Mona Lisa (IDW)

Mona Lisa is an ally of the Turtles who debuted in TMNT #101.^[2] She is one of the victims of Old Hob's mutagen bomb and thus has been confined to live in Mutant Town.

History[]

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Mona grew up with four younger brothers. She was a college student before the mutagen bomb transformed her. Since she is no longer able to attend, she spends her time helping the impoverished of Mutant Town, which includes stealing food from Mutanimals warehouses to bring back to Alopex's shelter. Jennika came to her rescue on one such occasion, and the two struck up a friendship before being forced to defend themselves from Bandit and Puggle. 101

After Sally Pride called off the goons, she took the food back to the shelter were she, Jenny, Raph and Alopex listened to Sally talk about problems with the Mutanimals. 102

Mona accompanied Sally and Jennika in their pursuit of the weasels, and seemed charmed by their childlike behavior. She was particularly outraged when it was discovered that Hob was trafficking the weasels to the Foot Clan, and helped bring them back to Alopex's shelter. She was extremely enthusiastic about meeting Donatello, having already been impressed by Raphael's ninja prowess. 103

After the four Turtle brothers reunited and returned to Mutant Town, Mona accompanied them, Alopex, Sally and Jennika to a heavy metal concert, arriving arm-in-arm with Donatello at Kennel Klub. 104

She was seen enjoying herself at Sheena's concert. Some time later she helped Donnie with the electrical wiring at the Turtles' new dōjō.105

Mona came to help Alopex with babysitting the weasels. 106 While playing with them, she told Alopex about her family. 107 In the morning, while waiting for the Turtles, they made breakfast and talked about how they could improve Mutant Town. 108

Donatello came to see her while he was renovating a derelict building in an effort to making it Mutant Town's first school. But several mutants who had been squatting in the building confronted them. Their leader, an orca named Jo, attacked Don in an attempt to force him and Mona out of the building. As Don defended against Jo with his bō, he offered to set them up with necessities and amenities, piquing their interest when he mentioned internet and electricity. As it turned out, the mutant squatters had been trying to contact their families on the outside to no avail. Jo accepted the offer and Don set up their internet. Mona went off to meet Jennika and Sheena to discuss Sheena teaching a music class at the school, and she gave Don a peck on the cheek as she left. As Mona passed the dōjō, Lita ran out and said she can't find Jenny. Mona said she was on her way to meet her and allowed Lita to tag along if she was careful, as the Kennel Klub was only "for grown-ups". Later that night in Jennika's room at the dōjō, Mona, Jenny and Sheena talked about music, unaware that an intruder had snuck by Jenny's bedroom door. 109

After her internet had been reconnected, Mona finally mustered enough courage to contact her parents, also wanting to reveal and explain her new appearance through a video call. But when they saw her as a mutant salamander, they immediately panicked and ended the call. It was then Sally came for a visit and a crying Mona ran out to hug her for much needed comfort. 111

When she and Donnie were at Aloplex’s shelter she asked about his family and was shocked to learn that Donnie and his brothers were never human and about their past lives. While Mona was in the support group, she was outraged by the fact that there were Mutanimal supporters in the group which escalated into a fight. After Mikey was accidentally poisoned by a venomous frog mutant, Mona stood by his bedside while he recovered. When everyone agreed with April's idea about nominating Sally for Mutant Town's first mayor, she offered some slogan ideas. 112

Mona was present at Sally's campaign rally when the Mutanimals attacked.119After they chased off their assailants, Alopex showed them that the Mutanimals took the kids, and everyone raided and attacked the Mutanimals' Headquarters where they confronted Hob. 120

During the winter, Mona and April were watching Baxter Stockman on the news when the Dojo was attacked by the Punk Frogs.125 After everyone got out safely before the Dojo burned to the ground, Mona offered the Turtles to stay at her place while they rebuild. She babysat Lita while the Splinter Clan and Casey went to retaliate against the Punk Frogs. 126

Personality[]

She is an upbeat and friendly young lady who described herself as a "good person." Mona is saddened by the fact that she can't see her parents, but she is very optimistic seeing her mutation as a "Once in a lifetime transformational experience". She has a soft spot for children as seen when she became very fond of three young weasel mutants and their little turtle friend and was outraged by Hob's willingness to trade them up for food and supplies to the Foot Clan. Mona is also shown to be a fan of Metal Music because she accompanied the Turtles and their other friends to the Kennel Klub for an After the Bomb concert.

Physical appearance[]

As a mutant, Mona Lisa is a slender female salamander mutant of medium height with a long tail and feathers in place of hair that is usually kept in a ponytail, and small yellow horns on the side of her face. Her scales are grey, with yellow spots and a yellow underbelly. She wears glasses with the bridge covered in tape; she uses her horns in place of ears.

Her prior human appearance has not been shown.

Powers and abilities[]

Before her mutation, she was a college student majoring in physics.

As a mutant salamander, Mona has shown she can defend herself from an assailant using her own tail.

Relationships[]

• Mona's parents: Mona bemoans not being able to see her parents in Maryland since her mutation. When she was finally able to contact with them, they hung up on her upon seeing their daughter's new mutated form; Mona was then stricken with grief.
• Turtles: She quickly befriended all of them and volunteered to show them around Mutant Town while they were setting up their new dōjō.
  • Jennika: Jennika saves Mona from a pair of mutants and chats with her. Jennika calls her theft of food from the warehouse "badass." They have become very good friends.
  • Leonardo: Mona has not been seen interacting with Leo much but but she is very cordial to him and trusts him as much as the other Turtles.
  • Raphael: Mona heard of Raphael's vigilantism before meeting him.
  • Donatello: Mona first met Donatello when Jennika introduce them. She is very impressed with Donnie's intelligence. Since their meeting, there have been moments when Mona has appeared to flirt with him, such as walking arm-in-arm with and kissing him on the cheek.
  • Michelangelo: Mona gets along well with Mikey and was concerned when Jay accidently poisoned him.
• Alopex: Mona volunteers to help provide Al with food for Al's shelter. She also thinks Al is "cute."
• Sally Pride: Sally stopped her Mutanimal subordinates Puggle and Bandit from harassing Mona, and accompanied Mona, along with the food Mona had stolen from the Mutanimals' food bank, to Al's shelter. After this, Mona and Sally had no trouble becoming friends, and Mona was present later when Sally officially quit the Mutanimals after Hob was revealed to be trafficking mutant children. When Mona's parents shunned her, Sally was there to comfort her. Mona supported the idea of Sally running for mayor of mutant town.
• Weasels: Mona was present at Al's shelter when Hob's hungry escaped weasels Zink, Zanna and Mushroom raided it for food, and also accompanied Sally and Jenny as they went after the weasels. When the weasels met and started playing with Lita and proved to be ordinary mutant kids, and also witnessed Hob as a father luring the weasels before netting them to hand over to Koya as part of a mutant trafficking sale, Mona was quick to sympathize and stand up for the weasels as innocent children. After Sally freed the weasels from Hob, Mona especially took to Zanna, carrying her in her arms as Jenny, Mona and Sally accompanied Lita and the weasels to a safe place.
• Old Hob: Mona stole food from Hob's food bank to supply Al's shelter, but he supported his subordinate Sally's decision to reprimand Puggle and Bandit and fire Diamond after they became too violent with Mona and Jenny. But Mona was later present to witness Hob and Koya trying to recover the escaped weasel daughters Hob had tried to sell to Oroku Karai; Mona promptly showing her disgust toward Hob. Also like many of the bomb victims she resents Hob for mutating her.
• Lita: Mona cares about Lita as much as she does the weasels. Likewise, Lita trusts Mona greatly.
• Puggle and Bandit: The two Mutanimals enforcers harassed Mona when they suspected she had stolen food from the Mutanimals' food bank, something she actually did do. But they were too violent with Mona, so Sally disciplined and reprimanded them.

Notes and trivia[]

• This character is an adaptation of Mona Lisa, first created by Charles M. Howell IV and the Murakami Wolf Swenson team. This version was developed by Sophie Campbell for the IDW comic books.
• A prototype of the design using a skin color closer to the original Mona Lisa was posted to Sophie Campbell's Tumblr account in 2016^[3], the design was updated^[4] based on feedback after she posted the prototype design on a fan site on July 11, 2019^[5], roughly six months before her official debut.
• This is the first adaptation of Mona Lisa who isn't in love with Raphael, instead, with Donatello.

See also[]

• Character gallery: Mona Lisa
• Appearances of Mona Lisa

References[]