Michelangelo (IDW)

In the IDW Comics Michelangelo, just like his brothers, is a reincarnation of one of the sons of  that in medieval Japan were murdered by. He began his new life in the present as a water turtle hatchling in the laboratory of StockGen Research, Inc., 's genetics laboratory where he served as a guinea pig for an experiment to bred naturally armored super-soldiers. Some tried, to seize the Turtles and various other research results from the laboratory, including a super soldier mutagen. The intervention of his also reborn father, now a lab rat, resulted in the turtles and Splinter being were wetted with a chemical cocktail which eventually made them mutants.

In the fifteen months that followed, Michelangelo was extensively trained by Splinter in ninjutsu, with nunchaku as his personal weapons. Along with Donatello and Leonardo, he searched the alleys and rooftops of New York for their fourth brother, Raphael, who had been separated from them during the mutation process. Shortly after finding him, Michelangelo was given an orange mask as a sign of his individuality.

Despite initially clashing with the larger Turtle, he befriended the mutant snapping turtle Slash, who admired him as a hero and was given candy by him. When journeying to Dimension X with his brothers, Michelangelo developed a crush on the Neutrino princess Trib, and served as her personal bodyguard and rescuer during the war with Krang.

Michelangelo also found himself having to hold his family together during the City Fall storyline, where he forced a guilt-stricken Raphael to work with him and Donatello as a team.

When Leonardo was recovered and struggling to overcome his Foot brainwashing, Michelangelo wrote that they would have to take care of his brother because he couldn't do it himself anymore. To reunite his family, he began roasting hot dogs over a campfire, attracting the others with the smell. When Koya and Foot assassins attacked the Northampton house, he defeated the mutant hawk by driving a motorcycle into her.

During the Turtles in Time story, he flew on a pterosaur, became a pirate captain, and encountered his mother Tang Shen - and his own baby self - in the past.

He participated in the attack on the Technodrome along with his brothers Leonardo and Raphael, where they fought Krang. However, he was devastated upon returning back to New York, where a dying Donatello was barely saved by the Fugitoid while Michelangelo prayed outside. He was somewhat relieved when Donatello's soul was moved to the Metalhead body, and remained confident that Honeycutt could return Donatello's mind to his body, and that all would be well again.

Michelangelo was initially horrified when Splinter entered his family into the Gauntlet, an ancient ritual that would end the bloody conflict between them and the Foot. He was assigned Bebop as an opponent, and he and Raphael used their agility and ingenuity to pit Bebop and Rocksteady against one another. He participated in the final fight against Shredder along with his brothers, with his father as the victor.

However, when Splinter accepted leadership of the Foot Clan, Michelangelo rejected the idea of having anything to do with the organization. He fled into the night and spent the following days living on the street, where he sought to fight crime with his skills. Raphael kept in contact with him during this time, assuring him that he knew how hard it was to be homeless, and that Michelangelo would always have a home with them. Though Michelangelo put on a brave front, this estrangement from his family - and especially his father - took a severe toll on him.

It was during this time that he was tracked down by his friend , who offered him a place among the Mighty Mutanimals. Despite some initial reluctance, Michelangelo accepted and quickly became friendly with the Mutanimals, but soon became suspicious of Old Hob. He discovered that Hob,   and  Herman  were secretly hoarding large amounts of heavy weaponry without the knowledge of the other Mutanimals, who believed the weapons they'd been seizing were being destroyed. The trio had also jailbroken and recruited   to manage their weapons and sell off surplus for profit. This caused a rift to form within the group, and inspired doubts about Hob's leadership. Hob informed Michelangelo that he would never forgive or forget what he had done.

Michelangelo and Slash both left the group. Michelangelo decided to move back into the wrecked lair under the old church, and offered Slash a home there if he wished, but the snapping turtle declined the offer and set out to be his own master for a time. Saddened, Michelangelo cleaned up the lair and made it livable for himself once again, only to be surprised by the arrival of his brothers with a pizza. They offered him a trip with them to Burnow Island, devoid of Foot Clan business, and he happily accepted.

However, the trip proved to be a difficult one as they encountered the hostile mutant Leatherhead, who nearly suffocated and crushed Michelangelo as a way of making Donatello teleport him to New York. And upon returning to the Foot Clan headquarters, he was horrified to see Kitsune threatening his father's life. He attacked the witch to save Splinter, only to have his mind ensnared by her.

He attempted to reconcile with his family during the Chasing Phantoms arc, but was put off by the increasingly cold and impersonal tone of the meetings Splinter presided over, leaving for the old lair once again. Raphael initially told him that it was time for him to reunite with the rest of his family. But upon Splinter's execution of Darius Dun, his brothers changed their mind and decided to leave the Foot for good, joining Michelangelo at the old lair.

During the days that followed, Michelangelo organized a rather erratic Christmas party, fought the mutant flatworm aggregate Wyrm, and was the only one of Donatello's brothers to defend "Metal-Don."

He returned to Dimension X with his brothers in the Trial of Krang story arc, in which he met Princess Trib once again before setting out on a complicated quest to find and bring back key witnesses. During the trial, he participated in the defense of the Neutrino homeworld from the Malignoid swarm.

Personality
In this version Michelangelo appears less childish than in previous incarnations; and is quite a glutton with a special fondness for pizza. Through this passion and his cheerful nature he makes best friends with the pizza delivery boy Woody Dirkins, despite a brief rift after Slash attacked Woody and frightened him off. Woody is one of several friends that Michelangelo makes over the course of the series, such as Slash, Tribble, Mondo Gecko, Pete, and various other characters.

His positive, compassionate, open-hearted personality causes Splinter to characterize him as a "bright light that shone unceasingly through so much darkness." He tends to think positively even of people such as Old Hob, whom he once speculated might become a good guy. He is highly idealistic, and due to his love of comic books, he sometimes dreams of being a crime-fighting hero.

He also serves as a peacemaker within the structure of his family. He often intervenes when a fight breaks out among his brothers, reminding them of what is important, and has successfully grounded Raphael when the latter was raging out of guilt. His ideas for bringing his family together can be very simple (such as roasting hot dogs) but typically work well.

He also demonstrated over the course of the series the ability to speak and read Japanese fluently - an ability that is not shared by his brothers - and thus is capable of translating the Ashi no Himitsu without any trouble.

Trivia

 * It is revealed in Issue #30, that Mikey is left-handed. This is shown when he writes a letter to Woody.
 * After the events of Issue #50, Michelangelo begins using a grappling hook as a weapon, and he retains this item even after he is given a new pair of nunchucks. This reflects Michelangelo's change of weapon in the 1987 series, when his nunchucks were written out due to censorship.
 * It has been mentioned a few times in the comic book series, that Mikey both reads and collects comic books, and it is shown in issue #67, that his collection consists of Batman, Spider-Man, and The Incredible Hulk comics. The view of his bedroom in Issue #65 reveals that he also collects the manga Akira.
 * In issue #22, Mikey can be seen with a copy of the comic book, "After the Fire 100 Page Spectacular 2012".
 * In issue #39, it is shown that Mikey cooks breakfast for the rest of the Turtles and Splinter; however, he is not a very good cook, as when he tried to make scrambled eggs and toast, he wound up burning the toast and dropping the eggs.
 * In "The Secret History of the Foot Clan, Part 4", it is revealed that Mikey can read and speak Japanese.

Gallery
Michelangelo (IDW)/Gallery Michelangelo