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02-12-2024, 05:46 AM | #11 |
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Nice, I love it.
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02-15-2024, 02:45 PM | #12 |
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Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers Volume 4 It's little moments like that that really bring this whole thing together, you know? This volume is the final battle both between Drakkon and The Coinless, as well as the Rangers and Rita. And while I won't claim it's perfect, it's overall a very emotionally satisfying way to cap off the arc, as it contains both rather poignant character moments alongside the pacing of an intense action movie. Really, I think perhaps the weakest point is the rather weird art direction at times. Like, the panel I ripped there isn't the worst, but it comes from a page that took me a sec to grasp exactly what the sequence was trying to convey; That being Drakkon dropping down from one of his ships onto the Falconzord. The grand scale of everything going on really is what carries the whole volume though. From our heroes fighting against what seem to be impossible odds, to all the various different powers and spectacles on display. And where I felt it was most highlighted was in the issue that focused almost entirely on Zordon, featuring art by Daniel Bayliss. That entire strip, while certainly nice in the melodrama of its writing, is really wonderful to go through just for the art and its direction alone. Bayliss perfectly captured the look and feel of a dreamscape and being a witness to the age old question of "what could have been." And I really dug how the story points out that the answer to that question won't always be a positive one. And all via the concept of a version of Zordon whose faith was misguided. And of course, we can't end this without talking about the rather clever way inwhich the Blue Power Coin is used across both timelines, and in ways not really seen in Power Rangers before. Billy uses it to depower his foes, whereas Trini uses it to empower herself with the strength of her enemies. It's a really awesome sequence that got alot of notoriety back when this comic first dropped, to the point that Dragon Armor Trini became a playable character in Battle for the Grid. Just, yeah. Had the comic ended here, I don't think I would've had much to complain about. But oh no, we are far from done...
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02-23-2024, 06:24 PM | #13 |
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Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers Volume 5 By this time in the comic's' run, Go Go Power Rangers was in full swing, and as such there was a bit more of a concentrated effort to incorporate elements that linked the two, such as the mention of Matt here. And, with the Drakkon arc now over, Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers is given a little bit of breathing room, which is even reflected in the arc starting off with noting how Rita has all but disappeared for months. Thus, the Rangers instead focus on helping out in other efforts. There's some interesting takeaways here in how each Ranger reacts to the new freedom they've been granted. Some continue to work themselves way over(Jason, Billy, and Tommy), some try to more focus on their home lives(Kimberley), and others struggle to figure what exactly it is they want to do from here on out(Trini and Zack). But peace doesn't last for long, as sure enough, not only does Finster makes his reappearance, but there's a new face of antagonism known as Grace Sterling. Grace is a character who drew alot of ire back when she first debuted. We'll get into it more and more as the storyline moves forward, but in the context of this volume, she's a government agent who wishes to work directly with the Power Rangers, with Zack and Jason being at odds on if they should trust her or not. And it's at this point you might guess that continuity between the comics and the show kinda starts going off the rails. There's of course the Rangers now having knowledge of future aspects such as Saba, there's now a direct link to both In Space and Lost Galaxy in terms of plot elements being introduced, and you know, the whole "disappeared Zordon" thing. It's funny looking back on this, because at the time, alot of fans didn't mind some variance here and there, but as the comics continue to spiral into their own thing, fans would begin to find more and more issues with the concept. And I can't entirely blame them for it either. But before even talking in detail about all that, I do wanna note one notable thing. While the overall tone of the comic is still darker than what you'd find in the show, it does notably lighten up some. Probably to better match the tone of Go Go as well as some of the lighter aspects of the show. It's a smart move, I think, as it helps to better draw readers into the world and the characters. Or atleast, it worked on me. But that's not to say the comic still doesn't get intense, as this volume culminates in an issue that many fans still have conflicting feelings about to this day. A prequel issue that reveals that Grace was the Mighty Morphin' Red Ranger before Jason was. And yeah, I myself have conflicting feelings about it too. On the one hand, there's the continuity break as to how space works in the show, as well as retconning our heroes being the first Rangers(though funnily enough MMPR the show itself retconned this ages ago), as well as the retcons that both Rita's' dumpster and her Moon Palace were already established on the moon despite the source material saying otherwise. There's also the question of how Grace knew where the Command Center even was despite only entering and exiting it via teleportation. It's alot of sudden developments and changes for the sake of a plot that won't sit well with many. But on the other hand, Psycho Green is not only a really cool concept, but would later go on to be a fully fledged character that alot of fans would love. The artwork by Daniele Di Nicuolo looks fantastic, and the comic answers the question of why Zordon chose five teenaged friends over a select group of elites in the first place. Basically, it's alot easier to form a team between people who are already comfortable with eachother and work to increase their fighting prowess, rather than gather a bunch of randos and just hope that they learn to get along despite their intense differences. While I certainly get the complaints, especially concerning how suddenly important Grace is, I come out liking things more than disliking them in this case. But regardless, it is certainly a shift in the status quo, and we'll be quick to see just how much this alters our story going forward.
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03-01-2024, 07:26 PM | #14 |
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Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers Volume 6 Jonas Scharf takes over as head artist from here on out, and while I don't think his art is bad -- it definitely has some good stuff going for it, I do feel it's a bit of a step down in terms of artistic direction. Still, many pages have some details in them that are rather nice to see, and it's not as though the whole comic is ruined as a result of the art change or anything. Anyway, the entire driving question of this arc is: Do the results justify the means? And how much does intent factor into our actions? Does it in any way excuse them? And for the most part, I think the volume does a decent job at showing the ups and downs for each side, and is probably the best way they could've possibly utilized Grace. It's made clear that she is by no means squeaky clean, and that in many ways, she's a hypocrite ontop of being misguided. Zordon put it best when he said it's perfectly possible to made the wrong decisions for the right reasons. Something that takes a tragic turn by the end. But we're kinda getting ahead of ourselves on that. One thing that I absolutely wanna highlight when it comes to where the comics are at now is how glad I am that character development and interaction are now alot more at the forefront. These new one-on-one scenes we've been getting between members of the team, wherein they continue to grow as friends and share their lives with eachother a great treat, and help to solidify each Rangers as, well, friends, and not just teammates with a common goal. The villains are no slouch either, as the return of Rita sees not only more of her character flaws, but also sets up for an origin story of how exactly the (in)famous Green Candle came to be. Loved the bit about Finster's' glasses being a magical item, too. One bit that has definitely not aged well though is Billy in this arc. Now, here, in its own context, everything he does is perfectly fine and reasonable. But it's moreso how much these events clash with some decisions that are made with the character and plot later on in the comic's' run. But, I'm not blaming Kyle Higgins for that, as what I'm alluding to happens long after we've had a change in writers. Just, be sure to keep Billy's' general distrust of Promethia in mind for later on down the line. Especially since it lead to one of the only times that Drakkon has a sense of humor. Oh, yeah. Turns out that Lord Drakkon is alive, and held prisoner by Promethia. I don't think anyone was going to call foul on it, especially since it leads into what might be one of the most famous events to ever hit the franchise. And to think, it's all thanks to Saba not taking Zordon's' words about knowing when it's best to sit back and let others handle things to heart. Saba's' intentions were noble, but he still ended up making the wrong decision. And in the end, it spells disaster not just for him, but for the rest of the Power Rangers at large. Next time, we enter the Shattered Grid, where no Ranger is safe.
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03-08-2024, 11:36 AM | #15 |
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Location: Michigan
Posts: 4,399
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Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers Volume 7 Daniele Di Nicuolo returns as the artist for this, and it's a great move too because alot of her panels are really good through this volume. Shattered Grid is widely considered Kyle Higgins' magnum opus, and for good reason, because it's an event that's incredibly huge for not just the comics, but the Power Rangers franchise as a whole. It's a crisis crossover between all things Power Rangers, and takes advantage of that in every way that it possibly can. Sure, the primary focus is still on the MMPR team, but just about every iteration of the Rangers gets their time to shine here, with lots of great interactions throughout. The set-up is that after escaping, Drakkon fools Ninjor into repairing his Morpher, and, after taking Ninjor prisoner, proceeds to kill Tommy in order to charge the Chaos Crystal and get back to the world of the Coinless. This in turns causes an ontological paradox that literally shatters time and space, and allows Drakkon access to worlds and knowledge unbound. And you'd better believe that the very first issue set the fandom ablaze. Killing Tommy? Absolutely unthinkable at the time. And in an event that crosses over the entire franchise? Even Hyper Force would get in on the action! It's the perfect thing to celebrate the 25th Anniversary, and showed that this wasn't mere fanservice, this was set to be absolutely huge. Even better, Drakkon himself isn't one note here, expressing both regret and frustration at seeing the alternate life he could've lead. One filled with love, joy, and friendship. It disgusts him on so many levels at once. It's the classic struggle of love vs power, and while he feels a level of hesitation about it now, Drakkon is still dead set on the path that he's chosen, and he sets his sights on the Morphin' Grid in and of itself. Something to also note real quick is that the reading order provided by BOOM Studios doesn't include the 2018 Annual, which takes place halfway through this volume. I'll be including it when I cover the next volume of MMPR as a result. Which fits, since volume 8 is slightly shorter than most other volumes. But yeah, Drakkon goes all out here. Stealing other power sets to add to his own, creating new Sentries out of other Ranger suits to add to his army, having a version of Finster who absorbed Alpha-5 as his primary ally, creating gadgets that can disrupt other Rangers' powers, and, oh yeah... Actually recruiting villains from across the franchise to his cause. Koragg, the A-Squad, and the Psycho Rangers, just to name a few. This isn't just one giant war though, as there's a wonderful narrative flow to everything filled with great character interactions. And all carried by wonderful atmosphere and artwork. It's not all MMPR all the time either, as characters like Doctor K from RPM, Lauren from Samurai, and Jen from Time Force are integral to everything going on. It's a wonderful start to what's considered the best arc of the comics, absolutely.
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03-08-2024, 12:27 PM | #16 |
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I was joining in the general fandom at the time this event was announced/ongoig, and I remember a few things.
1) some guy on readcomiconline hating the art, and wanting a return to the more grittier look of the previous arcs (me personally, I disagreed) 2) People reading a little too much into the death of Tommy and assuming that some parts of the plot focused on other Rangers were altered as a result (who the evidence being Wes being with the Time Force Rangers on a mission to the edge of reality and Lauren leading the Samurai Rangers). Which leads me to 3) the PR universe being split apart by series. Which struck me as hilarious, as people rejected it when Tzachor said it during Megaforce’s run, and now it was canon. It’s even funnier because when both Rider and Sentai clarified their series took place in separate universes (Zi-O and Zenkaiger, respectively), there are still people insisting on the shared universe theory. And 4) Me being relatively new to comics at the time, this felt like a real “anyone can die” event, compared to the two previous crossover events I’d seen IDW do with their Hasbro characters (which have relatively low body counts for major events). (I had something slightly more on-topic for this one, but I forgot it) |
03-09-2024, 07:32 PM | #17 |
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Location: Michigan
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Quote:
3) the PR universe being split apart by series. Which struck me as hilarious, as people rejected it when Tzachor said it during Megaforce?s run, and now it was canon. It?s even funnier because when both Rider and Sentai clarified their series took place in separate universes (Zi-O and Zenkaiger, respectively), there are still people insisting on the shared universe theory.
Meanwhile, Tzachtor just came out of nowhere and went "Oh by the way, every season is its own world" which is not only out of left field, but also completely wrong. The shows themselves even supporting most of it being one timeline. Not that it matters though, given that both Saban and Hasbro have very much ignored Tzactor's' stance, even despite the complications that some of their seasons might have in terms of continuity.
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03-15-2024, 09:56 AM | #18 |
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Go Go Power Rangers Volume 3 Hey, we're back to Go Go Power Rangers after all this time! While technically, you can read alot of Go Go straight through without much worry, given that this volume ties into Shattered Grid directly, I agree with the reading order that it's best to read volume 3 at this point. It's an interesting way to handle a tie-in though, because most of the context of Shattered Grid isn't actually needed. It helps, but it's not strictly necessary. So what's this arc all about? It's about Lord Drakkon sending his Ranger Slayer back in time to kickstart his ambitions years early, however, said Slayer gets sent back too far, resulting in a very important encounter between Kimberly and her dark future self. And I once again gotta shout out Dan Mora's' art here, because the dude just has a way with the composition of alot of shots which end up with alot of great details while at the same time feeling really cinematic. There's a great feeling of motion and depth all throughout this book, which really helps with the animated movie vibes I get off the whole thing. Related to that, there's just alot of great ideas going on with this story, ontop of the great character moments that GGPR established itself with. The Gravezord, an evil Megazord made up of pieces of the MMPR Season 2 Zords, for example, is a really cool idea ontop of having a great design. There's also the Ranger Slayer's' design in general, as well as what exactly the Coinless Kim means in terms of characterization and narrative. Kim's' dealing with her future self not only offers a great look into her as a character, but it also gives even more reason as to why she would later on be the one to sympathize with Tommy the most, given how she went through something similar to what he did with Drakkon. It does create the minor plothole of the Rangers not recognizing Drakkon's' name when it comes up later on in the Mighty Morphin' comics, but hey, maybe they just forgot. It's whatever. Not like it would've made much difference anyway. But Kimberly isn't the only one who gets focus here. There's also some great stuff like Jason dealing his dad's' health, the reasoning behind why Zordon doesn't directly interfere with human matters, Billy learning to stand up to Bulk and Skull, and Matt trying to get to the bottom of what exactly happened to him at the start of the book and what exactly his connection to the Power Rangers even is. Which in turn leads to the biggest shake-up of character dynamics ontop of explaining why Matt hasn't been in the MMPR comics except by name. She may have come and gone, but the Ranger Slayer for sure leaves a long lasting impact.
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03-24-2024, 09:28 PM | #19 |
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Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers Annuals What's that? Annuals? Why yes, they do exist! But I wouldn't blame you if you didn't know that given that the official reading order provided by BOOM makes zero mention of them. And it's a damn shame too, because not only are they all a very fun read, but alot of the stuff contained in these annuals are things I find rather important to the narrative of the Mighty Morphin' comics and even Go Go to a limited extent. There are three Annuals here: 2016, 2017, and 2018. And all of them feature a series of vignettes. Some are canon to the comics, others aren't, but one thing they all share in common is showcasing what various writers think the franchise brings to the table in terms of heroism. It's good stuff. That said, these are all shorts. Like, every story being only a few pages. So I won't go super in depth or anything with my thoughts on these, but just know upfront that if you are at all interested, I do recommend reading them for yourself. With that out of the way, let's just go down the list of short stories in order. Starting with... 2016 A Week in the Life: A look into what exactly makes Jason worth of being Red Ranger. Balancing everything in his life is incredibly hard, but he continues to persevere despite it all, knowing exactly what's at stake if he doesn't. Unlockly Heroes: Wasn't a fan of this one. Bulk and Skull as temp Rangers is a fun idea and all, but I don't like how the entire joke is that they're weak and useless when anyone who's seen the show would easily be able to tell you otherwise. Never forget that Bulk once held the lifting record at the Juice Bar! A Spot of Trouble: Probably my favorite of the 2016 shorts. A great showcasing of Trini's' empathy combined with fantastic artwork. Only the Strong: Further elaboration on Goldar's' backstory and what happened with his brother Silverback. Important info to have for Go Go Power Rangers and a nice oneshot besides. It's Putty Time!: Stupid. Don't bother. What Makes a Ranger: The Power Rangers are not heroes merely because they are Rangers, but because they always do the right thing and care for those around them. Art style is a little weird, but a good read. 2017 Search Party: Incredibly well done piece about how Rita managed to convince Lord Drakkon to join her ontop of how Drakkon got his name. The art by Goni Montes is fantastic too. Trini's Vacation: Tied for my favorite from the 2017 Annual. Tom Taylor once again proves he can write Power Rangers stories surprisingly well. Forever Mighty Morphin' Black: I bet atleast one of you is surprised that this one isn't my favorite. It's a great piece for sure, especially as a big Zack fan, but man do I wish it was a full on issue instead of a short. Still a fun time though. Perfect: A beautifully haunting piece. The decision to have the whole thing drawn like a series of old style painting was a great move, and combining that with a story that looks into Finster's' backstory and psychosis makes for a delightfully atmospheric tale. My other favorite from this Annual. Sabrina's Day Out: A piece that I could honestly see being an actual episode of the original show. Alot of fun, and Dajung Lee's' art really does fit the overall Rangers aesthetic. 2018 This Annual overall ties directly into the Shattered Grid event, with each story focusing on how various teams are dealing with the Drakkon threat in their own way. They're all fine for what they are, with the only real complaint I have being that Andros and TJ are written out of character. I imagine the one most would like the best is the Zeo tie-in, which features Drakkon killing Tommy yet again. But my personal favorite was actually the Ninja Steel tie-in, as it was nice to see one of the less popular teams get some respect for a change. And that's that! Overall it was alot of fun going through these again, and I feel like these Annuals are a way better way of doing tie-ins than the way BOOM has been handling tie-ins for the current(at the time of this writing) Darkest Hour event with the constant tiny oneshots. But, we'll save that rant for the future.
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03-29-2024, 10:54 AM | #20 |
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Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers Volume 8 Shattered Grid is an event in Rangers history that I don't think will ever be topped. It being a crossover of nearly every Power Rangers property alone sits it up on high the level similar to Forever Red, but it's so much more than that. The lack of budget constraints due to being a comic event is utilized to its absolute fullest here, featuring a ton of crossover elements such as intersecting power sets and interactions between characters who've never met before. Saba being reforged into a longsword with Ninja Steel, Zordon and Cruger teaming together as the head mentors, a Megazord made up of Zords from a handful of different seasons, Rangers piloting other season's' Zords, and of course, the expansion of the Rangers multiverse as a whole. Drakkon gets a ton of character development here as well. He may have achieved godhood, but even despite that there's one vital thing he's missing in his life: Love. He'd never admit to it, but he's jealous of what the Tommys from other realities have in their friendships. Drakkon chose the path of fear and hatred, and the mark that leaves on people never truly goes away. The tragedy of Drakkon is not that he's misunderstood or lonely, but that even despite being given multiple chances to turn things around, he clings to his self-serving pride and ego. He can never admit to making any wrong choices because he's clinging too tightly to the idea that everyone should love and worship him due to the power he wields. What he truly wants will forever be out of reach, because subconsciously, he pushes it away and will never bring himself to admit it. The action scenes are no slouch either. A majority of what makes up the final issue of this volume is a special issue titled Shattered Grid #1, which details the Rangers siege on Lord Drakkon's' palace, and the all out war that results. It's an overall wonderful sequence that has it all: Great art, wonderful character banter, and of course, the explosive and yet quiet and somber finale. Even Rita Repulsa gets in on the action, in another move that you'd never see happen on the show itself, but is incredibly smart in its implementation. Really, the only downside I see in all of this is that Cruger is written out of character in terms of the way he speaks. But outside of that, Shattered Grid is a great adventure from start to finish, and it's easy to see why it's considered the magnum opus of Kyle Higgins, and why he himself even said he felt he could never top it. So much so infact that it would be the last Power Rangers story he'd ever work on for BOOM Studios, before going off to make his own universe known as the Massive-Verse, starting with Radiant Black. I've talked about my feelings on that story elsewhere. But hey, Higgins wasn't the only writer involved in this event. What of Ryan Parrott? He'd continue writing Go Go Power Rangers up until its end, and given that Shattered Grid ended with a universal reset, well, it seems only fitting to return to the roots of these Rangers with the next volume of Go Go. But before that, well, let's just say there's certain other project that Parrott was involved in that I wanna talk about. But that's for next time.
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