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Preface
Omega Rangers vs the mighty Lord Zedd! Who will win?! (You already know the answer to this…)
The Cover
An epic shot of Jason vs. Zedd. What else is there to say?
The Story
Continuing the fight from the last issue, the four Omega Rangers confront Lord Zedd in his throne room. Of course, Lord Zedd is more than a match for them but is quickly defeated and captured after Jason summons his Zord and pounds Lord Zedd into the ground. The Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers then teleport to the Moon Palace a bit late to the party and try and confront the Omega Rangers for unnecessarily escalating the fight. During this, Kiya sees Tommy as Lord Drakkon and attempts to attack him. The situation is quickly diffused as the Omega Rangers teleport back to the ship, except for Jason, who returns with the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers to the Command Center and has a talk to Zordon about his decision. Although Zordon is thankful that the Omega Rangers saved them, their decision to take out Lord Zedd could have disastrous consequences which none of them are prepared for.
“Goodbye, Omega Ranger and may the power protect you all.”
Meanwhile, Goldar, Baboo, Squatt, and Finster are hiding out in an empty gas station after escaping from the Omega Rangers’ wrath. While everyone else is panicking on what they could do now, Goldar reveals he took Lord Zedd’s broken staff and all they need to do is fix it and they can destroy the Power Rangers.
While the Stone Canyon trio contemplates on whether or not they will continue being Rangers after all of this, back on Safehaven, Jason starts to question his decision. With Kiya, she wants to take out Tommy Oliver so that he never becomes the Lord Drakkon we all know and love. Kiya voices her concern to the Blue Emissary, but when she finds out that he’s the one that gave Tommy the White Light, she kills the Blue Emissary and releases Garrison Vox and Cavotus from captivity, devoted to protecting the universe at all costs.
“Ok, Kiya, calm down. Clearly, you can’t… Oh, wait! Her new team name is in fancy font! That’s it! We’re dead! We’re done! We’re finished!”
Ending Thoughts
So… Kiya’s a bad guy now. I’d say no one could’ve seen this coming, but the signs were laid out for us all along.
From the moment Kiya was established to having more power than the other Omega Rangers, she always had the potential to be a threat to them all. Kiya wanted redemption for the pain she caused her family the moment she gained the Morphin’ Grid’s power. At first, joining the Omega Ranger team seemed the way to go for her. But, throughout these five issues, as an outsider, she sees the situation differently than the others do. Kiya empathizes a lot with the “villains” they’ve encountered because she understands what they’re going through and sees them instead as “victims”. However, the Blue Emissary is adamant in locking every single victim up because they have the capacity to endanger all of reality. Kiya struggled what to do with that, but it wasn’t until she learned about the Blue Emissary giving Tommy the White Light that she made her decision. Being adamant about how every threat to the Morphin’ Grid needs to be dealt with and at the same time, giving power to the guy whose doppelganger is responsible for all of this pain and suffering that she’s going through makes the Blue Emissary look a little hypocritical. There’s been good build-up to this heel turn so it’ll be interesting to see how it’s resolved now.
Besides that major moment, there are some other memorable moments from this issue. First off, coming straight from the ending of the last issue, the battle of Lord Zedd vs. the Omega Rangers didn’t disappoint. The Omega Rangers shine with their power and skill like last time, but at the same time, Lord Zedd holds his own throughout the fight, employing different tactics. The only reason Lord Zedd loses is that, let’s face it, Jason cheated.
Also, this comic has had a lot of emotional conversations, but the unique one that I want to highlight is the conversation between Jason and Tommy outside of the Command Center. Since Jason has to keep his identity secret, both he and Tommy have to have this tense/awkward conversation about leadership while keeping their helmets on the whole time where we can’t see the emotions they’re feeling. The scene has to rely on the body language and the dialogue and it works beautifully, especially with the artwork helping out. Though we didn’t need to see it, those final panels where we actually can see through their visors, the feelings of doubt they both have, encapsulates the situation perfectly.
MMPR #45 is the turning point for “Necessary Evil”. The balance of power has been tipped in the fight of Good vs. Evil for both our Omega Rangers and our Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers and all of our teenagers with attitude are going to have to deal with the
Random Thoughts from the Morphin’ Grid
- My question from the last issue about what the Blue Emissary thought of this plan still stands.
- I will also add that there are some brief horror elements that are sprinkled throughout the battle in the Moon Palace like the panel of Finster summoning his monsters to the throne coming alive and trying to eat Jason. It makes the scene more memorable as a result.
- Another part I want to talk about with Jason and Tommy’s conversation? That last panel before you can see through their visors? It might be just me, but that panel looks like a physical representation of the only thing standing in Tommy moving forward is Jason. Just a thought…
- Do you know what else was beautiful? The Blue Emissary’s death. It was sad but beautiful. The Blue Emissary narrating this conversation before realizing it actually happens and then the last panel of him as the first Blue Ranger breaking apart.
- Ionic…displacement. Adam, for the love of God, even I know what that is!
- “The Anointed.” I’m just gonna say it. Worst group name ever. (I’m sorry, but I keep thinking of the actual meaning of the word, which is “smear with oil”, and that’s not impressive at all.)
- “No More Rangers.” Got it. Kamen Riders, you’re up!