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Preface
The first PR comic crossover to get a sequel and frankly, it’s one fans have been looking forward to.
The first MMPR / TMNT crossover was phenomenal. Fun and charming writing, an interesting premise, and fantastic and colorful artwork. The reveal of the Turtle Rangers brought in a lot of casual readers and fans to either franchise for this crossover event. Their recent merchandise in the Lightning Collection and their Funko POPs prove that since they are fairly popular. So, it was only natural that this was the one crossover to get a sequel.
But, now the question remains: how will this fare? Because with a sequel, we now have an expectation of what we should be receiving. The quality, the writing, all of that. The teaser from the original crossover didn’t give much away. Just Rita going to Dimension X. There are plenty of possibilities of what she could find there. I, personally, don’t know what is inside Dimension X so this could be an exciting opportunity for the comic to get me excited as to what’s to come. Let’s take a look…
The Cover
A good cover for the sequel. It has both leaders from both teams fighting a whole mess of Hand Ninjas, implying that there will be a lot of action for the comic. It works.
Of course, this is part of a set of connecting covers. And there are also 37 different variants for you all to track down so good luck with that. HA HA!
The Story
It’s been 6 months since the events of the first crossover. In New York City, Casey Jones is fighting against Karai of the Foot Clan when a mysterious dark portal opens. We cut to a week later where the Rangers and the Turtles are casually hanging out together. Donnie, Mikey, and April are at the Juice Bar, trying to create an abomination of a snack. Leonardo and Jason are training together with each other’s swords. And Tommy and Raphael are investigating something in New York.
Casey’s been missing for a week and as it turns out, so have a lot of the other TMNT villains. The two heroes go into the sewers to talk to some hobo called the Rat King. The dirty man then reveals that a Ranger is behind the abductions of the various villains. Soon, at Rikers Island’s Prison, Goldar and Rocksteady break out a Mr. Stockman. As they reach the roof, they run into both the Rangers and the Turtles.
A fight breaks out and all of a sudden, Casey appears. Initially appearing to be on the heroes’ side, he knocks out Donnie and then morphs into Ranger X. Ranger X takes all of the villains through the portal to Dimension X, promising to see them all real soon…
Ending Thoughts
Once again, an excellent start to the crossover.
It already has the familial energy from the last crossover as a true continuation should have. All of the scenes with the Turtles and the Rangers interacting with each other are fun and bring the elements of both worlds together. For the Power Rangers, they got to show some of the Turtles the Juice Bar and Bulk and Skull. For the Turtles, it introduces some classic TMNT villains (that I really had no knowledge of beforehand.) For newcomers, these scenes also act as a good introduction to our heroes’ personalities like how Jason and Leonardo want to take the time to train and prepare for what’s coming while Tommy and Raphael are the kinds of people who want to go out and look for danger.
Now, the premise is treading very similar ground to the original crossover where it starts off with a mystery of a friend to our heroes working for the villains. Now, the original crossover was better in this regard because it built up the mystery and intrigue of Tommy having his own agenda working with the villains. While here, with Casey’s new Ranger X costume (which no offense, just screams edgelord), it’s very clear that this is some spell or something of the like. So, it’s not as strong as this premise, but the writing so far does make up for it.
So, the artwork for this crossover is different from the original. The original artwork was done by Simone di Meo while this series’s artwork will be covered by Dan Mora. Both of them have done previous work on PR series before. While the two artists are different from each other, with Simone’s artstyle being more angular, Mora’s artstyle matches it in a way by making the characters look cartoonish in a way. There are a ton of details and clean linework on the characters’ designs and the action is creative and delivers a ton of energy. A great example of this is Goldar and Rocksteady fighting through the prison. How it’s framed, going from top to bottom and looping around, is admittedly something we don’t see much for PR comics. It shows off the important action and the simple details that convey the scene perfectly.
We don’t know what’s going to happen next in this crossover, but one thing’s for sure. MMPR / TMNT II #1 is certified turtlefied!
Random Thoughts from the Morphin’ Grid
- Still haven’t seen any Turtle-related media since the last crossover.
- I gotta be honest. Learning about some of these TMNT villains was a trip. I vaguely remember hearing about the Rat King, but I thought he was an actual rat. As for Mr. Stockman, his cellmate called him Dr. Egghead and I thought that was his actual villain name. I spent too long figuring out that it wasn’t the case, but oh my god. (Am I wrong? Dr. Egghead sounds like a believable name for a villain. Wouldn’t you agree?)
- Another thing about the comparison between this premise and the original’s premise is that in the original, we were invested in trying to help Tommy. Here, we’re going to help Casey… and I’m sorry, but I really don’t care about Casey.
- I do appreciate that the Juice Bar has MMPR-themed drinks. It’s a small thing, but it’s Ernie’s way of appreciating it.
- I think the Green Dragon Fruit Smoothie with sardines and coconut might actually taste good…
- Even though it’s fairly obvious that this series isn’t in continuity with the main MMPR series, I do appreciate the small touch of seeing the Tricera Armor. Shows Billy’s got his own lab all to himself.
- Oh yeah, Tyler’s in this.
- “You two maybe wanna join in at some point? / “Just waiting our turn like they do in the movies, dude!” is my favorite interaction of the whole issue, maybe even the whole series.
- It’s been said when it was announced, but I’ll say it again. Ranger X is just Red X from DC, man.
- Also, saw on Twitter that Karai should have been Ranger X and I’ll agree. Give her an evil Ranger form too!
- Now I have the image of Goldar knitting and Rocksteady doing yoga. Thanks for that.
