TMNT: The Last Ronin #4 Review (Spoilers)

Script: Tom Waltz & Kevin Eastman

Edits: Bobby Curnow

Publisher: IDW

Rating: S

So it's been a week since the release of The Last Ronin #4; so I think that's more than enough time to get your read on of this awesome book. If you have not.....what's wrong with you? lol. We are going to break this up into 3 parts: character Story progression, Character development, and art. So let's begin.

The story was pretty much non stop action with the exception of Kevin Eastman drawn Mikey back story. We start off with an all out assault on Baxter's compound with Casey Marie referring to Mikey as "Sensei". We get more on that later, but it was good to see the Batman and Robin type of relationship happening between those two. After a few rogue one planning panels we go back further to Casey Marie training in the turtle lair. Mikey and the spirit turtles are admiring her technique and see much potential, after that we get to the master and student training session. April saw the entire exchange and was moved; at this point she asked to know what happened to the rest of the turtle family. Mikey explains, and then we learn that Casey Marie has enhanced abilities due to the parents life long exposure to the turtles. Crazy. I'm interested to see what are the extent of those abilities. Now we are back to the siege of the Baxter island compound. The team manages to find the now cyborg Baxter Stockman. At this point April gets her licks in for her late husband, but at the end it is the Honeycutt that shuts down the entire operation. That it is pretty much it for the story. A lot went down and in my opinion it was the most action packed issue in the series so far.

Ok, now onto character development. Truly it's not particularly one specific character but two. It's the relationship between Mikey and Casey Marie that gets the most development in this particular issue. I think that the fact that Casey Marie's enhanced abilities are because of the turtles exposure to her parents will make the bond between her and Mikey that much tighter. You can tell that the writers are slowly developing a type of camaraderie between the two.

The art in this issue was done in three styles. Present being done by the Escorza brothers, Past deaths being done by Ben Bishop, and past Mike's journey being done by Kevin Eastman. The Escorza brother's art was hard and gritty as usual, Kevin's was Kevin, but Ben's....wooooooooooo. Super smooth. Obviously this is subjective, but the Japan battle panels stole the show for me.

That's it for this review, I'll catch everyone at issue 5. And then stay tuned for a complete video analysis of the last Ronin. Until then, I'll see you next time.