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Preface
Do you remember those space battles in Star Wars?
Just imagine that, but Green Lantern’s there and he’s fighting with a giant bull, pterodactyl, robot, spinosaur, Megaship, and bird-themed helicopter.
*sighs* Where’s Voltron when you need him?
The Cover
The Mechazord flying through space. Showing this kinda ruins the big rescue at the end so I would’ve preferred something else instead. But, this is ok.
The Story
Now fully energized from the Solarix, all of the Rangers now have their powers back. Cam realizes that the Solarix must somehow be a physical piece of the Morphin’ Grid and that’s how they could all morph again. Asking Ari to trust her, Anti-Kim instructs everyone to use the Solarix again to summon each of their zords.
“We need Dinozord Power, Now!” “We need Super Zeo Zord Power, Now!” “Megaship Power, Now!” “Torozord, Charge!” “Samurai Star Chopper!” “Dino Charger, Ready! Summon Spino Zord!”
Or more specifically, energy constructs of their Zords that, just like Ari’s powers, are powered by their own self-confidence. Unfortunately, the Praetor can use the Force or whatever to peek into the Rangers’ minds and push the exact buttons needed for the Rangers to start doubting themselves. Still, with each other’s support, the Rangers manage to hold the line long enough for Grace in her Mechazord to pick the Rangers up.
The remaining enemy forces are all seeing this Pacific Rim reject and are like “NOPE!” and retreat so fast out of there. The projection of the Praetor is just left floating there, yelling like “REALLY?! Fine! Whatever! Suck it!”. The issue then ends at the Promethea station as Grace, Terona, and Karone all welcome Ari to the crew…
I’d say this final panel is supposed to be menacing, but there’s just still not enough of this dude to be really like “Oh my god!”
Ending Thoughts
Having a villain who sees into other people’s minds and tries to intimidate every one of our heroes with their personal struggles can either show how strong the villain’s power is or show how weak our heroes’ current arcs are. Because so far, with the exception of Heckyl and Kim, a lot of the Rangers’ character arcs aren’t given a lot to work with. Like Cam, who doesn’t have any story so far and I think even the Praetor knows that. Or Mike, who honestly shouldn’t have any issues in this situation and is just seemingly given a love story about him and Tanya. Honestly, the character who gets to shine the best is Ari, a character who has been running away for so long, finally staying with her new friends and fighting for them.
As for the rest of the issue though, it’s decent at least. The Zord battle, while pretty cool in concept, still felt like it was too short even when it was the majority of the issue. It mainly focused on the Rangers themselves coming to grips with their issues rather than showing at least a little more on the Zord battle. If anything, the two-page spread of Grace’s mechazord is where the most action is and is the sequence that’s drawn the most creatively. While focusing on characters first is what a writer should do, it honestly feels disappointing, not giving much weight to what the Rangers can do now with the Solarix and not getting any cool art sequences or panels that show some of these unique zords in action.
In the end, MMPR #34 tries to give us a battle of gigantic proportions but became a series of tinier struggles showcasing a lot of the greater struggles this arc is facing.
Random Thoughts from the Morphin’ Grid
- I find it a bit funny that Kim was like “No Ranger should ever have to be alone” and then a few minutes later, she’s like “Get out of here! Be alone!”
- I’ll talk about it more when we reach the end of this arc, but Mike honestly is the character that should have the least to complain about.
- Also, we don’t know Heckyl’s Ranger origin yet, but the Praetor being like “Kim would never forgive you if she knew exactly what you did” doesn’t exactly work when he’s talking to Kim like “KILLER! TRAITOR! LIAR! MURDERER!”
- Andros’s dialogue with the Praetor though is the only one I found to be the most honest. His whole goal, from the show, was to find his sister. Now that she’s here, he doesn’t ever want to let her go.
- Oh yeah, but the Blue Senturion and Ninjor story repeated the same chapter it had last time. Don’t know if it’s an error or something, but I do kinda look forward to those now and so that also adds to the disappointment of this issue.