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Preface
So, “Lord Drakkon” is here now…
Aw, well. What’s the worst that could happen?
The Cover
“See? Next time, look behind you before you do roll call and create gigantic explosions!”
Personally, the cover doesn’t excite me at all. It’s just ok. Although, I will acknowledge that this is the first cover in the main series since issue #12 that has human faces on it.
The Story
On the moon, Finster tells Rita about what’s been happening and all of the disguised monsters all around the world. Against Finster’s wishes, Rita orders him to activate all 10 of the remaining monsters and plans to grow them all to defeat the Rangers in one fell swoop.
At Promethea, Billy starts talking with Anti-Tommy and realizes he’s been kept in captivity ever since their last battle. Before Billy can question him more, Jason alerts him to the 10 monsters and Billy teleports out, not before Anti-Tommy saying they’ll meet again soon.
The Rangers try taking down the monsters as fast as possible in each of their zords, Grace helping out in her mechazord, too. Before things can get worse, all of the monsters suddenly start collapsing. It turns out that their monster forms were already their “giant” form so Rita forcing them to grow made them unstable. With that, the Rangers form the Megazord and finish the job…
…then, Billy tells the others what he found out.
Jason has a LONG talk with Grace about Anti-Tommy, generally just being angry about her not telling him about it and telling her that their partnership is over. Back at the Command Center, after the Rangers realize that they need to deal with Anti-Tommy themselves, Jason tells Zordon that he feels guilty about trusting Grace. Zordon tells Jason that one day, he’ll learn to “make the wrong decision for the right reasons” and that he must accept that he can’t control everything.
Saba, seeing firsthand what Anti-Tommy is capable of, teleports to Anti-Tommy’s cell and tries to “end him”. In doing so, Saba accidentally frees him and is quickly killed. With the power of the White Tiger Saber, Anti-Tommy activates a spell to open a portal and enters it…
…leading us into the event, “Shattered Grid”.
Ending Thoughts
MMPR #24 is a great issue, though a bit dense, quickly wrapping up the series’ storyline before “Shattered Grid” begins.
As a prelude to “Shattered Grid”, it basically does what any comic prelude does, shows the villain and teases what’s basically going to be the driving force of the event. This part’s fine. As a finale to this overall storyline, it’s great. It wraps everything up for now while leaving room that can be expanded in the future, giving us some dynamic character moments (mainly with Jason and Grace). Action-wise, it flowed smoothly despite it happening in multiple locations.
As for the overall storyline, it shows just how fun and clever this series can be. It gave focus to one of the more minor generals of Rita’s army while introduced a new character with an interesting and traumatic backstory. Not to mention, we got to see a lot of creative and colorful monster designs (which made this feel more like an arc of the actual tv show). Art-wise, it is a bit of disappointment compared to the last storyline, but it’s at least decent.
Plus, concept-wise, the storyline is actually a lot cleverer than I originally thought it was. Zordon basically stated the overarching theme this issue, making the wrong decision for the right reasons. It’s what he did with Grace and the other 1969 Rangers and it’s what Grace ended up doing with Promethea. The main difference between Zordon’s actions and Grace’s actions is that while Zordon knew his actions were misguided, Grace is so convinced she’s doing the right thing, not letting something like the moon disaster happen, that she goes for the more secretive approach. Just look at how they each responded when the Rangers found their “secrets”. And then, you have Finster doing the same thing, except going to a different extreme. Finster’s monsters all over the globe was his own way of expressing his creativity to the world, his own way of being content with his life. You can easily sympathize with why he’s doing it, but not how. All I have to say is “well done, writers.”
Regardless, we’ll undoubtedly see Grace more in the future, but for now, get ready for the start of the big event, MMPR #25!
Random Thoughts from the Morphin’ Grid
- If Anti-Tommy uses Saba in future issues, I’m not going to call it Saba anymore. I’ll call it what I called it above. Why? Because I don’t want to ever say “He’s holding Saba’s headless body and attacks [BLANK] with”. That’s just too weird, even for Power Rangers.
- Also, Saba. For something whose brain is smaller than my cell phone, I’m surprised you’re not smarter than this. Just stab him. Just. Stab. Him.
- Also, for the sake of this story, I will ignore the fact that back in issue #19, Finster said he had absolutely no control over them so how the heck can he summon them to be grown?
- Also, I will make a point arguing that Grace was never going to tell the Rangers about Anti-Tommy. She had him for months. She could’ve easily told Zordon and the Rangers the second they put him in captivity.
- Also, that Baboo and Squatt story ended. It’s fine and it ends pretty decently.