Leonardo, commonly nicknamed Leo, is a superhero appearing in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics and related media, and created by American comic book artists Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. He is one of the main characters of the franchise, along with his brothers, Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo. Leonardo is commonly depicted as the leader and strategist of the turtles.
Often shown wearing an ocean blue bandana, his signature weapons are a pair of swords (named katanas in many versions of the series). He is traditionally portrayed as the most mature and disciplined of the Turtles, displaying a stoic demeanor and a strong sense of responsibility. Like his brothers, he is named after an Italian Renaissance artist, in this case Leonardo da Vinci. In the original comics, all four of the Turtles wear red masks, but for the creators to tell them apart, he was written and redrawn to have an ocean-blue mask.
Comics Mirage Leo is the protagonist of the comics. He does not explicitly refer to himself as a leader in the early stories, except in issue #44 ("The Violent Underground"). He is the one to usually take charge of the turtles when Splinter is not present. He is often at odds with his more hot-headed brother Raphael.
In Leonardo #1 (What Goes Around... ...Comes Around!), Leo goes out for a run on the rooftops of New York City and is ambushed by the Foot Clan. He puts up a fight against an army of Foot Ninja but is overwhelmed. Beaten to near unconsciousness, he is thrown through April O'Neil's apartment window. The remaining Turtles and Splinter are forced to continue the fight, but even with the aid of Casey Jones, the odds are against them. In the end, the building catches fire and the police arrive, but they secretly escape to Northampton, Massachusetts. Leonardo recovers from his physical wounds, but he lost his confidence. He repeatedly attempts unsuccessfully to hunt for deer. While out hunting, he sees April fall through ice into a lake, and he rescues her. In subsequent issues, it is implied that Leonardo has regained most of his confidence.
In the Return to New York storyline (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (vol. 1) #19-21), Raphael demands that the Turtles return to New York to confront the Foot Clan and Shredder. He accuses Leonardo of cowardice, and the arguing brothers fight. Leonardo is beaten by Raphael, who throws Leonardo through the wall of the barn and leaves. Along with his younger brother Donatello and his youngest brother Michelangelo, Leonardo returns to New York and reunites with his wayward brother in the old sewer lair. The three go along with Raphael's plan to storm the Foot Headquarters, where once again Raphael goes off on his own to fight Shredder. He is ambushed and beaten by Shredder's Elite guard but is rescued by Leonardo. This prompts Raphael to cede to Leonardo's leadership, leaving him to fight Shredder. Leonardo engages in a bloody battle with Shredder that ends up on the rooftop of the building. Leonardo ends the battle by decapitating Shredder just as the building implodes. The Turtles later burn Shredder's corpse on a funeral pyre in a nearby Manhattan harbor.
In the City at War storyline (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (vol. 1) #50-62), a feud between various factions of the Foot Clan over leadership breaks out. As fighting ensues in the streets of New York, the Turtles and the civilian populace get caught in the middle. Leonardo grows weary of constant battle with the Foot Clan and seems fraught with indecision. The Turtles are approached by Karai, the leader of the Foot Clan in Japan who has come to New York to unite the Foot. She presents the Turtles with an offer of a truce between the Foot and the Turtles if they help her kill Shredder's Elite Guards, which are a major obstacle to her reorganizing the Foot. Despite Raphael's objections, Leonardo persuades his brothers to accept Karai's offer and all four Turtles successfully work with Karai to eliminate the Elite Guard.
In Volume 2 of the Mirage Studios comic, the turtles begin living in separate places. Leonardo decides to live in a newfound sewer lair. Michelangelo and Raphael notice a change in Leonardo and note that he seems more easygoing, though Raphael points out that his and Leonardo's natural order is to be "buttin' heads."
Years later in Volume 4, Leonardo still leads his brothers (all four now in their thirties) in fights against crime. Leonardo and Raphael's conflict seems to have lessened. When the Utroms arrive on Earth and reveal alien life to humans the Turtles become free to mingle in everyday society. The Turtles help the Utroms acclimate to life on Earth and work alongside the Foot Clan as security. One Foot Clan member is Cha Ocho, who Leonardo has a rivalry with due to an encounter years earlier. Karai approaches Leonardo for help when a mysterious force begins attacking various Foot Clans; only the New York branch is left intact. His investigation takes him to the Battle Nexus, where he meets Oroku Yoshi (who wears armor similar to Shredder's).
This incarnation of Leonardo makes an appearance in the Turtles Forever crossover special voiced by Jason Griffith.
Image Comics In Volume 3 of the Image Comics series, Leonardo was initially portrayed as similar to his Mirage counterpart (at the time, Image was picking up where Volume 2 left off). In the later issues, he lost a hand when it was eaten by King Komodo, although this did not seem to deter him. He tried to use a prosthetic hand, which was given to him by Donatello, but he preferred to wear a steel cap which came with a retractable blade. In the IDW-published conclusion, TMNT Urban Legends 25, after an altercation with Lady Shredder which smashed his steel cap beyond use, Leonardo's hand was found to have grown back.
Archie Comics The Archie Comics series initially began as an adaptation of the 1987 animated series, so Leonardo was portrayed like his animated counterpart. As the series progressed, it began telling original stories. Leonardo demonstrated a dislike for firearms. A future version of Leonardo was depicted, having founded a ninja school. Four of his top students were depicted: Nobuko, possibly his love interest; Miles, a young black man; Carmen, a Latina woman and possibly his love interest; and Bob, an anthropomorphic baboon. These students seemed to have an "extended family" relationship with the Turtles, Bob, in particular, referring to them as uncles.
IDW Comics Although the IDW series is a re-imagination of the franchise, Leonardo is initially portrayed as similar to his Mirage counterpart. Leonardo is the eldest brother and the leader of the four. In the Cityfall saga, he gets captured by the Foot while he and his brothers try to save Casey and is taken to a Shinto witch by the name of Kitsune, who uses her dark magic to brainwash him into working for Shredder as his chunin (second-in-command), which infuriates Karai. He is saved by his brothers and their allies, however, after the death of Shredder at the hands of his father, Splinter, who took over the Foot Clan after the battle, Leo once again became the chunin, but, like last time, it did not last. The relationship between Splinter and his sons deteriorated after he decided to take another life, going against the philosophy he taught them to always follow. He revealed that this was, in fact, an intentional way of pushing them away from him, as he believes being around him would be too much of a threat to them, as shown during the events of the comic book. Leonardo assumed leadership over the Clan Hamato, and since then, they have come into conflict with the Foot Clan several times.
Television 1987 animated series In the lyrics for the 1987 TV series' theme song, Leonardo is stated to be the leader of the turtles; his orders are usually followed, and he is a serious do-gooder who does not joke around. He was attracted to a young kunoichi named Lotus, a swordswoman prodigy from Japan who was hired by Krang to replace Shredder, whom she defeated (along with Bebop and Rocksteady). She and Leonardo dueled to a standstill before she resorted to a trick sword to knock him out. When they met the second time, she tried to convince him to join her as a "ninja for hire", but he refused. She turned on Krang and escaped to continue her mercenary lifestyle, telling Leonardo that there was little good in goodness, though she hoped that they would one day be on the same side.
Leonardo takes his role of being a leader seriously. He can be bossy which annoys his brothers. Mostly they will obey, but sometimes they will not. In a Season 4 episode "Leonardo lightens up", his brothers got so annoyed that they used a personality alternator to make him loosen up, which lead to huge problems but ended up going back to normal in the end.
At the start of the series he is shown with having a level head, akin to his leadership qualities in the comic. However, as the series carried on, he became more of a hero of a group of superheroes and spoke in a high pitched voice, which was very different from the original, deeper pitch in the first season.
In the Season 3 episode "Take Me to Your Leader!", Leonardo gives up his leadership and walks away after a dream he believes convinces him he is no longer a good leader. The others have to find him, and stop Shredder, Krang, and Bebop and Rocksteady from draining energy from the Sun with a Solar Siphon and store it in solar batteries. However, Leonardo returns when he spots a bridge collapsing due to snow. After a man says that everybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything, Leonardo realizes his responsibility and begins to search for his brothers. He later finds them, and together they save the Earth.
Leonardo's voice actor was Cam Clarke. In the crossover film Turtles Forever, this version of Leonardo is voiced by Dan Green. Leonardo made a couple of appearances in the 2012 series in the episode, "The Manhattan Project". He and the other turtles along with Casey and April are seen through a portal by their 2012 counterparts walking on a road and he made a speaking cameo along with the other turtles at the end of the episode when a space worm from the 2012 dimension started terrorizing the street. All four turtles see the worm and spring into action while shouting their famous catchphrase, 'Cowabunga'. Clarke reprised his role as Leonardo for the cameo. This would mark the first time in over 28 years the 1987 TMNT cast would return to their roles, with the sole exception of Rob Paulsen who returned to the TMNT franchise as Donatello in the 2012 series. The 1987 turtles then had a crossover with the 2012 turtles in the season 4 episode, "Trans-Dimensional Turtles" then in the three-part series finale "Wanted: Bebop & Rocksteady".Eighties Teenage Mutant Mutant Ninja Turtles To Make Appearance On Current Animated Series Comicbook.com, Retrieved May 20, 2017
Coming Out of Their Shells tour The live-action "Coming Out of Their Shells" concert tour kickoff event at Radio City Music Hall would see Leonardo cast as the band's bass player, taking a secondary role while Michelangelo would take the role of lead singer and guitarist. However, once the Turtles are confronted by Shredder and his forces during portions of the show, Leonardo again takes his role as the Turtles' battlefield commander, as they begin to defer to his orders during the various fight scenes in the show. Cam Clarke reprises his role as the voice of Leonardo in the speaking segments for the concert between songs though he is not credited on the video release or on the Making Of VHS tape.
1997 live-action series