Preface
The Darkest Hour is over.
But, that doesn’t matter. Because Sage was dealing with none of that. Let’s see how she’s doing.
The Cover
On top, we got the students sneaking around. On the bottom, we see Tula entering the light as she says goodbye. This easily shows the overall mood of the story and its plot points.
The Story
So, Sage tries to go after Tula, but her ship has already left. Lindy consoles her as Sage promises to fix this. At the dorm at night, Sage confides in the whole story, not just to Lindy, but the rest of the first years. She proves that being a Green Ranger isn’t a bad thing by morphing, saying that she doesn’t want to risk their lives and wants to go at it alone to figure this all out. Of course, her friends back her up, saying that they are a team.
A week later, the librarian brings in Sage for a meeting, who tells her that the infected Green Ranger way back when was a member of his own team named Zilan. All he knows is that Rhianth was the only one to go after him, still not knowing what really happened that day. Sage confesses that she wants to go and find her dad first in order to fix what happened with Tula. But, Nika doesn’t want to allow Sage to go off into danger, accidentally letting out that Dark Specter could be specifically targeting her. However, he eventually relents and offer his assistance, not wanting her to be alone in this.
The next day, at lunch, Sage tells Mathis about her plan to clear Tula’s name where they are totally supportive and volunteer their services as a pilot and a hacker. Sage asks if Mathis is sure about breaking the rules, but they say that they’ll do anything for Tula, even noting how similar both Sage and Tula are.
Soon, the plan is enacted. While the rest of Sage’s friends create a distraction in the Training Grounds by pretending to fight each other, Tula uses the key that Nika conveniently left out for them and Sage to board a shuttle and leave the campus amidst the chaos. To Sage’s surprise, Lindy sneaks aboard in a similar fashion to Sage way back when. And, soon, the three of them head back to Sage’s home right as Sage’s dad encounters a mysterious figure…
Ending Thoughts
This issue is easily the most fun I had in the series.
Even though we don’t get any real details on the backstory or the mystery or anything like that, it’s satisfying to see everyone properly communicating with each other. Sage tells all of her friends the truth as they show their friendship and help out in a comedic but believable way at the end. Nika offers his support, being the one to reach out to her for once. Mathis still encourages her as Sage is not worrying about every detail now, having the confidence to do what is right and face her dad.
Ranger Academy #9 starts to soar again as our heroes head for home in the stars… and the darkness that awaits…
Random Thoughts from the Morphin’ Grid
- … So, despite my praise for the issue, I do want to point out that we saw Tula take Sage’s morpher last issue. It’s true that she could have given it back to her secretly as they hugged goodbye, but that was never shown to the reader.
- “Oh, my Grid” is such an amazing phrase that I can’t believe we haven’t thought of it before. It now joins other phrases such as “What the helmet?”
- Why are so many people swearing in this issue? Is this a sign of Dark Specter’s corruption? If Darkest Hour continued, would all of his minions start swearing like sailors?
- Do want to point out that this is Theo and Maev’s first morph and I love the weapons that they’re holding, even if it’s such a short period.
