WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin #4, on sale now.

TMNT: The Last Ronin (by Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird, Tom Waltz, Ben Bishop, Esau Escorza, and Isaac Escorza) has not been shy about given the titular turtles a particularly dark and depressing future. Along with the family of Michelangelo, another Ninja Turtle ally meets his end in the penultimate issue.

The Fugitoid finally returns for payback against Baxter Stockman, with his actions speaking to the fact that he in some way helped form this dark future. His ultimate fate ends a dramatic battle, but it also paves the way for Michelangelo and crew to finally defeat the Foot Clan once and for all.

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The Fate of the Fugitoid

The bulk of the present day story in the issue has Michelangelo, a.k.a. the Last Ronin, Casey Jones' daughter, and their remaining allies engaged on a full-on assault against Baxter Stockman, an ally of the Foot Clan. As the battle rages, April manages to get inside of Stockman's compound.

April produces the head of the Fugitoid, a.k.a. Professor Honeycutt. She connects the disembodied robot head to some of Stockman's central machines, which begins overriding his commands. When Baxter tries to undo April's actions, the Fugitoid responds by destroying him and itself, turning into a swam of nanites. This removes the command that the Foot Clan had over New York and its technology, giving the power back to the people.

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Who Was Professor Honeycutt?

Fugitoid actually predates the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, as he was a failed Mirage Studios character that had debuted a little bit before Eastman and Laird created the martial arts terrapins. The Fugitoid, or fugitive android, was originally a scientist named Professor Honeycutt that hailed from another planet. His consciousness was eventually sent into one of his SAL worker robots, and upon escaping his world, he befriended the TMNT in both the original comics and several other continuities.

Fugitoid has shown up in the backstory of The Last Ronin, and was tragically responsible for the deaths of Casey Jones and Leonardo. This final fight involving the blue-bandana wearing turtle was also a grueling conflict against Baxter Stockman, who sent legions of his mousers to attack the Turtles in order to retrieve Honeycutt, likely wanting to gain access to his advanced technology.

Fugitoid realized this, and as the tide turned against the Turtles and their friends, Fugitoid self-destructed, causing a massive explosion that seemingly destroyed him. The robot's head was still intact, however, a fact that April kept secret when she recovered it from the wreckage. This was because reactivating Fugitoid too soon would have alerted Stockman to his presence, and given how arduous the battle was with some element of surprise, it would have only been worse if Stockman knew what April was planning. This also makes Honeycutt's final threat against Stockman all the more poignant, as he was part of the reason that the TMNT was now down to only one turtle and why April's husband was dead.

Stockman is finally gone for good, with the Foot Clan's power decimated and the Last Ronin's team having won a decisive victory. Unfortunately, it came at the cost of another family friend who gave his life to try to reverse the dark future that he had a hand in creating.

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