In the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Amazing Adventures - Robotanimals! story arc, nanobots are very small, self-propelled machines with some degree of autonomy and the ability to reproduce.
History[]
Robotanimals! issue 1[]
When Baxter Stockman runs out of mutagen for his experiments, he returns to his first love, which is robotics. Stockman has created Nanobots which are keyed to bond to mutant DNA. This will result in transformations into mechanical mutant minions under Stockman’s control.
Stockman tests his Nanobots on the two mutants he’s captured, Antrax and Scumbug. It works and Stockman then takes a canister of Nanobots to the Mighty Mutanimals temporary home. Using trickery, he unleashes the Nanobots on them while the Turtles are visiting. The Turtles avoid the Nanobots, but the Mutanimals are transformed into Robotanimals.
Robotanimals! issue 2[]
At the lair, Donatello studies the sliced off piece of Slash that Leonardo grabbed during their escape from the Robotanimals. Don says that their friends aren’t robots, not all the way. The Nanobots act more like a cybernetic second skin keyed to their mutant DNA. He believes they can get the Nanobots off the Robotanimals but they have to hurry because the Nanobots are mutating.
Don writes a virus that will let him take over the Nanobots, turning them into self-cannibalizing instruments of their own digital demise. He manages to pack reprogrammed Nanobots into a relay capsule with a limited blast radius. With only enough time to make one, they have to make the onethat capsule count.
During a battle, the capsule is used, and it works to transform the Robotanimals back to their normal selves. However, Stockman manages to capture April O'Neil and Casey Jones. He is excited to see his Nanobots are having an effect on the mutant part of April.
Robotanimals! issue 3[]
At his lab, Stockman plots to us Nanobot flies to roboticize humankind. Using April as his human-mutant hybrid test subject, he will modify his Nanobots to eliminate the species barrier. As April fights against the Nanobots flooding her system, the Turtles crash through the wall of the lab in the Party Wagon. The Turtles and Mutanimals prepare to attack, only to find that Stockman has already transformed several mutants, who he calls the Cybernetic Stockman Squad.
While everyone else keeps Stockman and his robotic minions busy, Don quickly races to Stockman’s computers. He reprograms the entire Nanobot swarm and soon all of the robotic mutants are returned to normal.
Angry, Stockman uses his one vial of reserve Nanobots to transform himself into Robo-Stockman. The Turtle/Mutanimal team-up battle him while Don uses the electricity in the lab to create an electromagnetic pulse. He sets off the EMP which results in a huge explosion. When the dust settles, it’s clear that the Nanobots ate themselves, everyone is back to normal, the lab is in ruins and Stockman is gone.