00a0<br \/>\nmonster that called itself &#8220;Wyrm.&#8221; Wyrm&#8217;s mutation included long, extendable\u00a0<br \/>\nfingers with a squid&#8217;s suction power. This was clearly a remnant\u00a0<br \/>\nof Wyrm&#8217;s original concept. Leeches use suction to eat, and\u00a0<br \/>\nthe suction power of squids was\u00a0\u00a0 one of the attributes of the giant leeches\u00a0<br \/>\nfrom that 1959 movie that inspired Ryan. But since Wyrm was now a flatworm, a\u00a0<br \/>\nmore accurate attribute was added to him:\u00a0\u00a0 an extendable suction tongue\u00a0<br \/>\nwith its own set of teeth. Flatworms have an extendable pharynx\u00a0<br \/>\nthat they use to eat other animals. Of course, Wyrm&#8217;s tongue looks like something\u00a0<br \/>\nout of an Aliens movie, but you get the idea. Wyrm has another ability that\u00a0<br \/>\nI will talk about a bit later. Unlike other mutants in this universe, Wyrm had\u00a0<br \/>\na primal motivation\u2014eating other living beings. He ran into the Turtles while they were\u00a0<br \/>\nlooking for the Shredder&#8217;s underground lair. He lurked in the water, waiting for\u00a0<br \/>\nthe right moment to attack them,\u00a0\u00a0 but his hunt got interrupted by the sudden\u00a0<br \/>\nappearance of another mutant: SCUMBUG. It was a stressful day for the Turtles, who were\u00a0<br \/>\nnow being disputed as these two mutants&#8217; dinner. Wyrm attacked Scumbug with his tongue and\u00a0<br \/>\nrealized he was a much more interesting meal. The two got into a brutal fight,\u00a0<br \/>\nand in the heat of the battle,\u00a0\u00a0 they broke a natural gas pipe\u00a0<br \/>\nand a high-voltage switch. This caused an explosion that left the Turtles,\u00a0<br \/>\nassuming the two mutants had been destroyed. But the mutants weren&#8217;t dead. I mentioned earlier that Wyrm had a\u00a0<br \/>\nhidden ability\u2014he wasn&#8217;t just a flatworm. He was a colony of them. Being able to divide into multiple mini-wyrms,\u00a0\u00a0 the mutated flatworm kept Scumbug alive to\u00a0<br \/>\nfeed off him, never letting him die completely. This went on for years until they\u00a0<br \/>\nwere found by MAC AND SQUINT,\u00a0\u00a0 two journalists who were following April and OYUKI\u00a0<br \/>\nwith the mission of getting the Turtles on tape. After seeing the two humans,\u00a0<br \/>\nWyrm merged back into himself,\u00a0\u00a0 interested in the surprise change of menu. But Scumbug was angry at\u00a0<br \/>\nhim and hungry for revenge. Desperate, Wyrm convinced Scumbug that\u00a0<br \/>\nthere was enough for both to eat and,\u00a0\u00a0 therefore, declared a truce and\u00a0<br \/>\njoined forces to hunt the two men. Chasing them, they eventually ran into the reason\u00a0<br \/>\nMac and Squint were down there in the first place. The Turtles, April, and Oyuki, were being\u00a0<br \/>\nchased by a strange alien named TOXZEEM. The sight of this alien made the\u00a0<br \/>\nduo of mutants forget about the\u00a0\u00a0 two men and immediately try to eat Toxzeem. Unfortunately, they were\u00a0<br \/>\ncompletely out of their depth,\u00a0\u00a0 and the alien turned them into crystal\u00a0<br \/>\nstructures before leaving the planet. It was unclear if this was the end of these two. When Mac and Squint tried to take the structures\u00a0<br \/>\nwith them, these crumbled into a million pieces. Having said that, Wyrm and Scumbug\u00a0<br \/>\nsurvived an explosion before, so who knows? Wyrm never appeared again,\u00a0<br \/>\nor at least not officially. He was meant to return in the Forever War saga. This story was recently completed as part of a fan\u00a0\u00a0 project using pre-existing,\u00a0<br \/>\nnever-published material. It was revealed that his appearance was on\u00a0\u00a0 an alternate timeline where he\u00a0<br \/>\nwas working for the Shredder. It was in this fan project that Wyrm apparently\u00a0\u00a0 killed an alternate version of CARTER\u00a0<br \/>\nbefore getting eaten by rats himself. Wyrm was submitted to Playmates\u00a0<br \/>\nand later approved for development. After a few redesigns, Wyrm ended\u00a0<br \/>\nup having a similar but quite\u00a0\u00a0 unique look compared to his original incarnation. He was released in 1991. The action figure was designed by DAVE ARSHAWSKY,\u00a0<br \/>\nwho was also going for a RAT FINK vibe. Unlike the Archie version, the Playmates&#8217;\u00a0<br \/>\norigin seemed influenced by THE TOXIC AVENGER. Unsurprising, considering Playmates and Dave\u00a0\u00a0 were both working on the Toxic\u00a0<br \/>\nCrusaders around the same time. According to his bio, Wyrm was\u00a0<br \/>\na mild-mannered garbage man\u00a0\u00a0 who slipped and fell headlong\u00a0<br \/>\ninto Shredder&#8217;s garbage bin. This transformed him into a mutant planarian worm. Interestingly, he wasn&#8217;t part\u00a0<br \/>\nof the heroes or the villains. He was embarrassed by his current state\u00a0<br \/>\nand stench, so he moved into the sewers,\u00a0\u00a0 where he became the director of\u00a0<br \/>\nthe &#8220;unsanitation&#8221; department. Down in the sewers, Wyrm fed on worms and rubbish\u00a0<br \/>\nhe would tenderize with his compactor mallet. Wyrm was a loner, but given that they shared the\u00a0<br \/>\nsame environment, he became friends with Muckman. Curiously, Muckman was a sewer worker in\u00a0<br \/>\nthe toyline but a garbageman in the cartoon. This may have been an obstacle for\u00a0<br \/>\nadapting the character into the show,\u00a0\u00a0 but some characters were simply not\u00a0<br \/>\npopular enough to make the jump. Still, these action figures were sometimes\u00a0\u00a0 advertised with bits of animation\u00a0<br \/>\nshowing the characters in action. Wyrm was just another character\u00a0<br \/>\nthat was animated for advertisement. But unlike the other figures in his wave, he never\u00a0<br \/>\nappeared in the cartoon, and this made those few\u00a0\u00a0 seconds the only animated version of Wyrm until\u00a0<br \/>\nthe 2012 show did its own take on the character. Based on the design of that brief appearance,\u00a0<br \/>\nNECA released an action figure this year. Back to the original action figure, Wyrm\u00a0<br \/>\nhad some interesting play mechanics. His mouth could be opened, revealing\u00a0<br \/>\nworms coming out of his mouth. Additionally, pushing his hair\u00a0<br \/>\ncould make his eyes bug out. Apart from his mallet, he came with\u00a0<br \/>\na Porcuepounder\u2014a mammal mallet that\u00a0\u00a0 looks like a wrench\u2014a worm knife, a\u00a0<br \/>\nworm belt, and six worms to feed him. There was another possible reason for Wyrm not\u00a0<br \/>\nto have been adapted into the Fred Wolf cartoon. He was already a part of the Mighty\u00a0<br \/>\nMutanimals animation bible in 1992. So, it would have made more sense to\u00a0<br \/>\nintroduce him as a villain in that show. It was probably because of the existence of the\u00a0\u00a0 toy that the character was\u00a0<br \/>\nproposed in the same style. Unfortunately, the Mutanimals\u00a0<br \/>\ncartoon never materialized for\u00a0\u00a0 reasons I explained in my Mighty Mutanimals video. Earlier, I mentioned the &#8220;Lambton Worm&#8221; folk tale. The legend tells of John Lambton, a young man who\u00a0<br \/>\nskipped church to go fishing in the River Wear. Unfortunately, the only thing he\u00a0<br \/>\ncaught was some sort of unearthly worm. Thinking it evil, the young man\u00a0<br \/>\nthrew the worm into a nearby well. John would go on to join the crusades, only\u00a0<br \/>\nto return home to find it under the terror of\u00a0\u00a0 a huge mutated worm that polluted the well it\u00a0<br \/>\nwas thrown into and started eating the cattle. To defeat him, John asked a witch for advice,\u00a0<br \/>\nand she suggested he cover himself with spiked\u00a0\u00a0 armor so that the worm would end up reducing\u00a0<br \/>\nitself to shreds while trying to crush him. This very old tale has many similar\u00a0<br \/>\nthemes with &#8220;The River&#8221; trilogy. The story that Rick Veitch wrote\u00a0<br \/>\nand introduced Bloodsucker. It\u2019s very likely that Rick knew about this\u00a0<br \/>\nlegend when he wrote &#8220;The River,&#8221; which on\u00a0\u00a0 itself reminds us of how different creators could\u00a0<br \/>\ncome up with similar characters and stories. Comic book history is filled with cases of\u00a0<br \/>\ncharacters being inspired by another work. This was the case of the Swamp Thing and\u00a0<br \/>\nMan-Thing, who came out simultaneously,\u00a0\u00a0 but both were inspired by a\u00a0<br \/>\nprevious character named &#8220;The Heap.&#8221; In this case, the &#8220;Lambton Worm&#8221;\u00a0<br \/>\nlegend inspired other literary\u00a0\u00a0 works like &#8220;The Book of the Dun Cow,&#8221; and\u00a0<br \/>\nBram Stoker&#8217;s &#8220;The Lair of the White Worm.&#8221; Thanks to these stories, Ryan\u00a0<br \/>\ncame up with the name &#8220;Wyrm.&#8221; However, apart from these connections between the\u00a0\u00a0 two characters, the question\u00a0<br \/>\nabout their creation persists. Is the fan theory that Wyrm was created\u00a0<br \/>\nbecause they couldn&#8217;t use Bloodsucker&#8230; true? Well, we now know that Wyrm was created in 1987\u00a0\u00a0 as a possible antagonist for\u00a0<br \/>\nthe &#8220;Tales of the TMNT&#8221; book. This predates Bloodsucker, who\u00a0<br \/>\nappeared in the main TMNT book in 1989. Of course, Wyrm didn&#8217;t appear until 1990\u2014a\u00a0\u00a0 year after Bloodsucker\u2019s debut\u2014so Rick\u00a0<br \/>\nVeitch couldn&#8217;t have known about him. This makes me think we are looking\u00a0<br \/>\nat a Swamp Thing\/Man-Thing situation. In terms of the fan theory that suggests\u00a0<br \/>\nthat Wyrm was made in response to Mirage\u00a0\u00a0 not owning Bloodsucker\u2014this is a weak argument. &#8220;The River&#8221; trilogy was created through\u00a0<br \/>\nan informal arrangement at the time,\u00a0\u00a0 and the story was reprinted and collected\u00a0<br \/>\na few times around the world until 1992. Since the collected editions stopped that\u00a0<br \/>\nyear, it is possible that this coincided with\u00a0\u00a0 the retroactive work-for-hire contracts sent by\u00a0<br \/>\nMirage to own the stories made by other artists. By 1992 Wyrm had already appeared in\u00a0<br \/>\nthe Archie comics, and the toyline. So, his creation wasn&#8217;t a reaction\u00a0<br \/>\nto those retroactive contracts. A more interesting argument\u00a0<br \/>\nwould be that Wyrm could have\u00a0\u00a0 been created as an in-house version\u00a0<br \/>\nof Bloodsucker\u2014another weak argument. Not because Wyrm predates Bloodsucker,\u00a0\u00a0 but because most of the characters created for\u00a0<br \/>\nthe Archie comics were also not owned by Mirage. At least, not at the time. So, I don\u2019t think Wyrm should be\u00a0<br \/>\nconsidered a copy of Bloodsucker. Both characters were created independently. I couldn\u2019t find out why Wyrm was changed into a\u00a0<br \/>\nflatworm, but it was a good choice, as it helped\u00a0\u00a0 differentiate the two characters and gave Wyrm\u00a0<br \/>\nsome interesting abilities and visual attributes. Given that the Adventures book was\u00a0<br \/>\nbeing published by Archie Comics,\u00a0\u00a0 it crossed my mind that perhaps the change from\u00a0<br \/>\nleech to flatworm had to do with the Comic Code,\u00a0\u00a0 which at the time was still limiting\u00a0<br \/>\nhow graphic bloodsucking could be. However, all that Ryan could remember about this,\u00a0\u00a0 was that the comic code wasn\u2019t\u00a0<br \/>\na reason for the change. Another reason for not believing in this fan\u00a0\u00a0 theory is the lack of motivations\u00a0<br \/>\nto create a workaround character. This wasn&#8217;t a situation where the Turtles\u00a0<br \/>\nfaced similar themes or challenges. The stories with Wyrm in them are\u00a0<br \/>\nvery different from &#8220;The River.\u201d This is a different case from THE CREEP,\u00a0<br \/>\nthe character created for the 2012 cartoon. In the context of that show, it made sense to\u00a0<br \/>\nintroduce a character within a similar premise,\u00a0\u00a0 because the story and the character\u00a0<br \/>\nwere an homage to \u201cThe River.\u201d 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&#8230; see you in the sewers!<br \/>\n<br \/>\nWas Wyrm created to replace Bloodsucker? In this video, I explore the mutant\u2019s twisted origin, from canceled Mirage plans to his Archie debut, toyline weirdness, and the fan theory that won\u2019t die.<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udcc7 EPISODE 198<\/p>\n<p>\u270d\ud83c\udffb WRITTEN AND EDITED BY<br \/>\nJavier S. Montano<\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udf99\ufe0fNARRATED BY<br \/>\nIan Smith<br \/>\nFiverr: https:\/\/www.fiverr.com\/ismithbwr<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udd16 CHAPTERS<br \/>\n00:00 Behind the panels<br \/>\n01:47 Origin (Archie comics)<br \/>\n03:29 Further appearances<br \/>\n05:24 The action figure (Playmates Toys 1991)<br \/>\n07:35 Mighty Mutanimals<br \/>\n08:03 Coincidences aren&#8217;t unusual<br \/>\n09:29 Mythbusting: Was Wyrm a workaround character for Bloodsucker?<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udd17 ADDITIONAL LINKS<br \/>\nThis video uses a page from the<br \/>\nRAD PLASTIC book by @radplastic-tmnttoys6537 <\/p>\n<p>\u2764\ufe0f HOW TO SUPPORT US<br \/>\n&#8211; \ud83d\udcac COMMENT and SHARE the video with your friends!<br \/>\n&#8211; \ud83d\udc22 SUBSCRIBE (it\u2019s free!): https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/TheTurtleNexus?sub_confirmation=1<br \/>\n&#8211; \ud83d\udd14 Hit the notification bell to stay updated!<br \/>\n&#8211; \ud83e\udd4b JOIN our membership to become a sponsor: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCpQfMo27Chy_-PMFJpFSOxw\/join<br \/>\n&#8211; \ud83d\udc55 GET our merchandise here: https:\/\/theturtlenexus.myspreadshop.com<\/p>\n<p>#tmnt #teenagemutantninjaturtles #theturtlenexus #tmntcomics #tmntactionfigures<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wyrm: The Truth Behind the Myth \u2013 TMNT Comics In 1990, the Archie Adventures of the Teenage\u00a0 Mutant Ninja Turt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1824593,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[593413],"tags":[922341,922342,922343,135,943789,923815,943790,923814,99139,931008,931190,931191,943791,931192,931193,931196,931195,372911,943788,943787,943792,943793,9,923040,30213],"class_list":{"0":"post-1824592","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-2025-winter","8":"tag-2025-winter","9":"tag-2025-winter-anime","10":"tag-922343","11":"tag-anime","12":"tag-bloodsucker","13":"tag-ninja-turtles","14":"tag-ryan-brown","15":"tag-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles","16":"tag-tmnt","17":"tag-tmnt-1987","18":"tag-tmnt-87","19":"tag-tmnt-87-cartoon","20":"tag-tmnt-archie","21":"tag-tmnt-cartoon","22":"tag-tmnt-cartoon-1987","23":"tag-tmnt-neca","24":"tag-tmnt87","25":"tag-worm","26":"tag-worm-tmnt","27":"tag-wyrm","28":"tag-wyrm-archie","29":"tag-wyrm-playmates","30":"tag-9","31":"tag-923040","32":"tag-30213"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/wakoka.com\/@anime\/114525642764510021","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/anime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1824592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/anime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/anime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/anime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/anime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1824592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/anime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1824592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/anime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1824593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/anime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1824592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/anime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1824592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/anime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1824592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}