(Disclaimer: Please buy the comic before reading this review available at your local comic shop!)
They can also be found by visiting findacomicshop.com or comicshoplocator.com
Preface
Yale’s Diary, Chapter 1:
“Meow.”
The Cover
Taken straight from the Mighty Morphin #10 review:
“Feel a little indifferent to both so I’ll just give it to Power Rangers #10 because I just like Yale. I think he’s neat.”
Mighty Morphin – 4
Power Rangers – 6
The Story
We get a brief scene showing Kiya during Necessary Evil freeing Yale from his dumpster and asking him to join in her stupid crusade. Yale eloquently tells her to kiss his tail and walks away.
We then get more flashes of Yale’s life. When he was young, his litter was about to be sold off into captivity. Yale managed to escape but wasn’t strong enough to save his mother or his siblings. He wandered off into the snowy wilderness where he met a child that took him in. However, when Yale’s powers kicked in, the child’s parents threw it back out. The child went after it on his own and they both went into an abandoned house, which leads to the events of Go Go Power Rangers #31.
In the present, the three kids from the last issue decide to go exploring in the forest. Tu-Vel, one of the kids, wants to find an alleged temple that contains the Morphin’ Masters’ treasures so that they all get rich. Unfortunately, they get lost and end up getting attacked by a “snake-shroom.” Yale ends up rescuing them and escorts them back to safety. Tu-Vel wants to blame Yale for Sewa getting her leg injured in the attack, but Sewa finally has had enough and tells Tu-Vel to kiss her tail.
As Yale sleeps in Safehaven, he hears a voice calling out from beyond. He follows the voice to a temple. The voice, revealed to be the Blue Emissary, gives Yale a special box and tells him that he can finally rest in peace now. What did this box contain? Well…
This cat’s got bling now.
Ending Thoughts
Good issue, but probably could have been better.
When the main character of your story can’t speak, there are multiple ways of doing your story. This story approached this by using the narration of the Blue Emissary looking over events of Yale’s life. While this was perfectly acceptable, I honestly think just having no narration over this kind of story and letting the art speak for itself would’ve made the reader’s connection to Yale more impactful. Having the readers themselves figure out what’s going on instead of telling exactly what’s happening makes a big difference. And, if you really needed to include the Blue Emissary to make more sense of the ending, do it like the Unlocked covers and have a ghostly figure watching his life and then finally disappear when Yale takes the Morpher.
Other than that, I did enjoy seeing the flashes of Yale’s life and how that lead up to the events of Go Go Power Rangers #31. I am definitely interested in seeing what Yale taking the Morpher does. We don’t get a lot of characters like him becoming Rangers so I’m interested in how the powers work and how the new team dynamics will function.
Sewa’s been a minor character for a while now, but I do enjoy seeing her bond with Yale. While the story about her adventure with Tu-Vel is a bit predictable (and Tu-Vel annoys me than she should), it’s an enjoyable story that showcases how strong Sewa is in the wake of her planet’s destruction. Mirroring her decision to stand up for her friends to Yale’s decision to not join Kiya’s cult, in the beginning, shows how much she’s growing because of her friendship with Yale.
Power Rangers #10 is a good story showcasing Yale’s journey from the beginning to Morphin’ Time.
Random Thoughts from the Morphin’ Grid
- That child that was first friends with Yale. Do we really still not know that child’s name? I would’ve expected it to hear it at least once.
- In terms of the Legacy numbering, this is the 75th issue of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. Just something to think about. 25th issue started the crossover event of Shattered Grid. 50th issue ended the long arc of Necessary Evil. 75th issue? Look at this cat, tho!