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Preface
Get ready, folks, because this book is beginning of the end for this era for the Power Rangers.
The Cover
A decent promo shot of the Power Rangers that calls back to the first issue’s cover by having the three main parts of the Rangers – them as civilians, them as Rangers, and the Megazord – except this one is in a horizontal format whereas the first one was in a vertical format.
The Story
Zack wasn’t thirsty five years ago. Yep, back in Flashback Land, all Zack wanted to do was hang out with his cool cousin, Curtis, and his dad had to drag him to the grand opening of a brand new Juice Bar. Ernie, the Juice Bar’s owner, talked on stage about a kid named Scott that used to go to Ernie’s father’s gym because he felt it was the only place he felt safe and about how he would like to make a place safe for kids. After he fell for this obvious marketing ploy, Zack started to enjoy the Juice Bar and made a new friend named Jason.
In the present, the Juice Bar, where everyone could ‘feel safe’, is getting trashed by Goldar and his goons. Kim and Trini can’t morph since there are too many witnesses so it’s up to the guys to come and save the day. Zordon thinks that Alpha-1 should stay as backup since they don’t know what exactly Rita’s plans are right now, but Zack argues with Zordon and insists that Alpha-1 comes with them. Jason, already morphed and on the scene, surrenders to Goldar in exchange for Bulk and the rest of the other civilians’ lives. Just as Goldar lets go of Bulk, the rest of the Juice Bar proceeds to throw anything they can grab at Goldar. This buys enough time for Kim and Trini to duck out of there and morph into action.
Today, cake is going to save lives!
While Rita’s mom tries to convince Rita that she still has some compassion within her, all of the Rangers manage to take Goldar outside of the Juice Bar and evacuate the civilians inside with a little help from Matt. As his back is turned, Alpha-1 fires at Goldar, critically injuring him, and tells the Rangers that they need to execute him. The Rangers object to this and try to stop Alpha-1, but Alpha-1 traps the Rangers in a force field while Goldar quietly sneaks away. Alpha-1 confronts Zordon and tells him that his actions of compassion and mercy throughout millennia have caused people all across the galaxy to suffer and prolonged the war against Rita. As Alpha-1 states his plans to eliminate Zordon and find new warriors to achieve his own goal of peace, he uses his powers on the nearby environment to create…
Admittedly a piece of garbage! I’m sorry, but it ain’t that big of a deal. Do you know how many giant robots I’ve seen, my dude?!
Ending Thoughts
What can I say about this issue? ‘It swings a hell of a bow’? I think this is supposed to be a compliment so I’ll use it.
Alpha-1’s betrayal was something we all expected, but it’s still something we can understand in a way. Though we don’t see what Alpha-1 exactly saw when he was lost in space, it’s clear that Alpha-1 saw a lot of suffering and tragedy in the universe and wanted to fix that immediately. At the same time, Zordon’s reasoning is also compelling. It’s basically just saying “do the right thing”, but it adds another layer to Zordon’s character. Zordon acknowledges all of the people that he has lost in his fight against Rita and how it would be easier if he was doing anything it could take to win, but it would dishonor the memory of all of the people that sacrificed their lives fighting with love and compassion. It’s such a good albeit short character moment for Zordon.
The Ernie backstory was unexpected but well welcomed. It wasn’t too dramatic and felt genuine. It’s the same for when the civilians stood up for the Rangers. Both of these moments connected the readers more to these lesser focused characters and helped build on the world that’s been established the past 20 issues. Being absent for a lot of the issues before this, Matt finally has his moment with Kim where he accepts her for who she is and doesn’t seem to hold any resentment towards her and that made me smile. There are some really good art sequences here, especially with the fight scene. There’s a great use of motion with Kim’s flipping and excellent cinematographic-like lighting with Jason and Goldar’s sword fight. It’s just great.
Go Go Power Rangers #20 gives us a lot of Ranger action and a lot of character moments that it’s hard not to love it. But, what matters more is that we’re officially in the endgame now.
Random Thoughts from the Morphin’ Grid
- That first line? “I’m not thirsty”? Even though it doesn’t make much sense, I immediately yelled, “YOU WILL BE!”
- To this day, I still don’t get what was so cool about Curtis. He wasn’t that special.
- Also, Zack’s dad? He looks nothing like his TV version and I have no idea who this guy is based on.
- Finding out Ernie’s a gym rat gave me the image of Ernie kicking Goldar’s butt and that image is amazing.
- Though the Juice Bar is supposed to be safe and for kids, doesn’t anyone else think that the people behind Ernie during his speech look super odd? Seriously, what the heck?
- The panel of Jason busting in is amazing when you see Trini in the background just being like, “Yep. That’s MAH man!”
- I do appreciate them throwing food at Goldar, but remember, the Juice Bar is also a gym. Could not at least one person throw an actual weight at them?
- I know some people are a little confused as to why it’s so wrong for the Rangers to execute Goldar so let me explain. It’s not because Goldar is a sentient creature (because they Power Cannon’d Adriyel back in Issue #16). It’s because of what Goldar was at that moment: not a threat. First off, he got shot in the back by Alpha-1 which is a dirty move. Secondly, Goldar was basically down for the count. There was no reason to continue to fight him. Executing him would have unnecessarily escalated things to a different level. It’s basically the equivalent of a war crime.