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Preface
The first official Power Rangers content for 2021.
Well except for that Kickstarter for those MMPR hardcovers. I would want to support them, but don’t have the money for it and honestly, I’ve never been open to giving money for any Kickstarter project even if it is funded. The rewards look nice (that Megazord display is going to be pretty cool at your house), but I’m not sure that 500 for all of the novels is a good price for it. There is stuff that I would buy on its own like that collectible box with every Ranger on it, but it is what it is. (And I’m hoping by now, I can stop rambling so this section isn’t that small…)
The Cover
This is the first cover set where they’re both equally matched.
They’re both on the opposite sides of the spectrum. The Mighty Morphin’ cover is full of energy and action while the Power Rangers cover is filled with a dark atmosphere and mood. But both of them are great.
The Mighty Morphin’ cover has a great framing on the Rangers fighting, the Chaos Putties look detailed and menacing in this art style, and I love how the white and green colors fade together in the background. The Power Rangers cover has an excellent color contrast between the fire and Drakkon and how Drakkon is positioned is reminiscent of his attack on the Command Center.
If I had to pick which one is better, I would have to say the Power Rangers cover, but only barely. While the Chaos Putties look fantastic here, there’s a little more intrigue into knowing what exactly Drakkon is standing on.
The Story
We go even deeper into Flashback Land!
On the planet Bivix, Zordon and his supervisor, Zartus, are mingling with the planet natives under disguise while talking about what made them join the Guardians of Eltar. Both of them say that it’s expected in their families, but Zordon, however, doesn’t want to be a Guardian forever. Instead, when his time as a Guardian is over, he wants to return to Eltar, start a family, and live peacefully.
Back in the present, while all of the Rangers are distracted by this new onslaught of Chaos Putties, Lord Zedd orders the prime Chaos Putty to attack Adam directly. As Adam is being zapped, Billy goes over to the Green Ranger and tells him to teleport back to Promethea because he’s weak to the Putties’ new Chaos type. As the Green Ranger teleports away, Aisha notices the whole thing.
Adam rejoins the battle, but on the wrong side. He sees the Rangers as monsters and attacks them. As Aisha shows why she’s the friend of the year by knocking out Adam, the Rangers retreat to the Command Center to heal up and to purge the remaining chaos energy from Adam.
Alpha finally detects the Green Ranger’s teleportation signal and informs Zordon that the Green Ranger comes from Promethea. Zordon and Grace get into an argument about the Power Coin, ending in them both deciding to deal with this after the Chaos Putties are dealt with. Meanwhile, Aisha confronts Billy about what she saw and Billy admits the truth. Before both of them can go farther in, Lord Zedd combines all of the Chaos Putties together, making one giant monster for the Rangers to confront.
Ending Thoughts
Mighty Morphin’ #3 works as a good transition to the next big fight scene.
This issue is straight-up action. Not to say that this is a bad thing. Having our main enemies for this battle as the Putties does give the fight a chaotic feeling, pun intended, having us look at all of the characters fighting in this gigantic pileup.
There’s little development for Candice and Bulk and Skull, little development for our villains, and the plot of Adam attacking the others seems to be easily resolved right now. The only plot thread that is given any room for character development is the main one: the creation of the Green Ranger. While the confrontation between Aisha and Billy felt less than satisfying to me personally (I would’ve liked to see Aisha’s reaction at the end of his speech to see what she would’ve done before the Megazord fight), the tense moment between Grace and Zordon more than makes up for it, showing the controlling nature Zordon has now contrasted with his younger self.
Speaking of that flashback, let me make this abundantly clear. I loved every single page of Zordon’s flashback. The humor, the emotional talk for Zordon and what he wants, all of the cool alien designs they get to show off. I loved it. It was only three pages long and I want to recommend this issue solely on this flashback.
Art-wise, Marco Renna delivers on the visuals. The impressive art of the Megazord sequence is always appreciated. For the brief second they were seen, the monster-ish designs for the Rangers were well-detailed and I would have loved to see more of them. And, I mentioned the Grace and Zordon confrontation earlier because of the tense dialogue between the two, but the art for the scene also compliments the tense mood between them. Any conversation with Zordon has the characters look up at Zordon like he’s this god-like being, but with how the art frames this scene, Grace gets to look directly at him. The art subtly implies that now both Grace and Zordon are on the same level, two people on opposing sides with both the confidence and the power to back them up.
Mighty Morphin’ #3 feels weak at times, especially with the cliffhanger ending being something we’ve already seen before but delivers overall on what it’s supposed to be: a chaotic battle for all of our main characters leading to even greater pandemonium next issue.
Random Thoughts from the Morphin’ Grid
- I think it should be noted that the chaos energy not only affected Adam’s eyesight but maybe made him a bit dumber. I understand the whole concept of him thinking the Rangers are his enemies, the Putties are his friends, but if he can understand what the Rangers are saying enough to make snappy comebacks, don’t you think he should’ve realized something was up?
- Also, during the fight, Adam acted like he was in charge. Like dude, you know this is Tommy’s world, right? You ain’t the leader as long as he’s here… and Kimberly… and really three more people after that.
- I will say Adam is a good choice for Zedd to target. If he couldn’t go for Tommy or Kim (because you know how many times we’ve already seen them being evil), then Adam is a good choice. Though, Aisha might’ve been better judging by how quick she was to kick him upside the head.
- I miss Saba talking. That’s it. It just occurred to me we haven’t talked with him in a while.
