Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin just revealed what happened to Michelangelo after the Turtles’ world fell apart.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin #2 by Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird, Tom Waltz, Esau, Isaac Escorza, Ben Bishop, Samuel Plata, Luis Antonio Delgado, and Shawn Lee, on sale now.
The Last Ronin has given readers a glimpse into one of the darkest futures that might be waiting for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, even if only one of them lives long enough to see it. In a dark future, the once-jovial Michelangelo has become the sullen Last Ronin, hardened by the years he spent alone.
And after a flashback to an attack that shattered the Ninja Turtles forever, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin #2 reveals how that transformation happened in a distinctly classic style.
After the events of the previous issue, April O’Neil and Michelangelo are both remembered how things went so wrong so quickly for the Ninja Turtles. After April calls for her daughter Casey, Michelangelo reveals just where he’s been for the past several years.
After his brothers had passed on, Michelangelo found himself at the end of his rope. As his tale unfolds, it does so in the earliest TMNT style, the pages returning to an intricate black and white art style reminiscent of the earliest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics. Determined to die in peace after a life of violence, Michelangelo journeys into the wilderness atop a mountain. Considering his own cold-blooded nature, Mikey is convinced that the ice and snow would take him in time if he simply waited for death to come. Instead of an unceremonious demise, Michelangelo found that his mutation was keeping him alive, and the voices in his head told him it wasn’t his time to pass on. As the seasons changed, Michelangelo embraced it, taking the time to hone his mind and pour over the pages that Splinter had left behind.
Eventually, Michelangelo defended himself with lethal force against a mob that tried to kill him, and this event instilled in him a new purpose. He rededicated himself to mastering every form of combat on the road to restoring the honor of the Splinter Clan and his family. No longer holding back, Mikey fought halfway across the world to achieve the level of skill he believed necessary, and once that task was finished he set course for his former home.
This whole section of The Last Ronin effectively serves as a kind of second origin story, chronicling the formerly upbeat Michelangelo’s transformation into the lone warrior that he has become. The original 1984 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were objectively darker than almost everything that has come after, and the spirit of that title is reflected by the stylistic harshness of this flashback sequence. Thankfully, Michaelangelo isn’t standing there alone any longer, and he’s been given a second chance at his last shot for revenge against the Foot Clan with the help of April and his new allies.
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