Character Spotlight: Shibano-Sama

The current run of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics by IDW is trying to more or less be the definitive TMNT story by synthesizing all the Ninja Turtles media that came before it. As such, that means it has had a ton of canon immigrants and will continue to have many more.

This week: Shibano-Sama!

Full disclosure: this entry relies on multiversal shenanigans, so is not technically a "true" canon immigrant. However, numerous previous posts will show that this blog counts these cases, since it's still a confirmation in the original property that these new characters exist in some form. Or to look at it another way, this part of the story wouldn't exist were it not for the adaptation, so it counts.

Anyway, in TMNT/Ghostbusters 2 #2 (November 2017), the teams have split off into pairs and are hopping through the multiverse in order to keep from being found by the villain of the miniseries. In one scene, Winston and Leonardo find themselves in the world of the Fred Wolf animated series from the 80s, and meet a skull-faced ghost who they quickly bust.

This skeletal spectre is the ghost of Shibano-Sama, who appeared in the episode "Blast From the Past" (1989). In the episode, we learn that Shibano was the founder of the Foot Clan, and Shredder awakens his ghost using a combination of a special scroll and Shibano's urn. However, once Splinter proves himself as the true leader of the Foot, Shibano turns on Shredder and then returns to rest.

Side note 1: Despite being a crossover, this miniseries is fully in continuity with both IDW's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and IDW's Ghostbusters. Otherwise I wouldn't have featured it.

Side note 2: Leonardo is depicted here in his 80s cartoon form, which runs counter to how dimensional travel has otherwise been depicted in the Ninja Turtles multiverse (cf. Turtles Forever or "Trans-Dimensional Turtles"). Normally the Turtles retain their design regardless of what world they're in.