(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
Why is this review so late?
I had to worry about Cosmic Fury shenanigans alright! My whole attention was being put on that final season! If you haven’t watched it, you should! And, it figures that I should ‘end’ my PR TV before I dive completely into my PR comics, starting with the brand new series, Ranger Academy!
Obviously, for PR fans, just the title alone is a pretty exciting concept. It has an original concept far away from the MMPR setting while being a potential new series for exploring more of the PR universe with original characters.
Since this issue is meant to be for readers, new and old to the franchise, that means this single issue has to have the right hooks to draw them into this brand-new series. Let’s take a look!
The Cover
It’s… fine. It shows off three new characters that will most likely be our main focus for this series and shows off a little tease at the bottom as to what we can expect them to interact with. I’m also a fan of the bright and colorful background. It gives the impression that this will be a fun story to check out.
The Story
On the remote moon colony of Vaela, Sage is a young girl who dreams of adventure but is always discouraged by her father. Her father, Rhianth, wants her to stay safe. He used to talk about the ‘knights’ that defended the universe, but somewhere along the way, he learned that he shouldn’t believe in heroes, and neither should his daughter. Now, the two of them live on a small farm in the middle of nowhere.
One day, Sage stumbles onto a crashed spaceship. Saving the people inside, Sage brings home Tula and Mathis, two third-year cadets from Ranger Academy.
What is Ranger Academy, you may ask? I don’t know. And neither does Sage.
She barely knows what a Power Ranger is. But, Sage knows that it’s a place where people can learn how to help others. And that’s all that matters to her.
After getting in an argument with her dad about wanting to go, Sage ends up running away from home and stowing away on the Ranger Academy cadets’ repaired ship, planning to head off into the next chapter of her life, full of adventure and excitement.
Ending Thoughts
For those of you who read my Ranger Academy #0 review, you probably may have noticed some similarities between this recap and that one.
Well, you should. Because it’s the exact same. This issue is literally the exact same issue as Ranger Academy #0, only with additional pages at the end showing off Sage actually arriving at Ranger Academy and being given a spare uniform from Tula so that she could enter unnoticed.
Which I’m completely fine with. The Ranger Academy #0 pages are a good introduction to the main characters of the series and the additional pages here do address some of the concerns I had with the FCBD issue. We now get a more complete introduction as to what the Ranger Academy is, and what’s so special about it, and showing that we will follow Sage as she fully takes in this new concept that she never knew about before.
So, anyway, the comic gives us four characters in total (five if you’re counting the goat): Sage, Tula, Mathis, and Rhianth. You get a good feel for their personalities and characters. One’s by the books, one’s wise-cracking but kind, one seeks adventure, one just wants to keep his child sheltered at times. Now, these kinds of characters are very generic and have been shown in so many other types of media that the plot of the issue was easily predictable. Easily. And, from what was shown here, there’s not anything unique or interesting that divides from the mold even with the Power Rangers universe layered onto it. Just because this series is targeted at a younger audience, it doesn’t mean you can’t be more creative with your characters. The additional pages don’t add too much more to them than what we’ve seen already, but at least, I’m more excited to start delving into them a bit more. And, they do serve as a good starting point.
There is one thing I will undeniably praise: the artwork by Jo Mi-Gyeong. The character designs and art style are simplified, but they work to convey the light-hearted humor this series is working with. Honestly, it’s reminiscent of an animated series, which fits perfectly for the all-ages audience that’s targeted for this series. The bright and energetic colors also work, especially for showing off this moon colony, conveying how different this world is. Character designs are spot-on too. Despite my belief that the characters’ personalities are basic, each one’s appearance is unique and distinct from each other. The Ranger Academy uniforms look great with the right arms having their own design while showing off their Ranger color. If this is an idea of what the actual Ranger suits look like, then I am all for it so far.
Ranger Academy #1 gives everyone an idea of what this series has to offer, a promising concept complimented by fun and animated artwork that readies characters that leave more to be desired.
Random Thoughts from the Morphin’ Grid
- I am as much of a fan of representation as everyone else is and I hope that people are able to connect with these characters even though I am not able to.
- So, apparently, from what we learned in the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers 30th Anniversary Special is that the Ranger Academy is capable of contacting Rangers throughout time and space. Which is a pretty cool idea and helps with the audience engagement. New fans of the franchise can get an idea of what characters are there in the PR universe while older fans can enjoy the bits of the overall universe without having to worry about continuity and all of that.
- Although, having all of them show up in just tubes I don’t think would be engaging as shown by Leo’s appearance. I feel like I need to see more. Show Leo above the waist without his shirt and I think more students would get involved…
- The writer has said in an interview regarding this series, that she sources some of her inspiration for this series from My Hero Academia. Something that I brought up in the previous review. Which, I’ll be very interested in seeing, considering that I have looked at that franchise a few times before.
- Now, this first issue also includes a Ranger Academy Orientation Guide, giving us more details as to how the school works and its locations, which I always love to see! It gives us more of a clearer idea as to how this system works so we can imagine ourselves being there. I’m going to dive in and talk about each detail now:
- So, there’s a campus for every color in the Morphin’ Grid: Red, Blue, Black, Yellow, Pink. Where are the other colors? We don’t know.
- It takes four years to be a Ranger. Year 1 is where you discover your Ranger color and actually build your own Morpher! (That part I would absolutely freak out about!) Year 2 is where you find a Zord. Year 3 is where you actually work with other students to create your own Team of Rangers. And Year 4 is where you actually begin to work on Ranger missions. I’d say that this is an overall good system for Ranger training. But, I do wonder how far we’ll go to actually see this happen. I doubt we will. And, you also have to wonder how Megazord fights happen as well.
