Warning: spoilers for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin below!Michelangelo might seem like a surprising choice for the final surviving Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle in the dark future of The Last Ronin, but as the miniseries’ writer explains, the creative team behind the franchise-defining story chose Michelangelo because he was the last Turtle fans would expect to take the lead, making him an even more exciting protagonist to lead readers through the story’s bleak vision of the franchise’s future.
In an interview with CBR, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin writer Tom Waltz discussed the development of the series’ plot – most notably, how it was decided which of the four iconic Ninja Turtles would be the lead for the series. In Last Ronin, Michelangelo carries the weight of the story, but more crucially, the trauma of losing his family. In this way, the series radically reimagines not only the world of the franchise, but also who Michelangelo is as a character. This led to its critical and commercial success, and its overall revitalization of TMNT.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin is rooted in tragedy, as Michelangelo watched his brothers and Master Splinter die in the war against the Foot Clan, leading him to adopt the role of Last Ronin, seeking revenge against those who murdered his family.The five-issue miniseries subsequently featured Michelangelo teaming up with April O’Neil and her daughter Casey Jones Jr., as they took one final stand against the Foot Clan. The series proved to be a critical and commercial success, spawning several follow-ups, with both a video game and a film adaptation planned.
Writer Tom Waltz was given the dream job of bringing this story – one over thirty years in the making – to fruition alongside Ninja Turtles co-creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. Speaking about Last Ronin with CBR, Waltz was asked why Michelangelo was chosen as the TMNT’s Last Ronin, despite being known more for his light-hearted, party-dude attitude, as opposed to a Turtle who would seemingly fit a darker role better. According to the author:
As Waltz explains, the decision to make Michelangelo the protagonist of The Last Ronin was, in fact, one of the foundations of the story’s success.
Michelangelo becoming the eponymous “last Ronin” turned out to be the perfect choice, in large part because it allowed the creative team to explore the dynamic between the version of the character that fans are most familiar with, and the hardened version in the story, who has lost everything and become dedicated to nothing beyond the pursuit of revenge. As action-packed and exciting as the rest of The Last Ronin may be, this is the core tension of the narrative, making it a fascinating character-driven take on Ninja Turtles unlike anything that had come before.
According to Tom Waltz, it was essentially a process of elimination that quickly led the creative team to recognize Michelangelo fit the story of The Last Ronin best. As Waltz told CBR:
Beyond these practical considerations, there was also a sentimental dimension to the decision. “Kevin [Eastman] really liked the idea that Mikey, who was the first TMNT ever drawn, was also the last to be alive,” Waltz explained, making the story of The Last Ronin also a full-circle moment for the character and his creators, in a way.
As Peter Laird, Kevin Eastman, and Tom Waltz determined, Michelangelo was the most entertaining choice to star in The Last Ronin, while also being the most compelling. Their reimagined version of the character harbored a new darkness he’d never had prior to the loss of his family and support system – a journey filled with heartbreak that has become one of the core, defining stories in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles lore. Essentially, few stories have as effectively depicted the bond between the brothers than the one in which Mikey loses them.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin told a gripping story, one that managed to honor the campy fun inherent in the franchise up to its publication, while also realizing a darker, grittier vision of what a Ninja Turtles story could be. Choosing Michelangelo as the central character of the story was a pivotal creative decision; while The Last Ronin featuring Raphael, Leonardo, or Donatello would have been great, it would likely not have vaulted to the next level that the miniseries was able to achieve with Mikey as its protagonist.
In a sense, The Last Ronin revitalized the Ninja Turtles franchise, inaugurating a new era, in which the possibilities for the characters seem more wide open than ever. Two additional comic series have expanded the “Roninverse” continuity – most notably, by giving Michelangelo a new family, with new Turtle characters, whose best stories have still yet to be told. The same can perhaps be said for the original brothers as well. The Last Ronin was perhaps the definitive Michelangelo story, but the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise as a whole still has many incredible tales left to tell.
Source: CBR