[DreamSword]

Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers Volume 12

We've reached the point where I started following the comics much less actively.

This section of the "Necessary Evil" arc makes alot of very questionable decisions all across the board, and even now, with the power of hindsight, it still doesn't really sit right with me.

Heck, I'd argue that hindsight only really makes it worse. But at the risk of spoiling anything, let's just zero in on why this volume doesn't work out.

In terms of plot, this flies entirely in the face of alot of things established in the story up to now. We had that entire arc about the Rangers sticking by Zordon's' ideals against Alpha-1, only to now have the Omega Rangers fully following in the very ideal that Alpha-1 was talking about.

This is also the part where both MMPR and Go Go fully merge, which in turns makes one question why the comics remain split for a good while going forward. Because let me just say that, plot wise, there really isn't much justification for the split going forward on pretty much any level. Not like the reveal of the Omega's' identities to the rest of the team results in anything positive.

Power scaling is another big issue. The Omega Rangers handled this guy pretty handily before, but now suddenly he can take them on by himself no problem? But even worse than that is Zedd, who gets handled by the Omegas with zero effort, but yet they can't handle this guy? It makes Zedd, who could take on the Rangers no problem in the original show, look like a total chump here in the comics, and can easily be seen as vindictive from the writers.

And last and most importantly, the characterization is really awfully handled here. Why would Dayne have anything personal against the Rangers when he was literally only in it for the money? And even if he did, why wouldn't he just take out Kiya right then and there?

Speaking of Kiya, I never liked the twist with her going crazy and deciding that the universe needs to be purged of Power Rangers. Not only does it come out of nowhere, but it inadvertently makes the villagers who were witch hunting her to actually be totally correct. And I can never stand when the bad guys are made out to be the correct ones in stories(hi, Kamen Rider Build).

But that's not all, because the main team of Rangers back home get hit with it too! Kim especially is really out of character here, with her being way more aggressive than she ever was which stands in stark contrast to not only her personal philosophy but also her arc as seen in GGPR. And when questioned about her gymnastics career, she says she's avoiding going back to it, which is the exact opposite of her arc in the source material.

Oh, and that's a funny thing about all of this on a meta level, by the way. Thanks to a certain internet critic who never knows what he's talking about, the Operation Overdrive team will never live down their actions in "Once A Ranger" and yet, here's this arc of the comics, wherein the Mighty Morphin' team has the same dilemma for even less reason, but yet I've never heard anyone in the fandom bat an eye.

Just... yeah. This volume left a real bad taste in my mouth.