As writer Gene Luen Yang revealed in an interview with The Beat last year, his run on the current main ongoing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles title from IDW Publishing will be wrapping up when issue #24 arrives by the end of the year.
Fret not, because during San Diego Comic-Con, the publisher announced that the creative team of writer Matthew Rosenberg (If Destruction Be Our Lot, Spawn, Uncanny X-Men) and artist Juann Cabal (Daredevil, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Elektra) will be taking over the title when the TMNT ongoing series with issue #25 arriving in January 2027.
Details are scarce at this time, but IDW teased that fans should “prepare for a thrilling story as the greatest roster of villains, both new and old, have assembled to hunt down the Turtles over the course of a single night.”
The TMNT has been a seminal franchise for pretty much every writer of the main TMNT ongoing series since the very beginning of IDW’s original launch and Rosenberg is no exception.
As he explained, “Before I was even a teenager, I was spending all my time reading superhero comics. But it wasn’t until a clerk at my local comic shop told me I had to buy an issue of the Eastman and Laird run of TMNT that I actually fell in love with comics. From my first introduction to those Mirage issues, I’ve followed the Turtles the whole way.
“It is truly an honor to not only add to the legacy of four of New York’s greatest heroes, but to follow in the footsteps of so many creators I love like Erik Larsen,Jim Lawson, Sophie Campbell, Tom Waltz, and most recently legends like Jason Aaron, Juan Ferreyra, Gene Luen Yang, and Freddie E. Williams II,” Rosenberg continued. “I hope I can bring even just a little bit of what I love about the Turtles to this book. We’re making a book that has everything I love about TMNT: shells-against-the-wall grittiness, laugh-out-loud humor, non-stop intensity, and some genuine family drama.”
Readers will be happy to know that Yang has complete faith in the new creative team.
“Working TMNT has been a dream come true,” commented Yang. “I’m sad to leave, though I’m also excited about the creator-owned project that is pulling me away. And I’m super excited to continue with the Turtles as a fan! Matthew Rosenberg is going to knock it out of the park!”
Meanwhile, TMNT: The Last Ronin saga will come to a close summer with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin III reuniting the legendary original creative team of writers Kevin Eastman, Tom Waltz and artists Isaac and Esau Escorza, Ben Bishop, and Luis Antonio Delgado for what IDW promises will be the can’t-miss conclusion of their grand plans for the Roninverse and its new heroes Casey Marie Jones, Odyn, Moja, Uno, and Yi.
According to IDW’s official press release, this is just the tip of the iceberg as more big reveals will leap out of the shadows later this year about the publisher’s exciting plans for the Turtles comics in 2027.
Stay tuned to The Beat for more news from SDCC ’26.
