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Some TMNT stuff really isn't for little kids. |
In the IDW continuity, Donatello has had an artificial prosthetic carapace to replace his original natural one, after the events of the Vengeance story arc. This became necessary after Rocksteady violently smashed his carapace with his hammer, Juniper, in the Attack on Technodrome arc. For a time, Donatello had been effectively mortally-wounded, and his brain temporarily hooked up to remotely control Metalhead as his robotic avatar. To restore Donatello's broken body, Professor Zayton Honeycutt surgically operated on Donatello to bond the prosthetic shell he had constructed to the turtle's body, using some healing ooze provided by Leatherhead. The new carapace looks indistinguishable from the old one, except that it vibrates like a kettle drum when struck, and, as shown later in the Chasing Phantoms arc, is also bullet-proof, though bullets can still dent its finish.
Starting with issue #101, Donnie appears to have a grey prosthetic carapace with very visible metal and bolts, which did not appear this way before. But according to head writer Sophie Campbell, this is actually still the same prosthetic Honeycutt gave him, and that she draws Donatello in such a way that it's more obvious that the prosthetic is a synthetic implant.[1]