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.

[AquaParade]

Once again topping sales charts. Over on Amazon earlier today I noticed it was the #1 seller under “comics and graphic novels”, above Batman #132.
Wild.

[Bahamut810]

Originally Posted by IMJ

simulating a larger readership on paper than actually exists in the real world.

This right here is the only problem I have with having a million covers is that it skews the amount of people reading the comic when we might be able to get the numbers. Knowing how many people are buying the cover gives a better idea of what will happen to the comic when the whales go extinct.

If people want to spend the money for 44 different covers? Let capitalism reign.

The comic itself? Pretty good! I will have faith that they wont fall into the 'girls are amazing, men are idiots" trope because this is Tom Waltz, within reason since Odyn may be playing up the giant brute trope which is cool (no one character should be everything). I am really looking forward to see how they develop during the rest of the run!

Edit upon some reflection: IT would be awesome if Bludgeon or someone similar showed up to help train Odyn.

[CyberCubed]

Just finished reading this, I didn't think The Last Ronin needed a prequel series and it felt like this was just going to be a cash-grab, but glad to see I was wrong! This issue was very good and was able to stand on its own even if The Last Ronin series never existed. It was well paced, great art, nice story, and it really did feel like a Mirage-esque story for Michelangelo.

I'm surprised how good it was, hopefully the rest of the issues are equally good. Dare I saw it, this series does feel a lot closer to Mirage in spirit than anything else we have right now.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by Bahamut810

This right here is the only problem I have with having a million covers is that it skews the amount of people reading the comic when we might be able to get the numbers. Knowing how many people are buying the cover gives a better idea of what will happen to the comic when the whales go extinct.

If people want to spend the money for 44 different covers? Let capitalism reign.

Exactly. And it's this function that even the publisher or editor-guy at IDW tried to spin away in the other thread where this is being discussed. Only two kinds of guys would try to spin those facts away and then count on a cross-section of thoughtless peasant-readership to get behind them:

1 the guy whose career is vested in these sales
2 the fan weirdo who needs a life "win" against a bigger dog

I love what you said about the "comic whales" because in theory those are the only people truly keeping this ideologically-overran industry afloat. And instead of recognizing that and operating accordingly, these guys are doubling down on their BS.

It's like the restaurant industry who routinely doubles down on their bs and makes the same mistakes. Their restaurant starts suffering financially and the only head-math they can do is raise prices and lower portion sizes. And then the restaurant is gone. That's these publishers. Pump out more variants, increase TMNT output, "oh look we had a hit with the Last Ronin" which is a solid concept - let's stop innovating and pump out more of that and add some social justice in there while we are at it because maybe the blue hairs will buy more books.

These people are full of $#!(.

Originally Posted by 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.

This is exactly true. And the industry found that comic-readers tend to be completist and want any product to fill their collections with the I.P.'s they love. They target the serotonin hit with variants and extract the money from a readership largely unequipped to stop. But I do believe in the free markets and so far the markets are sustaining this model. But HOooooo-boy! When the bottom drops out it's going to be epic.....

[AquaParade]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Just finished reading this, I didn't think The Last Ronin needed a prequel series and it felt like this was just going to be a cash-grab, but glad to see I was wrong! This issue was very good and was able to stand on its own even if The Last Ronin series never existed. It was well paced, great art, nice story, and it really did feel like a Mirage-esque story for Michelangelo.

I'm surprised how good it was, hopefully the rest of the issues are equally good. Dare I saw it, this series does feel a lot closer to Mirage in spirit than anything else we have right now.

Same thoughts. I enjoyed TLR but I didn’t feel an urgency to read this book. Turned out to be my favorite issue since TLR #1.

[Mayhem]

Originally Posted by Jester

Collect all 44 cover variants!

Don’t go looking up how many variants the first issue of the original Last Ronin had…!

(spoiler alert, it was 80…)

[Felian]

Hello
Do you happen to know if the issue "Lost Day" will be included in the "Last Years" hardcover volume?
Thank you

[hypered1]

Originally Posted by Felian

Hello
Do you happen to know if the issue "Lost Day" will be included in the "Last Years" hardcover volume?
Thank you

The solicitations don't specify whether it's included however the page count for the hardback (208 ) and the page count for issue 1 (30) would seem to indicate that it might be included - 30x5 issues only makes 150 and Lost Day is listed as 52 pages (although minus a few for ads, etc. so more likely 46 or 48 ).