Hardcover version
Released in January 2023, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin: Lost Years is both the sequel and prequel to The Last Ronin. It tells two parallel stories: the Ronin's journey back to New York after the death of his last remaining family in Japan, and the daughter of Casey Jones raising a new team of mutant ninja turtles.
Due to the First Issue Twist of The Last Ronin, it's difficult to discuss Lost Years without revealing spoilers for The Last Ronin. As such, all spoilers for The Last Ronin will be unmarked. Please proceed with caution.
The Last Ronin: The Lost Years contains examples of:
open/close all folders
The Ronin’s Journey
For three years after the last of his family died, Michelangelo found peace living in the wilderness of Hokkaido, Japan with only his father's journal to guide him. This changed when terrorist Death Worm and his crew slaughtered the citizens of a nearby village and burned it to the ground. Now Mikey travels across Asia to end Death Worm before he can return to New York City to avenge his fallen family.
- Arcadia: The surrounding area of the village in Hokkaido where Mikey spends three years living off the land and meditating to find inner peace. Sadly, Mikey's peaceful existence is interrupted by terrorists beating him up and burning down the village, and Mikey concludes that he was never truly at peace.
- Blind Weaponmaster: Mikey spent a few years blind from radiation poisoning, but he received training from another blind master to compensate for his lost sight until his injuries healed.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Mikey spent some time imprisoned in an underground fight ring pitting humans against mutants. When the last two fighters were him and his human friend Shaka, Shaka deliberately provoked the guards into killing him so that Mikey would survive to fulfil his vendetta against Death Worm.
- Informed Flaw: According to Donnie, “Mikey sucks at driving,” but we never see him make any serious driving mistakes. Interestingly, it’s not Donnie who says this but either his ghost or Mikey’s hallucination of him that says this. If it’s the latter, perhaps Mikey subconsciously underestimates his own driving skills.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Discussed by Mikey. He isn’t sure if his brothers’ ghosts are actually ghosts or just hallucinations. He decides that because he’s so lonely, he doesn’t care.
- Polluted Wasteland: A 9.6 magnitude earthquake in China causes several nuclear reactors to collapse, creating a nuclear fallout.
The Next Generation
After Mikey dies killing Oroku Hiroto, Mikey's student Casey Marie and her mother April mutate four baby turtles named Yi, Moja, Odyn, and Uno and train them in various martial arts styles to succeed Donatello, Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo as the next generation of teenage mutant ninja turtles.
- Bad Ass Family: After becoming a full fledged ninja, Casey Marie mutates Moja, Uno, Yi, and Odyn from what is heavily implied to be mutagen made from Michelangelo's blood. She trains them in ninjitsu, but she also takes care of them like a mother. Casey’s own mother April was a resistance fighter most of her adult life. She also treats the new mutant turtles as her own grandchildren. They even call her Grammy April.
- Legacy Character: Yi, Moja, Uno, and Odyn succeed Leo, Raph, Mikey, and Don as the next generation teenage mutant ninja turtles of the Hamato Clan, particularly Yi succeeds Donatello as The Smart Guy.
- Numerical Theme Naming: Yi, Moja, Uno, and Odyn’s names mean “one” in different languages. This crosses over into Meaningful Name because Casey chose those names to remind the turtles that they are one family.
