TMNT;1st Image storyarc questions

[Panda_Kahn_fan]

(Mods, please move this thread if it's in the wrong place)

Hey everybody, as many of you know, whuile I'm not the biggest fan of 80% of the Mirage comics, I did greatly enjoy the image run of the comics. As a result, I'm going to attempt to do a loose retelling of my favorite story, the dragonlord arc (combined with elements from the Dragonlord and his rank army from TNM). Although I've read the story multiple times, I did have some questions in regards to it's significance to the larger Mirage canon;

Pimiko; I know she's shredder's daughter, but does that aspect have any bearing on the rest of the Mirage run? It doesn't really seem to play an important role in this story, outside of getting her to betray Komodo, which is a plot element I'm dropping. I will keep her Shredder's daughter though, just use it differently.

Dragon lord and King Komodo; what's the real difference between these two? Both are giant Komodo mutants, I simply see king komodo as superfluous when his attributes could be transferred onto dragonlord.

Mako, Weasel, donie's injuries... are these integral elements to the story? Donnie's just went through this aspect in the metalhead arc, and it'd feel like a retread.

Ultimately, I need to figure out if I'm going to do an adaptation, or use the characters for an original story. Thanks for your help!