The Last Surviving Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle

IDW's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, The Last Ronin

takes place in a distant future where three of the four beloved Ninja Turtles are dead

That's harsh, man. So the question is, who's the last surviving Ninja Turtle

I'm Dave Baker. Today on Total Nerd, we're going to explain the history of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

what the last Ronin is, and who the surviving member of the infamous quartet, affectionately known

as the TMNT, really is. And with that, let's do it. The two men behind the TMNT were roommates Kevin Eastman

and Peter Laird. The legend goes that while drunk in a pizza restaurant

Peter Laird did a silly drawing of a turtle, which Eastman added nunchucks to

And the rest, as they say, is history. Smash cut to Dover, New Hampshire residents

self-publishing a first issue, and then going whatever the 1980s equivalent of viral is, which

launched an artistic movement known as the Black and White explosion. If you're only familiar with the later versions of the hurdles, you might not be familiar

with the fact that the TMNT are a parody send-up of Frank Miller's Daredevil comics. Foot Clan is

based off of The Hand. Splinter is named after Daredevil's mentor, Stick. And they even get their

powers from radioactive ooze, just like Daredevil. And if you pay close attention, it's literally the

same ooze. So yeah, half parody, half in-world sequel, I guess. Almost immediately, Eastman and

Laird were approached by people who were trying to buy the Turtles from them, but they repeatedly

said no. Ultimately, it was a licensing agent named Mark Friedman who convinced the creators of the

TMNT to license them to be adapted. They were so gun-shy, they invited him over to their studio to

help them paint the walls. And when he actually showed up and proved that he was a stand-up guy

they signed a contract on the back of a napkin. And from there, Friedman would get to work. One of

the key distinctions between the ways the Turtles were handled and almost every other comic book

property in history is that Eastman and Laird were students of comic book creators' lives

They understood the creators of the beloved characters like Superman, Watchmen, the X-Men, Blade, and Howard

the Duck had all gone wrong. They knew that almost everyone had been screwed over

by the business end of things. They took a staunch position they really, really

benefited from in the long run. They wanted approval over everything that was put out with the Turtles brand name on it

And believe it or not, they got it. The first series of comics was put out by Mirage a company started by Eastman and Laird with the money that they had made from the sale of the first issue of TMNT That then led to Mark Freeman connecting Eastman and Laird

with Playmates Toys, who wanted to produce a line of figures and an accompanying animated TV show

But before the dump truckload full of dollar-dollar bills pulled up to their New Hampshire studio

they had to get some things cleared up. In one of the early meetings, someone asked Eastman and Laird

how they could tell the difference between the various turtles, which they answered by saying, well

they all have different weapons. You see, at the time in the comics, all the turtles were red bandanas

It was suggested that bandanas of different colors be used to reflect the individual personalities

of the turtles. Eastman and Laird love the idea. The other major difference between the original comics

and the more polished version of the turtles that would go out in the cartoon is that they got rid of their tails because their tails look

like something other than tails. 1987 saw the turtles make their way

onto the small screen produced by Murakami Wolf Swenson and a French company named IDDH

The show premiered on December 14, 1987. Originally a five-part miniseries, the show was a smash hit, and it spawned

a full animated series, which launched October 1, 1988. It ran until 1996, which is a massive run

and almost unmatched in kids' animation. The show propelled characters like April O'Neil, Casey Jones

Shredder, and Splinter into the popular consciousness to say nothing of the four turtles themselves

The show also galvanized legions of young viewers to want one thing and one thing only, turtles toys

By this point, the turtles were a full-on phenomenon. This required Eastman and Lair to take a step back

from making comics and run the blossoming turtles empire. But the books needed to keep coming out, right

So what did they do? They hired an army of indie cartoonists

to produce new TMNT comics under the Mirage banner. Normally, when artists are brought in

to work on an existing character or a book, their rights are signed over to the company

This is called work for hire, basically meaning you're working on Batman and you know that you're not

going to own anything. Even if you create the next big Batman villain, DC will own it

Eastman and Laird gave their artists a choice. If they wanted to keep ownership of the characters they created

they fully could. Or if they wanted to have Mirage own it, they would get a 3% royalty of any toys or merchandise

generated from the character. People like Jim Larson and Brian Brown, they made a lot of money off of this

1990 rolls around, and the feature film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles takes the world by storm Directed by Steve Barron with a screenplay by Todd Landgren and Bobby Herbeck the film would go on to become one of the most successful independent films of all time The film dark tone amazing suits and animatronics created by Jim Henson Studio as well as the stellar

performances, have made it a cult classic. It spawned two direct sequels, a CGI pseudo-sequel

and two live-action big-budget reboot films. The Turtles were massive before the movie

but after the movie, they were skyrocketed to globally recognized icons, much like Mickey Mouse and Superman

Cowabunga! Believe it or not, during this time, the Turtles were actually published through Archie Comics

That Archie Comics. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures was put out from August of 88 through October of 95

The storylines from this era of the comics were fairly accurate adaptations of the TV series for a bit

And then Ryan Brown and Stephen Murphy came in, and it went off in its own direction

Around this time, the two co-creators attempted to give back to comics

each of them starting their own publishing enterprises. Kevin Eastman launched Tundra, a publishing company

where he literally spent millions of dollars on comics that never got published

Laird, however, launched the Zaret Grant to help people self-publish their work

It lasted until the early 2000s and helped launch the careers of amazing talents

such as Anders Nilsson, Jeff Lemire, Derek Kirk Kim, and Mike McCropolis

The next iteration of the Turtles after the initial feature film franchise died was to bring a live action Turtles

to where else? The small screen. Ninja Turtles, the next mutation was, well

to say it's not looked back on fondly is an understatement. Produced by Saban, the company behind Power Rangers

the next mutation attempted to one up the movies by making a female turtle, making all of the turtles

no longer brothers, and then making them all have crushes on her

I think I'm in love. Oh, also, she's named Venus de Milo. Can we just discuss for a moment

like, why is she named Venus de Milo? All of the turtles are named after famous artists

not famous works of art. Why not name her Artemisia Genoleschi? It's right there

Like, please, please, this sucks. Well, if you're wondering how Eastman and Laird

felt about Venus de Milo's inclusion, the answer is it broke their friendship. Eastman was fine with it

Laird hated it. No way. There's four turtles. There's Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Donatello

That's it. It was the biggest disagreement we'd ever had on the management of the Turtles and what to do with the Turtles

They had such a falling out that Eastman eventually sold his stake in the Turtles to Laird Eastman then went on to buy Heavy Metal Magazine and just kind of left the Turtles universe for a long time At least we got a crossover with the Power Rangers out of it It the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

As we enter the 2000s, the Turtles had a newly animated show, which Laird was deeply involved in

Dreamwave started publishing the comics, and then eventually, the biggest twist in the story

happened. Peter Laird sold the Turtles to Nickelodeon for $50 million. What

Spinning out of that, Nickelodeon tried to launch a fully CGI feature film titled TMNT

It did okay at the box office, but wasn't the blockbuster they were hoping for

They went back to the drawing board and put out a CG show titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

which was released in 2012, and it lasted until 2017. It's a pretty good run

IDW started publishing the comics, rebooting the continuity, and brought Eastman back into

the fold to work on the books as a creative consultant. During this time period, there were two live-action feature films produced by Platinum Dunes, Michael Bay's company

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and TMNT Out of the Shadows. Both were met with mixed reviews and mixed box office

at which point Nickelodeon launched The Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a 2D animated TV show

which started airing in September of 2018. In 2019, a Batman vs. the TMNT direct DVD movie got released

and just to show you how jaded I am, I still haven't seen it. I don't know why I haven't seen it

Um, maybe because I'm dead inside, because it's crazy that I have not seen a Batman versus the

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, but I haven't. You are a terrible disappointment

Which leads me to the questions you've been all waiting to have answered. The story goes that

Eastman was cleaning out his studio and found an outline for an unused Days of Future Past-esque

storyline that he and Laird had been working around in the 80s. So what did he do? He turned

it into a comic, with Tom Waltz co-writing and Esau and Isaac Escorza illustrating

In the new comic, we follow a single turtle in a dystopic future. Three of the four turtles have, well, they've died

waging a war on justice. The question is, who is the remaining ninja turtle

The final protector, the last Ronin. At the end of the first issue, after we've followed the last

Ronin, sneaking through a compound, fighting guards, and ultimately being overpowered by the new Shredder's

assassins, he's rescued. We cut to a bed where he's recuperating, and an aging April O'Neil walks in and says

hello, Michelangelo. The emotional core of the group, the least responsible and most lovable turtle

is the sole survivor. What will happen next? Well, you'll have to read that to find out