Michonne Hawthorne (Comic Series)


 * For the TV series character, see Michonne (TV Series).

"These two stopped trying to attack me a long time ago. My boyfriend and his best friend. Having them usually kept the others from attacking me--somehow."

- Michonne

Michonne (pronounced MI-SHOWN ) is a member of the survivor group, and a major character within the series. Armed with a katana and the deadly skills to complement it, Michonne is an effective and crucial defender of the survivors.

Pre-Apocalypse
Michonne was one of four children that included a brother and two sisters. She practiced fencing when she was a child, and a bit more when she went to college to study law. After graduating and getting her degree, she became an attorney and married a man with whom she had two daughters. They lived an average middle-class life in a suburban neighborhood and often dealt with a troublesome teenager next door who she swore killed their dog and destroyed their bushes with his katana sword. She spent a lot of her free time weightlifting and avidly followed football on TV. She eventually divorced her husband and at some point started dating another man named Mike. When the apocalypse began, she lost both of her daughters, presumably at the hands of her zombified boyfriend and his best friend (who ended up attacking her but were able to be fended off and controlled with her neighbor's sword). She spent countless days alone wandering around looking for other survivors.

The Walking Dead: Michonne's Story
Before the apocalypse started, Michonne runs on foot to her house and gets there. This attracts a street full of zombies to follow her. While at home, she meets her boyfriend Mike and his brave but idiotic best friend Terry. A zombie tries to break in but Mike kills it. In the process, Mike becomes bitten. At that time, Michonne bandages Mike, whom he is unaware infected. That night, Michonne searches a next door neighbor's house for supplies and discovers her trademark sword. She gets pinned down in the house during the night and returns home the next day, finding that both Mike and Terry have become walkers. She manages to survive their attack and lock them away. Her noisy encounter causes her street to become overrun. Michonne becomes trapped and runs out of food. Then she notices walkers don't attack one another and hacks off the arms and lower jaws of Mike and Terry. She chains them up by their necks to use them as escorts for an escape that successfully worked. Michonne says her final words to the zombified Mike and Terry, to help remember who they are, and because she has no one to talk to.

The Prison
Michonne first appeared on the road at an unknown distance away from The Prison Clothed under a hood, she pulled the shackled zombies of her boyfriend and his best friend along by chain to act as a deterrent to the undead. She cut off their arms and lower jaws so that they wouldn't attack her. While traveling she witnessed Otis attempting to ride back to The Prison, and saved him from a large group of zombies outside the prison's walls who followed him. Once Otis spoke for her, Rick Grimes let her join the group in exchange for handing over her katana. Michonne mostly kept to herself within the first few days of integrating with the established group, but quickly showed a keen interest in Tyreese, who was already involved with Carol. She bonded with him in their mutual interest in weight-lifting, and her recognition of him being an National Football League player back in the 1990s.

Michonne seduced Tyreese. Carol witnessed this act and broke up with Tyreese. Rick forcibly stepped in when Carol attempted to commit suicide by cutting her wrists. Confronting Tyreese, the two good friends ended up beating each other to the point where Rick passed out. Michonne expressed guilt at her involvement, but ultimately continued to pursue Tyreese. In between the interaction, Michonne was revealed to be suffering from some kind of trauma or mental illness, often carrying on conversations with herself when she was alone. Michonne would converse with her deceased boyfriend, as first noticed by Andrea in the prison. Michonne later went on to tell Rick that she talked to her dead boyfriend as a coping mechanism to deal with the horror of the real world, and Rick showed her a rotary telephone he used to "call" his wife, Lori, making Michonne feel much better about her mental health.

After several months at the prison, Michonne, along with Rick and Glenn, were part of the group that went to investigate the crash of a helicopter. It was during their travel to find the source of the occupant's disappearance that she revealed parts of her past before the epidemic. When the trio stumbled upon the town of Woodbury, Georgia, Michonne became a tragic victim of a cruel and psychotic survivor named Phillip, the "Governor" of Woodbury. The Governor betrayed and captured them, violently raping and torturing Michonne to acquire the location of the prison. The Governor later attempted to toy with her skills and sent her into their stadium fights as a participant for the crowds, but she caused more trouble than satisfaction when Michonne proceeded to kill all the participants with her katana in a gladiator style tournament. When the others eventually escaped, Michonne remained behind and tortured the Governor by scooping his eye out and chopping his arm off before making her way back to the prison with the rest of the group.

When the Governor retaliated, Michonne and Tyreese went on the offense, attempting guerrilla warfare in order to buy the prison time to prepare for the next attack. However, this act proved too careless and dangerous resulting in Michonne barely escaping and Tyreese being captured and used as a bargaining tool in order to get into the prison. When that failed, The Governor killed Tyreese, decapitating him with Michonne's Katana. Moments later she returned and reclaimed her sword, put Tyreese's reanimated head to rest, and fled into the woods nearby.

The Road to Washington
After the events at the prison Michonne tracked footprints which led her to Rick and Carl. She saved Carl from a roamer. She then joined up with the pair and bonded with them, even keeping Rick's own phone conversations with his dead wife secret. Michonne protected Carl as a mother would, and went out of her way to protect Rick due to her great respect for him. While traveling with the others, Michonne asked about Morgan. When Rick asked if she may be attracted to him, Michonne was initially hesitant but finally admitted she was. She wanted to get to know Morgan better but decided to wait a bit, still recovering from Tyreese's death.

Alexandria Safe-Zone
As with the rest of the survivors, Michonne successfully traveled and made it to the Alexandria Safe-Zone. She, like the other survivors, is now trying to adjust to their new life in the community. But like Carl, she's also having troubles getting used to what seems normal there. As seen in issue #71, Douglas does have a problem with her keeping her sword. However thanks to Olivia, she persuades him to let her keep it. She admits the people seem nice. Douglas goes to Rick to ask what job he could give Michonne for their community, since there didn't seem to be a need for a lawyer. He adds he's wondering if she could be a constable since she could uphold the law.

Later on in issue #72, Michonne is seen nailing a mantle to hang up her old sword. As she looks on, she begins reflecting on how she used it, specifically remembering the first time she used it in combat. During a line of flashbacks, she remembers she used it in self-defense when her boyfriend and his best friend reanimated as zombies and attacked her. She cut off their arms to defend herself. She reflected on how she used her sword to kill and how it was even used by the Governor to kill Tyreese and defend others like Carl. She then looks at her sword angrily, saying "I'm through with you."

She attends the welcoming party thrown by Douglas to welcome their group to the community, with Barbara, Olivia, and several other women. Through most of it, Michonne mostly listened and rarely talked, though Barbara began to try to see if she'd be interested in dating Heath. Michonne seemed to care little for the conversation that was going on around her, that included their attempts at match-making her. Finally tired of being at the party, she attempts to leave only to be halted by Barbara who begins to annoy her by asking her what she'd like to cook for her. She said it was something she liked to do for new arrivals. Although Michonne tried to calmly decline Barbara's offer, Barbara kept insisting, saying she'd be so worried if she cooked something she didn't enjoy.

Annoyed and frustrated, Michonne shouts to her, "Worried? THIS IS WHAT YOU WORRY ABOUT?" This leaves Barbara and others silent as she angrily leaves. As she makes it to their house, she sees Morgan there, who tells her he had already left the party a while ago. They begin to talk a little and Michonne mentions she made a little scene at the party. She begins to explain she, like Morgan, didn't feel comfortable with all the happy people. She also said she couldn't take the chattering of the other women as it was not only frustrating, but made her feel alone. After saying that, she rests her tired head on Morgan's shoulder for comfort. Although he notices, he does not seem to protest against her resting on his shoulder.

Alexandria Safe-Zone Chaos
In Issue 81, after Morgan was bitten, Michonne hasn't been seen since her falling out with Morgan about his comment on how he "deserves this". Michonne becomes visibly angry, replying that he wasn't the only one who has lost loved ones, she walks out the room, claiming to get a glass of water. After Morgan is bit, she amputates his arm, and helps him get to Rick's house. She says he's a damn fool, and nervously waits by his side. Michonne opens up to Morgan on his death bed about how she doesn't usually express her feelings as it would make her look weak. After Morgan dies she takes part in Rick's escape plan by rubbing zombie guts on herself. She helps Denise Cloyd get to her house and then slashes through zombies with her sword to try and help Rick save Carl after he was shot in the eye by Douglas.

Hilltop Colony
Michonne, along with Rick, Carl, Glenn, and Andrea, are brought to the Hilltop Colony by Paul. There, they are shown around and introduced to Gregory. Another resident of the colony, Ethan, returns from a failed misson where all of his companions were killed except for himself and a woman named Crystal. Ethan then tells Gregory he has a message for him and stabs him. Rick tackles Ethan to the ground and in the struggle cuts his throat, while the rest of the residents stare at him, shocked.

Killed Victims
This list shows the people Michonne has killed.
 * Mike (Zombified)
 * Terry (Zombified)
 * Tyreese (Zombified)
 * Morgan Jones (Before Reanimation)
 * Eric
 * Daniel
 * Eugene
 * Matthew
 * Chris
 * Theresa
 * Albert
 * David
 * Greg
 * Charlie
 * Scott (Before Reanimation)
 * Fifth Savior
 * Numerous counts of zombies

Rick Grimes
These two have lost so much in-apocalypse, so they seem to understand each other better than anyone else. Since they have confided in each other regarding their similar, and seemingly crazy, coping methods - Michonne talking to her dead ex-boyfriend and Rick talking to his dead wife on a rotary phone he keeps with him - they have been able to use that mutual understanding to tightly bond.

Tyreese
Michonne's first love in the Prison. Tyreese cheated on Carol with Michonne, and later, Tyreese moved into his own cell with Michonne. They are seen having sex a couple of times, and when Michonne got raped, she went to Tyreese's arms crying. They both went to woods to kill Woodbury soldiers, but failed; Tyreese got captured and killed. Michonne became vengeful but wasn't able to kill the Governor. Later, she drove her sword through Tyreese's reanimated, decapitated head.

Morgan Jones
Michonne's second love in-apocalypse. When all was going well, Michonne couldn't stand that Morgan always talked about his guilt about his son's death. Morgan got bitten, and when he was dying, Michonne told him she was sorry, and she didn't mean to be harsh. Morgan is finally put down by Michonne, and again, she lost another man.

Characteristics and Role
Michonne tends to work alone and quietly, but still fights for the survivors defense as strongly as the other active defenders. She is frequently referred to, and perceived by the other characters as a stronger member of the survivors, and frequently participates in the violent but necessary actions of the group, such as the conflict against The Governor and his goons. Her participation in the torture and slaughter of The Hunters showed a much more detached side of her than ever before. She admits in her imaginary conversations with her boyfriend that she cares for the group, showing that some humanity remains despite her torturous experiences. Michonne has shown from her break-down after torturing the Governor that she is still capable of vulnerability.

Despite her experiences, Michonne has proven her worth to the group; not only in her practical skills with her katana, but her constant participation in moving the survivors forward and keeping the group safe. She is the only survivor arriving Post-Prison and before Woodbury. She remains a vital member of the survivors.

Accusations of Racism
After Michonne was raped, many readers wrote in accusing the writer of being racist. Some of these letters were published.

Rape and torture
In Issue 36, Robert Kirkman wrote of Michonne's rape and revenge in a letter as follows:


 * It was always my plan to NOT show what happened to Michonne--to show the "closed door"...But then when it came time for HER revenge--I wanted to show every single action taken against the Governor (aside from a few done while he was passed out).


 * The idea is that you never SEE the evil person's actions ... but when the good person does their thing--you see just how evil they can be. It makes you question the character-and hopefully yourself--especially if you're cheering them on the whole way.

Trivia

 * Robert Kirkman, while talking online about his wishlist of things in the comic that he would like to see in the TV Series, stated that Michonne was Frank Darabont's favorite character and hopes to introduce her earlier in the show than in the comics.
 * In the comic series, Michonne gains the trust of the group by saving Otis' life.