The long wait for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin II - Re-Evolution is finally over, with the first issue slated to hit stores on Wednesday, March 6. But you may have a bit of trouble actually walking into a store and picking up a copy of the first issue. IDW Publishing revealed that the first issue has sold out on the distributor level and will be heading back for a second printing.
As you might expect, that second printing will be accompanied by a brand-new cover image featuring the next generation of Turtles. IGN can exclusively debut the cover art to the second printing edition of TMNT: The Last Ronin II - Re-Evolution #1. Check it out below:
In total, IDW has sold more than 140,000 copies of issue #1, likely making it one of the top sellers of 2024. Pre-orders for the second printing are open now and will run until Monday, March 25. The second printing will be released on May 15, the same day The Last Ronin II #2 hits stores.
"The reaction to, and continued success of The Last Ronin series goes so far beyond anything we imagined at any time during the creation process… humbling is the best way to sum it up for me," TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman said in a press release. "The whole team just wanted to tell the best story we could. The fact we get to continue to tell more stories set in the TMNT Last Ronin Universe is another gift from the most incredible fans on the planet."
"We have a saying around IDW - 'never underestimate Last Ronin.'" IDW EWditor-in-Chief Jamie S. Rich adds. "In addition to the numbers on this coming in higher than initial expectations, the fan reaction is once again through the roof. It's just incredible how excited everyone is to see the incredible legacy of TMNT continued. 40 years down the road, and Kevin Eastman still has the power to wow us!"
IGN recently spoke with Eastman as part of IGN Fan Fest 2024, where he went into greater depth on creating this new generation of Turtles.
"One of the things that we did want to do was really update the characters. There's two male, two female Turtle characters, and me and Tom trying to write what teenagers might think and say and do," Eastman told IGN. "There's a nice cross section of different personalities, much like the original Turtles. You want to have them always love their family, but not always like them. And so they might argue. They might spat. They might have disagreements, but when they need to work together as a team, it's the heart and soul of the family that always keeps them together. And that's always going to be the foundation of anything we do with Turtles."
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin II - Re-Evolution #1 is available in comic shops and digital storefronts now.
In other comic book news, Universal Monsters: Frankenstein is reinventing an iconic movie monster, and we break down the ways in which Joker: Year One transformed the Clown Prince of Crime.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
