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Preface
Ah, Phantom Ranger. One of the original fan-favorite Power Rangers from the Zordon Era that wasn’t in a season that started with the words “Mighty” and “Morphin”.
But, what exactly made him so memorable? Well, for one, his suit design was pretty cool. All black and slimming but at the same time, having this padded armor look that was unique from previous Rangers at the time.
And, what’s most important about him, the pure concept of who he is. A hero only popping in to help our main team with no one knowing why he’s doing all this. With his power set, he could always be a part of the action, waiting for the right moment to strike. And, at the same time, he’s this faceless person, a blank slate, for anyone to picture this mysterious person and to let their imagination go wild. All that together creates this cool character that’s so unique from so many other heroes.
So, a story about a faceless hero fighting the forces of evil throughout the universe. Like I said, a blank slate for any writer. Let’s do this.
The Cover
Great. Great cover right here.
There are a lot of elements for new readers to get interested in. The Phantom Ranger in a cool pose drenched in space blood, protecting a child with Tengas surrounding him. All with this yellow-ish background contrasting them all. Conceptually, it’s fantastic.
Personally, my favorite part of it is that from a distance, the Phantom Ranger blends in a little with the Tengas and that works perfectly with the Phantom Ranger’s concept.
The Story
We begin with the Phantom Ranger reporting to Zordon about the destruction of the planet Hartunia from Power Rangers #8.
Then, we go all the way back to Flashback Land, the same one from Go Go Power Rangers #19. Over ten thousand years ago, Lady Fienna attempted to hide her daughter, Rita Repulsa, from Master Vile and his evil army of Tengas. However, just as the head Tenga was about to sacrifice Rita to their evil gods, the Phantom Ranger swoops in and takes them to safety. As Lady Fienna and Rita reach the Phantom Ranger’s ship, the Phantom Ranger is critically injured by the head Tenga. The Phantom Ranger believes his mission is done, but Lady Fienna drags him back to the ship and they take off into space.
On the ship, Lady Fienna manages to repair the damages done to the Phantom Ranger’s suit, but he won’t survive for long unless he gets a transfusion of energy from the Morphin’ Grid. To save his life, Lady Fienna changes their destination from Zordon’s location to the Masterforge, an ancient space station used by the Morphin’ Masters to store Morphin’ Grid energy. After the Phantom Ranger’s energy is restored, Lady Fienna tells the Phantom Ranger about her plan: She wants to give Morphin’ Grid energy to Rita.
You see, as it turns out, Lady Fienna’s husband, Eldin, was busy studying the Morphin’ Grid when he discovered Sat- I mean, Dark Specter. Eldin became obsessed with bringing Dark Specter to their dimension and discovered that in order to do that, Dark Specter needed a vessel to have his full power. Eldin offered up Rita and both Lady Fienna and Rita have been running ever since. However, if Lady Fienna puts Morphin’ Grid energy inside of Rita, her body will become hostile to Dark Specter and won’t be possessed.
As Lady Fienna starts the process, the Tengas find out their location and attack. Phantom Ranger holds them off, but soon Master Vile, previously known as Eldin, arrives too. With the Grid energy taking too long, Lady Fienna throws the machine into overdrive, sacrificing her life so that Rita can’t be used by Dark Specter. Master Vile is furious that he lost his vessel, but decides that maybe Rita can be useful in other ways. As the Masterforge goes critical from the Morphin’ Grid explosion, Master Vile leaves the Phantom Ranger to die. Which obviously doesn’t work because you can’t kill a ghost.
And so why was the Phantom Ranger thinking of this story on Hartunia? Because on the planet’s ruins, he sees a symbol with dark energy rising from the ground, showing that Dark Specter has finally returned.
Ending Thoughts
Let me get this out of the way right now before I ramble on. This issue was great. For these kinds of stories, there’s always the risk of either the main character or the entire story coming off as too generic. Fortunately, that’s not the case here. Frank Gogol, a brand new writer for Power Rangers, did an excellent job.
The Phantom Ranger still remains a mystery and that’s a good thing. We got little tidbits here and there about who he is, but nothing too definitive. It helps fans of PR create their own stories and theories around him without spelling out the character’s origin. The best part of the Phantom Ranger here is that even though it’s not his story, we get to define his personality here more than in the show. The Phantom Ranger’s mentality of not accepting his death until he finishes his mission against the forces of evil is so unique from other Rangers and truly puts a whole new perspective on the continuity for him that’s established in the show.
Speaking of continuity, as I mentioned earlier, this isn’t the Phantom Ranger’s story. This story is about Lady Fienna and her daughter, bridging the small gaps we had leftover from Go Go Power Rangers. It’s all connected tightly as we get explanations on how Master Vile came into the picture, how Lady Fienna died, and what was Rita like before she got kidnapped by Master Vile. Like the ideas with the Phantom Ranger, this story brings a whole new perspective on the Rita and Lady Fienna dynamic from Go Go Power Rangers. Think about it. Lady Fienna helped her daughter, but perhaps all her daughter remembers is the pain her mother inflicted in those final moments. It makes me want to go back and reread those issues of Go Go Power Rangers with that perspective in mind.
The artwork for this story is once again done by Simone Ragazzoni, the same artist from Drakkon New Dawn and the first issue of Power Rangers Unlimited. It’s fantastic and there’s a lot of memorable imagery to show off her art style. Rita’s light puppets, the Phantom Ranger floating in limbo, both future visions for Rita. It’s accentuated by the same coloring style from Igor Monti and Sabrina Del Grosso, where the bright colors fit with the overall mood each location is supposed to convey, especially on Hartunia.
Honestly, if I had to find one thing about this story I would improve, it’d be the action sequences. The action here is good, being fast-paced and dynamic with the panel layouts, but not as great as it could’ve been. I wish the Phantom Ranger used more of his weapons like his laser and his invisibility in the final battle to make the action more compelling. (Although, I get that this is on-brand. See comment below.) There’s also this odd narrative device that’s used here where someone would tell a fairy-tale-style story for Rita in times of stress. While I understand their appearance here, showing the overall moral and foreshadowing Rita’s journey, the narration is overlaid on the action, not letting the art speak for itself. It becomes distracting, especially during the final battle where for multiple pages, you have to jump between Phantom Ranger’s story and the dialogue of the scene. Ultimately, this made it feel more dialogue-heavy than it should have been.
Still, for a character that mainly stays in the shadows, Power Rangers Unlimited: Edge of Darkness #1 absolutely stands out from the crowd.
Random Thoughts from the Morphin’ Grid
- I know there were always plans from behind the scenes of the show to give the Phantom Ranger an origin, but I don’t think he needs one. After all this time, nothing would really satisfy me.
- Let me make this clear, Hasbro. This is the Turbo Phantom Ranger, not the In Space Phantom Ranger. Your mistake is like labeling Mick Kanic as Mick from Dino Fury, not Mick from Ninja Steel. (Though, if this is the path you want to go on, where is my In Space Blue Senturion? In Space Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?)
- The only question I have now for Rita’s family is how the heck did Rito enter the picture?
- Forgot to mention it above, but I love the invisible effect for the Phantom Ranger.
- Here’s the best metaphor I could think of as to why the storytime segments are weird. It’d be like if we’re being chased by a werewolf and I start telling you the story of the Three Little Pigs. Would you feel that’s appropriate?
- To think, Cassie wanted to get romantic with a guy that’s centuries old and is made up of pure energy. Would’ve loved to see that first date.
- Honestly, I really don’t know how in-depth the continuity is, but there’s a ton of things I can think of with the Masterforge. How it’s shaped like a hexagon, whether the gate here is similar to the one on Safehaven, how the Grid energy works here like the one in Grid Battleforce.
- We definitely got Mystic Force connection here, though. Wondering if the Morphin’ Grid energy inside her has anything to do with the formation of Mystic Force.
- I just want to remind you all that this dark god that everyone is so worried about is going to be defeated by one spaceship crash.
- So, anyway, the reason I’m sort of ok with the Phantom Ranger getting kicked around a lot is that it happened usually like this in the show. Unless he was invisible, he never got to do a lot. Just saying, his win-loss ratio is surprisingly close when you think about it.
- Also, we needed more Sassbot.
- Between this and Heir to Darkness, which one did I like more? Well… Heir to Darkness is a better character piece where you get to relate to Astronema’s anger for not being the ruthless killer she’s supposed to be. Edge of Darkness is a better-structured story that does more for continuity of PR and keeps readers engaged.
- Anyway, couldn’t find a good place to put this so I’ll put it here. Frank Gogol, the writer for this story, also has a comic series coming out on September 29th called Unborn. It’s basically described as Aliens meets Power Rangers. Don’t know whether or not Frank will ever come back for the Power Rangers comics, but based on his work in this story, maybe Unborn is worth a look at…
