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06-18-2022, 05:23 PM | #1 |
Yodonna oshi
Join Date: Jan 2021
Posts: 748
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A long time ago, the thought crossed my mind that maybe there might be something for me in the "new" Power Rangers comics from Boom. I thought about this a lot for a while, I even went so far as to solicit opinions, and universally, the answer I got was that yes, these comics were absolutely worth my time. Being the kind of person who cannot take advice to save her life, however, I sort of let the idea drop.
As I've mentioned before, I have no real emotional attachment to Power Rangers. I was aware of it, but it didn't matter to me in the way then it obviously has to others for quite a long time now. I think it was this distance that made it easy for me to connect with the story being told in the 2017 movie?although there is also something to be said for me perhaps being akin to a dead albatross for movie franchises, as I watched that New Mutants film last week and really liked it. This curse I labour under, however, doesn't seem to spell the death keel for comic books, as there are more Power Rangers titles at present than you can shake a stick at, and whilst not all of them are good, I am kind of overwhelmed by how right that initial advice I received was, how there really was a lot for me in the pages of these books. I went in with low expectations, and there were points where I felt incredibly frustrated?Shattered Grid, the crossover between the two initial titles, long outstayed its welcome, the arc, Beyond the Grid, featuring multiple Rangers from TV shows I know next to nothing about finding themselves cast adrift in a world cut off from the Morphin Grid, relied far too heavily on prior knowledge to play out as an independent story, and the beginning of Necessary Evil just really peed me off with how disjointed events were between the books, and how, again, the narrative relied on events outside of the comics?and yet, taking into consideration all that... I absolutely fell in love with these characters, with this setting. I had been enjoying it up until Beyond the Grid without thinking about it too much; lately, I've been dealing with a lot of, I don't know, post-plague anxiety to say the least, and these comics served as a welcome distraction, yet I can pinpoint the moment when my interest in this changed, the moment when I began to really engage with this stuff: the Omega Rangers. Dimly, I recalled hearing about three of the characters being written out of the show?in fact, I may even have seen these episodes through merit of growing up in a family owning a television in the late 20th century. Power Rangers always got a lot of stick back then for doing things that we are actively asking our media to do more nowadays?include a greater diversity of peoples in both your cast, crew, and in the characters you depict in your story?at the time though, it made no difference to me that three of the characters left "for Switzerland" indefinitely to attend a "peace conference" as if that was a totally normal thing that happens to normal teenagers, and were thus replaced by three other teenagers taking up their roles and colours. The conceit of the comics is that the peace conference excuse was a rouse, and the three of them were recruited by an emissary of the Morphin Grid, a sort of ancient, primal expression of one specific facet of the dynamic of each Power Rangers team. What follows is a story in which, Zack, Jason, Trini?have I spoken yet about how much I love the dynamic between Jason and Trini? The honest depiction of almost-romance, of dealing with crushes and feelings in adolescence? Have I spoken about how great the characterisation of Zack is? How he comes across as playful and caring, as deceptively gentle despite his occasional brusqueness? No? Well, please take note of this interjection here in that case! What follows is a story in which Zack, Jason, and Trini are bequeathed the powers of an ancient team of cosmic Rangers, and charged with policing the after-effects of Shattered Grid's impact on continuity, searching out individuals touched by the power of the Morphin Grid, gifted a connexion with the pure source of that which powers Power Rangers, and offering them a home where they can learn of their new powers... or a prison in which they can reflect on how they used those powers to harm others. Through the exploration of what it means to find yourself a cosmic police officer (boo!), through musings on power and responsibility, on discussions of what gives you the right to make discussions regarding others, on the nature of authority (boo!), we are introduced not only to Kiya, the fourth member of the Omega Rangers, but later to Yale, the superpowered, alien space cat of this post's title, and... you guys, in different ways, I love these characters. Do not be surprised when I tell you that there were moments during the unfolding of this story in which I cried. Kiya is just the perfect portrayal of anger and shame, of someone working through change, of someone not always making the best choices, but committing wholeheartedly to those choices once they have been made; Yale is just... they are beautiful, they are a beautiful animal bringing with them a charm, a nobility, a hurt that we see so much in the real world around us, in how people treat animals in the real world, and using those feelings and that hurt to inform a piece of speculative fiction that, for me, transcends its source material. I think... if you've spoken to me at any point in the last year, you will know my little cat is getting older. When I read these comics, when I followed the story of Yale's character arc, often with the presence of my little cat on my lap, I felt that their story came to life in a way that really, really moved me, in a way I did expect a licensed comic book based on a children's television show from the '90s to do. There are things in these comics that feel very much like someone somewhere is paying attention to my personal proclivities-the awkwardness of sharing feelings with others, check; large swords and/or hammers, check; monstrous Evangelion mech fighting in lush forests, check-but in the end... in the end, it was a giant, superpowered alien space cat that won my heart, and they are why I am passing on the advice that I first received a long time ago, advice that I really deserved to have paid more attention to: you should probably check out those Power Rangers comics, you know. |
06-18-2022, 05:45 PM | #2 |
Some guy. I'm alright.
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: Michigan
Posts: 4,448
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Hey, glad you went ahead and checked the comics out! I remember you asking about them awhile back!
The comics have certainly been an experience so far if nothing else. While I personally think that where they shined the most were back when the two individual runs were known as MMPR and Go Go, there certainly has still been some solid stuff along the way, even if I have some personal gripes. I think the thing that irks me the most about the current Mighty Morphin' and Power Rangers runs are that, well, with how often they play off eachother, there's really no need for them to be separate stories? Neither really differentiates itself enough to be their own tale like how MMPR and Go Go did. Keep in mind I'm speaking as a big fan of the source material here. The constant references to the TV show are certainly a bit of distraction, but from my perspective it's more so in the since that, ever since the rebranding, TV Show Continuity is so out the window at this point that I wouldn't be surprised if the upcoming Issue #100 ended with a gigantic Cosmic Retcon. But, my tangent aside, yeah, the characterization for the most part has been rather good. Zack is my all time favorite character from the franchise. Heck, he's one of my favorite characters period, and I felt that, for the most part, the comics have done a good job at displaying just what made him so lovable for me. Not that any other character is a slouch, mind you, but because of my personal history with the character, he's the one I focus in on most. For me, where the current run of the comics have really shined has been the side-story one-offs that they've been doing such as Heir to Darkness which, while yeah, they outright require you to have seen the seasons they take place beforehand to have any idea of what's going on, work really well as supplementary material to said shows. Soul of the Dragon is still my favorite of these, I think. My only real gripe with the Omega Rangers is how they opted to create original suits for them rather than use the suits from Dairanger, but those ended up finally getting their proper due in Power Rangers Universe, so I guess that checks out fine. And hey, doing that resulted in the kitty cat that you love so much! Glad you found some enjoyment in these stories for sure!
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06-18-2022, 06:35 PM | #3 |
Yodonna oshi
Join Date: Jan 2021
Posts: 748
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Absolutely, absolutely agree with you about how the division between the two books sort of feeling arbitrary after a certain point, I find that equally frustrating, if I am honest. It feels like an artificial attempt to make it look like a "line" of comics, rather than focusing on presenting the story in a more natural way. I'm currently watching Dairanger-as an aside, oh my gosh, I love Dairanger-and I can see that using their suits for the Omega Rangers would have been the most natural thing to do, especially as... the series in which the Dai suits were employed felt very jarring and ill-presented, but I'm glad that, in the end, they went with original designs; it sounds selfish, but when I see those designs, I feel kind of a bit comforted? Like, oh, this is the stuff I like, this is the stuff that serves the story I am enjoying, this isn't something I am going to have to demand answers from friends on discord about, or look up on the wiki, hahha. I adore the sheer scale, the sheer horror of the mech too, I feel they are really stunning. Lost Galaxy has the dubious honour of being one of the only PR shows I have seen, so I felt in a better place to understand the Astronema one-shots, and they did push me to start watching In Space, but I didn't get the same feeling as I did from the mainline books?her appearance in that storyline, the whole train sequence, Trini and Ecliptor working together though? *chef's kiss.* Ah! I am super hyped for this, for where it's going to go! For everything that is just awful about this year, I am happy to live in a world where a character like Yale can be a main character in a book like this! Last edited by dreamcastegirl; 06-18-2022 at 06:39 PM.. |
06-18-2022, 06:42 PM | #4 |
Some guy. I'm alright.
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: Michigan
Posts: 4,448
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Quote:
(As an aside, Dairanger is one of the few Sentai seasons I've been interested in watching.) I'm definitely looking forward to issue #100 as well, considering how they seem to advertising it as some very large scale event on social media; What with it supposedly having various different artists work on it and it also being the final hurrah of writers Ryan Parrott and Matt Groom. Really makes me wonder just where the comics are gonna go from here.
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Last edited by DreamSword; 06-18-2022 at 08:52 PM.. |
06-18-2022, 07:22 PM | #5 |
Ex-Weather Three leader
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,581
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Good to see you again!
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06-18-2022, 08:48 PM | #6 |
Yodonna oshi
Join Date: Jan 2021
Posts: 748
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Ah, you're too nice, thank you!
Quote:
I tend to avoid spoilers for things I'm reading/watching, and I'm not on social media, so I haven't really seen how other people are reacting to this or what they're expecting so it's nice to have this kind of conversation with others and just share this excitement. Also: Dairanger, yes! It's wonderful! But, ah, also take whatever I have to say with a pinch of salt as we all know I only have two settings: shoujo manga, and battles without honour or humanity, of which Dairanger is mostly the latter. |
06-18-2022, 09:01 PM | #7 |
Alias: ZeroEnchiladas
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 2,601
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I am here to say, I really dig the Omega Ranger designs... well their Ranger Forms anyway. I can kinda take or leave the mecha since they're just too... abstract for my tastes.
Really enjoy us getting a Cat Ranger in Yale though, that's genuinely one of the funnest ranger concepts I've seen in a while. |
06-18-2022, 09:10 PM | #8 |
Yodonna oshi
Join Date: Jan 2021
Posts: 748
|
Quote:
But together we stand united in our admiration of Yale! I mean, I sound flippant because, you know, cat lady, but honestly I think they did such a good job introducing them, and illustrating growth, and getting us to where we are now, and I just... I love it; it's an idea that could have been laughable, and yet they made it really, really beautiful. |
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