[Den-O]

Issue Release Info
Publisher: Papercutz
Series: Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers
Issue #: FCBD Preview
Release Date: May 3rd 2014

If there's one thing that's refreshing about the resurgence in Power Rangers popularity, tied to the franchises 20th anniversary, it's the renewed interest in publishing comics related to it. This license has been held by multiple comic companies over the years such as Image, Acclaim, Hamilton, and most notably Marvel. In the interim since Saban Brands re-acquired TV distribution rights for the series from Disney, the print license has once again shifted, this time to Papercutz. No stranger to Free Comic Book Day, Papercutz is about to put out their 6th annual release in honor of this national event, an all-new Mighty Morphin Power Rangers special!

This issue is actually the very first wholly original story Papercutz has produced for FCBD. Generally most publishers opt for reprints of other titles with the occasional new material sprinkled in. As an entirely original creation this issue has a lot of expectations placed on it. Being the first brand new comic adventures set in the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers time frame in nearly 20 years. How does it hold up? Read on to find out!

To start, it's ambitious for any company to create a new story and insert it into the timeline of a beloved show or comic. With Power Rangers the list of comics is quite short as every series has either been cancelled or simply abandoned mid process. This issue is roughly meant to take place during season 2, just after "White Lite". Indicators that put it there being Tommy using the White Ranger Powers and Tigerzord alongside the other 5 rangers using the Thunder Zords. But before we get to the meat of the story, let's talk about the supplementary material.

The issue opens with a brief overview of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers saga. A very brief overview. Mention is made of Rita being freed from her dumpster but abruptly the description shifts to Lord Zedd arriving after her many failures. Breezing almost entirely past any events from season 1 we're given a one-liner that Zedd has been "intimidating Rita's cronies into subservience and taking control of the rangers dino zords". To combat this Alpha & Zordon create the new White Ranger powers. Unfortunately as anyone would know, this is rather inaccurate to MMPR, sort of the cliffs notes for dummies to the series. None of these events occurred in this way in the show. More confusingly, below this description is an image of the 6 original rangers, green (not white) included.

What follows is a set of 6 profile pages. 1 for each ranger. The first being, you guessed it, the White Ranger! But something, several things, are a miss with this page. Though Tommy and his White Ranger powers are the focus, the creators clearly don't know much about the source material. This page contains very low definition stills of MMPR footage, of Tommy as the Green Ranger. Or rather his stock morph footage, wearing green clothing, and holding the Dragon Morpher. But pasted directly in the center of the page is the White Ranger costume. Even more confusingly a cartoonish image of the Original Megazord is to the left of white ranger. Not his personal zord. This matters because on the 5 following profile pages the other rangers ALL have their original zords on the page with them. Unfortunately Tommy's entire description even revolves around his Green powers NOT his White Ranger powers at all. Making it the most perplexing mishmash of information you can have. A single page is also dedicated to Bulk & Skull.

The story
Unfortunately the plot doesn't fare much better. Stated on the first page of the story, this issue is meant to take place directly after White Light, the defeat of the Scarlet Sentinel being specifically mentioned. But it really doesn't fit. The issue begins with the rangers in Billy's Rad Bug going to the middle of the desert to abandon Rita, allowing Zordon to teleport her into space harmlessly. But Zedd is seen plotting already to have his revenge for the Sentinel's defeat. So he takes his Z-Staff and thrusts it towards the Earth shooting a powerful beam, which comes into contact with the Rad Bug, and in turn transforms it into a rampaging living monster.

This new power of Zedd's is itself quite confusing but there are more things to question. Almost immediately the rangers morph to counter the Rad Bug. We see them fire a round of blasts at the bug.... from their Power Weapons. Yes. That's right. Not from their Blade Blasters, but from their swords daggers axes, Saba and all, they shoot lasers. The wackiness doesn't stop there. Zedd then tosses a grenade at earth and grows the Rad Bug to monster size.

This prompts the rangers to chase the Bug down in their zords. Tommy uses the White Tigerzord to literally shotgun the Bug. It jumps into the front seat, to drive the vehicular monster. This is hilariously awesome and entirely should have happened in show. Sadly it did not. While this is going on the other Thunder Zords begin to form the Thudner Megazord. Standard stuff right? No. In another blatant disregard for continuity and the source material, the background of the transformation for the Megazord reads "Megazord sequence has been initiated. Megazord activated." which calls back to Season 1 of MMPR. The "megazord sequence" dialogue was not in use during the time of the Thunderzords, the megazord simply formed with out this computerized dialogue playing. Clearly someone got their wires crossed on what material would be present in this issue. Even more frustratingly the Thunder Zords are referred to as the Dino Zords multiple times through out the issue.

As with any Ranger adventure though the battle eventually plays out in their favor. After the Rad Bug literally transforms into a bi-pedal humanoid robot they're able to stop it by cutting the gas line to the creature. All is well as the rangers lift Rita's dumpster into the sky, ready for teleport. The final page is an add for the always awesome Power Morphicon convention coming up August 22-24 in Pasadena CA!

Overall
As someone who's read and followed previous Power Rangers comics over their publishing history, I'm sorry to say that I found this issue to be rather disappointing. I'm personally confused at what would appear to be a lack of oversight on the book - there are blatant, factual, errors that any fan of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers would catch without having to re-read it. It really reads like someone went off basic recollection of the series from 20 years ago as opposed to re-watching or even researching the original material.

Luckily, this is a free comic on Free Comic Book Day. However, if your local comic store like many others is limiting the number of free comics you can pick up, I'd suggest putting this towards the bottom of your pile. The problems in this book are similar to other licensed-out-nostalgia-property books. Some major details/research are passed over for the sake of the final product. However, in this day in age with as many die hard fans and collectors as there are out there, these shortcuts or lapses in judgement can kill a book before it even gets off the ground.

In a world where everything has become Super Mega, this book is unfortunately a Super Mega miss

On a side-note - we'd like to recognize Fury Diamond of RangerCrew.com for being listed in the "special thanks" portion of this book.