If there’s one thing that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin II – Re-Evolution shares with its predecessor, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin, it’s gaps in between issues. Delays in a comic’s schedule tend to be a double-edged sword: sometimes it’ll be worth the wait, but sometimes a series can lose steam or never be finished (I constantly weep for what Image United could have been). Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin II – Re-Evolution #4 proves to be worth the wait.
The best part about Re-Evolution #4 is that, like its predecessors, it’s a lengthy comic with 52 pages. That’s about two to three issues’ worth of story, and Tom Waltz & Kevin Eastman don’t waste any time as they zero in on the core conflict. Having been driven out of their home by the rising gang war, the Turtles – alongside their sensei, Casey Marie Jones – are shocked to learn that April O’Neil has created a secret base of her own. Tensions rise as the Turtles, being teenagers, miss their home while a rift grows between Casey Marie and her mother.
Waltz and Eastman write these interactions in a realistic way, forgoing melodrama to hone in on the human emotions that bond this weird little family. In the case of the Turtles, especially Odyn, they’ve lost the only home they’ve ever known. With Casey Marie, this isn’t the first time her mother has hidden things from her (in the original Last Ronin, she had to discover on her own that being around mutated turtles led to that mutant-ness rubbing off on her.) Even April gets a major surprise coming her way.
Credit: IDW
Artwise, Issac and Esau Escorza continue to bring some immensely detailed line art to the table. They make New York feel as truly massive as it is in real life; this comes in handy during a fight scene with the Turtles, as entire pages are full of ninja weapons and blows being traded. The Escorzas also have a secret weapon in the form of Luis Antonio Delgado, whose color art makes the Turtles feel especially distinct, and Shawn Lee, who brings his own signature flair to the new Heroes in a Half-Shell’s shared telepathy.
It’s Ben Bishop, though, who draws the series’ most engaging imagery. This takes the form of a story, where April recounts her time with the Turtles and the multiple homes they lived in, from her old studio apartment to the bookstore that became her second home. Bishop fills these pages with images that might be mundane, like campfires and pizza parties, but he does so with a warmth that underlines the Turtles’ greatest strength: becoming a family. It also underlines how much April has lost in this timeline and why she continues to fight.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin II – Re-Evolution #4 makes up for a lengthy delay with a story that prioritizes an emotional bond over all else while setting the stage for a final fight. This probably won’t be the last of the Roninverse, but the care the creative team is taking with shaping this next chapter of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ legacy is something that should be studied.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin II – Re-Evolution #4 is available wherever comics are sold.
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