[DreamSword]

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.