TMNT Last Ronin: Lost Years #1. Preview and Discussion

[Jester]

Collect all 44 cover variants!

[Allio]

Originally Posted by Jester

Collect all 44 cover variants!

American comics were a mistake

[Andrew NDB]

I don't really have anything against alternate covers, whether it's 2 of them or 44 of them. If people weren't buying them then the market would make them not a thing naturally. And if you feel or have some compulsion like "I have to collect them all! Damn it!" then that's really your issue.

Back when I was getting IDW off the rack I was perfectly content with the Kevin Eastman alternate covers and nothing else. With Urban Legends it was a bit of a quandary. Eastman has nothing to do with Image TMNT beyond graciously helping Urban Legends happen at all... but... it's Kevin Eastman. Doing Image TMNT covers. Gotta have. But I still had to have the new Frank covers, too. For storage on the rare instances I get 2 covers, I'd jam them in the same bag and board.

[AquaParade]

The variants aren’t the problem imo. They just became a big thing at the same time American mainstream comics starting going downhill again super hard.
The writing quality has been largely trash for the last decade+, if you ask me. There is always some good stuff being produced but overall the medium is stale and full of gimmick storytelling like cheap deaths, constant resets, and extreme social pandering.

That said, 44 variants is a lot. But hey, they are optional and I enjoy getting to see so many different artist interpretations, so I’m cool with it.

[Cowabung-Gal]

Originally Posted by Jester

Collect all 44 cover variants!

During inflation? Dream on.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by AquaParade

The variants aren’t the problem imo. They just became a big thing at the same time American mainstream comics starting going downhill again super hard.
The writing quality has been largely trash for the last decade+, if you ask me. There is always some good stuff being produced but overall the medium is stale and full of gimmick storytelling like cheap deaths, constant resets, and extreme social pandering.

That said, 44 variants is a lot. But hey, they are optional and I enjoy getting to see so many different artist interpretations, so I’m cool with it.

I mean, if people are buying it... good. So what? What is the loss here? Some extra cover artists get paid. Great. I feel like the biggest gripe is coming from people -- completists -- who don't want to miss out on this cover or that cover, as if to say if they can't track down every one of them then they somehow don't REALLY own issue #X. To me, I'm not knocking the person, but if you're verbalizing this... this is you airing out your own dirty laundry. Not some kind of case against a publisher.

[Jester]

I just find nearly 50 different covers excessive. Thus the tongue in cheek post. I guess I just don't understand the ins and outs of the comic book market.

[Cowabung-Gal]

One of the things that surprised me while reading this issue was that one of the new turtles actually made a fat joke.

That’s a pretty bold thing to do in 2023.

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by Cowabung-Gal

One of the things that surprised me while reading this issue was that one of the new turtles actually made a fat joke.

That’s a pretty bold thing to do in 2023.

I wouldn't be surprised if the rest of the series is a slow unpacking of why that was the wrong thing to do.

[frank_one]

Variant covers are not the problem, they are the symptom of a bigger illness. You won't solve the issue by making them disappear. Nonetheless I don't like them, it's a weird concept, they unnecessarily floods the market.
Having a new group of turtles is a strange way of continuing the story. Turtles ain't no power rangers.

[IMJ]

I have come to hate variant covers. The bane of the hobby, designed to extract more dollars from a diminishing audience, simulating a larger readership on paper than actually exists in the real world.

[Galactus]

Like The Last Ronin itself it wasn't ground breaking but it's good to have some TMNT content which is more mature in it's tone and the things it can reference.

Unlikely but since the 'Ronin-verse' is distinctly different to Mirage and any of the previous iterations I'd be up for prequels to delve deeper into the history of this version of the turtles. I was intrigued by the flashback to what looked a final confrontation with the Shredder. It was like a what if the '03 RTNY final battle was done with more Mirage characterisation. In the brief scene we saw Splinter goes from stern leader determined to get revenge for the death of Yoshi (something we haven't seen since Mirage #1) to genuinely caring parent. That will always be an interesting dichotomy that Splinter is both genuinely loving parent and a person who groomed his sons to be his personal assassins that was never really explored in the original comics...and was never applicable to other versions.