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Preface
PREVIOUSLY ON POWER RANGERS:
The Promethea station is stranded in unknown space for weeks, along with all of its crew and about a couple of dozen powerless Rangers on board. They’re running out of food and supplies and they’ve just been attacked by a mysterious Purple Ranger. Now, it seems this ship’s only hope is the hands of an angst-ridden archer from an alternate reality, an African girl displaced in time and space, a wandering space captain with some serious sister issues, the typical space soldier with a perfect haircut and a giant mechanical bull, a sarcastic tech genius with a guinea pig for a father, and a sweet-talking, cinnamon-loving, goggle-wearing, formerly evil member of a secret society.
…Oh, this should turn out just fine…
The Cover
A pretty ok cover showing the newest obstacle our team has to face.
The Story
So, on the pod, the aliens are preparing to make mincemeat out of the Rangers. The Rangers fight back, but without their powers, they can’t hold them off for long. Mike opens the airlock and it sucks the aliens out into the cold vastness of space. Mike is almost sucked through but isn’t because it’s too early in the arc for a heroic sacrifice (No, seriously. They even in the comic itself called that out).
While Karone contacts Andros and tells him of Promethea’s support systems failing, Tanya confronts Mike about his reckless behavior. Turns out, Mike considers himself expendable because he’s worried about his brother and his ultimate fate. Anti-Kim also takes the time to ask Heckyl what’s his deal and he tells her that the Dino Charge Rangers that are on the Promethea station are from a different point in their timeline and they still think of him as a villain.
“I’m Heckyl. Just Heckyl.“
Realizing that the mysterious Purple Ranger might be their only hope of returning home, the Rangers track her to the local space bar. The Purple Ranger, known as Ellarien or “Ari” for short, was there, getting treated for her injuries by her “special” lady friend Remi. Before we get another Ranger vs. Ranger fight, a group known as the Crimson Raiders arrive, demanding that Ari hand over a device called the Solarix. All 7 Rangers temporarily team up and they fend off the Raiders, forcing them to retreat.
As soon as the Raiders leave, Ari tells the Rangers that if they’re going to kill her, they better protect the Solarix at all costs. Obviously, the Rangers object to killing her. Pleasantly surprised by their kindness, Ari and Remi plan on protecting the Solarix themselves but do agree to return to Promethea with the Rangers. However, the leader of the Raiders now knows that they can track the Rangers’ ship and that they can take back the Solarix as it informs its’ master…
The Praetor.
Ending Thoughts
Just like how Ari reacted to the Rangers’ kindness, I was pleasantly surprised by this issue.
It’s been doing some things and avoiding some of the tired cliches I’ve normally seen with these kinds of stories. I expected the Solar Ranger to be working with the big bad, but I was wrong. I expected the Solar Ranger to run away from the Rangers immediately, but I was wrong. I expected most of this arc to be the Rangers away from Promethea, but I seem to be wrong. It just feels so refreshing to have this new and different story with these new characters.
And, speaking of these characters, they’re showing a lot of potentials. While we haven’t gotten much about the villains yet (besides that minion character that’s probably in like every Star Wars movie ever), their designs still look very menacing and I am interested to see what exactly our main villain is all about. Our heroes themselves have definitely gotten a lot more attention, with most notably, who our brand new Ranger to the franchise is. So far, she seems like a good character, guarded sure but fair, and her relationship with Remi is interesting, to say the least.
The artwork here is still as strong as it was last time. A lot of the panels here do creatively give off motion and do flow with each other nicely. A good example of this is the Ranger fight at the end. On just a single two page spread, it shows off a lot of characters and how they’re contributing to the fight in a completely smooth transition. The human characters still look a little rough, but it’s something that you just need time to adjust to. The Ranger suits still look amazing, though, especially with this color palette.
MMPR #32 introduces us to a brand new Ranger, where it turns out that she’s the least of their problems.
Random Thoughts from the Morphin’ Grid
- Ok, that moment of Mike catching that arrow was awesome. Just saying.
- Mike: “Hey, if there’s one thing I’m good for, it’s a last stand.” … Who says that?
- One more thing I didn’t expect. Anti-Kim literally calling out all of the cliches and practically being our fourth wall breaker.
- I just realized that if what Heckyl said is true, and the Dino Charge Rangers were actually from before the ending of the series, then that means it’s actually possible now that for the biggest battle in Ranger history, Prince Phillip was just chillin’ in Zandar the whole time! I hope to god we see him in the background or something for this because if not, I’m gonna facepalm so hard.
- “It’ll stick out like the mouth on a Piranahtron” …Who said this? I’d say it would be Andros since he might be the only one who knows about them, but I don’t think he’d ever say a line like that.
- Also, why in that scene would Karone be smiling?
- Plot twist: the Praetor isn’t actually that big. He just has a tiny hologram screen to overcompensate.