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Preface
Darkest Hour has officially begun, our comic event for the 30th anniversary!
And, right now, it’s the only real celebration for this month.
In the past, we’ve gotten a lot of anniversary content for August such as Dimensions in Danger and Shattered Grid. Even in a non-anniversary year, we still call August Power Month because of something Hasbro started. But, we don’t have a lot this time around for August. Once and Always premiered in April. Cosmic Fury is going to premiere in September. And, besides this event, there’s going to be a special anniversary issue released soon. And, that’s all we know from Hasbro.
So, yeah. The comics will be the main driving force of the franchise right now toward next year, especially if the rumors are to be believed. How does an event that is going to drive all that start? Well, let’s find out.
The Cover
Judging from the cover, the main villain is going to be a giant goop monster? That’s… odd. And, it looks like we actually got a smudge on the top there for the logo and the page. Can I get a napkin or something?!
But, I kid. I do like the overall image. It’s a pretty good dynamic shot showing all of the Rangers trying to fight off this monster as they’re running away from it.
The Story
Flashback Land consists of Grace encouraging Matt in his training to be a Power Ranger. And, in the present, he repays the favor… by seemingly killing her. The Rangers see this and Billy immediately attacks Matt in a fit of rage. Everyone else joins in and kicks his butt. However, in a moment of weakness, Matt pleads to Tommy to end him before he causes more damage.
Back on Safehaven, Kevor and Yale in their Zords tell the Serpent to stop attacking willy nilly, which then causes them to take off. Meanwhile, Zack and Trini are backed up against a corner fighting Dayne and the Death Ranger. They find themselves in the Master Arch with Alpha 1 at the controls. Just when all hope is lost, guess who just so happened to bust in through the Arch?
Meanwhile, as all of the MMPR Rangers hesitate on what to do, Matt kicks them away and goes to the Master Arch, telling his mistress that he failed. However, as the Rangers bust in and see the swirling portal of death that she created in the last issue, Mistress Vile gives them a choice: either save Matt or stop the portal and save the universe. All of them agree to try and save Matt, but it was then that the dark essence of Dark Specter then comes out of the portal, infecting the Vessel.
(For some reason, this is so big the comic takes a moment to show many Ranger teams across the multiverse now seeing darkness in the distance. The Morphinaut, the SPD team, the RPM Rangers, and the Samurai Rangers.)
As Adam and Rocky take a moment to recover and wonder what happened to everyone else, Mistress Vile gladly bows down to the now-materialized Dark Specter in the Vessel’s body, welcoming him home.
Ending Thoughts
…Okay, now I feel like this is where the Darkest Hour started. I mean, the issue felt like it took the span of a few minutes in the universe and the bigger impact of Dark Specter taking hold of someone, as well as showing the other Ranger teams, is where I would think, “Hey, this might be bad now.”
And, that’s what I’m thinking now. It took a few minutes to get a little further in the overall story for this issue, but yeah, it seemed to pass pretty quickly. Because well, the only real developments in the story are that Dark Specter took control of the Vessel and the Drakkon Rangers arrived from their dimension. Both of those were just one-to-two-page reveals. Even for character moments, it’s lacking there as well. There’s a quick reaction to seeing Grace’s body, some remorse, some anger, as well as Matt pleading for control. But, that’s not the main focus of the issue. The issue has again been one long action sequence that is good to look at, but yeah…
I will give it points for being a unique way to start a comic event. A lot of action movies start off their stories with a thrilling action sequence that leads into the main plot of the story, which is what happens here. The final few moments before Dark Specter fully arrives is an excellent way to show the level of stakes needed as we fully dive into the story.
The art and coloring, as usual, blend everything together perfectly. Most of the time, all of the Rangers are morphed here, but those few moments where we do see them without their helmets perfectly convey their grief and emotional turmoil seeing someone they know die. Plus, the coloring for the backgrounds and the environment does set the scene for an overall darker tone.
MMPR #111 can make you feel like Darkest Hour only just started, but is still a good issue to continue us forward through this event.
Random Thoughts from the Morphin’ Grid
- Looking at that time stamp for that Flashback Land segment… YEARS?! It’s been years?! There’s no way! I refuse to acknowledge it. I would have guessed like a few months since Necessary Evil. Maybe a year at best. But, not years!
- I would laugh if Grace just collapsed on the floor because she’s old. Nothing to do with all of this other stuff. Just she’s old.
- I’m curious about why some of the teams were chosen for that two-page spread. If it’s showing Dark Specter’s power reaching through multiple dimensions, I understand Morphinaut since he’s actually inside the Morphin’ Grid and RPM because they’re in another dimension. SPD may showing that this infection spreads beyond time and space. But, why Samurai? They’re supposed to be part of the main universe. How would that work?
- I’m going to ask this question every time until I get an answer. Where’s Danny?!
