Morton Koopa Jr.

Morton Koopa Jr., also known simply as Morton, is a recurring antagonist in the  series. He makes a minor appearance in the short-lived A Super Mario World series.

Character description
Morton Koopa Jr. is one of the Koopalings, a clan of seven young siblings that act as leaders of the Koopa Troop under Bowser, who they were originally considered to be the children of. Like the rest of his siblings, he first appeared in Super Mario Bros. 3 to help Bowser take over the Mushroom World. He appears as the boss of Desert Land, where he jumps around and uses his wand to shoot magical projectiles at Mario/Luigi, but he can be defeated by being jumped on three times, though he can also defend himself by performing a spinning attack in his shell after being jumped on. Like with his siblings, his status as a boss character would continue with Super Mario World, as well as the New Super Mario Bros. games that would eventually follow.

Morton stands out among his siblings because of his darker skin coloration and his white head with a star painted on the left side. He is depicted as the "average" Koopaling, usually possessing no noteworthy special abilities or quirks. Similarly to Roy Koopa, he is also quite big compared to his brothers, often using his girth to pound the ground and stun his opponents. Despite this, he is also the second youngest of the Koopalings. Morton is named after famed talk show host and singer-songwriter Morton Downey, Jr. This is the reason for the "Jr." at the end of his name, which was a point of confusion when he was first introduced as one of Bowser's children. No in-universe explanation of his name was provided at the time, though the editors of the magazine Nintendo Power once claimed that when they asked Bowser why Morton Koopa was called "Jr.", he denied having any sons, then pelted them with Bob-ombs until they left.

In A Super Mario World
Morton appears in the McLeodGaming cartoon A Super Mario World, where he briefly appears in the first episode as a giant monster after Mario kills several other minions of Bowser with the Master Sword. As soon as he appears, Mario flies around him and performs several slashes with the blade, killing him quickly. Oddly, he roars like Godzilla.