Synopsis
Who is the Last Ronin? In a future, battle-ravaged New York City, a lone surviving Turtle embarks on a seemingly hopeless mission seeking justice for the family he lost. From legendary TMNT co-creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, get ready for the final story of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles three decades in the making!
What terrible events destroyed his family and left New York a crumbling, post-apocalyptic nightmare? All will be revealed in this climactic Turtle tale that sees longtime friends becoming enemies and new allies emerging in the most unexpected places. Can the surviving Turtle triumph?
Eastman and Laird are joined by writer Tom Waltz, who penned the first 100 issues of IDW’s ongoing TMNT series, and artists Esau & Isaac Escorza (Heavy Metal) and Ben Bishop (The Far Side of the Moon) with an Introduction by filmmaker Robert Rodriguez!
Collects the complete five-issue miniseries in a new graphic novel, an adventure as fulfilling for longtime Turtles fans as it is accessible for readers just discovering the heroes in a half-shell.
Review
Firstly, let’s get something out of the way before I get surrounded and battered by the foot ninjas of the comic world. I don’t often read comics. I have great love for them as founding fathers, of a huge wealth of concepts and characters and imagination catalysts that help to propagate the world of fantasy. I have utmost respect but very little experience so please don your training gloves if my footwork lets me down.
Other than 2000AD the early TMNT comics were my first comic love. I continually overdosed on Conan books and TMNT comics while cutting my teeth learning and playing various RPGs (one of those being Palladium’s TMNT supplement “TMNT and other strangeness” for their huge Rifts game universe, a vast gaming system that to my mind gave rise to the whole D20 movement, please also check out “Ninjas and Super spies!) Part of my love for these 4 aquatic brethren is simply the era in which I found them and this can be said for a lot of cult phenomenon, but with the TMNT I think there is more to it, I’ll get back to that shortly.
We all know that franchises that reach a certain height of fame end up dodging and weaving the financial enemy of creation. They’re forced to spew grotesque offsprings in the form of lunch boxes, kids clothes and just about anything imaginable (I’m side-eying you Mr Lucas) but the TMNT hey day has now dwindled satisfyingly into realms of cult classic. This book does a superb job of bringing the heart of this epic genre and era spanning tale back to its beautiful and inspirational roots.
Excuse me while I frontflip off this tangent like a well trodden New York rooftop!
The Last Ronin, yes, that’s right, book review, of course…
What did people love about the TMNT? Whether they realize it or not, their family is the epitome of the fantasy fellowship trope. A grand master, only present when necessary for the doling of wisdom. His understudy, obsessed with performance and gaining the leadership chops to guide his band of heroes to success. The fun one, the angry guy and the wizard…sorry, gadgeteer who uses science and the leavings from the world above to create problem solving tech to improve their capabilities as heroes.
It’s all there!
These are also mutants, underdogs, shunned by the people they are sworn to protect and rescue, bound by honor and family ties, forced to survive by fighting shell to shell with their brothers against a rising tyranical overlord without honor. Capable and devastatingly skilled warriors who are also flawed and human (well, partly) and occasionally vulnerable as their enemies develop…boom, it’s all there.
So having all that wonderful and satisfying fantasy in place for several years. Millions of fans and obsessives yearning for the return of their favourite mutants, what could possibly come next? The LAST Ronin, there is only one survivor…be still my beating heart.
This comic collection does an exceptional job of giving it’s readers exactly what they need. It’s an unstoppable break-neck journey through the (potentially) final chapter in the TMNT story. It’s mutagen induced special power is undoubtedly it’s ability to balance action with emotion and reader engagement. As I said earlier, this book has a LOT of people to please and I personally think it could not have done a more comprehensive job. Effortlessly it weaves it’s many stories and timelines like whirling three fingered hands in the midst of furious combat, burning desire for revenge and an overarching drive to remain honorable and respectful to those who have gone before.
The Last Ronin is a lesson in how to honour ones heritage whilst moving forward and dragging die-hards fans out of the sewers and into the new world without the need to purchase a branded lunch box. I found it thoroughly entertaining, it made me laugh, it made me cry and it once again gave me an essential reminder that the artistry of comics should never be questioned.
Thank you Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, the gift you have given the world is very much appreciated and I feel has shaped more of the world of fantasy entertainment than people care to realize.
Leave a Reply