publishingtmnt the last ronin is a flashforward story that shows a dire future in which the foot clan has eliminated all but one last turtle michelangelo who uses all the training and weapons at his disposal to finally avenge his fallen brothersoriginally conceived by teenage mutant ninja turtles cocreators kevin eastman and peter laird back in the early 80s during the rise of the tmnt phenomenon the last ronin marked the turtles biggest impact on comics perhaps since the first issue of the firstever tmnt series was published and its darn good to bootif youre looking for a teenage mutant ninja turtles story that takes the classic teams mythos in a new more mature direction while holding on to the classic elements of the heroes on a half shell the last ronin is exactly what youre after2 teenage mutant ninja turtles 1image credit idw publishingthis is where it all began with only 4000 copies originally published by hand this 1986 black and white oversized issue introduces the main characters and the conflicts weve all come to know and love the issue was dedicated to jack kirby and frank miller and this first issue includes subtle and notsosubtle homage to the latters daredevil run splinter and stick as mentors to the budding martial artists the evil ninja clans dubbed after human appendages and of course the mutagen and radioactive liquid as the catalyst for their respective origins nonetheless the uniqueness of the story eastman and laird concocted helped launch a green empire of comic books cartoons games and films thanks to this mustread first issue that still stands up today as a bit of punk rockish comic book storytellingthis along with the entire first year of stories is collected in teenage mutant ninja turtles the ultimate collection vol 1 read our review of teenage mutant ninja turtles 1 7buy amazon1 return to new yorkimage credit idw publishingwhile city at war rightly earns praise for the epic fashion in which it brought about the conclusion of the first volume of the tmnt no other story brought as much attention to the tmnt as 1989s return to new york from 19 to 21 collected in teenage mutant ninja turtles the ultimate collection volume 3although the tension between readytorumble raphael and leonardo the leader seems almost clich at this point in time it was in return to new york where the relationship between these two brothers is first and best seen at playnot only does this story really begin to flesh out the family dynamics but it also features an epic battle between leo and the shredder resulting in what was thought to be the death of oroku saki for a second time between foundational character development and the impact of its storyline through the films return to new york stands out as the best tmnt story to datebuy amazon