Most people know Baxter as "The Fly Guy" ... The nerdy inventor of Shredder's Mouser robots who inadvertantly cross-mutated with a fly. He caused a commotion in more than a few episodes of the animated series -- both as a fly and as a human. What you may not know is that Baxter Stockman was the second villain the TMNT ever fought, he was April's boss, and he was Black....

Yes, the character debuted in Mirage TMNT Vol. 1, #2. The deranged inventor designed rodent-killing machines called Mousers (with the help of his computer programmer April O'Neil). Unfortunately, the lunatic was using the robots to burrow into the vaults of banks across Manhattan, bringing back every cent to his pockets.

Of course, April knew nothing of this, but when she discovered the truth, she was astonished -- he could make millions legitamately. Why would he resort to stealing it all? "Because it's FUN!"

So, he set the Mousers on April, who tried to escape through the sewer tunnels she'd been dumped in. Just as they were about to do her in, the Turtles came to her rescue. Putting Stockman out of commission was easy for the Turtles, but he had set the Mouser controls to destroy the entire building. It was a race against the clock to get them reprogrammed, but Donatello did it with a lot of help from April. Baxter was taken into custody, and never heard from again....

Never heard from again until Volume 2, that is. A few years later, the Turtles had settled into the apartment complex that April and Casey owned. It was during that time that April had begun to have nightmares about the Mousers devouring her. Far off in the desert, a DARPA labratory was being infiltrated by a deranged scientist... Stockman.

He was ready for revenge. Revenge on the Turtles and revenge on April...

Baxter Stockman was also a major part of the animated series. As I mentioned before, he was a nerdy white guy who created the Mousers. But under Shredder's orders, programmed them to seek out and destroy Splinter -- as well as steal anything with value. Krang allowed the Turtles to terminate the Mouser controls, in order to get Shredder to focus on what was important -- making him a body. Time after time, Shredder and Krang failed at their goal of world domination, and were sucked into Dimension X.

Krang sent Shredder back to Earth to fulfill his need to kill the Turtles, but refused to send him the brute mutants Bebop and Rocksteady. Shredder's only choice was to break Stockman out of an asylum. Again, their antics failed, and finally Krang decided to send Bebop and Rocksteady back to Shredder... in return for Stockman.

Krang planned to execute Stockman, but a fly had followed him into the incinerator. A malfunction occured and thus was born Baxter Fly. The confused quasi-genius who ended up blasting himself to limbo.

Somehow, Baxter made it back to Earth, wandering the catacombs deep beneath the streets of Manhattan. At an archaeological site, he came across an alien computer, which was his only companion. Together they were banished back to limbo, and again made it back to Earth. This time, the computer had to be free, and used Baxter to get what he wanted... namely world domination via Channel 6 satellite. Of course, it didn't work and the computer was destroyed in the process. Baxter was left alone.

Baxter Stockman also appeared in the Archie Adventure Series comics books which featured storylines for the cartoons. He was also part of the cast in the Coming Out of Their Shells music tour in 1990, and the Fly version of the character was released as an action figure in 1989.