Scott's Take: The Last Ronin: A Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Novel by Erik Burnham

 

The Last Ronin: A Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Novel by Erik Burnham adapts The Last Ronin comic into a prose novel. In this novel set in the far future, New York is a dystopia ruled by the Foot Clan led by the Shredder’s grandson. The last surviving Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle has returned to New York to climb the Foot Clan tower and kill him. He is on a suicide mission out for revenge against the man who killed his family.

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This is a violent novel full of death, dismemberment and plenty of action. The story is told from three main perspectives with some flashbacks to how the Turtles died and other flashbacks. The deceased turtles are frequently around as ghosts to bug the Last Ronin.

 

I enjoyed the novel way more than I enjoyed the comic book version. My two main complaints with the book are the same ones I had regarding the comic book version. The main villain is too generic and uninteresting. The Last Turtle is stripped of personality in order to have the mystery of the identity of the turtle survivor. Once the identity is revealed to the reader, the Last Turtle is still depicted as nothing more than the generic revenge seeker.

 

Still, I would recommend this book. By the way, there is a video game and a movie adaption being worked on for this story. Hopefully, both will address these issues.

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3SpJI7F

 

 

I read this through Hoopla by way of the Dallas Public Library System.

 

 

Scott A. Tipple ©2026

Scott's Take: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Naruto by Caleb Goellner, Hendry Prasetya (Illustrator), and Jorge Jiménez (Illustrator)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Naruto by Caleb Goellner, Hendry Prasetya (illustrator), and Jorge Jiménez (Illustrator,) is a 4 issue crossover miniseries where Naruto and TMNT crossover in a joint universe away from either of the main universes.  April O’Neil, the human friend of the TMNT, visits the Hidden Leaf village (home of Naruto) on a secret reporter mission. Team 7 (Naruto and friends) are assigned to escort her back to the Big Apple Village (New York in a Ninja world), but are attacked by the Foot Clan. After defeating them they are attacked again by the TMNT in a classic misunderstanding battle before teaming up. The rest of the volume is the two teams becoming friends and eventually taking on the Shredder.

 

This action-packed humor filled read is rather short, but fun. The art is really good and so is the characterization. The creative team does a good job of putting the Ninja Turtles in the Ninja World while keeping the core elements of TMNT. I really enjoyed this read as a fan of both groups and I hope they do more.

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4qcb9y8

 

 

My digital read came by way of the Hoopla App and the Dallas Public Library System.

 

 

Scott A. Tipple ©2025

Scott's Take: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by Ryan Parrott

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by Ryan Parrott is a graphic novel where the two franchises cross over. The Power Rangers are going to New York to find their missing teammate. The Green Ranger, Tommy, is missing. They discover he is working with the evil Shredder. This puts them into conflict with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles who have no idea who Tommy or the fact that he is the Green Ranger. Can these two teams unite to stop Shredder’s latest evil plan and uncover why Tommy is working with the Shredder?

This action-packed tale features incredible art and fun depictions of both teams. I highly enjoyed this tale. Usually in a crossover, one side is depicted poorly and minimized in favor of the other side. That is not the case here. Both teams get to show off their strengths and their differences. It’s cool to see two of the favorite teams of my childhood uniting. I am really looking forward to the sequel series which has not been collected in a trade read yet.

My reading copy came via the Hoopla App through the Dallas Public Library System.

 

Scott A. Tipple ©2023