WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin #2 by Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird, Tom Waltz, Esau, Isaac Escorza, Ben Bishop, Samuel Plata, Luis Antonio Delgado, and Shawn Lee, on sale now.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin has revealed a heartbreaking future where Michelangelo became the last Ninja Turtle and embarked on a rip-roaring rampage of revenge. Although the explicit fates of Leonardo and Donatello haven't been revealed, it's clear that the Foot killed his brothers and Splinter. Now, Michelangelo is trying to murder Shredder's grandson, Oroku Hiroto, to find closure, free New York from his tyrannical grasp and bring his family's story to a true end.
And as the details of his journey are further revealed in The Last Ronin #2, it's clear that the tragic circumstances surrounding the fall of Splinter's Hamato family has created the deadliest Ninja Turtle ever.
In the first issue, Michelangelo showed that he was a master at all of the Ninja Turtles' signature weapons. In addition to his usual weapons like nunchaku and tonfa, Mikey used Donatello's bo staff, Leonardo's broken Katana and a pair of sais Raphael owned with lethal skill. Far from the joker Michelangelo once was, this Ninja Turtle has evolved into a far more skilled warrior than he's ever been.
After being rescued and tended to by April and her daughter, Casey, in their lair, Mikey revals how he really has turned into a one-man army. In Issue #2, he mentions how the fall from Hiroto's tower should have killed him, even though he somehow survived it and limped away. April admits that given how fast he's healing, and that he's bigger in size than ever, stronger and faster too. If the ooze that originally transformed the Turtles is still changing his body, this could give Mikey a very deadly final form.
Michelangelo has also been studying Splinter's journal and using that information to forge himself into the ultimate martial artist. Although he fled to nature to meditate and die, he ended up killing villains and traveling, shedding blood and training in every martial arts discipline he could.
Given how violent he's been with his enemies so far, Michelangelo could even have been changed by the rage he feels after the loss of his family. Splinter always taught them that the mind controls the body so if Mikey, and the physical changes could be a psycho-sematic reaction to his mental state and the mutagen serum in his veins, he's becoming this. He even admits his mind's hazy, which indicates that he could be losing himself to the emotions stewing inside of him.
For the moment, April and her daughter are just impressed at how much Michelangelo has leveled up his already considerable martial arts skill, becoming the "master of all martial arts." Each Turtle was a boss in their own discipline and now, blinded by rage, driven by honor and desperate for a chance to take out their killers, Mikey's basically all of them wrapped up in one.
In addition to carrying his brothers' headbands and weapons, Michelangelo is very much haunted by the ghosts of the other Turtles. And with all of those voices in his head, Michelangelo is a more unpredictable fighter than ever before, too. And none of this bodes well for the Foot or Karai's son, because the last Ninja Turtle seems ready to take down absolutely anyone standing in his way.