Why must Baxter Stockman always end up mutated or mutilated?
 

Does anyone else feel the idea of Baxter Stockman always ending up mutated or mutilated has become tiresome?

So many verions of him always end up turned into a fly, trapped in time, crash in a spacecraft onto a planet with giant insects, or end up mutilated and having to rely on a robot exoskeleton or whatever.

Why can't he just more often stay human, as a cool bad-guy scientist with dangerous inventions. Unlike many other antagonist-scientists, who usually come up with silly ideas, he could've been like John Bishop (but with other motives).

Well it didn't happen in the PD movies... And never will due to logical consequences.

Human Baxter doesn't sell toys.

IDW's Baxter has surprisingly remained human since 2011 till now, over 6 years. I keep expecting something to happen to IDW Baxter but it never does.

Bobby doesn't want to mutate/cyborg Baxter. For which I am eternally grateful.

Gimmick Baxter bores me; human Baxter fascinates me.

That is reassuring. It is more of a shock to keep him human from start to finish. It would seem like the opposite, but as soon Baxter Stockman shows up it is a countdown to something happening to him. It is like whenever Gwen Stacy shows up everyone expects her to die. It is original to let her live. Spider-Man 3 did that. She lived and had a romance with Eddie Brock, a character created 13 years after her death. It was original for another direction ro hapoen fir her. IDW keeping Baxter normal has the same effect. It gives us the unexpected by not acting on the cliche that is attached to the character. I like mutant fly Baxter Stockman, but I want to explore Baxter Stockman and the way to do that is not physically transform him

I've always thought that sort of thing to be poetic justice for the "mad scientist" tropes.

i'm 100% on board with keeping IDW Baxter human.

he's such an awesome character as is.
i really hate to draw comparisons between characters of different properties, but Baxter Stockman almost feels like the Lex Luthor of the IDW Universe.
a criminal genius, who will fight alongside an enemy against the greater evil, but you JUST can't really trust him.
he's definitely one of the more compelling villains in the IDW series.

to mutate of mutilate his character would be such a waste of potential.

He suffers, therefore he is.

Baxter Stockman is most certainly at his best in IDW. The mutation/"cyborgificatoin" is done away with with his Flyborgs.

In most of the "mainstream" versions, he's a snivelling bootlicker with confidence issues, and that just doesn't make for a very fun character.

But his conniving and autonomy makes him a more real threat to the turtles, and even his apparent disregard for the survival of humanity while working for Krang solidifies that he would be a difficult force to work with, even if he's not a "true" antagonist in the league of Shredder and Krang.

Lex Luthor is actually a pretty fitting comparison.

Yeah the father-son relationship in the Baxter micro-series reminds me of something that could have occurred with Lex and Lionel Luther in an episode of Smallville.

You know I'm personally okay with Cyborg Baxter/Exoskeleton Baxter, in a world where everyone and their grandma is either a ninja, a street punk, a mobster, or some sort of alien its a good idea to make sure you can handle yourself in a scrape. Hell even Lex Luthor has an exoskeleton and Doom himself punched a lion. Though I do agree with Utrommaniac in that it would be more interesting if he was his own man instead of kiss ass mcgee

Vehicles
 

He could invent vehicles and other stuff who could sell toys. For example, he invented the Knucklehead-robot right before he became a fly.

While we don't know for sure if IDW Baxter will remain perfectly normal (Bobby might not remain the editor for the entire run), I am pretty pleased with how he's characterised and I'm not sitting here thinking "oh man, when's he gonna turn cyborg?". That's the mark of a well written character, no need for gimmicks.

And if you're really hoping he'll turn into a cyborg, I guess this is close enough.
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rTvJlNs1j.../s1600/003.jpg

Which issue is that from?

I love that exchange, there's some serious sass going on. XD

TMNT Universe #2

Now that I think about it, he does occasionally give the impression of sucking up to Krang, with reverse psychology but as a means to his own ends. But you know...by that point, Krang knows what that looks like and gets ahead quickly :lol: .

Not yet. They set it up for a sequel which probably won't be made. Remember at the end of the second movie he was taken away to a lab.

Because he is trying to kill me and destroy my orrganization. But because he is useful to me i dont kill and i punish him by either mutating him or make him a cyborg. And i will continue doing it forever unless he decides to be on my side!

Baxter became a disembodied brain inside a robot in Mirage because he could then pose a physical threat to the Turtles as well as begin the plot point with the nanobots inside April that began in Vol. 2 and paid off in Vol. 4.

Baxter became a mutant fly in Fred Wolf because toys. And the Goldblum movie.

Baxter became a lot of cyborg incarnations in 4Kids because that's what Mirage did.

Baxter became a mutant fly in Nick because Fred Wolf.

Baxter almost became a fly in IDW but didn't because Nick beat them to the punch and stole their thunder (probably).

Baxter probably would have become a fly in the PD movies if they'd been given another movie. Because Fred Wolf.