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Preface
Can we just… can we not be Beyond the Grid anymore? Could we be Near the Grid or better yet, Beside the Grid?
The Cover
Yeah, because this is what we want to see for our penultimate issue, our main villain playing Funko chess.
(I know it’s not technically Funko Pops, but it’s the first thing I’ve thought of and I’m sticking with it. By the way, Funko chess would be a cool idea, you know?)
The Story
In “The Dark” / “The Deep” / “The Still” (One bland name wasn’t enough for this place, YOU HAD TO MAKE THREE OF THEM?!), the Praetor has a little chat with Ari, finally explaining his origin. After an evil force found the original Zeo Crystal, the Morphin’ Masters defeated it and hid the Zeo Crystal in the Caves of Deception below Rita’s Moon Palace. The Morphin’ Masters then located the Splintered Star in another dimension and realized that there was no way to destroy the planet and keep it safe from evil without destroying all of reality. With no alternative, the Masters decided to sever the Splintered Star’s universe from the Morphin’ Grid and essentially condemning it to die. Since they are the “good guys”, they decided that one of the Morphin’ Masters should share the fate of the soon-to-be-dead universe. That one Morphin’ Master created a bunch of traps on the Splintered Star, including a “poison mist” designed to bring out someone’s worst fears in themselves, and used the Solarix basically as a knife to sever the universe’s connection to the Morphin’ Grid. That single Morphin’ Master then became the guy we know and love, the Praetor.
Ari then wakes up and finds herself back with the other Rangers where Mike confesses that he’s the one who took the Solarix (Translation: Mike was basically like “It was just a prank, bro!”). After Ari explains to the group what the Praetor told her, she reveals even more details she learned from the Solarix.
When the Praetor came to the Void, he came with Rangers. The Praetor thought they would be used to protect the Void from evil until the Morphin’ Masters could successfully reunite the Void with the Morphin’ Grid. As time passed, the Praetor realized that there was no way to make the Void safe for the rest of reality and decided to turn evil and destroyed his team of Rangers. However, in order to make sure there was no way to reunite the Void with the Morphin’ Grid, the Praetor needed to destroy the Solarix, which our friendly purple otter took with him into hiding.
As the Rangers realize that that they can use the Solarix to get home, Ari realizes that the Solarix isn’t meant to be used by one person, but rather shared. So, she destroys the Solarix, splitting up into shards and allowing all of the Rangers to use the Solarix’s power.
Oh boy! Skittles!
On the Praetor’s ship, he realizes what Ari has done and that if the universes are reconnected, he will be seen as a villain rather than a martyr. As the Rangers contact Promethea and their allies in the Void, the Praetor himself arrives with his soldiers to confront the Rangers. A fight breaks out, resulting in Ari being face-to-face with the Praetor.
Bro, if you just want to break someone’s heart, do what I do. Show them my empty bank account.
Ending Thoughts
So, now we know everything, which means this comic should be good now, right?! Well…
Let’s get this out of the way, first. That poison mist thing? Yeah, it was hinted at last issue (And by ‘hint’, I mean it’s a blink and you’ll miss it) and works as an explanation for why everyone was being so stupid last issue, but only barely. There’s not any physical appearance of this mist nor does it show anyone’s worst fears (And before you say “It showed Mike’s fears”, that was the Praetor himself doing that, not the mist). Even though I’m glad we’re past the betrayal drama, the fighting between Rangers and the resolution of it doesn’t work since it happened offscreen. I’d be fine with it if the last issue ended with all of the Rangers realizing what they’ve done and that Ari is hurt, but no. The last issue ended with all of them fighting each other. If there was really no point in showing the conflict and them overcoming the effects, why even bother with the plot point at all?
Now, what’s good? Practically everything else.
The lore, itself? It’s good. The lore is good! I am fully invested in the Praetor now. His backstory not only fills in an unknown part of the PR lore, but it finally makes you understand his motivations and gives him a real distinct character. I just wish all of this came earlier because right now, it feels too late in the story. So much of this backstory is just crammed into here. If it was even hinted at earlier on, the reveal here would’ve been much more appreciated.
I do appreciate how the Rangers used the Solarix here, how it was used to fully unite this shattered group of random Rangers into one singular fighting unit. The Solar suit designs incorporate each Ranger’s respective suit elements into its own, making each Ranger their own unique hero while showing their unity as a team. Not to mention, the creativity on the flashback scenes should be commended because they do make use of the arc’s twisting and disjointed panel layouts. The two-page spread especially works because it manages to string together a bunch of ‘empty’ images and creating its own twisting narrative.
For the penultimate issue of Beyond the Grid, MMPR #38 delivers a lot of satisfying lore and backstory in a sadly compressed manner, but successfully clears the way for the (hopefully) exciting finale.
Random Thoughts from the Morphin’ Grid
- Since they don’t show how Mike revealed he’s a traitor, here’s my headcanon: Mike, a trained military soldier, couldn’t take on Cam and his ninja skills and got his butt kicked so hard that he was in the fetal position and was like “TIME OUT! TIME OUT! UNCLE! UNCLE! I’M SORRY! I’M SORRY! I TOOK IT! I’M SORRY!”
- Also, about the poison mist? Yeah, even if it did work (which I’m still not sure it did), it must’ve been really delayed when Andros commented on it during the day and then they all start at each other the next day.
- “I have been a fool not to offer my hand before now.” Wait, you didn’t even try to do that earlier? Praetor, I like you now, but you suck at your job.
- Also, the ending of the last issue is lessened even more when what we thought was a serious or fatal injury for Ari just turned out to be an injury equivalent to someone sliding her in basketball.
- “I think my connection to the Solarix helped me see the truth. What the Praetor wasn’t saying between all of his flowery excuses.” And then goes into the Praetor explaining every single part of his plan. Yeah, how this was presented felt super weird. It should have been Ari narrating this part.
- I will say I wish we at least had one group shot of the original Solar Rangers because it looks like a team that had two Green Rangers and an actual Orange Ranger.
- Oh yeah? That shot of Heckyl holding his Morpher? Yeah, it literally looks like the artist just got a picture of the Morpher toy and just used a digital effect on it to make it look like it could fit in.
- Um… Remi’s a good distance away from their scout ship (which the last issue made it seem like at least a day walk). What are the odds that next issue, it’s going to be like she was only gone a couple of minutes? Pretty high?
- “We don’t just have the power of Solar Rangers… We know how to fight like a team now.” …YOU’VE BEEN FIGHTING TOGETHER FOR MONTHS AND YOU DIDN’T LEARN THIS AT ANY OTHER POINT?!
- Also, the reason the Rangers had to land their ship at a far point from the magnetic pole was because Cam said that technology doesn’t work out there… I fully expected that logic for the Praetor’s soldiers and all of the ships to just start crashing into the ground, but nope!
- I did enjoy the moment of the three Rangers just trying to lay down smack talk (Also, Cam, I have taken AP Lit and learning “A Tale of Two Cities” depends on your school district, so don’t just assume)
- Also, Cam’s moment of using his ninja duplication technique is actually the coolest action moment in this whole arc.
- “You won’t get a better one from your suicide king.” As I read this, I realized the Praetor and his army? They are just one large Suicide Squad.
