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Preface
It’s the final issue of Drakkon New Dawn!
If you remember from the last issue, this world is in a bit of trouble. Eclipta summoned Dark Specter, Adam’s dead, and Jason apparently lost his goddamn mind. So, how does it all end?
The Cover
This cover would’ve worked better for the previous issue since Adam was still alive and Jason was still decked out in his prison Ranger outfit. Makes me think maybe some shuffling happened in terms of what happened to the story, but eh, we’ll never know.
In terms of just being a cover, I like it. Got both armies on opposing ends ready to strike with Jason in between both of them with thunder happening in the background. A pretty subtle way of showing that he can affect the balance between good and evil and that he’s standing in both Anti-Kim and Eclipta’s way.
The Story
Jason attempts to restore order in the city by returning Zack and Trini’s Power Coins to them. They refuse, saying that they’re already Rangers even without their powers. As Jason stops to think about what to do, Kim talks to him one-on-one, telling him that they can’t morph the pain and suffering away.
Suddenly, Eclipta grows giant-size and the only Zord the Rangers have, the “Zerdd”, is barely functional. Remembering Jason’s earlier words, Kim gets an idea: take the Black Dragon arm that was being built at the Deadlock and use it as a diffuser for their power coins, giving the power to both Coinless and Sentries.
Everyone, including Jason, put their Power Coins in the Diffuser, creating…
As Jason, Bulk, and Skull pilot the “Zerdd” and face Eclipta, everyone else manages to get a few good hits in, climbing up her body and attacking her directly. Just as she shrinks back to her normal size, the Power Coins’ energy is depleted, reverting everyone back to normal. Although Eclipta now has the advantage with her powers, she is no match for a bunch of dudes literally dogpiling on top of her. (I’m not kidding)
In the end, everyone begins to move past it all, with the dismantling of Drakkon’s palace. As Jason leaves the city with the shattered Power Coins, Kim reflects on the challenges ahead, about how they’ve been shattered, but they have each other to keep on fighting.
Soon, from out of nowhere, a new being lands on Earth…
Eh, reaction’s summed up best here.
Ending Thoughts
Man, I could be reading Sins of the Future right now, but instead…
Anyway, this finale, as well as Drakkon New Dawn as a whole, had potential. There are a lot of good ideas into it: Drakkon’s backup plan, the Diffuser, a version of Ecliptor as our main villain, bringing the powers together for everyone to use and showing that everyone is equal to one another. These ideas did a lot for world-building and the message for its ending is still relevant for today’s world, but in the context of the story, some of them fall a bit flat (which I’ll explain a bit more in the Random Thoughts section.)
Part of the problem for this is the pacing. The first issue was well handled, establishing a mission for the team to go on and creating a chain of events for the rest of the series to follow. The second issue then had to divert focus on the main threat to establish a character’s backstory. The third issue then had to rush through and tie up a lot of the elements it set up before and even tried to tease a sequel. It felt like this series could have benefited from one more issue (which is why I stated above that it’s possible story elements got shuffled around)
Now for the positives, almost all of the characters got strong moments from this series. Trini and Zack knowing they’re Rangers even without their powers and even Scorpina helping to avenge Adam’s death. And, although she took a bit of a backseat in the second issue, Kim’s character development has been pretty good, wanting to work on her own to redeem herself to leading an entire army with people she realizes are just as broken as she is. Helping Jason go through his own issues as Drakkon’s prisoner made her realize that.
As for other characters, they feel lacking. For Jason, while it is interesting to see how irrational Jason acts due to his long sentence in Drakkon’s prison, ultimately, all he did was detract from the main threat of the story. And, while he got some resolution on what to do now that he’s free, Jason doesn’t get as clear of an ending as the other Rangers do. For our main villain, Eclipta, as I said in the last review, has a great character design, but personality-wise, she’s boring, with some generic evil writing.
The action sequences, on the other hand, are full of energy and creativity. Since we only have one Ranger, it means that the teamwork aspect that’s in the main PR series is different. With no powers, characters like Adam and Zack have to use more strategy when fighting enemies. This issue’s final battle is a good example of that, with tons of soldiers having to climb up on Eclipta and attack from all angles. It’s only made more impressive by the creative artwork from Simone Ragazzoni and Raul Angulo.
Drakkon’s currently doing things in the two main series so it’ll be a while before we see how this universe is doing. But, if this is the final chapter for this world, Drakkon New Dawn has some missteps, but ultimately leaves all of our Coinless and Sentries on a hopeful note.
Random Thoughts From the Morphin’ Grid
- Zerdd is a stupid name and joking about it does not make it ok. (Same for the Shattered outfits which I’ll mention in a sec)
- Also, why do they keep referring to the Power Coins as Morphin’ Coins? Did the writer just forget what they’re called?
- WHAT SONG?! I DON’T UNDERSTAND THE REFERENCE!
- So, Kim’s plan shouldn’t have worked as well as it did. Again, I appreciate the moral of it, but like Jason said, in a Diffuser, the powers are divided between each person. Having just the Sentries for it essentially made everyone as strong as Putties. Dividing up that power even more probably would’ve just been the equivalent of giving everyone matching leather jackets.
- Speaking of their outfits, I’ve been looking and so far, I can’t find a single person that actually likes those Shattered outfits. I don’t like them, either. It doesn’t match the grizzled aesthetic everyone’s been going with, just slapping on different color assortments on them. Scorpina has the only cool one and the only reason for that is because she has fiery sci-fi wings.
- Also, I know that the yellow part of the helmet for Finster-5 is supposed to be the visor, but it didn’t have the glass shading on it so I legit thought it was a solid piece.
- Looking at some of the other outfits for the army, they don’t look better
- Also, why can that one guy fire lasers from his head?!
- The Bulk and Skull moment is a little cool, but it’s not as effective as it should be since A) We haven’t seen them for the past two issues B) they’re helped by Jason, which diminishes their actual contribution C) this is the only moment we see them in and D) they’re wearing some terrible outfits.
- Speaking of Scorpina, she was surprisingly one of the best parts of the comic. And this is coming from someone who hates the mainstream version of her. It’s like the opposite land to me.
- But, her thing of “His name was Adam Park” felt cut-off. Like it’s supposed to be part of this big epic speech she’s giving for her payback and we only got one line of it.
- Also, when all they demorphed, why are some of their clothes gone? Like with Zack and Trini, when they morphed, they were wearing jackets, but they demorphed all they had were black shirts. I’ve never seen that with a morph.
- The moment with Brett leading the charge. Again, it’s a cool moment for a civilian to help take down the main villain, but it comes from the guy who was technically on the “good” side. It would’ve been more impactful if it was someone from the Sentries. (Also, I didn’t even know his name was Brett until now)
- Even though I praised the action, I still don’t like the dogpile moment. It feels too easy. The main Ecliptor got defeated by a magic wave of pure good. This one doesn’t even get that.
- Also, why did Kim have to put on the cloak after the fight? (She wasn’t wearing when she was demorphed) It was fine before because it was part of the Ranger outfit, but why put on a cape like that if you’re just wearing normal clothes?
- As I said, Jason’s ending feels incomplete. I get that maybe he wants to leave the city and establish a new life for himself, moving past all of the trauma, but why is he taking the pieces of the Power Coins? Chuck them in the ocean and that should be it.
- Also, again, he’s leaving without helping to clean up Drakkon’s mess. What the heck?
- Kim’s sentiment about not having the Power Coins anymore is kinda pointless when you remember that they still have Billy’s coin. (Not to mention that the Zeo Crystal is still probably hanging out back on the moon)
- So, about this new Andros… I don’t like him either. Eclipta’s design was cool, his is pretty uninteresting in terms of recreating Astronema’s armor. He’s trying to look too edgy, especially with all of those piercings. No one should wear that much!
- Also, his weapon looks like he’s overcompensating for something. The drill part is fine, but the extra-large blade is overkill.
- Also, when Karone was corrupted by Dark Specter, she got a new name. Why didn’t Andros? Is Karone not an evil enough name, but Andros is? I don’t understand. (I’m not even gonna bother to ask why Andros doesn’t have new hair colors, too)
- Again, we don’t know when we will come back to this world so there’s a chance we might never know who this Andros is. If it’s what people are theorizing, that Andros was the one originally kidnapped as a kid instead of Karone, and Karone’s now the Red Space Ranger, I could see that as a potentially cool What If story. If it’s just Andros captured and turned evil, then that’s lame. Same, if he was just naturally evil in this dimension.