Dave Buesing's Comic Book Herald Writing!

Despite a long, pandemic influenced release schedule, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin became one of the surprise explosive hits of the 2020s. The now collected 5 issues from Tom Waltz, Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird, Ben Bishop, and Esau and Isaac Escorza has been in and out of the best selling graphic novels lists since 2022, with renewed life as The Last Ronin universe expands via sequels, prequels and tie-ins.

The main hook of The Last Ronin is a classic dark future setting, a la The Dark Knight Returns or Old Man Logan, where a single Turtle is left to carry on the legacy of Splinter and his lost brothers. The mystery of the main Turtle and his lost clan is steadily doled out over the course of the story, as our last ronin hunts for vengeance against the grandson of Shredder (and son of Karai), Oroku Hiroto.

The Last Ronin is notably based on a 1987 plot idea from Turtles co-creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, with the story and script executed by modern IDW Ninja Turtles collaborators Eastman and Tom Waltz. Creatively, it’s a nice way to bridge the decades and connect the original self-published black-and-white Turtles with the modern post rise to fame version that re-established a successful comics universe in the 2010s. Like most dark alternate futures, this one isn’t set in stone as the endgame of the ongoing Ninja Turtles comics, allowing for plenty of flexibility in sequels and prequels. [Read more…] about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin Reading Order!