YMMV / Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin

• Complete Monster:
  • Oroku Hiroto, also known as "Shredder 2.0", is the grandson of Oroku Saki and the latest to bear the title of Shredder. A treacherous, cruel tyrant who helped to annihilate the Hamato Clan, Hiroto frequently maims, tortures, and kills his own men, as well as innocent civilians who are subjected to Martial Law with the thread of mass execution. Seeking to annihilate the last shreds of hope, Hiroto gives orders to slaughter any in the city who disobey his edicts, before revealing he kept his mother alive in cryogenic stasis simply to prove his superiority over her, only for Hiroto to murder her, before attempting to kill the Ronin once and for all.
  • Baxter Stockman is an utter sociopath who is just as responsible as Hiroto for the Bad Future. In his mad quest to capture Professor Honeycutt and experiment on him, Stockman killed several of the Turtles' allies before using bombs to murder Leonardo and Casey Jones, crippling April O'Neil in the process. Allying with Hiroto to serve his own ends, Stockman creates the "Synjas", horrifying human-robot creations enslaved to Hiroto's will, and further outfits Hiroto's army with advanced weapons and technology. Stockman is happy to empower Hiroto's awful dystopia so long as he can run his experiments, and when the freedom fighters try to shut down Stockman's tech across the city, he attempts to massacre them all with smug satisfaction.
  • In The Lost Years Prequel, Olgoi-Khorkhoi —"Death Worm"— is a callous warlord described by one of his dying victims as "all things evil". Taking advantage of the circumstances in Asia and his self-proclaimed lineage to Genghis Khan, Olgoi-Khorkhoi amassed a large army of thugs to terrorize entire continents in various forms, from rape to mass murder, including the killing of children. Additionally profiting on unwilling humans and mutants fighting for their lives, Olgoi-Khorkhoi's subordinates keep them in line via explosive body implants. When the Ronin finally confronts Olgoi-Khorkhoi, the latter mocks his vengeance as non-beneficial and admits that he barely remembers ransacking the Japanese village that instigated the Ronin's hunt for him. Viewing all lives as he would a grain of sand, Olgoi-Khorkhoi kills those that are not useful to his purposes.
• Heartwarming Moments::
  • While it's tainted by the sorrow of the Ronin talking about the deaths of his family, when April asks him what happened after they last saw each other, the Ronin affirms that it's difficult for him to talk about, but states that April deserves to know because she's just as much part of the family as the rest of them. While the Ronin has lost his brothers, he's truly grateful to have at least one part of his family back.
  • During the final confrontation with Hiroto, the Ronin declares that he is part of a family that goes beyond blood, linked through the mutagen and their bonds of honor, affirming that the Turtles are more than just four mutated freaks.
• It Was His Sled: The twist of the first issue was that the titular character's true identity, and therefore the only of the four brothers left alive, is Michelangelo, now that he Took a Level in Cynic, started taking his ninja training extremely seriously, and is haunted by the guilt of what happened to his family. Good luck finding an article that talks about the book without mentioning the Ronin's identity out in the open.
• Magnificent Bastard: The Ronin is the Sole Survivor of the Hamato clan and seeks to avenge the deaths of his family. Through sheer cunning and perseverance, this Anti-Hero builds up his skills to become a brilliant, but utterly ruthless fighter to defeat his family's killers. During The Lost Years, the Ronin seeks out and tracks the ruthless Olgoi-Khorkhoi/Death Worm through his minions before killing Olgoi-Khorkhoi in a duel. Using his skills and strategy to fight his family's killer, Oroku Hiroto, the Ronin ruthlessly dismantles his empire by taking out his defenses and Mooks, eventually fighting Hiroto himself in pitched combat, leading to a Mutual Kill before passing on and reuniting with his family in the afterlife.
• Not-So-Cheap Imitation: Many have compared the book specifically to Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, and both Eastman and Laird have made no secret about the Mirage comics being inspired by the works of Frank Miller, but it's become a beloved comic in its own right, and it does enough different with the concept to have a separate identity.
• Older Than They Think: A TMNT story set in a Bad Future, where Michelangelo has become cynical and badass where Master Splinter and Casey are dead and all the Turtles (and Karai and the Shredder) die in the end was previously explored in the 2003 series episode Same As It Never Was. That said, Kevin Eastman himself said that he and Peter Laird came up with the concept all the way back in 1987, and considering Laird was heavily involved in the 2003 series, it's possible he let the show's writers in on the idea.
• Signature Scene: The scene where the Ronin attempts to commit seppuku for botching his assassination attempt on Hiroto in the first issue is remembered for setting up the Grimdark tone of the story and for being such a Tear Jerker. The scene was even recreated in a fan animation that got Approval of God.
• Spoiled by the Format: Towards the end of the first issue, the Ronin attempts to commit seppuku for botching his assassination attempt on Hiroto. Besides the fact that there's a total of five issues in the mini-series and this is only the first one, the fact that the Ronin is the eponymous character means he's probably going to survive the seppuku attempt. Indeed he does, as the Ronin appears outside of Flashbacks in all five issues.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Casey Marie Jones is born a mutant due to her parents having absorbed trace amounts of the mutagen from years of being around the Turtles, giving her enhanced strength, speed and a Healing Factor. Despite this being presented as a big Plot Point, the character's powers don't significantly affect the story nor the battle against Hiroto.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Many fans were unhappy that April and Casey's canonical daughter from the Mirage comics, Shadow Jones, was ignored for an Elseworlds-exclusive character, Casey Marie Jones. Though, this may be a Justified Trope, since Shadow was their adopted daughter while Casey Marie is biological.
• The Woobie: The Ronin himself, Michelangelo, is a much darker and much more brutal ninja who massacres Foot soldiers without mercy, but it’s justified when Hiroto and the Foot Clan have murdered the other Turtles, Splinter, and Casey Jones Senior, leaving him as the last of the Hamato Clan. At one point, the Ronin attempts seppuku out of shame for his failure; eventually, he dies taking down Hiroto.