I absolutely adored the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, The Last Ronin. The sad, yet riveting tale of a future in which only one of the four Turtle brothers remains to fight the Foot Clan, it was a cyberpunk-esque tale that took readers on an epic, tragic journey. Covering both the ‘present day’ events of the future sequences, as well as flashbacks to steadily fill you in on what led to there being only one Turtle left, it was gripping, emotional rollercoaster that was brilliantly written and beautifully illustrated.

I was late to the party with The Last Ronin; so much so that a prequel/sequel mini-series started and ended by the time I’d finished the first volume, and a full sequel has now kicked off too. So let’s take a look at the combined prequel/sequel, The Lost Years, shall we?

It begins with Casey Marie, daughter of April O’Neil, struggling to train the next generation of mutant ninjas. Despite the challenges she faces, she’s determined to keep going; the fight is by no means over.

And we also get flashbacks to The Last Ronin himself, with an expanded look at the time he spent alone, almost willing himself to perish. That is, until he’s attacked, unprovoked, and finds a cause to fight for.

Despite a weak start, mostly thanks to the annoying speech patterns of the new Turtles, and even though it tries to be a little too edgy at times, crossing over into tastelessness in more than one panel and piece of exposition, I thought it was pretty good overall.

However, it doesn’t reach the heady heights of the compelling first series, or at least it hasn’t yet; it does feel as if this is a series that we got because of how big a success the first one was, especially as The Last Ronin reaches a satisfying, earned conclusion.

The new characters are going to take a while to establish themselves too, whereas the rich history and well known characters that featured throughout The Last Ronin, one or two newcomers aside, did a lot of the heavy lifting.

However, despite the high bar it struggles to reach, I still enjoyed this issue in general; we’ll see how it copes with the extended, new cast as it progresses.