(Disclaimer: Please buy the comic before reading this review!)
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Preface
So here we’ve come to MMPR #2, though as I’ve stated before with issue #0, that operated more as an issue 1, and as such this comic performs as part three of the on-going story. This third part is even more crucial than the first issue as this is where they’re going to have the chance to solidify their audience for the future without pulling a dramatic stunt to change the status quo and drive viewership up, which I hope doesn’t happen within their first year. Well, let’s see if they succeed.
If you want to check out the last review, click here.
http://morphinlegacy.com/2016/03/mmpr-1-boom-comics.html
The Story
We open up our story on a refreshing change of pace this time around. Instead of following through immediately with the cliffhanger ending of issue’s past we instead take a tangent to focus on Billy and Trini. Keeping up with what they said last time they’re running diagnostics on the Dragonzord to see what’s wrong with it. This is a smart move for many reasons. First off, while Tommy is one of, if not the, most popular ranger in the franchise, that doesn’t mean everyone is infatuated with him as you or I may be. With the past two issues giving him focus, it can come off as a breath of fresh air for Tommy’s detractors to appreciate.
Secondly, it also re-establishes that this truly is a team book. While Tommy is our main character and out gateway, there are other people around as well who should not be left by the waist side. It’s a common practice in team books to pick a character for a story arc to focus on, and it’s no different here.
I absolutely adore this scene with Billy and Trini. I know the common criticism and joke in the fandom is that the first team didn’t really have personalities, but I disagree and I believe Higgins does as well. Of course they had personalities, they just weren’t as elaborated upon as some of the later seasons that we would have liked. To prove this, let’s say we just saw Billy swearing up a storm and breaking everything in sight. That would be wildly out of character for him, agree? That’s because one must have a character to break it. But enough of my defensive babble, time for my gushing.
I really feel like Higgins understands the characters he’s wielding as well as their dynamics. It gave me nostalgic joy to have Billy rambling about the technological aspects of the Dragonzord and Trini being on hand to translate for the layman. I do appreciate how it isn’t techno-babble per say, but just using pumped out words outside the normal lexicon of vocabulary you’d hear day-to-day. Billy really shines and comes alive when coupled with the artwork, I’ll praise that more later, .
You can really see the great friendship between him and Trini as they both lightly joke about the situation. Such surreal-ness is experience by them actually being in a zord, and underwater to boot. And care is taken to give a good amount of character development of the core cast with Billy. In terms of fighting ability, while he may be the technical weakest, he’s still a good warrior and has more to offer than just his brawn. And as someone who knows and greatly values the simple things friends can do, it warmed my heart to see Trini reassure her friend. That’s just nice character play.
Similarly, and we’re jumping around a bit, but I greatly appreciated seeing Jason in his karate class that he teaches. It helps to reinforce that these kids do have lives outside of their ranger duties, which we have seen in the show before. It’s these small things that help me to see that this comic does love the series its based upon, not seeing it as flawed and in need of fixing, just expanding. I’m also glad to see it with the news that in the up-coming movie, Jason is changed to be a football star. There isn’t anything inherently wrong with that, but it feels less unique than martial arts. It subliminally tells you that he can handle himself in a fight as well as be a firm and studious leader.
The science duo aren’t the only one that get some nice character interactions. I find it sweet that Kimberly decided to wait on Jason finishing up his class. Again, these people are friends, they talk to one another about their day and what’s up drama wise. And no Kim, Tommy does like you, he’s just too stupid to realize it. I know patience is much to ask, but give him some. I’m such a shipper. I like their conversation on how, well, their teenagers, they have more to do than people realize even without their Ranger duties. And that quick line about Kim and her parents. I vaguely recall her birth parents not being together anymore. I did not expect Higgins to mention that. Good continuity isn’t just about the big stuff. Little things like that matter too. I may be interpreting this a bit off, but I do hope that that one look Jason gave Kim when she thought Tommy wasn’t interested wasn’t a sign he liked her. I like the dynamic where he’s more of a big brother to her. In that way, considering he isn’t all too sure about Tommy yet, you could read it as relief she hasn’t dated someone beneath her, and I’ll hope that’s the case as well. We do not need a love triangle to deal with. Take notes upcoming movie.
And last, but certainly not least, we have what Tommy’s been up to. With Scorpina in his most vulnerable place, his house, he has to think fast. It was a delicious bit of tension to have Tommy’s mother drop by outside as we rarely see any of the rangers’ parents in any season. It was a smooth move on Tommy’s part to teleport out when he did. I could also feel the energy he gave off when he said “It’s Morphin Time” so you know he’s taking this fight seriously. It seems like Rita’s pulling a Palpatine to intentionally get Tommy angry to fuel that mysterious crystal, so that leads me to believe that she may be aware of Tommy being on Rita vision.
And let me say, it is hard not to get a but of sick fun out of all her taunts, you just know she doesn’t give a crap and is hamming it up. Reading it in Barbara Goodson’s voice makes it all the more enjoyable. The others come in for back up and the fight renews. Let me tell you, I had read a reportedly rejected script excerpt from the MMPR 2017 movie where Jason was eviscerating a putty in gruesome fashion. I think I can excerpt the putties being slashed apart here because we aren’t seeing blood or guts hang out as I’ve seen done in fan projects. The putties are made of clay and rock, so it’s natural they’d be fluid-less.
The enemies fended off but Tommy, once again egged on by Rita is in a sour and defensive mood. I like how while the rangers notice this, they aren’t taking it too personally, just selfless concern. It is also naturally that after all the mental stress he’s been under, Tommy would take a turn for the worse in a scene you’re going to have read as I won’t spoil here. 😀 As I’ll elaborate in the technical portion, there is a couple ways I believe the story has to go to make things satisfying.
Overall, I believe this issue was another hit. Out patience has been if not rewarded, then validated as now we can get a better idea of the grand plan Higgins has for us. The characters really came alive for me personally and I enjoyed the banter and dialogue of the book. To me, this book is worth the money. I can only wait another month until next issue, but it’s going to feel like more of a struggle to keep patient this time around with my curiosity. To that, I give a bravo to this team.
The Technical Aspects
As always, let’s start with the cover. Well drawn as before, but unfortunately I will have to take some points off. While it does feature Tommy in a badass struggle with the ever loved Scorpina, it also features to things that do not appear in the issue; Goldar and the Megazord. It’s blocked pretty well with us only seeing the waist down of Goldy but with a nice shot of the triumphant looking Megazord, but it isn’t in the book so it can come off as false advertising.
Speaking of covers, let’s talk about all of the variants that BOOM Comics have been pumpin’ out. There have been some comments about a seemingly excessive use of variant covers for this series. Me personally I can understand the sentiment and think that they may have gone a bit overboard in doing so, but I don’t think it will hurt the comic series in the long run. Variants can be used to help boost sales, as you can see if you were to look up Jim Lee’s four part covers for X-Men #1, the highest selling comic book to date. That was admittedly back in the 90’s when there was a big boom for variants for all sorts of events and the fallacy of getting rich of comics, but what you going to do. I believe that they’ll tone done the sheer amount of variants soon enough as they realize the inevitable time their fan base stops growing. It comes to every kind of series and nothing to be upset about. We’ll just have to wait and see.
I’ve talked about the extravagant colors and sketch work, those big things. I want to give credit to the smaller aspects of the art some may not be consciously aware off. The facial expressions. When you do notice them, it can make or break the issue, just look at early image comics where everyone is scowling or sneering all the time with not change of emotion. For me, a stand-out moment is Jason when he talks to Kim. In two panels he changes from concerned confusion to selfless re-assurance. And all without anything changed but the face. Not to mention the subtle beads of sweet on Tommy’s face near the end. I generally like how all the faces have been expressive and unique to the characters and that is something to write home about.
Let’s also talk about comics as a medium in story-telling. The average comic has about 22-24 pages. These stories have had a consistent 22 page count to them. I believe that the non-comic reader under estimates how much story you can pack into that limited number of pages. You could theoretically adapt a single issue of comic into a single twenty minute episode of television depending on said issue. Looking at it from that perspective let’s look at the story so far. We’ve established Tommy’s worries and fears as the new green ranger and further developed them last issue. It has also seemingly come to a head in this issue with Tommy at the end. I take this to mean that we’re going to see some head way in Tommy working through the problem and forge better bonds with the other rangers. I say that I personally expect it to happen within the next two issues max before I, and presumably others, may start to get tired of this story-line without it changing in a more interesting direction before it becomes played out.
Dear Zordon in the Great Beyond
You read my comments last review didn’t ya? I see Alpha there. J
I am now going to refer to Jason exclusively as “Sensei Scott” and I believe both you and Kim should as well.
