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After the deaths of Raphael, Leonardo and Casey Jones, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin reveals the fate of Splinter and Donatello.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin #4, on sale now.
Much of the story of TMNT: The Last Ronin has concerned what happened to Michelangelo’s family before the series’ events. In this dark and twisted future, the arduous circumstances that Mikey faces as the Last Ronin are made worse by the fact that his brothers and master are no longer truly with him, only existing as spirits.
The series has already shown how Raphael, Leonardo and their old friend Casey Jones met their end, but The Last Ronin #4 reveals the fate of Splinter and Donatello, too. In keeping with the series’ bleak tone, Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird, Tom Waltz, Esau, Isaac Escorza, Ben Bishop, Samuel Plata, Luis Antonio Delgado and Shawn Lee give the intellectual and spiritual leaders of the TMNT deaths informed by their family honor and long-standing rivalry with the Foot Clan.
The Deaths of Donatello and Master Splinter
The issue sees the aged Michelangelo finally telling a grizzled April O’Neil how he found out about the final fate of Donatello and Master Splinter. Donny and Splinter had traveled to Japan, hoping to continue the latter’s vain hopes of peace and reconciliation with the Foot Clan. Unbeknownst to either Donatello or Splinter, however, the villainous Oroku Hiroto, the grandson of deadly family rival Shredder had no intentions of ending their blood feud that went all the way back to Splinter’s own master Hamato Yoshi.
Hiroto also apparently knew of the deaths of Raph and Leo in New York, and he planned to personally slay Splinter to finish off the mutant family for good. The Foot Clan double-crossed the Hamato Clan, attacking them at the graveyard that was meant to be the grounds of their peace talk. The battle didn’t quite go as expected for either side, with Splinter and Hiroto eventually attempting to face each other head-on.
Foot archers, however, had different plans, with their array of arrows taking down both Splinter and Donatello after the former’s attempt to kill the new Shredder with his sword. The Hamato Clan attempted to save them, but they were simply too far gone from their grievous wounds.
The Rise of the Last Ronin
A good while after these events took place, Michelangelo, who had survived the events in New York, made his way to the Hamato Clan compound in Japan after a long journey. Hoping to find the last surviving members of his family, he instead only gained the knowledge of Splinter and Donatello’s valiant deaths.
This official end to Michelangelo’s family sent him away from the Hamato Clan and on his own for quite a while. Where he was once a jovial jokester, this greatly informs Mikey’s renewed focus on fighting and honoring his family’s memory than on cracking wise. The events of Splinter’s death, however, go against many of the things he taught his sons.
He trained the Turtles to be resourceful, not throwing unnecessary punches and allowing their enemies to tire themselves out. These are in fact some of the lessons that Mikey tries to pass on to Casey and April’s daughter when they train elsewhere in the issue. Unfortunately, the emotional situation surrounding Hiroto’s dishonor and the deaths of his family back in New York likely made even Splinter too irrational to think, forcing his hand and likewise forcing Donatello’s in order to try to protect him.
This explains even further why Michelangelo takes Splinter’s lessons more seriously than ever, with the Last Ronin now dedicated to putting an end to the power of the Foot Clan once and for all.
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