Mona Lisa has appeared in several TMNT continuities, but many fans first remember her as the brown-haired mutant lizard with a pink scarf who caught Raphael’s attention in the classic cartoon.
She appears in the 1987 series’ season-four episode “Raphael Meets His Match.” That single story was enough to make her a lasting fan favorite, even though the original cartoon did not bring her back for another episode.
Peter Laird later discussed an earlier version of the concept in which Mona Lisa would have been a female mutant turtle.
He and Kevin Eastman rejected that direction, and the character became a lizard instead. That development history explains why she is sometimes discussed as a proposed “fifth Turtle,” but it does not make the familiar Mona Lisa a turtle in the finished show.
Before her mutation, she is a college physics student. A fishing trip goes wrong when Captain Filch captures her and forces her to help with his plans. While trying to sabotage the reactor aboard his vessel, she is exposed to the conditions that transform her into a mutant.
She meets Raphael at a costume party organized by a pizza entrepreneur. To get inside using his invitation, she embraces and kisses him as though they are a couple. Raphael is left intrigued by the mysterious lizard girl who has not even told him her name.
Filch attacks the party’s yacht and takes its passengers captive. Mona Lisa later tells April and Vernon how she was transformed and why she wants to stop him. With the Turtles’ help, she defeats the pirate. Her episode ends with pizza in the sewers, leaving fans to wonder what became of her afterward.
The 2012 cartoon introduces a very different Mona Lisa in season four’s “The Moons of Thalos 3,” during the Turtles’ space adventures and conflict with the Triceratons.
A Triceraton attack leaves the Fugitoid’s ship and a vessel carrying two Salamandrians stranded on an icy moon. The Salamandrians initially mistake the Turtles for allies of their enemies and attack.
Raphael is impressed by the female warrior’s strength and skill. He seeks her out and persuades the Salamandrians to cooperate so both crews can repair their ships. She introduces herself as Y’Gythgba. Raphael gives her the name Mona Lisa, after the beautiful painting. Their attraction soon becomes obvious to everyone around them.
She returns as an important ally in stories including “The Evil of Dregg,” “The War for Dimension X,” and “When Worlds Collide.” Raphael also thinks of her in other episodes, through a hallucination or comparisons with another skilled fighter.
This Mona Lisa has military training, considerable strength, and experience piloting spacecraft. Her equipment includes a plasma sword, wrist weapons, and explosive blades, while her spiked tail is useful at close range.
IDW’s Mona Lisa first appears in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #101, at the start of the Reborn era. She is one of the people transformed by Old Hob’s mutagen bomb during “City at War,” an attack shown in issue #98. Her new circumstances leave her living in Mutant Town.
She is friendly and upbeat, but being separated from her parents causes real pain. She tries to treat the mutation as a transformative experience and helps vulnerable neighbors find food.
Before the bomb, she was a college student specializing in physics. Her intelligence survives the change even though her body now resembles a salamander. She is not trained like her animated warrior counterpart, but she can use her tail to defend herself.
Jennika and Alopex become close friends. She also gets along with Michelangelo and respects Raphael’s efforts to protect Mutant Town. After Jennika introduces her to Donatello, his intelligence catches her attention.
Her 1993 Playmates figure belongs to the later part of the vintage line, when generic card designs had replaced much of the character-specific packaging artwork. Fans have since imagined illustrated card backs that give her the same treatment as earlier releases.
The figure differs from the cartoon, with black hair, an orange neck covering, a belt, and darker green skin. Its pink accessories are another distinctive part of the original release, though their color alone does not establish who was expected to buy it.
The 2012 incarnation also appears as a HeroClix miniature. This collectible tactical game brings characters from different licensed series into team-based tabletop battles, including several TMNT lines.
Mona Lisa is playable in the mobile game TMNT: Mutant Madness, giving the classic character another appearance beyond the episode that introduced her.