As the hybrid prequel/sequel to the fantastic The Last Ronin continues, our lone hero seeks training, and runs from the threat of the mysterious, dangerous Death Worm. In the present, the next generation of Turtles are struggling to work together, so Casey and April tell them an important story from the past.

I hate to say it, given how much I enjoyed The Last Ronin, but so far there doesn’t seem to be much of a point to this series. We got all of the flashbacks we needed during the main series, and to interject another massive quest just feels cheap to me. The introduction of the new Turtles continues to be fumbled a bit too; there’s simply not enough time spent with them to get to know them properly (though at least they’ve dispensed with the annoying speech patterns they had in the first issue).

This issue definitely feels like it’s treading water in general too; it doesn’t really tell us anything of great importance that we needed to know, and I’m getting the feeling more and more that this series exists because The Last Ronin was such a massive success, not because it was part of the plan all along.

Hopefully, things will improve as we head into the second half of this series, but I’m more eager to get to know the new Turtles, rather than backstory for a character whose ultimate fate is known.