TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman turned to Frank Miller's iconic The Dark Knight Returns when working on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin alongside Peter Laird and Tom Waltz.
Eastman told CBR that The Dark Knight Returns served as inspiration for The Last Ronin, which tells a dark story about one remaining Ninja Turtle battling the Foot Clan after they've seized control of New York City. "When Tom Waltz and I worked through the first 100 issues at IDW, the incredible turtle universe we built over there, we were looking like, 'Well, where do we go from here?' I pulled out this story that Pete and I wrote, and I said, 'How about we do this? This is kind of like a Dark Knight Returns sort of final Turtles story, but the door's open to go other places depending on if people don't hate us after they see the ending.' Nickelodeon and IDW and everybody have been so supportive because I wanted the book to be 40 pages like the original ones that Peter and I did -- larger in format, larger in page count."
Eastman said that The Last Ronin marks the end of a journey that took over three decades to fully see to fruition. "When I think back, a lot of the inspiration was Turtles Issue #1, which is really the beginning of the story obviously. That was the origin story at the beginning. That was a beginning, middle and end, with the door open to go other places. When [TMNT co-creator Laird] and I were looking further down the road, going back to an outline we wrote in 1987...that became Last Ronin. Tom Waltz and I adapted it into Last Ronin. We left 30 years down the road and then said, 'This is where the characters would end,' if we were so lucky to be working for 30 years on our characters."
The Last Ronin is a five-part series that sees Michelangelo as the last remaining Ninja Turtle. Seeking justice for his fallen family and friends, Michelangelo teams up with April O'Neil and Casey Jones' daughter to take on the Foot Clan and fight Shredder's grandson.
Released in 1986, The Dark Knight Returns -- which is by Miller, Klaus Janson, John Costanza and Lynn Varley -- is a four-issue series that sees an aging Bruce Wayne step out of retirement and return to fighting crime as the Caped Crusader. The run is widely considered to be one of the more influential Batman stories published by DC, as the grim story completely redefined the character and updated him for modern times.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin #5 comes from Eastman, Laird, Waltz, Ben Bishop, Esau Escorza, Issac Escorza and Luis Antonio Delgado. The issue releases on April 27 from IDW.
Source: CBR