(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
Too much pink energy is dangerous.
The Cover
Well drawn, but really underwhelming. These characters are only in the last few pages. Not the best cover.
The Story
All of the future villains attack Kim and Tommy and easily overwhelm them with Ransik even pulling out his signature move: the sneaky bone crusher! Kim takes a tactical retreat, taking an unconscious and demorphed Tommy to safety. As she’s trying to wake him up, she’s suddenly visited by the Pink Emissary! How and why is she here, I don’t know, shut up. Anyway, the Emissary decides to give Kim back her memories of Shattered Grid, clearing up the confusion that the future Rangers aren’t replacements, but they’re people who follow the foundation of what the original team built and work on their own missions for the Morphin’ Grid. With that realization, the Pink Emissary tells Kim that the only way to get out of the pocket dimension is to defeat the future villains, which should restore the balance of the Morphin’ Grid.
But, Kim won’t be fighting them alone. With the Pink Emissary’s power, she summons all of the Pink Rangers that come after her.
The Power of Pink
All 16 Pink Rangers come together and combine their powers, weapons, and attitude to defeat the villains. Soon, all of the future Pink Rangers and Tommy and Kim are able to return to the Command Center. Billy is now going to wait for Zordon and Alpha to complete the Metallic Armor on their own (AKA when it is ready).
Later on, Kim discusses what she discovered about the future with Tommy. As they both realize that the future Rangers don’t replace if they die, both of them start to consider the possibility of them leaving the life of a Power Ranger behind. Tommy is adamant that he’ll be a Power Ranger forever, but for Kim, she’s at least open to the possibility that she’ll find something for her. She explains that the reason she was struggling with the whole Ranger thing was that she was thinking about this like it was her parents’ divorce. She only thought about all the things she was losing when she should have been focusing on the possibilities she could gain from it.
And, later on, now that all of the Angel Grove teens know that there are more Rangers coming soon, Rocky decides it is time to give their team an official name. But, Kim says they shouldn’t worry about stuff like that. And, so they don’t. They all go and get a drink at Ernie’s, living in the moment and not worrying about what will come their way. Although, they already have a good foundation on what they’ll be called…
Ending Thoughts
This wasn’t even MMPR Issue #100. Seriously, how do you top this issue?
Mighty Morphin #22 is without a doubt my favorite issue of this whole series.
It has everything I could ask for from an issue of PR: great characterization, fantastic artwork, and hyped action.
Kim is a Ranger that hasn’t gotten a real story arc lately. It’s been so long since one of her character moments didn’t involve some variation of the “love triangle” with Tommy and Matt. Although I am still willing to say that her brief moments with the Machine Empire arc still felt out of place, I do see now why they were needed. Kim hasn’t been seen doing anything outside of being a Power Ranger for a long time. It’s understandable why. She’s now a ‘veteran’, one of the original Rangers that has to help with the new team. But, now the new members have all shown that they can handle themselves. And, now, Kim, faced with the future, didn’t know what to do and panicked. It’s the same kind of struggle that Jason is going through in the pages of Power Rangers. But, through the situation she had to get through for this issue, Kim realizes that she can depend on more and more people to help her save whatever problem comes next.
The art for this issue was great. The artstyle is great for conveying all of the emotions and struggles the characters are going through. It especially helps with Kim’s dialogue talking about her parents’ divorce and finding hope for the future. With the art, it also worked for the big fight scenes with all of the Rangers and the villains. Each Ranger and villain have all of the details needed to convey all of their various designs and when you see them up close, the characters look fantastic. And, again, with those big fight scenes, the characters in those scenes convey different kinds of motion and actions. It’s easy to keep track of all of them despite having so many characters in one scene or panel.
Now, let’s get into all of the good legacy stuff this issue has to offer long-term fans of PR. I freaking loved every second of it. The legacy ties in so well with Kim’s arc, of her coping with a future of not being a Power Ranger anymore. For the franchise, it honors the original team for their contributions while displaying all of the possibilities of what comes next. I can’t stop praising its use of the villains, especially when it calls back to another Pink Ranger’s struggles in the far future. Or for using this opportunity to give fans a “Forever Pink” team-up, something none of us had ever expected to see. Writer Mat Groom used every opportunity he could to give a good story for both newcomers and followers of the franchise and I sadly say goodbye as this series comes to an end and we get a new creative team.
Mighty Morphin #22 is a morphenomenal finale to this series, honoring the past, present, and future of the PR franchise while showing us why pink is the new black.
Random Thoughts from the Morphin’ Grid
- Hate to break it to you, but I’m fairly certain Bulk and Skull already came up with the name for the team. Have you not seen their TV shirts, man?
- It’s interesting that Syd and Amelia are the only ones to access their Super Modes. Because for the readers, they are the current present and future of the PR universe. Don’t know if that was intended, but it’s super cool if it is.
- Kim, I hate to say this, but you only really get to meet Kat in the future and that’s it. Everyone else, you meet at the equivalent of a work event.
- Also, as much as I love that double spread shot of the Pink Rangers morphing, there was something that kind of distracted me. When Kim was saying her morph call, I understood that her left arm was by her side with her fist and her right arm was reaching for her Morpher in the back. However, from how the art is displayed, it looked like her left arm was missing and her right arm was reaching all the way to the left side. I’m sorry, but it’s so perfectly aligned it gave off the impression that Kim had the longest right arm of any other Ranger.
- I was tempted to give this book a 0/10 for one reason and one reason only. Why? Sledge never had to yell out, “IT’S A BOMB!”
