TMNT: The Last Ronin #2 Review (Light Spoilers)
Script: Tom Waltz & Kevin Eastman
Edits: Bobby Curnow
Publisher: IDW
Rating: A+
Man, the action starts right from the opening seen with this issue. This issue is the origin of story of pretty much how everything went to S%#^ and how our main protagonist ended up where he was at in the present. As a kid Ralph was always my favorite character, but as an adult now it’s Leo. The story begins with flash back of how Raph met his end, and if you know anything about the turtles you can easily take an educated guess that it is due to him acting off of emotion and not strategy. It would have been refreshing if they would have changed that up for the readers a little bit, but I guess we can’t have the turtles break character (that’s sarcasm). As a reader you can’t help but wonder if Raph didn’t react the way he did would the rest of the turtles still be there.
After the flashback we get some dialogue between Mikey and his brothers which are figments of his imagination. If they are actual spirits that would be cool, but there has been nothing hinted towards that as of yet. The images of the rest of the turtles have also aged, which I wonder if that was a choice that was just recently made; because the spirit turtles in issue one were obviously younger. One thing that struck me that struck me about the dialogue was that Mikey states that he will accomplish what Splinter raised them to do, “The Last Oroku must die”. For those of you who are familiar with the mirage comics you will know that Splinter raised the turtles to be lean mean Oroku clan killing machines. This statement makes me think that Eastman is obviously sticking to the lore more closely to the mirage universe.
Anyway, after the convo with his bros we are back in the world of the living and April greets Mikey and nothing really of note takes place minus discussing the fact that Mikey has further mutated with age, and has become stronger and more durable. I thought that this was just the liberty of the artist, but now we know he is meant to look like a tank due to his mutation. I like!! They played around with this during the last season of the 80’s/90’s cartoon. This is pretty cool, but I think the mutation talk is just going to end there.
We pan over to Oroku Hiroto and he gives more of the cookie cutter villain speech: find the turtle, arrgh!!!! Lol!! I am not enjoying this character, there will be a Hiroto sucks discussion coming in the future.
Without giving away too much we are introduced formally to Casey and April’s daughter: Casey Jones. She gives him the 411 of how NYC now is run under Hiroto’s rule, and how she has been told stories of the turtles since she was small, and that it was almost like folklore. Mikey takes a liking to her, and I think we have now have the start of a partnership similar to Raph and the original Casey.
There is some key things that I left out, I implore you to read the book. It’s truly something that anyone who calls themselves a turtle fan should pick up. Everything about this book is solid, and you can tell that everyone involved is truly giving 100%. I can’t wait to read the next issue.