A versão de 1996 da Image Comics recebeu uma boa dose de controvérsia com base em quão escura era a versão.
The series was controversial for physically altering the turtles. In the five part opening story half of Raphael's face was scarred and Donatello was dropped out of a helicopter breaking his shell and thus paralyzing him. He soon bonded with a living armor and became cyborg, thus granting him his mobility but at the price of sharing his consciousness with an artificial intelligence that would assume control when it felt threatened. A later story had Leonardo's hand bitten off by a monitor lizard.
Embora geralmente não seja tão violento, a mais atual IDW também tem sua própria parcela de brutalidade.
Especificamente, há um problema em que o Rocksteady mata Donatello com uma marreta.