This is one of those books that after having read it I just can't help but feel that I wished that I loved it more than I actually did. Although I really enjoy the concept of a new batch of Turtles and I enjoyed seeing them develop in Lost Tales, their full introduction here feels slightly empty. At first I thought that feeling was due to there being no real preamble here, that I didn't care because there wasn't enough characterization laid down to make me feel invested...but that was true of the original too and it never bothered me. Then I thought that it's because although the book does a good job of selling that the city is in trouble and falling into anarchy it lacks a central antagonist or real sense of purpose to make you follow the heroes...and while that's certainly a sticking point, I think the main reason for my unease is a lingering nit from the end of the Last Ronin itself: the conclusion didn't break the cycle of violence. All the fun action aside, the never ending cycle of violence is the heart of the entire narrative of the Ninja Turtles; Hamato Yoshi killed Oroku Nagi in revenge for Nagi assaulting his wife Teng Shen, Nagi's brother Oroku Saki then killed Hamato Yoshi to avenge his brother, Yoshi's pet rat Splinter then raised baby turtles as his sons...and then charged them with avenging his master and so they engaged in a long battle with the foot that eventually ended in Saki's death and in the future of the last Ronin we saw that the heirs of Saki eventually took vengeance upon the Turtles until only Michelangelo remained...and then he killed the member of the Oroko family and died himself. And so the feud did not end as now there are more Turtles and that makes me feel like that instead of truly new stories we're just going to get a rehash of what came before only with a new coat of paint on the Turtles. Maybe this story will develop beyond that and become its own thing...but it doesn't leave me feeling optimistic.