TMNT: The Last Ronin #4
Story by Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird, Tom Waltz
Art by Kevin Eastman, Esau and Isaac Escorza, and Ben Bishop
Published by IDW
Released September 22nd, 2021
With a few key allies, the Ronin takes on the greatest risk yet to infiltrate Baxter Stockman’s tech island! What happened many years ago to set the Ronin on this quest for vengeance? Find out in this action-packed penultimate issue!
Part 4 of 5: BLOOD IN SNOW…
We’re so near the end for The Last Ronin! And Issue Four does not hold back in terms of action, backstory, and twists. This is the heaviest issue in the series so far. There’s great focus on Casey Marie, the fate of Donetello and Master Splinter, Baxter Stockman, and the plan to conquer Hiroyuki. This issue moves at a blazen pace. Comparing it to the previous three issues, it presents us with beautiful artwork via The Escorzas and Bishop. Beautiful linework, layouts, and coloring breathe so much life into what is an already great story. A true example of the visual medium of comic book storytelling.
Eastman, Laird, and Waltz fill us in on some of the grey spots of Issue 3. I was happy seeing Casey Marie getting fleshed out more. Mikey deciding to take her under his wing and April revealing her “enhancements” due to mutant exposure. Baxter Stockman is revealed to be a human Terminator living on his own island of robot henchman. You can’t get more “Ninja Turtles” than that. Seeing the fall of Donatello and Splinter, while not shocking, was sad in its own right. It’s crazy how Splinter never learns to trust the Oroku clan. Yet that cements them as the ultimate villains in Turtle-History.
We end with us learning how Mikey was truly left alone. The fall of his master and brethren. And his return for revenge. Things are beginning to become full circle for the Last Ronin story. The battle has been won and it is now time to head to war. Issue 5. The delayed releases of these issues have led to more excitement overall personally speaking. I’m interested in how all of these will read together. And I’m sad for it to end. But all good things must come to an end afterall.
And The Last Ronin continues to be a very good thing.
TMNT: THE LAST RONIN #4 IS NOW AVAILABLE WHEREVER COMICS ARE SOLD!
