1 out of 5

I’m going to truly try to keep this short this time, mostly so it doesn’t turn into a rant. I will also address some biases up front: That I don’t like IDW Turtles on the whole, and that as part of that (but also outside of that) I don’t really like Tom Waltz’s writing style. So a series that slathers IDWness all over one of its few IDW-adjacent-y TMNT variations is annoying, and that it’s also a playground for Waltz to indulge in what I view as his worst habits puts me way over the top in both of these biases.

Okay.

So let’s tick off some superficial complaints: This is billed as The Last Ronin, but… there is no longer a “last ronin” featuring in the story. I understand that the title is shorthand for “The Last Ronin universe,” and that’s pretty much how some ads are referring to these books now – as ‘the Ronin-Verse’ – but all it takes is some trade dress that says that, instead of a no longer relevant title. Additionally, the “Re-evolution” subtitle is poor, partly design-wise (sorry) for putting emphasis on the ‘re,’ whereas I’d think the catch here is actually the evolution part, because we’ve had a total of, like, one prior story featuring the evolving characters, so what we’re witnessing doesn’t really register as a ‘re-‘ in any way, besides the fact that this plot point is the most nothingburger piece of shit plot point ever. And / or if you want to focus on the play on ‘revolution,’ which is representative of the warring gangs who are warring it up, ask yourself what they are revolutin’ against, and if you find yourself kind of sputtering an answer about how, like, Purple Dragons are a gang, and The Foot are a gang, and gangs fight, I guess, well howdy, welcome to the entirety of IDW’s TMNT storytelling, except replace the Dragons and The Foot with “ronin-verse” variants, and we’ll circle back around to how this whole “-verse” is waste of fucking space because it’s just turned into IDW TMNT with the Turtles’ great grandsons or whatever.

Okay.

Superficial part 2: why are we still doing prestige issues? Because it sells. I get it. But… people, please: Waltz will just fill that extra space with text; this is no longer an event, as you’ve decidedly spun this perfectly standalone tale into a -verse, so quit with the $8.99 pricetag and bloat.

Okay okay. Sigh.

Content: I’ve made my complaint about Waltz. You get it. Waltz… writes like a comic book guy; there are Marvel and DCers doing similar things. Story beats are SPOKEN ALOUD so you get it doubly so; jokes are pointed out so you know they’re jokes; when characters are angry, or thinking, they make sure to say exactly that; and by the way there aren’t characters, but rather “guy who stutters,” and etc – i.e. there are traits, not characters. And god bless how stupid the turtles sound, written as “teens” by someone who I think is referencing a mix of after school specials and Teletubbies. These are sins you’ll find all around comics (indie or otherwise), but I think my main problem with Tom on Turtles is kind of a Catch-22: no iteration of TMNT has read like a Marvel or DC book until IDW, and I guess that helped bring on a larger audience, and Waltz’s plotting style is also of the “nothing ever changes” school of comics, and you’ve kept primarily the same overall creatives for the entirety of the book’s life with the publisher, which means that nothing truly ever will change – it’s now baked into it and it sells, so even when Jason Aaron comes on and does a refresh, it “works,” but is quickly swept up by Ronin-verses anyway.

More directly about this title, though, is how it’s about absolutely nothing, and has to rely on weaksauce nostalgia for its barest bumps of interest. This is City at War with no pretense. New York is under attack from the gangz and The Mayor is corrupt and etc. That’s the whole story. But why should we fucking care about this except because it’s latched on to the TMNT brand? Because April is in it? Because Casey Jones Jr. is in it? You’re using the buildup of the non Ronin-verse IDW-verse to justify jumping right in to battle royales.

Sigh. Okay. One more complaint:

Artists Esau & Isac Escorza, and colorist Luis Antonio Delgado. So I have not seen the Escorza’s work outside of The Last Ronin, and I have no idea what Waltz’s scripts are like – if he’s full script or not. But while I recognize / appreciate that the Escorzas can draw (in a kind of bulky, classic Image-y way that worked for The Last Ronin’s grimdark vibes), and that these pages are essentially all pretty damn packed with settings clutter and tons of characters, and remain readable and followable, the art is… also very boring. I mention Tom’s scripts because the Escorza’s have to deal with sooo much dialogue, and there are panels where extra characters who aren’t speaking are jammed in there, and so I’m kind of imagining Tom’s wall of text with some kind of “make sure to show characters A – Z all standing there listening” notes, leaving very little room for artistic expression. If that’s not the case, well, there’s at the very least a ton of text, and a pretty constant demand for the same type of action or talking heads, so… yeah. The pages are readable, but not interesting. It’s too noisy overall. And Delgado can only really work with a chosen palette of muddy browns for all of our characters and buildings and so on, and I’d like to say that there are likely ways in both art and color to find more nuance, but see again the limitations of the pace / wordiness of the story.

That’s all. IDW broke me a long time ago; The Last Ronin kinda brought me back, but congrats on breaking me again.