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Preface
It’s been over a month since the previous issue of Godzilla vs Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers II but we’re finally here at the finale! If you need to remember what happened in the last issue, here it is:
In this corner, we got robots in the form of a fire demon, an Ankylosaurus, the king of Rome, a giant moth, and a lizard that fought Frankenstein all standing on top of each other. In the other corner, we’ve got some Kaiju gone psycho!
(Also, a bunch of stuff happening backstage.)
Let’s Get Ready to Rumble!
The Cover
It’s a really good shot of all of the Rangers jumping into action while also highlighting the massive size of Godzilla, but it does feel underwhelming for the cover of the final issue. Feels too generic in that regard…
The Story
So, while the Kaiju Rangers kick Psycho butt with their new Megazord, the White Ranger runs into Astronema and Rita, fighting them off to a standstill. But, it turns out that he was just the distraction, allowing Jet Jaguar to go in and free all of the other Rangers. Seeing the army of Rangers before them, both Rita and Astronema bail, saying to the other that they’re on their own.
Soon, all of them return to the main battle. The Kaiju Megazord and the Godzillazord use their collective energies to summon the actual Kaiju themselves. Kaiju and zords work together to defeat the Psycho Rangers for good.
As Jet Jaguar returns the Kaiju back to their worlds just in case, the MMPR team demorphs and everyone celebrates a job well done. For the alternate MMPR team, the White Ranger’s team, since their powers were fully drained by Rita, they are given the Kaiju Power Coins to protect their own universe. As for Rita, she’s realized her mistake with Astronema and decides that she needs allies who are quote-unquote “unpredictable and temperamental as Godzilla”.
Who could that be?
Ending Thoughts
Let’s get this out of the way. This sequel sadly doesn’t capture the magic of the original crossover.
Godzilla vs MMPR was a simple team-up story between the Rangers and Godzilla facing a combined threat. There wasn’t much character there, but the action was great and the overall plot was effective in delivering a fun story for the reader of these two titans joining together.
Godzilla vs MMPR II attempted this same approach of not having much character and focusing more on the action. However, because the premise has a wide-scale due to its nature, multiverse with multiple Kaiju and Rangers being introduced, it ends up feeling less special than the first series. It feels more generic than anything, throwing random pieces at a board for little to no reason.
For the Godzilla side, Godzilla himself really doesn’t appear, showing up sparingly in issues. His influence is more on the other side of things: how the MMPR and Psycho Rangers get Kaiju power and they represent different monsters from various Godzilla movies. Really, the only real aspects of Godzilla that are in this crossover Jet Jaguar, his inventor, and the fairies, the Elias. We’re given enough explanation for any person who’s not familiar with them (me) so they’re easy to get into (which I fully appreciate), but really, they just serve as plot devices. Jet Jaguar is mainly used for travelling between dimensions while the Elias are here to create the Kaiju Coins. Nothing else about them is shown to give any real character or provide any cool sequences with them.
For the Power Rangers side, despite being the ones who have more focus, they end up getting the worst treatment. Because while Jet Jaguar and Elias are given some focus to introduce them to new readers, absolutely none of the PR elements are given any real explanation. Astronema and the Psycho Rangers are here, but they have no introduction as to who they are. Even if you only have a little familiarity with them, the Psycho Rangers are immediately given their Kaiju powers so there’s zero room for any real recognition of who they are, instead being a generic grunt whose only real power is being associated with Kaiju we don’t even see. Cameos of other Rangers show up at the end, only to not do a single thing instead of standing around. And, the most frustrating aspect of this is all of the various PR monsters of the week that were used for fights. With all of the various kaiju from the Godzilla franchise, though they were hard to keep track of, at the very least they all got names. With the exception of the Psycho Rangers, all of the monsters aren’t labeled with actual names. Not even a tiny caption, telling the reader who they were. Even for someone like myself who is a Power Rangers fan, I can’t keep track of the hundreds of monsters from that franchise! I had to consult my Pokedex (AKA Twitter) for every issue to even place a name for them. It might be a tiny detail, but it felt like an insult to me. The Power Rangers franchise has so many different and creative monster designs throughout many years and yet they barely get an acknowledgment compared to the Kaiju.
And, even more so, a lot of the ‘original’ content they create for PR isn’t that explored either. The White Ranger doesn’t even have a name. The teenagers that they show at the end are completely forgettable. Realistically, they didn’t even need to be here. The White Ranger’s fights and dialogue don’t add anything in particular. He just feels like an extra step. We easily could have had Jet Jaguar show up and have him and his friend be the ones to explain the whole crisis in the first issue. The only reason these random teens become notable is because they get to keep the Kaiju powers in the end, allowing another team-up in the future. Which, if that’s the case, I don’t particularly care for that.
So, for a series that is supposed to be about the action and not really the plot, is that at least enjoyable?
Kind of.
It does its job serviceably, showing a good range of motions and angles with the scale of the Megazord / Kaiju fights, but a lot of it was the same stuff we had seen previously. When the Kaiju Rangers debuted, that’s when the action started to become a little more unique and special. Like how Tommy used his Atomic Breath through his helmet or in this issue, how the Rangers summoned the Kaiju for a burst attack. That’s the kind of fun action-filled nonsense I can get behind. But, even so, a lot of it was hampered by the artstyle, minimizing a lot of details as it showed off the grand scale of it all. As a result, too much of it felt odd to witness, especially since so much of the backgrounds were dark and grey and made the scenes feel dull with some of the Kaiju in the scenes, even if they were super colorful.
Godzilla vs Mighty Morphin Power Rangers II #5, and Godzilla vs MMPR II as a whole, contains some highlights here and there with some Kaiju Ranger action and some fun moments with Rita, but ultimately fails to deliver the same energy as the first crossover with its basic writing, minimized artstyle, and an overall failed connection to show the wide scale of both franchises.
Random Thoughts from the Morphin’ Grid
- So, just to be clear… it looks like only one alternate MMPR team lost their powers? Why would Rita just drain one of them? Doesn’t that contradict the whole point of her plan to get as much power as possible? We see Aquitar, Zeo, Turbo, In Space, Lightspeed Rescue, Time Force, Ninja Storm, Dino Thunder, and Jungle Fury in the end. So many teams she could have gotten powers from so what the heck?
- And, just pointing this out, literally none of the teams that made cameos here were foreshadowed in the first series’ ending. No Dino Charge. No RPM.
- Uh… so what about the Green Godzilla coin? You only showed 5 of them getting powers. Does that just get ignored? The White Ranger powers are still valid so I don’t know if he’d give that up.
- No offense to that pig Rita or that one that looks like a baby, but you easily could have had some Ritas in there that could have been actual references to other Rita appearances. Purple Rita from the stage show, Doge Rita from Meower Rangers, Green Rita from the 2017 movie, Robo Rita from the Once and Always Special…
