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Preface
…Ohhhhhhh, so this is why too much pink energy is dangerous.
The Cover
I’ll say the pink background is a great contrast to everything else on the cover. And the fire on Lord Drakkon’s helmet does signify the end of the story. But, it’s pretty meh overall.
The Story
In probably our final trip to Flashforward Land, Anti-Kim is trying her very best to kill Lord Drakkon. But, because she never learned the importance of being stealthy, Anti-Tommy brainwashes her and turns her into the Ranger Slayer.
In the present, Jason confronts his father and convinces him to tell his mother about his medical problems. At the Command Center, Kim finds Billy unconscious and morphs to face the Ranger Slayer. The Ranger Slayer tells Kim that she’s planning on doing something really important for the timeline. And that Kim should just keep quiet and not say a word. Right on time, Alpha calls Kim and Billy about the monsters attacking downtown. Realizing she can’t stop her and the two monsters at once, Kim lets her go as Anti-Kim teleports away.
Matt tries to text the Rangers about going to the site of where the Gravezord crashed but the Rangers are already in the giant fight in their zords. Matt runs there on his own, texting Kim that he loves her. He finds the Ranger Slayer at the crash site awakening the Gravezord, and the two of them talk. Since their zords are still damaged from their fight last issue, the Rangers are getting their butt kicked, but luckily the Gravezord arrives to give the Megazord a major power boost by creating the Mega-Gravezord.
At a gym far, far away, some random shmuck named Tommy Oliver is working out when the Ranger Slayer arrives. She shoots him with an arrow and says that when the time is right, he’ll understand what she did. The Ranger Slayer, in pain, is teleported out of there, leaving alone a very confused Tommy. Just as the Megazord battle ends, the Gravezord disappears too. Then, in an alley, the weakened Ranger Slayer is taken by a woman named Grace Sterling.
On the moon, Rita is angered by her loss and realizes that if she wants to destroy the Rangers, she needs to do something she swore she would never do. At the Juice Bar, the Rangers are talking about their victory when Matt confronts the group, revealing that he now knows they are the Power Rangers. He plans on keeping their secret safe, but if none of them can tell him the truth about it, he’ll never speak to any of them ever again. With a completely silent room, Matt walks out.
Ending Thoughts
The ending to this arc, this issue, was so good. An impressive Megazord battle sequence with a beautiful looking Megazord with a dream combination of the Mighty Morphin’ Zords and the Thunderzords. Beautiful visuals and artwork. An emotional ending that tugs at the heartstrings.
Now, I believe it’s time to finally talk about this arc in general, or more specifically, the Ranger Slayer. There were two problems I had with her going in. Number one: the retroactive continuity. One of the reasons why Tommy was so important to the MMPR team was that he was the first evil Power Ranger they first met. The very notion that a Ranger could be evil, even temporarily, was just so shocking, creating a major shift into how the series worked. But, because of this arc, it’s now the Ranger Slayer who’s the first evil Ranger the Power Rangers meet. You could argue that Tommy being evil was more important, but that would mean that an evil grown-up, battle-hardened member of the original Rangers is nothing compared to a total stranger with a bad haircut. Or you could argue that Anti-Kim is more important, but that would negate some of Tommy’s impact for the series. Either way, an arc’s importance is lessened as a result. (It also doesn’t help that a lot of the evil actions Anti-Kim does is very similar to Tommy’s evil acts)
Problem number two: the character concept itself. Now, I’m not talking about her cool Ranger design or her initial generic tough-girl personality. I’m referring to the fact that she’s from Drakkon’s world. In the genre of “time traveler who’s one of the main characters and is planning on changing history” stories, those characters come from the characters’ own future so it’s actually a possibility that the future they’re from is a possibility. However, the audience knows for a fact that she’s from Drakkon’s world, another dimension, another timeline altogether. And, since the characters themselves don’t know if she’s from their future or not, while it does make for a more unique story, it feels a little contrived. There’s no tension because all of the drama Kim is having, her fears of this actually being her future self, no matter what will result in nothing important. Or if it does, it will feel frustrating for readers.
As a tie-in to “Shattered Grid”, the “Ranger Slayer” arc is pretty essential to the overall story, not just for providing character motivations and backstory for a definite player for the event, but creating a way for Tommy to come back and for Lord Drakkon’s plans to fail. However, as just an arc for this series, it’s definitely different than the previous arcs. Those arcs managed to give equal screen time and focus to all its Rangers, Matthew and even some given to Bulk and Skull. Here, a lot of the focus is on this new character so some characters lack the amount of focus they were given previously. (And it’s for a character who, odds are, won’t ever show up in this series again)
Besides the Ranger Slayer, this arc focused on Matthew, Jason, Billy, and Kim, all of the people who initially “lost” against Drakkon. Even though this limited focus could be beneficial, some arcs just fell flat. Billy getting all those new strengths felt super random, not really adding to the story. Kim’s arc was just basically life handing her problem after problem and then being told not to worry about it. Although, Matthew discovering the secret was the next logical step for his character, creating lots of potential for future stories.
Jason’s arc about his father is my favorite out of all of them. Not only does it handle the subject matter seriously as it should, but through helping his father, Jason grew as a character himself. For a lot of this series, he’s been keeping his feelings inside, making his own decisions. Remember early in the series when he went to fight Rita alone and not wanting to talk about it with Zack? Or for a more recent example, when he talked to Trini about her feelings only after he learned Matthew was a putty-in-disguise? Him talking about talking to people about your problems is an important first step for him.
Regardless of all of that, the whole Ranger Slayer arc is an overall decent story arc with great artwork and compelling character moments and is a major game changer not just for Shattered Grid, but for the future of this entire series.
Random Thoughts from the Morphin’ Grid
- If you didn’t realize it, Anti-Kim’s encounter with Tommy here is connected with his dying words in MMPR #25 (“…So that’s what she… meant”).
- My best guess as to what the Ranger Slayer will do is that she will show up in the finale issue and after Drakkon is defeated by the army of Power Rangers and now totally powerless, she will quickly kill him so we never have to deal with him again.
- Other guesses that are not as likely but I just think they would be interesting to see:
- The Ranger Slayer will join other female Rangers in the fight and be part of the army that destroys him because she was secretly on board Promethea when it takes off.
- The Ranger army will destroy Drakkon on their own. The “Beyond the Grid” arc will be about Anti-Kim trying to move on with her life, that she didn’t really gain justice for the people who she lost.
- Somehow, someway, Anti-Kim will give her powers to Grace and she will be the Ranger Slayer in the Beyond the Grid arc and NOT DIE ON THE MOON LIKE ALL OF HER FRIENDS DID! (I know I’m in denial…)
- If you didn’t already realize, Tommy got his Sword of Darkness by defeating a bunch of Putties in battle. Kim got her Bow of Darkness by defeating a bunch of Ranger Sentries in battle, gaining the name of Ranger Slayer. Soooo… does that mean I’m supposed to call Tommy the Putty Slayer now?
- By the way, I didn’t call it out last issue, but Anti-Kim zapping Billy like that was her Tommy “BETRAYED!” Moment.
- It’s no wonder why we never see Tommy do anything wrong because apparently the last time he did, he got freakin‘ shot.