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Preface
You wanna know how I know nothing special will happen in this issue? All of the exclusive variant covers that are shown to be promoting it for this specific issue.
Yep, nothing special will be shown here. Nothing. Special.
The Cover
Like last month, both of these issues are equally matched.
They’re both on the opposite sides of the spectrum. The Mighty Morphin’ cover is simplistic, only focusing on the Green Ranger in front of a black background, getting interviewed about Power Rangers being removed from Netflix. Meanwhile, the Power Rangers’ cover has a ton of elements: all of the Rangers and their allies showing them ready to face a dangerous threat in front of a vivid background and atmosphere.
If I had to pick which one is better, I love the Power Rangers cover, but the Mighty Morphin cover draws in more eyes to it. The simplicity of the cover’s premise allows more people to be interested in what’s happening. While with the Power Rangers cover, it’s essentially a generic team cover.
The Story
Back into Flashback Land, in the Sanctuary of Zaren, named after the first Guardian of Eltar, Zordon trains with Zophram, the Supreme Guardian that was promoted in Mighty Morphin #2. During the session, Zophram promotes Zordon to Chief Guardian, believing that he is the right person to take care of Eltar.
Back in the present, while the Tigerzord Warrior Mode deals with the gigantified Putty, the main Rangers attempt to handle a swarm of Putties crawling onto the Thunder Megazord. Reinforcements arrive in the form of a newly upgraded Dragonzord from Promethea. As it attempts to combine with Tommy’s Tigerzord, the transformation is interrupted by Lord Zedd personally as he disables both zords. It gets even worse when Zordon and Alpha attempt to teleport everyone out of there, but the teleportation is being blocked for an unknown reason.
On the ground, Bulk confronts Candice about him believing that she is cheating on Skull. As Candice learns from Bulk’s speech that Skull truly loves her, she disappears from the duo and teleports the Rangers back to safety in the Command Center. Candice, her real name being Zelya, reveals herself to the Rangers and Zordon and Alpha, stating that her mission was to make sure the Power Rangers stay alive at all costs because “the Third Eltarian War is upon us.”
Meanwhile, as payback for the Omega Rangers capturing him, Lord Zedd uses his green chaos energy to trap the entire city of Angel Grove in a force field. As the Rangers scramble to think of a way back inside, an emergency broadcast is transmitted throughout Angel Grove. It’s from the Green Ranger who’s trapped inside the energy barrier. He tells them all to stay safe and that no matter what, he won’t abandon them. And, to prove it, he shows everyone who he really is…
OH MY GOODNESS! THAT WAS SO UNEXPECTED!
Ending Thoughts
We knew. We all knew.
Even if you didn’t see those spoiled variant covers I mentioned a few months back, let’s face it. Matt was literally the only person on the suspect list. In fact, it wasn’t even a suspect list. It was practically a billboard with Matt’s name on it in big neon letters.
The lead-up to the reveal isn’t even that shocking, so to speak. Matt practically had no involvement in the last two issues aside from his Green Ranger scenes. There was no hint to the Green Ranger being him other than the fact that there’s this good looking athletic guy that knows the Rangers suddenly popping back into the story around the same time we get a new Green Ranger. This storyline so far isn’t the most thrilling mystery is all I’m saying. I still don’t know whether or not I even like the idea of Matt as this new Ranger. At the very least, this arc was short enough to not get on everyone’s nerves.
With all of that said, using this new original Green Ranger as the first public Ranger is a cool idea. It opens up a lot of story opportunities down the road and definitely puts up a different dynamic between him and the Mighty Morphin’ Rangers. This aspect will be the thing I am most looking forward to seeing in this series.
As for just this issue, it’s a good finale for this arc as it goes into the next one. It has a lot of interesting elements in it. Not just the Green Ranger reveal, but fantastic artwork for some cool action setpieces like Zedd zapping the two Zords as they were about to collide. Both the Flashback Land trip and Zelya’s brief introduction to Zordon builds up this intrigue of what is going on for the Eltarians. Don’t forget about Bulk’s speech to Candice about Skull, showing how much he cares for Skull and even acknowledging that Skull cares more for her over him.
Mighty Morphin’ #4 is a critical issue, delivering the exact reveal we’ve all been expecting, but providing fantastic action set pieces and more storylines to explore.
Random Thoughts from the Morphin’ Grid
- I didn’t get a chance to say it earlier, but that bait of the Dragonzord and the Tigerzord combining is such a good tease for when it will eventually happen.
- So, the new Dragonzord design? Eh, I’ll be honest. If it wasn’t those fins on the back of it, I wouldn’t even notice a difference.
- Rocky: “Well, so much for the high ground.” Well, to be fair, Rocky, you underestimated their power.
- Billy being like “Oh, Skull’s girlfriend is an alien. That makes sense.”I got a news flash for you, buddy!
- Writing this up, I was planning on calling the Third Eltarian War the Eltar War 2: Part 2 but decided against it since it was not the time for jokey-jokes.
- Ok, so just to be clear. Matt is inside the dome trapped and not in Promethea, right? Because if that is the case, does this dude have his own secret base now? Where is he filming this? How is he broadcasting this?
- Admit it. Drakkon’s reveal was more of a surprise. At least there, they gave us some seeds of doubt with that issue where Zack was asked to be the Green Ranger.
- The thing I’m scared of with Matt being this new Ranger is that it has the potential to make him the bad guy here, especially in regards to the love triangle dynamic with Kim and Tommy. I don’t think that will happen, but it can…
- Also, it’s a weird thing to me whenever side characters are promoted to Ranger status. For me, I’d be ok with it if they’ve earned it and… I don’t think Matt has yet. (Plus, there are always those weird people that think that being a Ranger suddenly makes characters more important or compelling.)
- A bit off-topic, but let me just get it out now. Kyle Higgins. Wrote the first Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers series in the beginning. Is now writing other Tokusatsu-based comics like the Rise of Ultraman, which is a good introduction to the Ultraman mythos and I’m excited to see more, and most recently, Radiant Black. Radiant Black is an original creation of his that has Tokusatsu aspects in there and the first issue of it released this week, and you know what? I like it. Not a lot happened action-wise, but the designs are cool, there’s some good humor in there, and the main character personally is speaking to me since I’m kind of in that same situation now. Go check it out if you haven’t.