Review: The Last Ronin #2

The Last Ronin is a once in a generation book that takes us into the depths of the worst day of our heroes and shows it’s survivors rising once more. In many ways it’s tough to witness our heroes in such pain. More than anything else the deep characterizations of Michelangelo and April bring us back from the loss as they struggle to find their way back to action.

The story by the legendary Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird and Tom Waltz is challenging, layered and has hidden depths. In many ways Eastman, Laird and Waltz tell a story we’ve all shared this past year suffering unimaginable loss, retreating into the darkness to escape that loss and having to find the courage to regain our former selves to face the world once more.

Seeing all of this through the tired eyes of Mikey and April just continually pays dividends in this issue as April mourns Casey with her own brand of humor and love and Mikey mourns the loss of Splinter and his brothers by internalizing the pain until he is finally able to find the strength to share it.

Kevin Eastman’s layouts along with the art of Esau and Isaac Escorza, Ben Bishop and Eastman absolutely elevate this story. Each scene has a shift in style, tone and color representing the mood of the respective character and nicely separating the action-rich flashbacks to the more somber present. The colors are incredibly vital to the story telling as there are shifts in lighting and tone which define not only the various back-stories but also the mood of the characters which slowly gain light as the present tense portions of the issue progresses.

As great as the action and colors of these scenes are, the ultimate scene is the black and white scene of Michaelangelo’s despair in the face of the loss of so much of his family. It would be nice to spend some time with the villains of this book to gain their perspective and a deeper knowledge of who they are as Mikey rises to meet them and enact some punishment. Hopefully future installments not only continue to give us these layered heroes, but also take the time to do the same for our villains.

Writing: 4.5 of 5 stars
Art: 4.7 of 5 stars
Colors: 4.7 of 5 stars

Overall: 4.6 of 5 stars

Writing: Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird and Tom Waltz
Art: Kevin Eastman, Esau Escorza, Isaac Escorza, Ben Bishop
Colors: Luis Antonio Delgado with Samuel Plata
Publisher: IDW Publishing

Author Profile

M.R. Jafri

M.R. Jafri was born and raised in Niagara Falls New York and now lives with his family in Detroit Michigan. He's a talkative introvert and argumentative geek. His loves include Star Wars, Star Trek, Superheroes, Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, Transformers, GI Joe, Films, Comics, TV Shows, Action Figures and Twizzlers.