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Preface
Welcome back to our third annual Power Rangers graphic novel!
We’ve looked at a story for the most popular Ranger, a story for the most popular Ranger villain team, and now we’re taking a look at a story for one of the most popular couples in Ranger history: Jen and Wes.
Born only 1000 years apart, these two Rangers fell in love fighting to keep the future alive. What made this couple so popular was not just the spectacular performances from both of their actors, Jason Faunt and Erin Cahill. It was that both Rangers on their own were compelling characters and strong, independent leaders as they went through a lot of drama together from Jen taking away Wes’s morpher to realizing that they are meant for each other.
For years, the PR fandom has wondered for years what happened to Wes and Jen’s relationship, whether they would get a happily ever after. And, now we have that answer…
The Cover
It’s the same promo-looking cover for a lot of graphic novels so there’s not a lot to really judge here. But, in comparison with the other graphic novels, this has the same art style as the cover for The Psycho Path. And, I do believe I like the Psycho Path’s cover more as the layout of its element made it feel like a suspenseful movie poster.
The Story
SYNOPSIS: After defeating the Mut-Orgs in 2002, Wes and Jen are reunited and begin a long-distance relationship, spanning over 1000 years.As Jen receives an offer about a promotion at Time Force, she begins to wonder, that after saving the future for everyone, what her future should be.
However, as it turns out, the timeline is very delicate and Wes and Jen’s new relationship may have brought new forces from across time and space that put everything in danger. Will Wes and Jen be able to choose their own destiny or is this a fight against fate they can’t win?
So, how is the final chapter for these legends of tomorrow?
Without a doubt, this is not only my favorite PR graphic novel we have gotten so far, but a pretty good epilogue to “Power Rangers Time Force.” Like before, let’s discuss this in parts.
Like Tommy in Soul of the Dragon, Jen is looking for what her future is, whether it’s in a relationship with Wes, settling for what’s a normal life or whether it’s with Time Force, an organization she has dedicated a good portion of her life towards. We see both sides of her life with her being more personal when she’s with Wes and with how she’s seen as a Time Force Ranger, especially with Captain Logan’s reaction to her possibly becoming a commander. Throughout this adventure, she meets characters that are too focused on one aspect of time: either what happened in the past or what will change the future. By the end of it, she finds a solution to her problems where she doesn’t focus on the past or the future, but rather learns to live in the present.
Our other main characters get some good moments too. With Nadira, she was redeemed in the Time Force finale and the Wild Force team-up. However, this is the first story where we see her actually helping the Rangers out with her knowledge of the timestream and her connection to a certain Time Force officer. It’s nice to see her show off being so competent while maintaining her fun attitude. As for our new Time Force Black Ranger, she’s a character similar to how Jen was when she originally became the Time Force Pink Ranger, focused purely on revenge and her mission. Only with Time Force Black, she doesn’t have her own support system, her own friends willing to help her out. She serves as a excellent counterpart for Jen to interact with.
The author, Matthew Erman, for sure did his homework and learning all about the original Time Force series. You can just tell through the amount of detail and references to specific episodes. And, similarly to the Go Go Power Rangers series, the writer does take creative liberty and add in his own elements, expanding on the lore of not just Time Force but the series Hyperforce as well. Yeah, this book acts as a prequel to the events of the PR board game series on Hyper RPG. Although I personally haven’t seen all of Hyperforce yet, I can see a lot of the references to that series and it doesn’t overtake the main plot at all. Any PR fan can appreciate having the writer go that extra step and bring more attention to that series.
Guiseppe Cafaro continues his incredible artwork from the previous PR graphic novels and their artwork gets to shine here. In addition to nailing everyone’s likenesses, the Ranger suits here draw your attention in, especially with Time Force Black and her energy radiating from her body. The environments here are the main center of the comic as there’s a wide range of them. From a normal city to its futuristic counterpart to the inside of space and time slowly cracking apart at the seams and glitching all over the place. There’s a lot to look at.
So, after all of the praise I gave, is this comic perfect? Well, not exactly.
For starters, Sins of the Future might be too true of an adaptation of Time Force, so much so that it has one of the same problems as Time Force. The TV show, while having dedicated episodes to every Ranger, was more oriented towards Jen and Wes. This graphic novel has that same issue to an even greater extent, giving Jen all of the focus despite this being marketed as a story for both Wes and Jen.
Though the new focus and concepts shown about time travel are fascinating to think about and it allows readers to think more about how the story and the lore work, it can be a bit too confusing. In fact, by the time everyone gets to the final area, Outpost One, it is filled with so much exposition and backstory on explaining the mysterious premise of the story that it leaves the climax surprisingly short on any action sequences.
Ending Thoughts
Power Rangers Time Force, I remember, was one of the first seasons of Power Rangers I watched. It was fun when I was a kid and I grew to appreciate the season even more as the years went by. Why Sins of the Future feels special is because this is the first PR graphic novel that feels like an actual extension for the season.
Soul of the Dragon and the Psycho Path follow certain characters from different series going through new adventures and placing them in new environments, giving them a sense that they’re spin-offs. While Sins of the Future follows that same story formula, it’s different because it takes full advantage of the large cast of characters and the show’s lore and history by expanding on the established time travel concepts and being a prelude to the next generation of heroes.
Even though its ending is a bit underwhelming and convoluted, Sins of the Future is a worthy follow-up to Power Rangers Time Force. Race to another time, make sure your Chrono Morpher is online, and take a look at it for yourself.
Random Thoughts From the Morphin’ Grid
- First off, let me call out the fact that I predicted this comic would come out last year so HA!
- Secondly, I have no idea on what they could do next. These graphic novels tend to focus on unresolved conflicts for PR as well as combining two different series’ elements together. And, for unresolved answers, the Disney era seasons did a really good job of wrapping things up for its characters so it could be something from the Neo Saban era. Though, I wouldn’t mind something from SPD and fill in some gaps on its lore. (Also, that Deka Ranger suit is just too good to not just be remembered as the guy on the Christmas card.)
- Wes, I’m sorry, but you’re the guy who’s got an amazing girlfriend, the guy who saved all of time and space, the guy who is commanding officer of a city task force, the guy with a rich, the guy who can cook pastries, and the guy who singlehandedly defeated a dragon. You don’t need a catchphrase at this point!
- Also, Wes, the whole reason you got to be with Time Force is that you learned you had to take your job seriously!
- Forgot to mention, but there are these little graphics outside of the comic panels in the beginning date with Wes and Jen. It’s cute and it looks good, but it wasn’t exactly necessary.
- I really don’t see the point of wiping out Wes’s memory at this point, especially since you let him have it for a full year after Ransik was captured. Also, there are a butt load of people you’d have to mind wipe then. Does Time Force have their equivalent of Men in Black?
- In regards to Time Force Black’s initial attack on the Clock Tower, I have to wonder why she didn’t do her job properly. Yes, she thought Jen was eliminated, but that would also have meant Wes was eliminated and that causes a butt load of problems. And, even if it was what she was supposed to do, I’m pretty sure leaving a corpse from the future in the past is bound to have some effect on the timeline.
- All of these graphic novels lack any Zord fights, which is a real shame because there could’ve been a good one here. Imagine Jen zooming back to the future in her Time Flyer and all of a sudden, Time Force Black comes out of nowhere in the Shadow Winger and it’s basically just a Star Wars dogfight, but in the timestream with Jen avoiding her as much as possible.
- So, we never see Eric morph here. Which is weird. It’s not even something in the background. Now, what would’ve been cool if there was an actual reason shown in-story. Like for example, alluding to something revealed later in the book, the Quantum Morpher reacts oddly whenever it’s in close proximity with Time Force Black’s morpher.
- So, in case you don’t know about this being spoiled filled or don’t care about being spoiled, yeah, Time Force Black is Alex’s sister. Even though it’s a character we’ve never heard of before, I didn’t question it. Except for one thing. Alex’s sister didn’t recognize Jen when she receives her morpher, but Jen seems to recognize Alex’s sister when Jen removes her helmet. Which makes me confused on their prior relationship before Ransik attacked and also makes me think about how fast exactly was Alex and Jen’s relationship if they were getting engaged and apparently Alex’s own sister didn’t know who she was.
- Also, I keep calling her Cloe in my head even though her name is actually Cyra in the story. I assuming they changed it because people might’ve been confused if she was actually Chloe, Hyperforce Pink.
- Only real question I have about Time Force now (and I know will never be answered): Who exactly is Alex’s ancestor besides Wes?