TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: THE LAST RONIN Was Almost More R-Rated

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin has had a very strong start. The darker series has won fans over with over 150,000 print copies selling in addition to the digital copies sold. I personally really liked it. Well, the second issue is set to release on January 27 and Tom Waltz recently talked to Newsarama about the series so far.

He talks about how Kevin Eastman helped him edit out some gratuitous material that would’ve made the series even more R-Rated than it currently is and his excitement at being able to tell a darker and more mature series from start to finish with these beloved characters.

[Laughs] Actually, my initial script was even more R-Rated…lots of swear words that we ultimately cut, etc. It was Kevin who rightfully pulled me back from the hard-R precipice – as he stated, it just didn't need it, and he was 100% correct. We wanted to go darker with this story, but certain things just felt gratuitous and unnecessary once we saw them laid out.

That said, we still got our cake and ate it, too – both IDW and Nickelodeon were awesome in allowing us to push the envelope in a more mature direction than much of what is seen in TMNT these days – though, to be clear, I've always felt our ongoing series had some pretty grim, dark, and mature moments…starting with the execution deaths of Hamato Yoshi and his four young sons in Feudal Japan as presented way back in issue #5.

So, yeah, it's not the first time we've gone dark with the heroes in a half shell, but it's certainly the first time we're doing it in a consistent fashion – from page one to the final page, The Last Ronin's going to be a gritty adult read. I don't think I'm spoiling much by stating you won't be seeing any Pigeon Petes showing up and acting silly in this particular tale (as much as I adore that goofy bird-man).

If you’ve read The Last Ronin #1, you’ll definitely want to read the entirety of the interview. Are you excited for The Last Ronin #2 from IDW?