Preface
Here it is! We’ve reached the finale of Ranger Academy! Let’s close this out before we reach the Prime!
The Cover
On top, we got all of our kids morphed in their various colors, looking pretty good. On the bottom, we see Rhianth reaching out to someone in a green tube.
Despite the spoiler showing that everyone will morph into Rangers, I overall find this a fitting cover to the finale of the series. Especially since we don’t see them helmetless in the story itself.
The Story
So, a corrupted Mathis breaks the machine, taunting the kids the whole time. Although Tula manages to capture and restrain Mathis, the kids’ plan to use the machine on the Headmaster is now ruined. But, once retreating to the one spot that the Grid hasn’t corrupted anything yet, the Green Campus, Lindy realizes that if one of them transforms, effectively summoning the Grid’s power, then that can be used to draw Dark Specter out.
Rhianth volunteers for this task, hooking up the machine to the abandoned green tube. It starts to draw out Dark Specter, but it’s too much energy manifesting at once, hurting Rhianth in the process. So, Sage jumps in, taking his place.
Realizing that the energy needs to be distributed through more than one person, Kartyr chooses to support Sage, morphing into a Pink Ranger as a result. The rest of the kids join in as well, with Lindy finally morphing into a Blue Ranger.
Posing for no reason while something dangerous is behind you… Yeah, that’s Power Rangers alright.
The device works, manifesting Dark Specter into a physical being for all six Rangers to fight. Despite him trying his best to taunt every single one of them, they all band together to destroy him for good, with Sage taking the final shot.
With that, the corruption is gone and everything goes back to normal.
The Headmaster promises to never close down the Green Campus again. The spirits of former Green Rangers appear, specifically Tashi and Zilan, who thank Tula and Rhianth respectively for everything. Nika plans on retiring from Ranger Academy so that he can live with Rhianth for funsies. To end it all, Rhianth allows Sage to stay at Ranger Academy to be a Green Ranger.
With her new friends, she soon realizes that this is her new home…
Ending Thoughts
Since this is an academy, here is my grade for this issue and overall, the entire series.
B-.
From this finale alone, for a large cast of characters, a majority of them get their time to shine, showing the small developments each one of them had throughout the series. This allows for some funny dialogue as well as satisfying emotional moments from them all. This is highlighted especially during the final fight against Dark Specter as they all get the opportunity to morph. Especially with the artwork and the lighting, the battle stands out as a good catharsis for the series. Against a monster that tries to pick them off one by one, all six of these Ranger cadets stick together and remind each other that they’re not alone when fighting against the darkness. If that doesn’t say Power Rangers, I don’t know what is.
Now, for the series itself.
I am aware that this series wasn’t the most popular…
Unlike the main MMPR series that was written more for adult readers, this 12-issue run was marketed to be a fresh entry point for a younger audience to the Power Rangers franchise. Now, this isn’t automatically a negative. Many forms of media made for kids, especially nowadays, can be engaging and thrilling to entertain kids while being enjoyable to general audiences as well. Heck, I’m going to reiterate that this entire franchise was made for kids! Other people use this as the reason why this series isn’t enjoyable to them.
For me… I have a different school of thought.
You see, what I love most about this series is the world that it creates. The setting, the architecture, the history, there’s so much here that just seeing the glimpses of it excited me. I had the curiosity of a little kid wanting to learn more and more. And, it’s more than just the school. In the end, I found myself caring about all of these kids and seeing them together. That’s the thing I found very surprising. Power Rangers is usually not that great when it comes to writing kid characters, but every single one of these students feels real. They joke around a lot, but they have struggles too. Insecurities. They’re as honest as they can be. They do their best to get along with each other, despite their own issues.
All of that is exemplified in our main character, Sage. A girl who wanted a little more from her life and decided to embark on an adventure. But, once she got to the school, she realized that she had this big secret to keep. Or what she thought was a big secret. Anxiety got to her. The thought of doing wrong, being too afraid to ask for help, that no one would be able to understand her. Not knowing how to interact with others. Thinking that there was something inherently wrong with her, no matter how many people told her she was wrong.
Did I think she took that too far at times? Yeah, a little.
But, it’s honestly been so long since there’s been a Ranger who I found to be so relatable. And, especially for the younger audience this is targeting, having the main character be someone who’s shy, unsure of themselves, finding the courage to make friends and ultimately do what’s right was an ingenious move to show that we all have the power to become heroes.
However…
While the series manages to utilize its fantastic premise and realistic characters, ultimately, when the story starts to focus on the overall narrative, that’s when it starts to fall apart.
You see, like any magical school adventure, the story had been subtly hinting about something sinister beneath all of the fluff we were getting in the beginning. But, its execution was flawed, from the compressed pacing not allowing our characters to fully explore the mystery to the lack of coherent answers and explanations as to how the plot is supposed to work.
Because this series does try to sprinkle in bits and pieces of the overall lore, with cameos from Time Force here and there, the story has this weird middle ground where it’s like the story expects you to know some of the lore and wants you to forget about others. By marketing to the fans, it backfired in terms of making the overall plot engaging.
For example, the whole Sage belief that Green Rangers are an inherently evil color thing only worked because she didn’t know that there were countless Green Rangers in the franchise who were heroes. And, anyone new to the franchise could believe that as well if this was their introduction. But, at the same time, the name ‘Dark Specter’ is dropped randomly out of nowhere, and then suddenly, he’s the driving force behind the entire plot, with no real introduction, no explanation of his powers or backstory, and no real goals as to why he’s doing all of this. In the end, one of the more famous villains of Power Rangers ends up being this troll whose only real skill is throwing out childish taunts.
(And, I’m not even going to get into the whole ‘hero school’ tried to kill a baby and then covered it up thing, either. The fact that such an important issue was not given the complexity it deserved is just…)
Although it has difficulty with exposition and not reaching its full complexity at times, Ranger Academy is an enjoyable introduction to the PR franchise with relatable characters, an exciting premise, and fantastic action complimented by its beautiful artwork, teaches us all what it means to be a Ranger.
Random Thoughts from the Morphin’ Grid
- Who wants to take a bet that the cameo Rangers that were shown off throughout this series aren’t even going to make an appearance again?
- Can’t believe that Kartyr ends up being my favorite male Pink Ranger. It’s a short list, but Daniel from 1969 didn’t get the chance for screentime to make a good impression and I have never been a fan of Casey. Yeah, Kartyr gets so much more in retrospect, both in personality and design. That moment of him being the first to step up to help Sage hit me much harder than I would have thought.
- You know, speaking of Kartyr, I didn’t mention it up there, but him and Lindy morphing out of nowhere was ridiculous. We had this whole explanation as to how Morphers work and cadets going to get their powers, but Kartyr didn’t even get to the freakin’ cave! So, he could morph just by magic?!
- Hi, Katie… Bye, Katie…
- Nate and Rhianth are just now roommates and nothing more…
- There has to be a space dolphin somewhere! We already know of space sharks!
