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Preface
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #100.
From the start of its 0th issue released back on January 13th, 2016, over 6 years ago, to when the story diverged into two series, Mighty Morphin’ and Power Rangers, with its 55th issue released back on October 21st, 2020, we have come a long way with this story of Power Rangers. The franchise has changed a lot in that time. Saban Brands owned Power Rangers, but then gave ownership of it to Hasbro. Power Rangers used to be a Nickelodeon show before moving exclusively to Netflix this year. We’re essentially getting a third season next year with Dino Fury, which hasn’t happened since MMPR.
With the comics, a lot of excitement has taken place over it. We’ve gotten compelling overarching storylines like Shattered Grid. We’ve gotten special one-shots exploring the universe of Power Rangers like Soul of the Dragon. We’ve gotten team-ups with other franchises like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Godzilla. So, yeah, this 100th issue has got a lot on the line.
Will it honor all of the history this comic universe has given us?
Only one way to find out.
The Cover
Standard cover that shows off all of our Rangers in the story. Fits since this issue is recombining both series together. Other than that, nothing too notable about it.
The Story
So, Andros tells them all that he dun goofed. That he accidentally created an entire zombie army with the Omega Rangers and Zhane as their main soldiers. Billy has an idea on how they can fix all of this and so all 7 Mighty Morphin’ Rangers (yes, that includes Matt) and Andros teleport to KO-35. As soon as they get there, they’re attacked by the zombie army consisting of the Omega Rangers, Zhane, and a bunch of KO-35ians.
As Tommy faces off the Death Ranger, the immortal Ranger shows how much power they have by controlling the Ultra Omegazord remotely and forming it with his own Zord, creating the Ultra Gold Omegazord. With that happening, the main 5 Power Rangers summon the Thunder Megazord and Matt summons his Dragonzord to fight. That leaves Arkon, Kevor, and Journey to fight off the undead army. Meanwhile, on the ground, Tommy tries to offer the Death Ranger a chance to bond with him instead of Jason, But, that was just a distraction for Andros to fail using Billy’s invention. And so the only thing Andros can do is grab Jason’s body in a chokehold and morph into the Red Space Ranger, which somehow links both Andros and Jason together in the Morphin’ Grid somehow.
And so, Jason’s mind falls through his memories with Spa’ark’s soul chasing after them. Eventually, Jason finds himself in a memory with his mother. The teenager has a long goodbye with her, as he breaks through the illusion and confronts the Death Ranger, ultimately freeing their life force from the Gold Morpher and shattering it. However, Spa’ark’s soul goes to the only thing left, their Zord. To defeat it, the Thunder Megazord combines with the Dragonzord, creating the Dragon Thunderzord. With this new combination, the Rangers defeat Spa’ark, but not before the soul claims that it has seen the Rangers’ future and will laugh at what they have to face next, implying that there’s more danger ahead.
As the zombie army falls down and all of the Omega Rangers return to normal… from dying…, everyone returns to Safehaven and the MMPR team returns to Angel Grove. Billy builds a cryogenic chamber for Zhane, which will hopefully allow him to build up enough morphin’ energy to wake up one day. And, as it turns out, fighting somehow sped up Journey’s internal clock, meaning that she’s now an old woman and is starting to die. She doesn’t regret it though as she led a full life, feeling loved and helping to save the universe.
After they bury her, Jason reveals to Zack and Trini that in order for Andros to save him, he had to sever Jason’s connection to the Morphin’ Grid, meaning that he can’t morph anymore. Until his connection to the Morphin’ Grid is restored, Jason plans on moving back home with his dad. Meaning that Trini will take over as the Red Omega Ranger with Kevor acting as the Yellow Ranger. At the end of the issue, Jason listens to the last voicemail left by his mom, telling him that she loves him…
Ending Thoughts
Out of all of the ‘final’ celebratory issues, with Mighty Morphin #22, Power Rangers #22, and MMPR #100, it is with a heavy sigh that I say that Mighty Morphin #22 was the story I got the most excitement out of, not this one.
Mighty Morphin #22 has great characterization, fantastic artwork, and unique and energized action sequences. It shows how much love should be given to the past, present, and future of the PR franchise while being an excellent character-driven story about Kim thinking of a future where she’s not a Power Ranger anymore.
MMPR #100 is the culmination of all of the various storylines explored in the Power Rangers series for Jason, Andros, Kevor, and Journey. And, well, the resolution of those characters here is a bit… underwhelming for me. Kevor becomes a Ranger… but, they’re a character I found to be very forgettable. Andros morphs into action finally… to fix the mess he stupidly created. Journey dies after living a full life with her parents saving the galaxy… which made me realize that this was a character made just to die to illustrate the importance of living a life that you enjoy. Yet, at the same time, the message wasn’t needed because Jason’s mother’s message already says the exact same thing just in a more subtle way. Jason, after finding a way to say goodbye to his mom, moves back home to be with his dad… because he wasn’t given a choice. He couldn’t grapple with the dilemma of choosing to live life the way he wanted, you know the kind that everyone’s been encouraging him to do. He was forced out of it because of the Morphin’ Grid shenanigans. A plot device like that took away a character’s choices from them and that’s never a good thing.
Art-wise, the comic switches through multiple styles. It utilizes a full team of artists from the Mighty Morphin’ series and the Power Rangers series and previous artists from various stories of Boom’s MMPR past. How the guest artists are utilized, drawing scenes from Jason’s memories, and calling back to different scenes from the different arcs of the MMPR series, was a seamless way to depict the jarring reality of Jason’s mental state and his struggle to keep himself trenched in reality. How the artists depicted the main story was not as cohesive admittedly, the first transition between styles feeling random, but each one is able to show off their full strength here. Moises Hidalgo’s dark shadowing works for the initial terrifying tone of the Death Ranger’s army while Marco Renna’s lighter pencilwork work for the hopeful tone of Jason starting another chapter in his life.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #100, artistically, is a morphinomenal celebration of all of the stories we have gotten in the Charge to 100, but story-wise, like the Death Ranger, it may not have as much of a complex soul as some fans thought.
Random Thoughts from the Morphin’ Grid
- Oh yeah, is this the first time one of Billy’s inventions does literally nothing of value?
- Ultra Gold Omegazord… I like it.
- Dragon Thunderzord… eh.
- I’ll say this about Andros’s morph. It was cool to see the 335 as actual panels.
- Are we never going to address the Earth’s moon still being invisible?! Did they ever resolve that?! And if not, why is taking so long?!
- Forgot to mention my thoughts on Trini being the new Red Omega Ranger… Yeah, I’m fine with it. Sure, they didn’t give us anything about her thoughts on that in this issue. But, she has shown a lot of leadership over the course of her series. The last time it happened was a while ago, I believe it was around when Trini found Journey at the beginning of the arc. That resolution I was fine with. (Though, again, because she has no reaction to it, the moment is lacking the impact it should have had.)
- I also gotta say, I didn’t like how the Death Ranger’s story was resolved. Sure, I was fine with Jason struggling against him and then they are defeated as a giant as their Zord. That stuff is typical Power Rangers. But, his final line at the end… This was a character that struggled with the idea of death for so long because they were so afraid there was nothing on the other side. Even if the writer wanted to open the possibility of Spa’ark returning, having his final words essentially be “Ha ha! We’ll see who has the last laugh” takes away the complex struggle the villain was going through and makes him feel as generic as any other villain.
- My favorite guest page? The final page is definitely a contender because it’s so well drawn, but I actually do like the page of Jason punching the Death Ranger. Not only because of the transition of Jason through all of the Ranger forms he had, but the more realistic style works with the idea of Jason coming back to reality.
- Review done. I gotta go watch Dino Fury now! You should be too!
