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Preface
Previously on Power Rangers… Tommy’s off at his uncle’s cabin now because his mere presence alone couldn’t be contained and so now we have to deal with a floating blue man in Jason’s garage. Yep, that sums it all up.
The Cover
This reminds me of something, but I can’t put my finger on it. Anyway, I’m liking this cover. It’s an art style that we haven’t seen on these covers yet and the overall picture concept is great, with the Rangers and Zedd being huge and central and over the whole Earth compared to our teenagers with attitude feeling all sad about the loss of Tommy (again).
The Story
Flashback Land has the five Rangers arguing over whether or not Tommy should join the team if they do manage to free him from Rita’s mind control. Kim and Billy are “Yeah!”. Zack and Trini are “Maybeh?”. Ultimately, they all let Jason make the final decision on the matter. Cut to the present, the Blue Emissary gives Jason the recap of what happened during Shattered Grid and how reality wasn’t fully fixed. This, in turn, caused the energy of the Morphin’ Grid to affect individuals throughout the universe and give each of them power. And now, the Blue Emissary needs Jason’s help to fix it.
Meanwhile, Billy is determined now more than ever to recharge the Green Ranger coin, afraid that his powers or anyone else’s powers can be taken away at any time. At the park, Kim bumps into Matt and they start talking. Matt tells her that he pieced together the whole Tommy situation and that he’s always here to talk if she needs it. Trini and Zack are both volunteering at the Angel Grove Nature Outreach Center, where Trini admits that this is her way of coping with her Ranger duties.
Speaking of Ranger duties, Lord Zedd on the moon explains to Finster that he creates his own monsters rather than using Finster’s because it’s much more EVIL. Even if the monsters are defeated, Lord Zedd has corrupted and defiled something that the Rangers love. And, to prove his point in this instance, he takes a bunny from a kids’ class at the AGNOC and turns it into Warbunny!
(Something from Conan the Barbarian that I don’t understand, but I’m giving it to you right here).
Billy and Kim teleport to the center and all four Rangers morph into action. Unfortunately, Warbunny is too powerful for the Rangers’ weapons and brushes them off. Both his hopping power and warhammer begin to destroy more and more of the city, leaving the others to wonder where the heck is Jason and why he’s not helping.
Unfortunately, Jason’s dealing with his own situation right now.
Oh boy, Jason’s got the crazy eyes!
Ending Thoughts
Hm…Tommy left last issue and this issue was a lot better than the last one. What are the odds?
In all honesty, this issue is better than the last one because we have returned to the true character moments of Go Go Power Rangers. Last issue, it was all just setup for both this placement in the overall Mighty Morphin’ arc and the various situations the Rangers are going through (i.e. Trini volunteering and Billy trying to recharge Tommy’s coin). Here, we do have what Go Go Power Rangers is known for, balancing focus for multiple characters and story elements and action.
All of the character focus for the Rangers this time around all focused on a central topic: coping. Coping with the fact we might never see Tommy again. Even though his death has been reversed, it’s still a way to sort of explore how they might’ve dealt with this emotionally long term. Having everyone focus on this issue in their own way is an effective way of showing their respective character personalities and showing the impact of Tommy’s power loss and departure on the team.
Lord Zedd even gets an even better character introduction for this series than the last issue. When Rita was first introduced (in both comic series), it took some time for them to show any character that felt sinister in their own unique way. However, there is already a huge contrast presented here between Rita and Zedd. Rita was sinister, but it was clear that she somewhat cared about her subordinates and understood their loyalty towards her. Zedd, however, already destroyed something Finster cared about and hates everyone else in this palace. It’s definitely a different dynamic that I’m looking forward to seeing this explored.
Art-wise, there’s not much to comment on other than it’s consistent from the last issue. The only other thing that should be mentioned is the glory that is Warbunny. It’s such a fun and creative monster that we honestly haven’t gotten in a while.
Go Go Power Rangers #22 is a great return to this series’ status quo. It honestly doesn’t do much overall for “Necessary Evil”, but it’s got a good action sequence with a creative monster, multiple sympathetic character moments, and a great art style to boot. That’s really all I can ask from this series.
Random Thoughts from the Morphin’ Grid
- I almost called it a continuity error that Zack was talking about Rita’s offer to him even though he didn’t tell the others until after Tommy joined the team. But I guess that’s part of the new history of this timeline.
- We have a scene of Billy choosing Jason’s decision on whether or not Tommy should join the team or not because he’s a leader and a decision-maker. Then, the very next scene is him being rash and trying to fight someone who somewhat resembles a Power Ranger and failing hard. Yep, Jason’s a good decision maker alright.
- Jason’s dad: “Jason, I need to get into the garage. You’ve been in there awhile… Wait, what’s with all of those weird lights coming from inside…? Are you having another Clean-Up Club session again?”
- “You trying to plantsplain me?”…This is part of the reason why you don’t have a social life, Zack!
- A small detail that I appreciate is that one of the kids at the AGNOC has a headscarf. The artist could have easily just used a group of generic kids and none of us would care. They at least tried to add more diversity.
- “A warrior rabbit is actually a phenomenal idea.” I agree. We need more rabbit-themed heroes like Kamen Rider Build and Beast Morphers Yellow in the world.
- If Beast Morphers taught me anything, all we have to do is get him to stay away from carrots and his energy will deplete.
- “Warbunny has stones!” Double meaning right there.
- I know there’s the possibility that Tommy didn’t actually make it to the cabin. If something actually did happen on the way or when he’s staying there. I’m just saying. We saw how many times he messed up in Season 1, It’d be a miracle if he actually made it to that cabin in one piece.
