When it comes to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' enemies, you don't get a bigger bad guy than the Shredder. The man formerly known as Oroku Saki has been a thorn in the Turtles' side ever since the characters debuted in 1984.
However, he didn't reach his most powerful level of villainy until 1991's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze. After being subjected to Vanilla Ice's "Ninja Rap," he realized he was no longer the best rogue in the room so he consumed mutagen, aka the ooze, turning himself into the mighty Super Shredder.
Played by WWE and WCW alumnus "Big Sexy" Kevin Nash, this monstrous version of the character was larger than life and featured more metal than a Judas Priest concert. Shredder has been a snazzy dresser with his lush combinations of purples and reds interspersed delicately among the chrome, but this timeless outfit put him straight on Vogue's radar.
Sadly, his self-inflicted defeat was straight out of the Bebop and Rocksteady playbook. Unsatisfied by smashing the Turtles around under the pier like a giant ogre, he attacked the pillars in a fit of rage. Naturally, the pier collapsed on him, proving that while his strength and size increased, his brain didn't.
Super Shredder's movie debut might've been anticlimactic, but he made such an impression that he appeared in the animated series, toylines and video games in subsequent years. In fact, Super Shredder served as a formidable boss in the games Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time.
This time around, however, Super Shredder came armed with way more than Braun Strowman's limited move set. This version of the character had the power of Thor to summon lightning, hurled fireballs like Liu Kang, moved around the screen like the Flash and possessed the horrifying ability to de-mutate the Turtles. Facing off against the beast known as Super Shredder cost players numerous lives and required them to develop a sound strategy to avoid his powerful attacks.
Expectedly, Super Shredder's video game powers were over the top and outrageous, and made fans question just how strong he, and the ooze he consumed, really were. While the audience discovered how it could turn animals, and the combination of animal and human, into anthropomorphic creatures, Super Shredder demonstrated the impact on sole humans.
If Shredder had just grown a tad bigger and developed more muscles, the mutagen would nothing more than a steroid or growth hormone. But because he became super-sized, super-shredded and blessed with super-speed and superpowers, Shredder clearly wasn't an ordinary man anymore; he became the next step in evolution combined with a healthy dose of elemental powers.
That being said, no one knows how long Super Shredder can stay in that condition. It could be permanent, temporary or his heart could give up on him being that size after a few weeks. Without that piece of information, it's hard to grasp just how formidable an opponent this version of the character really is, even with fireball and lightning attacks thrown in the mix.
Almost 30 years after his debut, Super Shredder remains one of TMNT's most powerful characters, and what makes him even better and more appreciated is that he's been used sparingly throughout the years. All things considered, Super Shredder is one of the franchise's shining villains and deserves another go at his least favorite turtles.