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Preface
It’s a start of a new era for the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. With a new team, a new universe, a new threat, and even a new creative team!
The Cover
A pretty simplistic cover showing off all our new Rangers. It’s perfect for the beginning of this arc and is sure to draw in some interest.
And besides, when this image was first released, I know that every Toku fan out there had at least a variation of this reaction when they saw this cover:
“OH MY GOD! IS THAT FREAKIN’ TALON RANGER RIGHT THERE! THAT’S FREAKIN’ TALON RANGER RIGHT THERE! YO, HE LOOKS GOOD! HE LOOKS GOOD!”
The Story
So, remember back Drakkon destroyed the multiverse? (Good times, good times…)
Well, before Promethea could be destroyed, Grace used the power of the Psycho Green Dagger to make Promethea strong enough to resist the effect or something and now Promethea AKA Terra Venture is now teleported into an unknown part of the multiverse, outside time and space. A place where there’s no trace of the Morphin’ Grid. And no clear way of returning back to Earth.
After forty days of floating in the void, Promethea receives a distress beacon from an unknown vessel. Some of the Rangers are hesitant to go since they only have the energy for a couple of morphs left, but realizing it’s their best chance of survival, Grace sends the six Rangers out to the vessel with Karone staying on Promethea to protect it. Then it’s time.
“Pterodactyl!” “Zeo Ranger II Yellow!” “Let’s Rocket!” “Magna Power!” “Samurai Storm, Ranger Form!” “Energize! Unleash the Power!”
The Rangers arrive at the unidentified pod, where they find out it’s a decoy as another vessel teleports to Promethea. Appearing on the Promethea bridge before Karone is a mysterious hooded Purple Ranger (whose official name is the “Solar Ranger”). This Ranger manages to steal the energy of Karone’s powers as well as the energy of the Psycho Green Dagger powering Promethea. Just as she teleports out, the Rangers on the pod are surrounded by monsters and their powers are depleted…
Ending Thoughts
If you haven’t heard the news yet, there’s a new writer for the main Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers series: Marguerite Bennett. Kyle Higgins, the writer who has written the first 30 issues of this series (and who has overseen everything that happened with Shattered Grid), has left the series, with his final work for Power Rangers, “Soul of the Dragon” releasing in December. Marguerite Bennett’s previous works include Batwoman and DC’s Bombshells so if you want to take a look at her previous works, there you go. She has also written for Power Rangers before, with a story from the 2016 Annual and the recently released Go Go Power Rangers: Back to School.
Now, as for her debut on the main series, she did a good job. This issue mainly focused on its interesting story premise and the problems this city spaceship now needs to face, setting up the eerie tone of this whole arc. It had a slow beginning, building up the situation through Grace’s inner monologue, then going straight into it as soon as the Rangers morph. While we don’t have any dynamics between these members yet, we do get some bits and pieces on these new Rangers, so even if readers haven’t watched their respective seasons, they still get a sense of their personalities.
The art style is new, from artist Simone Di Meo, and I’ll admit it’s a little rough. While it does fit the grim atmosphere of the situation, it’s just not what’s normally associated with Power Rangers, which will throw some people for a loop. Although, I will admit a lot of the coloring really works, especially in the splash pages. It captures the vast emptiness and the wonder of space all at the same time. Also, the placement and the angle of the panel layouts are unique and do match the twisting, warping reality that the Rangers are now in.
MMPR #31 takes us beyond the Grid to a galaxy unknown where not even the Power can protect us now.
Random Thoughts from the Morphin’ Grid
- All of my individual thoughts and opinions on each of these new Rangers as we go into this arc:
- Anti-Kim: Read the Go Go Power Rangers reviews for Shattered Grid if you haven’t already read them yet. Basically, as long as she’s not treated like a boring apocalyptic survivor cliché, I’m fine with her.
- Tanya: Yeah, I like her. I really like her actress. She did a great job. Her character was independent, was tough, and had some fun moments from time to time (Who could forget “Hello, who made you holiday monitor?!”). The only thing about her is that she didn’t have that much focus episodes about her character, especially compared to the other Rangers at the time. But, this does mean that she’s basically a clean slate for Bennett which can be a good thing.
- Andros: Yeah…, not that fond of Andros. Don’t get me wrong. The actor did fine, the character had some great dialogue. His personality is unique compared to other Red Rangers. It’s just, well, he’s a little questionable when it comes to his search for Karone. I can remember so many instances of him running off and doing things without telling the other Rangers. Remember back in “Countdown to Destruction” when after everything he went through with his friends, sneaked off to try to save Karone without even bothering to tell them? Or, a more recent example, in the MMPR 25th Anniversary Special Issue, where he pulled some shady stuff to save Karone’s life and didn’t even tell Leo or Maya about his plan until it was too late? Now, this makes him more of an interesting character, but personally? I would not want to be a friend to him.
- Mike: Mike has a similar issue to Tanya’s. He did a lot of cool stuff (like stopping Trakeena in Stolen Beauty or his epic battle in Escape the Lost Galaxy), but there was never any real episode on his character. He never had any personal struggles or conflict he had to resolve. It’ll be interesting to see if what he brings to the table, especially since that he is from the point in time where he already met Andros and knows about him.
- Cam: Cam has a fun, sarcastic personality, a desire to want to help the team more than just being a tech support, and an interesting backstory involving his entire family. As well as a cool Ranger suit to boot. Easily my favorite of the group.
- Heckyl: Heckyl was a good character, a villain that could pull off some menacing moments while having a charming personality and creating some moments of levity. The only negative aspect is that his redemption arc was a little lacking. I would really want to know whether or not him being Talon Ranger in the show’s run would’ve affected anything. While I am sad that we never got it in the show itself, I’m glad that at least in the comics, the idea of the character isn’t floating in limbo.
