While each member of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has become known for their unique weapons (as they’ve used them since the first issue of the original comic), TMNT itself finally admits that one of their weapons doesn’t make any sense–at least, not anymore.
In the original Mirage Studios Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic series by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, all four Turtles, Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael, were assigned a specific weapon–which, in those early days, was really the only way to differentiate them, since their masks were all the same color and their personalities were uniformly focused and intense. Leonardo was given twin katana, Raphael twin sai, Michelangelo nunchucks, and Donatello a bo staff. These weapons became synonymous with each of the Turtles themselves, but one Ninja Turtle has completely outgrown his originally assigned weapon–and the newly established IDW Publishing TMNT series highlights that assertion.
Donatello’s Bo Staff Makes No Sense for the Turtle He’s Become in TMNT
In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Universe #1 by Paul Allor and Damian Couceiro, the Ninja Turtles are patrolling the city, lurking on New York rooftops, on the lookout for trouble. While staking out one particular area of interest, Michelangelo and Donatello start talking (since they had been running surveillance for hours now). Before long, the two started comparing their weapons, and Mikey says the one thing fans have been thinking for years, “I mean… it’s a stick, bro. You’re like, the brainiest guy on the team, and your weapon is… a stick”. While Donatello tries to defend himself by calling out how Mikey’s weapon is just ‘two sticks’, his retort doesn’t hide the fact that Michelangelo is right, and everything Donatello has accomplished in this series proves it.
During IDW’s TMNT run thus far, Donatello has helped develop multiversal travel technology, channeled the power of magic through a device of his own design to make the mystical energy safer to use, and even transferred his consciousness into a robot body that was essentially the TMNT’s version of a Transformer. So, why is he fighting with a ‘stick’? The obvious answer is the one that has been given a multitude of times: he’s a ninja, and this is the weapon he was given by his father as a way to honor his roots. But honestly, the Ninja Turtles have moved well beyond ‘honoring their roots’, and Donatello proved that especially, as he alone has created some of the most advanced weaponry in existence–weaponry he should absolutely trade his bo staff out for.
At this point in their continuity, the Ninja Turtles are regularly battling the likes of interdimensional dictators, warring alien races, and increasingly deadly mutant killers. In other words, it makes no sense that someone as brilliant as Donatello would risk his life bringing a ‘stick’ into battle against threats like these when he has access to the highest caliber of weaponry, and of his own design, no less–a seemingly obvious fact that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles finally addressed.