My Cultural Diet

This is a surprisingly difficult review to write. Like anyone who grew up in the ’80s and ’90s, I was aware of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but not through Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird’s comic book; my only real exposure was the Fred Wolf cartoon series and the arcade game. (Unlike so many of my classmates, I never did see the movies.) Thus, I started reading The Last Ronin with a weird mix of nostalgic familiarity and total ignorance. The Last Ronin, however, is clearly geared towards long-time fans; it’s filled with references and callouts to previous characters and adventures, and finds the last surviving Turtle seeking to avenge his brothers and sensei after Shredder’s grandson betrays them all. There’s an appropriately elegiac tone to the story and the new Shredder character has some interesting mommy issues. Overall though, I was left feeling a bit underwhelmed. I suspect I would’ve felt differently had I been a longtime fan, though.