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04-05-2024, 10:22 AM | #21 |
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Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Hey, Power Rangers in Space did it, why not Mighty Morphin'? Written by Ryan Parrott and drawn by Simone di Meo, this crossover is honestly a match made in heaven from start to finish. The setup being that Tommy has gone undercover in the Foot Clan in order to save an old friend of his. This starts a chain of events that results in the dangerous worlds of Angel Grove and New York City colliding. And I mean that in more ways than one. Green Ranger Shredder is definitely what caught the attention of most readers back when this crossover first dropped, and yeah, it's really cool! Though funnily enough the panel where he first appears actually has an art mistake: His hands aren't gloved for the rest of the story. That said, while the design is cool and all, if I might offer one critique? I don't like how most of his arms are exposed. In my eyes a proper Power Ranger suit should cover every part of the body, and having his arms exposed is a really weird aesthetic that some artists go for that I never quite got. It's even seen today with the resent Street Fighter crossover figures. That's not to harp on the art overall though, as Simone di Meo introduces a wonderfully colorful, almost animation-esque aesthetic to the book that really does fit both Power Rangers and Ninja Turtles incredibly well, to the point that I would absolutely love to see this turned into an animated movie akin to the Batman vs TMNT crossover one day. Helps that the story basically flows like a movie anyway. I also agree with the decision made to have the Turtle Rangers prioritize Colors over weaponry, as the color coded bits on each Turtle are the immediate identifier for who's who when it comes to the fanbase. Even if it does leave April as the odd woman out, what with her being the Pink Ranger when she's typically associated with Yellow. But I get it, Mikey's' Orange is not only the closest color match out of what there was to choose from, but it's alot easier to integrate his nunchucks with the Power Daggers than it would be the Power Bow. As I've said before, I absolutely love it when crossovers fully integrate both universes involved into one another, and PR/TMNT is no exception. The Turtle Rangers, the MMPR cast donning ninja garb, Rita making Bebop and Rocksteady grow, the Putty Soldiers... it's all a bunch of things that are really cool on their own, only to be highlighted with all of the great character interactions written into this thing. The only real downside being that Trini and Casey are sadly left out with no one to really bounce off of. Which, I mean, I certainly couldn't think of anything for those two to converse over, so I won't complain too much. But yeah, this crossover is well written, incredibly well drawn, and is just a fun ride from start to end. I highly recommend it to fans of either franchise, let alone both. Check it out!
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04-12-2024, 02:25 PM | #22 |
Some guy. I'm alright.
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: Michigan
Posts: 4,448
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Go Go Power Rangers Volume 4 Rita decides it's time to unleash an ancient secret weapon. When the Rangers attempt to stop her latest attack on Earth, Jason and Trini end up pulled into the warp gate that Rita creates. This is the (in)famous "color swap" arc of the comics, which caused a bit of a stir, and still has somewhat of a reputation simply for the mere idea that the Rangers would be able to swap power sets in any way. Eleonora Carlini takes over as head artist now, and her style is pretty similar to Dan Mora's', I feel. Which works for the Rangers brand, though I will say that I feel as though the faces could use some work. Overall it's good art though with some pretty creative shots drawn in. Anyhow, while the exact mechanics and logistics of the Rangers changing suits is just sort of glossed over, it in itself is a pretty fun idea that the comic does take some nice mileage out of, even if Zack, Billy, and Kim only get to get in on it during the last issue of the arc. It's mainly Jason and Trini who use it, and primarily as a way to further their relationship. We also get some nice backstory here as usual. Such as how the Rad Bug first came to be, how Jason started to change his mindset into becoming the leader we know him as, a hint as to why Skull ended up going down the path that he did, and arguably most importantly, an answer to an old question many fans have had for a long time. That being: Why didn't Rita ever use the Green Power Coin herself? The answer being, she couldn't. Now, I've always been of the mindset that the show itself provided enough reasons as to why Rita herself never used it. Though why she had it in the first place is a little dicey. I always inferred that she stole it from Zordon in their previous battle, but the comics offer a slightly different take that I think works out decently enough. That being that she instead stole it from Ninjor, which also works. She then had it locked away until she felt she'd really need it. Makes enough sense, and results in a fun adventure on another planet to boot. Really though, this volume overall provides a great balance of character development and fun, which is primarily what I look for in Power Rangers. It's simple, it's to the point, and I really couldn't be happier. I'm sure someone else we'll be meeting in the future certainly could be, though.
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04-19-2024, 11:21 AM | #23 |
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Go Go Power Rangers: Back to School Written by Marguerite Bennett, this is a series of personal stories about what each member of the MMPR team did over the course of their spring break, with each story drawn by a different artist. And while I felt the dialogue was a bit shakey in areas, I did overall like every story here, with each one I feel being better than the last. I especially liked how each one was about a bit of personal growth for each Ranger; Exploring an area or scenario that they aren't typically put into. Is it absolutely necessary reading for the comics as a whole? No, but it's an overall wholesome and heartwarming experience. And that's enough.
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04-26-2024, 06:40 PM | #24 |
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Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: Michigan
Posts: 4,448
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Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Beyond the Grid Marguerite Bennett, the mind behind Back to School, leads this arc. Meanwhile the art is headed by Simone di Meo, with help from Valeria Favoccia, French Carlomagno, and Francesco Mortarino. While the main story of the arc is covered in volumes 9 and 10 of MMPR, I prefer to read it in the combined "Deluxe Edition" book, which adds a before and after blurb to the story that helps flesh out the characters of Ari and Remi. And you know, on reread, it's funny. Back when the arc first premiered, many complained that it was the worst arc in the comics by far, and also compared it rather unfavorably(and unfairly) to Shattered Grid before it. But me? Not only did I always like this arc, I like it even more on reread. One thing I will note is that I do think the arc overall flows better when read in one sitting rather than waiting for it to update monthly. And ontop of that, it really benefits from the reader taking a second to appreciate everything that went into the artwork, as it does alot of heavily lifting in terms of world building and especially scale, given all of the multi-page spreads. Because man, the aesthetics overall are great here. Featuring alot of wonderful designs from the Solar Ranger, to the Solar Zords, to the big bad himself, the Preator. It's so cool seeing a story take full advantage of its comic medium in order to have an adventure in an alien world that's both familiar and yet at the same time foreign to what's been established in the Power Rangers canon. There's so many neat ideas that went into this arc. Really loved how the origin of the Zeo Crystals got explored, and I especially loved how we got a team of Rangers from across other teams in other eras. And while some of the character arcs and interactions could've been handled slightly better(Cam gets very little screen time compared to everyone else), alot of it is used very smartly, with the only thing I majorly disagree with being the shipping of Tanya and Mike. Other than that, the way everyone plays off eachother, especially Tanya being the heart of the team, really worked for me. All of that in addition to a pretty solid grasp on the overall atmosphere of the story and, while I wouldn't say the story is perfect, I did rather enjoy it. Could it have used maybe one more issue to flesh a few more things out? Sure, but for what we got, I'm satisfied. The establishing of Heckyl as the Dark Ranger is great(though I could've went without Zenowing dying), the overall theme of trusting in the future is nice, and it gave us a non-Mighty Morphin' story that fans had been begging for for awhile at that point. If you weren't a fan of Beyond the Grid, I'd say give it another shot with a fresh perspective. And with the end of this arc came the end of what I consider the "golden era" of the MMPR line of comics specifically. Meaning that next time, we reach the end of what I consider the golden era of Go Go...
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04-26-2024, 06:48 PM | #25 |
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I mostly remember this arc for the big bad looking like an evil Lupinranger.
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05-03-2024, 07:41 AM | #26 |
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Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: Michigan
Posts: 4,448
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Imagine a timeline where Hasbro actually took advantage of that idea.
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05-03-2024, 09:20 AM | #27 |
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Location: Michigan
Posts: 4,448
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Go Go Power Rangers Volume 5 While slightly less focused on character and more on backstory, this volume is still all kinds of great and I really don't like how the official reading order provided by BOOM skips over it. There's alot of great stuff here in terms of lore. The backstory of Rita and Zordon, the first Alpha robot, how Zack and Jason met... and it's all presented under the overarching theme of being torn between two worlds. That's not to say this all just dialogue though. Not only do we have cool callbacks to stuff like the Blade Blaster Tower Formation and the body swap machine from MMPR proper, but Carlini draws alot of really great shots all throughout these issues, making for a very visually stimulating experience ontop of the great story that goes along with it. Even the faces have improved a fair deal since last volume. But yeah, there's alot of cool stuff here in terms of the story. My favorite aspect being Rita and Kim's' relationships with their parents and how they mirror eachother. As someone who's also been torn between feuding parents, the feelings of a child caught in that situation were portrayed rather well. And it's certainly much more engrossing for me than the shipping of Trini and Jason that I'm really not a fan of. And on the topic of Rita, I did like how this comic shows that despite who she ended up becoming, there is still good in her. The last thing I wanna note, and I don't even know if it was really all that intentional given how much of a footnote this moment in the arc itself is, but the story does touch on the cycle of war and violence, and shows that the intent of such a thing can still be there despite the difference in method. Many recent stories in tokusatsu have talked about bringing peace as a solution to conflict, but Alpha-1 here instead sees a giant act of violence as a final solution. And what that in and of itself is nothing super new in storytelling, it definitely stands out in regards to the sorts of stories we've been seeing more of as time has gone on. Oh, also, turns out the Dragon Shield comes from Rita's' mother, and that's just a really neat detail.
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05-05-2024, 06:42 PM | #28 |
Some guy. I'm alright.
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: Michigan
Posts: 4,448
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Go Go Power Rangers: Forever Rangers Not the ideal way I'd end the original run of Go Go, but I think it works well enough. Despite leaving things open for the future, it definitely has a very "ending" feel all throughout it, with Alpha-1 defeated, some scenes that bookend the start of the story, as well as a few bits that directly connect to the Mighty Morphin' books. And while it's all mostly clean, there are just a few certain aspects that don't quite sit right with me. For example, starting the book off with a retcon to how exactly Zordon got caught in the time warp wasn't the best start. I also didn't like how the Rangers never directly countered Alpha-1's' philosophy. There's also the scene with Kim wherein the counselor is portrayed as the one in the right despite Kim making perfect sense as to why her parents suck and how they're just using their situation as an excuse to treat their daughter like a tool. "Sometimes it's hard to say what you mean" does not at all excuse all the crap that Kim's' parents have been putting her through. But despite all that, I still enjoyed the shout outs to the show proper and liked the overall flow of the story well enough. From here on out, Ryan Parrot would take over as head writer of both MMPR and GGPR for a long time, with the stories of both books being more interconnected than ever before. It's an era that certainly has its ups and downs, and it's roughly towards the end of this era that I fell off the comics for awhile. But before we get into all that, well, I think it's time we take a look at another bit of side material.
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05-17-2024, 06:03 PM | #29 |
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Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: Michigan
Posts: 4,448
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Godzilla vs. The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers Written by Cullen Bunn, this is a Godzilla movie in comic form. The premise is that Rita discovers a mystical artifact known as the Multiversal Focus, and using its power, teleports to the home dimension of Godzilla. Now, Godzilla is a character that has been portrayed as being under every moral alignment known to man, so I found the route that this comic took, wherein Godzilla can be seen as True Neutral at best, to be rather interesting. What's also interesting is the art by Freddie Williams II, which, while I like it, is definitely very stylized. My only real issue with it being that it makes everything look weirdly.. organic? It's kinda hard for me to explain. But he definitely has a penchant for artistically portraying what he wants to, that's for sure. For example, I love how the Atomic Breath is portrayed in this comic: As a vortex of fire and lightning. It's the sort of thing that comic book art as a medium excels at, and is really cool to look at. I also very much appreciated just how big in scale everything felt. This entire story is an all out brawl between massive Titans, and the comic displays that wonderfully. Also, if I could make one nitpick? It's that I feel the story is a bit too wordy at times, but man, it has some great dialogue and interactions to help make up for it. Rita especially has some stellar lines. But I also get it, because nearly the entire comic is made to be non-stop action, so I suppose there had to be some sort of compromise in order to not just have this be an art book. And again, some really nice interactions at times. As seen here: Overall, while the comic is definitely more Godzilla focused than it is Power Rangers, it's still alot of fun, and I'd recommend it if you're up for seeing these two titans of toku both thrown down and team up all in one story.
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