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Preface
Out of all of the announcements for “Shattered Grid”, the announcement that this series would tie into this anniversary event definitely raised the most questions.
After all, why would we need to see an event tie into the past of the main heroes of the main comic who are already in the dead center of this event? How is this even possible? How much does this actually tie in? Will it actually affect the overall event?
Well, let’s take a look.
The Cover
Power Rangers looking at a mysterious Ranger disguised by destruction. A simple concept that works perfectly.
The Story
In Flashback Land (or since this technically takes place in an alternate universe in the future, this is probably Flashforward Land?), Bulk, Violet, Mr. Caplan, and Ms. Appleby are being pursued by some Mastodon Sentries. Coming in to save the day, Kim, in her Green Arrow cosplay, fires at them with her arrows and drives the Sentries. Reuniting with them, Kim plans on guiding the Angel Grove High refugees to safety.
In our present universe, Kim’s life really sucks right now. Her dad is finally moving out, leaving Kim and her mom. Matt’s back in town, but because of the whole “being traumatized by being kidnapped in space” thing, he’s avoiding contact with all of his friends, including Kim. Then, Zordon calls the Rangers and sends them to the local trainyard to investigate an unknown energy signature. Goldar is also sent there to investigate and a fight breaks out. During the fight, the Pink Ranger from the last issue reveals herself, taking on Goldar and a whole squadron of Putties singlehandedly.
As soon as Goldar retreats, the mystery Pink Ranger, whose actual name is the Ranger Slayer, starts attacking the Rangers and demands that they hand over Lord Drakkon to her. However, she soon realizes she’s in the wrong series, I mean year, and escapes, but not before revealing she’s a future Kimberly. At the Command Center, Zordon and Alpha detect that there is something wrong with the timeline currently and state that it’s entirely possible that the Ranger Slayer could be Kim’s future self, though it’s still unclear. Zordon is sure on one thing though, that they have to stay vigilant.
After Kim opens up to Trini about her parents finally separating, Jason arrives home and accidentally answers a doctor’s phone call for his father about needing to run more tests. (In the comic, it’s not stated outright what Jason’s father has, but it is heavily implied to be cancer or something similar) Jason confronts his dad, but his dad tells Jason that it’s none of his business and that he shouldn’t tell his mother about it.
In an abandoned warehouse, Anti-Kim tries to send a message to her world but is soon approached by Rita Repulsa, offering her assistance, especially with charging Anti-Kim’s “friend”…
Ending Thoughts
So, I don’t know how I feel about this.
I’ll actually discuss the Ranger Slayer more when this arc is complete. But right now, she just seems ok to me. On the one hand, the Ranger Slayer’s costume looks menacing with the new helmet shape, the black coloring in contrast to the white, and the modified Bow of Darkness. (Not to mention that capes make everything better.) But, there’s not really that much from her in terms of her personality and character right now. Her introduction just seemed a bit basic. But, I’ll have to know more about her before I can actually judge her.
The other storylines that are beginning to develop like Matt’s PTSD and Jason’s father’s health problems are interesting on their own, though. In their respective scenes, they are taken dramatically yet realistically and seriously given the subject matter. Though, we do have amazing artwork (like the “It’s Morphin’ Time” five-part) and some fun moments (like the Rangers going gaga over the Ranger Slayer)
This isn’t the most thrilling introduction for this Shattered Grid tie-in, but it definitely sets some storylines in motion.
Random Thoughts from the Morphin’ Grid
- Ms. Appleby calling out that one of her students is fascist is one of my favorite moments ever.
- I’m seriously questioning what arrows Anti-Kim was using in the opening scene. Because it’s pretty sad that your morphed soldiers get taken down by a flimsy piece of wood.
- There was a scene about Billy studying in his zord so he could be a better Ranger and a better student. It seemed pretty random so I didn’t think it wasn’t important. But, isn’t that kind of breaking the rules of “not using your powers for personal gain”?
- Through her dialogue, Anti-Kim implies that there’s at least a year gap between this series and the main one. Kinda confused on how exactly that works, but I’ll work with it…
- *Insert all of the Terminator jokes here*