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Preface
It’s a special occasion. This latest issue of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was released on August 28th AKA the same day that the first Power Rangers episode was aired AKA National Power Rangers Day. Odds are, it’s going to be a couple of years before this happens again. But, now the question is, is this anything special for today or just something that happened by total coincidence?
The Cover
It’s a fine cover, showing the Stone Canyon trio. Not much really to say about it.
The Story
Dayne is again spying on the Rangers and seeing them in action. Although he thinks that Tommy, Rocky, Adam, and Aisha will be easy to take out, he thinks that Billy and Kim will be a challenge to him. Meanwhile, the Omega Rangers are offering Garrison Vox a chance to join them, but he refuses, saying that he’ll destroy them all when he gets out. Thinking about Garrison’s words, Kiya tells Trini about the time when she discovered her powers. She woke up in the middle of the night with power surging from her, destroying her entire house and killing her family, including her younger brother, Sello.
Later, The Omega Rangers find out about another Morphin’ Grid energy spike, this time from the planet Breel (the planet from GGPR #13 – 16). They learn that multiple alien spacecraft have entered Breel’s atmosphere, attending a party held by Queen Adriyel (again, she’s from GGPR #14 – 16). Taking the subtle approach, the four Omega Rangers get all fancied up and arrive on Breel.
Fabulous.
After beating up some guards, the Rangers sneak into the party and attempt to mingle. (It should be noted that the various party guests are from different evil factions from the PR show like Divatox’s crew and the Machine Empire). Anyway, Queen Adriyel addresses the guests and demands they will all pledge loyalty to her, completely incinerating a space ship in orbit as a show of power.
After Tommy and Kim have a date together, jogging on top of the Grand Wall of China, the Rangers see on the news Dayne rampaging downtown. They all morph into action and confront him, but as soon as they attempt to fire their Blade Blasters, Dayne disables them with an EMP and warns them that this isn’t going to be a fair fight.
Ending Thoughts
To answer my question from above, this issue’s events and the timing of when it was released was just a total coincidence. That said, it’s an amazing coincidence.
This is the first issue where the comic has to balance evenly between two completely different storylines, one for our main MMPR team and one for our brand new Omega Ranger team. And, like the Go Go Power Rangers series, the writers manage to bring a lot of content into here. It advances the storylines for both teams, giving characters on both sides some character focus (Kiya’s backstory and Kim and Tommy’s Great date). It’s not the perfect balance that GGPR has, but it still does a great job.
Besides the little lines here and there that give every character some attention and are just plain hilarious, there’s one thing about this issue that makes it exceptional. The Breel space party. First off, it lets the Rangers dress up in some pretty fashionable space outfits. Secondly, there’s a lot of fun alien designs shown throughout the party, which is always a thing in science fiction and I’m glad this takes advantage of this unique setting. But, most importantly, the party is just filled with continuity. Continuity with both the tv show, having villains from various seasons running around the party, and the comics, giving more screen-time to a one-off character and allowing a more fitting ending to them than before. Like with Dayne, it integrates more of the PR lore from across the universe and it’s not something that’s necessary, but it’s just always nice to see.
MMPR #42 is, by sheer coincidence, a great product to celebrate National Power Rangers Day because it’s a microcosm of everything that’s great about Power Rangers. Fun and dynamic action, cheesy but charming dialogue, an interesting premise and setting, and the use of the expanded multiverse that has been built over these last 26 years.
Random Thoughts from the Morphin’ Grid
- Last year’s anniversary, we had the Dimensions from Danger episode aired. The common thread between that and this is Tommy and Rocky. That’s definitely an odd combination.
- I just now realized we have a Cats vs. Dogs rivalry going on with Tommy and Dayne.
- Tommy, if this was your idea of a good date, then I’m starting to question some things…
- “There, you shared thoughts, minds, feelings, and mouths–” DAMN!
- “Maybe I’ll get to be the Red Ranger then.” Pfft. Yeah, right. Because female Red Rangers are so common.
- Everyone saying karate cries and then Zack’s like “Sorry man. Gotta make that sound.” is such a meta thing that I’m so happy they addressed.
- Compare this to when Andros infiltrated the United Alliance of Evil meeting and you know what? This is better. Mainly because Andros didn’t dress as nice as Jason here.
- There’s a little bit of a continuity error at the end where there are 6 Blade Blasters. Tommy doesn’t have one. Unless he does and everything I know is a lie.