Mighty Morphin' #16 Main Cover (InHyuk Lee)
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Preface
Ok, if for some weird reason you’re only reading Mighty Morphin and not the Power Rangers series, then you might be a little confused as to what happened after the ending of Mighty Morphin #15.
To put it simply…
Our favorite walking corpses work together to fight this guy who loves his shiny rocks.
One Empyreal left and he’s a big one.
Also, space vampires.
The Cover
I love that both covers have the same concept of having our heroes on their Megazords looking out into the distance. Fits well with these issues being the final two of the arc. And, because they have the same concept, fitting both images together gives the combined covers a sense of unity, unlike the other covers.
That said, it’s very easy to say that the Power Rangers cover is my favorite. Mainly because the Mighty Morphin cover reuses a lot of art seen in previous covers and the Power Rangers cover has a better sense of lighting and coloring.
The Story
In the Flashback Land before all other Flashback Lands, Zordon meets Zophram for the first time as Zordon is appointed to be the new Guardian. And Zartus is clearly happy about the decision.
Next.
On Earth, turns out the Horrid are here because Drakkon is their new leader now. Drakkon offers the new Empyreal another partnership, but the Empyreal politely declines. Might as well have said that the moment is pointless because Drakkon then attacks the Empyreals with the Horrid. Together, with the three Megazords, all of them manage to distract the Empyreal long enough for the Blue Emissary to come up from behind and destroy it completely. Soon, Drakkon bids them all farewell as he plans on terrorizing the whole universe.
As for what happens on the Moon, Zartus tells Zedd that the whole reason he betrayed him is that he didn’t get his fancy job promotion. As he’s monologuing, Zordon reenacts the original legend of the Zeo Crystal by taking the Zeo Crystal and stabbing Zartus in the heart, destroying him completely.
The Eltarian war is now over.
Or is it…?
Ending Thoughts
So… a lot happened in this issue. And I have thoughts.
Zartus’s defeat was well done. Calls back to earlier issues with the original Zeo Crystal legend and can be used as an important character moment for both Zedd and Zordon. Essentially, Zordon saved Zedd’s life. There are a lot of stories you can do from that. And the art does the fight sequence justice with the bright coloring, making all of the motion feel vibrant and alive. The image of Zartus’s defeat isn’t as gruesome as the image of Zophram’s “death” but you can still feel all the energy coming off of it.
The Horrid and Drakkon were barely worth mentioning. Admittedly, this plot point ties up the loose end of the Horrid floating in space and gives the reader another seed of doubt that Drakkon isn’t entirely evil anymore. However, I might’ve preferred it if they were saved for a future arc since the Horrid were dealt here very easily. Though, I will say that the Empyreal’s death is satisfying, with the moment calling back to the original Red Emissary’s death.
Mighty Morphin #16 is the big final battle for the Eltarian War, but there’s still some aftermath our heroes will have to deal with.
Random Thoughts from the Morphin’ Grid
- I’ll save all of my thoughts on the Eltarian War in general for Power Rangers #16. Especially my thoughts on Zartus.
- First time we see the cockpit for the Ultra Omegazord and it gives Yale the attention he deserves.
- Also, I now notice the weapon for the Ultra Omegazord is just a combination of all of their individual weapons… and it looks really bulky.
