Preface
We’re continuing through with MMPR: The Return. Time to see what more this special ‘reunion’ comic brings us.
The Cover
Kim reaching out for the moon in a time of panic. It’s good. I like it. Says enough about the tone while looking spectacular. It even has Kim and the Rangers’ focusing on the moon, which is placed right behind the title, immediately drawing the reader’s attention
The Story
We begin in Flashback Land as we show the Rangers’ final assault on the Moon Palace. Kim and Tommy sneak into the place while the others use their Zords to create a distraction outside. As it turns out, Kim and Tommy are bringing in an invention called the Benevolator, a device Billy created to spread energy from the Morphin’ Grid in an attempt to purify Rita, Zedd, and all of the other monsters. However, before they can plant it, Rita discovers them and a fight breaks out with the Benevolator getting damaged. Rita gains the upper hand, almost killing Tommy when Kim shoots her in the chest with an arrow, ending it.
Unfortunately, since the device is damaged, the only way to detonate it is manually with a ten-second timer along with the caveat that it would blow a hole in the moon the size of Angel Grove. With that high of a risk, Tommy volunteers to stay behind and detonate it himself. Kim wants to stay too, but Tommy insists that out of the two of them, she’s the one that needs to live. They share a tearful hug and kiss goodbye before the five Rangers teleport away. The device detonates and Tommy is left behind.
In the present, Kim is telling Selena the full story of this, including her regrets of not staying with her husband to help. Kim believes that Trini wanted Selena to give Kim the morpher for safekeeping, not to be the next Yellow Ranger. Seeing where Kim kept her Morpher safe, Selena suddenly asks if Kim enjoyed killing Rita before she transforms, revealing herself to be a new being with Rita’s staff. Kim tries to morph to fight her but gets knocked out and teleported away.
Only a few seconds later, a car pulls up to the cabin, with a woman coming inside. Seeing all of the commotion, she fears for her mom’s safety…
Ending Thoughts
I briefly mentioned it before with the first issue, but with this series, there’s going to be a ton of comparisons to our 30th anniversary special, Once and Always. And, fortunately for this issue specifically, it works in its favor.
For us MMPR fans, when we first saw Selena, some of us might have felt like she was the “Minh” of the story. The young girl who looked up to the Yellow Ranger and had a personal motivation for wanting to take up the mantle Trini had left behind. She would have tried to force Kim out of retirement through motivation and courage and ultimately, resolved to help defeat this new threat. Maybe along the way, we would learn about Kim’s backstory gradually. It would have been predictable, which is part of the reason why we thought it. Because this is Power Rangers and would expect something like that to happen.
But, it’s not.
Instead, it goes down a different route.
Rather than drawing it out, we get the full story of Kim’s trauma right away. And, oh boy, it’s glorious.
The story beats are largely predictable and the dialogue tries to put in a lot of exposition on how this bomb, I’m sorry device, is supposed to work. But, any of these small complaints are instantly eclipsed by the execution of the final moon battle itself. (Pun intended.) The emotional goodbye of Kim and Tommy is only a few pages long, but it demonstrates the love that they had for each other, showing exactly why Kim is who she is now in the present. It complements the Zord battle perfectly, matching the wide-scale gravity of their fight against Rita with the smaller but just as important stakes of Kim and Tommy’s final kiss.
It all comes together as Kim tells her tragic backstory to our big enemy of the series. With the expectation that Selena was someone with a connection to Trini, I didn’t predict that it was actually someone in disguise until the final page before the reveal. The dialogue between ‘Selena’ and Kim feels innocent with ‘Selena’ wanting to know more about the Power Rangers and Kim, especially. And, when the big reveal comes, it’s brief, but it gives the full impression that there are personal stakes here for both sides, adding to the mystery of this new enemy.
Speaking of this new villain, their design is something I can get behind. It uses a lot of aesthetics from Rita’s design with the gold lining and the color scheme, but it also updates it with more modern designs like using Rita’s ruff collar for a cape.
And, going into art, this issue outdoes itself. A majority of it is focused on the final moon battle and as I said before, it shows off the full scale of the fight. With the Zords, you get a good sense of the perspective of it all, how giant the Zords are, how big the Putty army is that they infest the entire moon and even try to chip away at the Zords themselves. The hand-to-hand fight between Kim and Tommy vs Rita is not lacking either. Each panel takes inspiration from the TV show and uses sparks for the Rangers’ movements, displaying the full impact of every punch, every kick, every strike. It lets you be engaged in the combat and it’s something I truly wish we could get more of in the main series.
MMPR: The Return #2 reveals the secret past of the Power Rangers’ final battle with a surprising twist for our heroes in the present.
Random Thoughts from the Morphin’ Grid
- It was brief but I saw that Rita and Zedd have separate beds in their bedroom. It’s perfectly normal for couples to do this, but I’m just saying…
- I’m used to seeing Rangers without their gloves on from Power Rangers Unlimited: Countdown to Ruin, but still, it just weirds me out.
- Despite me saying that this comic goes in another direction from Once and Always, we get another scene of a Ranger stabbing their weapon in Rita’s back.
- You know, for a group of heroes that were insisting that they were trying to purify Rita, not kill her, it doesn’t put you in a good light when four out of five Rangers immediately went to celebrations upon seeing the moon explode.
