An Introduction to “The Last Ronin”

The Last Ronin is a 2022 graphic novel that portrays a dystopian future for the Ninja Turtle franchise in which the iconic heroes of TMNT have all but died out and the last surviving turtle seeks to reclaim his honor through revenge.

The story was published by IDW as a 5-part miniseries, beginning in October 2020, but for six months prior to this, the story generated noticeable fan and media speculation around the question of who the last surviving ninja turtle was in the story.

This hype led to unprecedented sales numbers for an IDW Turtles story with the individual comics selling over 840,000 units and the trade charting on the New York Times Bestsellers List, signalling an unexpected return to prominence for the franchise.

The story was written by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird approximately 30 years prior when the original Mirage studios TMNT comic was only on issue 11 and the animated series had yet to debut. It was drafted as an endpoint for the franchise that the creators could work toward.

After the success of the first TMNT franchise, Eastman and Laird, famously, had a falling out over creative differences – one that has since been redressed, oddly enough, through the documentary series “The Toys that Made Us” which reunited the pair.

In consequence of their creative separation (as well as innumerable other complications) the original story was never produced until Eastman brought the script to IDW in 2018, thus giving new life to an old vision.

Importantly, however, The Last Ronin was also developed by Tom Waltz, who had shepherded the TMNT franchise at IDW since 2011. As much as the story is an ending for the original Mirage studios iteration of TMNT, it’s also an ending for Waltz’s acclaimed stories at IDW.

All of this is to say that “The Last Ronin” offers a remarkable study of an iconic franchise, a story that intersects with multiple eras, visions, creators, and futures, all wrapped up in a story that traded upon nostalgia in the media consciousness to dramatic effect.