Is 4Kid's Michelangelo the worst iteration of the character?

[Donnie]

I wish that piece was considered canon, Jester! I guess it could be in our little hearts? I loved when Mikey talked history (as I'm a history teacher for hire!) and my favorite Tales v.2 issue was definitely #30, a fine mix of Mikey's historical fiction and fantasy!

[Ulisa]

While 2k3 Mikey is not my favorite version (that belongs to OT Mikey all the way) I do find him to be an intriguing version of the character. I did find some of his tactics annoying but nothing that really made me "hate" his character.

I actually also like the fact they made him fearful at times. I think they overplayed it but in some instances, I think it made a lot of sense. Case in point, "Notes from the Underground" and "Darkness Within." Although a lot of people thought Mikey came across as a chicken in "Notes from the Underground" given his love of comics and monster movies, I think it made a lot of sense for him to fear monsters.

Too often, I think the Turtles come across as these fearless warriors who will charge into anything. As much as I also like that view, I think giving them realistic fears and having them react accordingly, adds more depth to them. Seeing Mikey afraid for 2 episodes straight then harden his backbone in episode 3 to fight against this thing he was afraid of, made him come off as even more courageous to me than if he had charged in without any hesitation.

As corny as it sounds, I am a firm believer in "courage is mastery of fear, not absense of it" when it comes to writing characters. Having them have to "build up" the courage to face something is also something I find very realistic.

That aside, his bragging on the tournament did get monotonous. I think it would have worked better to have him be cocky about it for a bit, maybe have "Grudge Match" knock him out of that state. That would have made sense to me. However, like I said earlier, it doesn't make me HATE him.

As for my personal hated version of Mikey? Well, I really don't have one. I like all versions of him, for different reasons. It's pretty hard to make me HATE a character. However, if I was to pick the version that I like the least, it would be 2k7 Mikey, though only for the reasoning that we didn't see much of him. I would have liked to get more depth on him and Donny in that movie. I really like Mikey with blue eyes, dunno why and the fact that he leapt up to hug Leo when he came back, I thought was pretty sweet, given I view Mikey as the most sensitive and emotional of the turtles.

Just my two cents.
Ulisa

[Donnie]

Originally Posted by Ulisa

I actually also like the fact they made him fearful at times. I think they overplayed it but in some instances, I think it made a lot of sense. Case in point, "Notes from the Underground" and "Darkness Within." Although a lot of people thought Mikey came across as a chicken in "Notes from the Underground" given his love of comics and monster movies, I think it made a lot of sense for him to fear monsters.

Too often, I think the Turtles come across as these fearless warriors who will charge into anything. As much as I also like that view, I think giving them realistic fears and having them react accordingly, adds more depth to them. Seeing Mikey afraid for 2 episodes straight then harden his backbone in episode 3 to fight against this thing he was afraid of, made him come off as even more courageous to me than if he had charged in without any hesitation.

As corny as it sounds, I am a firm believer in "courage is mastery of fear, not absense of it" when it comes to writing characters. Having them have to "build up" the courage to face something is also something I find very realistic.

Agreed!
!!!!

[Herald7]

Originally Posted by Sage Ninja

I really like OT Michaelangelo, and I think he is some what set apart from the more serious versions of Michaelangelo in the sence that, I don't get the "I'm the baby of the group" vibe off of him in this medium of the turtles. Most mediums seem to try to set Michaelangelo up as the baby of the group by giving him characteristics of the youngest, like annoying your older siblings and being some what vulnerable and helpless which sort of puts him in a less than equal position to the other turtles.

Yeah I get what you're saying. OT Michelangelo to me isn't really less immature so much as he is more innocent and unassuming. His priorities are just different. Part of the standard "surfer dude" persona is being more concerned about when the next wave is coming, rather than the normal, stress inducing cares of the world.

[CyberCubed]

OT Michaelangelo is one of the best incarnations of his character. Aside from his pizza addiction, he's probably the most laid back version of the character.

You ever notice OT Mikey rarely made jokes, most likely because Raph was the comic relief? So Mike was basically just the laid-back dude.

[Avatar Yuffie]

Originally Posted by Sage Ninja

well you see personaly I think old toon treated Michaelangelo better as a character than some of the more "serious" mediums of the franchise does. Because even though the old toon was sillier more light hearted version of the franchise, Michaelangelo actually fit the context of that medium. He may had been silly sometiems and had the lable of "the party dude" slapped on him but he was no more sillier than the other turtles.

I feel as if in the old toon he was just as important to the plots as the other four and wasn't ranks of imporatance on the turtles in the orginal toon, as there seems to be in the serious mediums of the franchise. OT Michaelangelo wasn't detached from what was going on around him and reacted to it and was involved. Often times in the more serious mediums I feel they make Mikey's too detached from the more serious stuff and try too hard to make him the "comic relief" to off set the darker events which makes him seem detached from what is going on by having him cracking jokes, making it seem that is all there is to his character.

I really like OT Michaelangelo, and I think he is some what set apart from the more serious versions of Michaelangelo in the sence that, I don't get the "I'm the baby of the group" vibe off of him in this medium of the turtles. Most mediums seem to try to set Michaelangelo up as the baby of the group by giving him characteristics of the youngest, like annoying your older siblings and being some what vulnerable and helpless which sort of puts him in a less than equal position to the other turtles. In the classic toon he's not exactly immature just more into indulging fun stuff and he never purposely tries to annoy the other turtles.

What I like about OT Mike is that his humourous side wasn't forced. He doesn't try to be the funny guy and his mostly funny momemts are do to his mannerisms. And I don't think Michaelangelo in the old toon was flakey I think his priorites where just diffirent from the other turtles. But what I really appriciated about his character is that the show let him progress with the story. When Red Sky came along and the the plots and turtles became more serious, so did he. The writters didn't try to play him down and or make him more wacky to off set the more serious tone the show had taken to "balance things out". The writters actually treated his character with respect and realized he was just as much apart of the TMNt as the three turtles and let him evolve and and toughen up just like the other turtles. I'm not to found of Red Sky but at least when the show made the turn around they let Michaelangelo progress (with out changing his over all personality) with it instead forceing him to be the clown and comic relief. Which more than more "serious" and "dark" versions of TMNT has given him.

Wow, Sage, that's Fridge Brilliance, right there.

Also, that comic's awesome, Jester.

[Donnie]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

OT Michaelangelo is one of the best incarnations of his character. Aside from his pizza addiction, he's probably the most laid back version of the character.

You ever notice OT Mikey rarely made jokes, most likely because Raph was the comic relief? So Mike was basically just the laid-back dude.

OT Mike is great, but not all of us are into surfer-slang. That's why I would rate him toward the lower end of Mike's, not because he was written badly or anything, he was a great character - the surfer-slang just isn't my bag.

It seems from this poll that more people agree with me than not, I wonder where they all have been hiding? I felt like I was alone in defending 2k3 Mike, and now it's turned into an OT Mike lovefest. Which is still cool, haha.

[Herald7]

Originally Posted by Donnie

It seems from this poll that more people agree with me than not, I wonder where they all have been hiding? I felt like I was alone in defending 2k3 Mike, and now it's turned into an OT Mike lovefest.

Mondo bizarro, dude.

[Donnie]

Originally Posted by Herald7

Mondo bizarro, dude.

Exxxactly.

[Konchadunga]

No; he's not.

[Donnie]

Originally Posted by Konchadunga

No; he's not.

Forgot about that horror show. 2k7 CGI Mikey is no longer at the bottom of my list!

[Redeemer]

Watched "Grudge Match" from season 4 of 2k3 series.

Got a whole new appreciation for Mikey. I hated how cowardly he was even when Leo was helping him, but when he realized what was happening he got pissed and went beast mode!!!!!! Favorite Mikey ep of all time now

[BubblyShell22]

Yes, he did redeem himself in Grudge Match at that time. He stepped it up and beat Kluh just as he should have. Too bad he forgets his lessons throughout the series.

[Donnie]

Originally Posted by Redeemer

Watched "Grudge Match" from season 4 of 2k3 series.

Got a whole new appreciation for Mikey. I hated how cowardly he was even when Leo was helping him, but when he realized what was happening he got pissed and went beast mode!!!!!! Favorite Mikey ep of all time now

Yep, "Grudge Match" is the best Mikey episode! I love it. He totally owns that dude. It was very violent too, Mikey takes quite the beating at first. It almost hurt to watch!

I don't think he was being cowardly really...he tried to push it off...I don't blame him. It's not like he had a personal vendetta with Kluh, Kluh just randomly provoked violence out of pride - I wouldn't want anything to do with a fight like that either! What matters most is how he truly proved himself in the end by knocking the snot out of that big waste.

Originally Posted by BubblyShell22

Yes, he did redeem himself in Grudge Match at that time. He stepped it up and beat Kluh just as he should have. Too bad he forgets his lessons throughout the series.

What lesson was he supposed to learn? Always be ready for a fight? That's contradictory to Mikey's character in itself, at least in the 2k3. I like how he didn't always learn a "lesson" - he's the most humanized of the four, showing that mistakes sometimes happen, but there are ways to overcome or get around them. Once you overcome that mistake, more will surely follow, regardless if you learned a "lesson" during that exact time or whatever. Nobody's perfect! Or should I say pobody's nerfect?

[Redeemer]

Originally Posted by Donnie

What lesson was he supposed to learn?

Take training seriously and to always practice

[Ninja Tiptup]

So we're just mostly ignoring Next Mutation I take it?

4Kids Mikey had his faults and the writers tried too hard to make him comic relief but I still liked him.

[Spitfire]

You could argue he was the only character in the series that acted close to his OT counter parts, which was actually addressed in Turtles Forever. He seemed even more ridiculous in contrast to everything that was happening. He acted no worse then any of the OT turtles and argue all you want but they weren't very funny either.

The problem with Mikey in this series is they needed a comic relief character and he'd since been branded as the jokester of the group, everyone seems to prefer Raph as the angry one. It was a kids series so when it came to shoe horning in lame jokes Mikey was the one to do them. I can see Laird fought a lot of the Mikey humor but only so much could be done.

[ToTheNines]

Originally Posted by Spitfire

The problem with Mikey in this series is they needed a comic relief character and he'd since been branded as the jokester of the group, everyone seems to prefer Raph as the angry one. It was a kids series so when it came to shoe horning in lame jokes Mikey was the one to do them. I can see Laird fought a lot of the Mikey humor but only so much could be done.

Laird might have nipped some bad jokes in the bud, but he never let anyone else share the "comic relief load". If a writer had Leo making a joke, Pete would comment on it and say "that's more of a Mikey line".

Seen it a couple of times.

[Jester]

I've seen it too many times.

Just because Mikey is the MOST lighthearted, doesn't mean he's the only one who can crack a joke.

And one off things really are hard to gauge. All of the Turtles suffer in Turtle Tunes/Christmas. It takes that critical "They're all the same, except their masks and weapons" and runs with it...HARD. I mean, if they had made this "Mirage-esque" could anyone really tell who was who?

[ToTheNines]

Originally Posted by Jester

Just because Mikey is the MOST lighthearted, doesn't mean he's the only one who can crack a joke.

This is a big reason why the live-action movies and the Image run are probably my favorite universes.