BOOM! Studios is launching two new Mighty Morphin Power Rangers series in November, and it all starts with Mighty Morphin #1 this week. The new series centers on the Power Rangers of Earth, and out next week Power Rangers #1 focuses on the Omega Rangers. It’s an exciting time to jump on board the Power Rangers series as it launches new stories and a new direction, but how is the first stab at the story?
If you grew up with the Power Rangers as a kid, you’re going to love what writer Ryan Parrott is up to in this issue. It opens 10,000 years in the past where a bunch of Power Ranger lookalikes are fighting on an alien world. Soon, we discover one of the characters is Zordon — that’s right, he wasn’t always a floating head in a jar! — and the series feels enlightened by this reveal.
This is just a taste of Zordon’s past actions, though, as the narrative zips back to Earth where Billy the Blue Ranger is attempting to locate the mysterious new Green Ranger. If you haven’t been reading Parrott’s Power Rangers series, this issue does a lot to catch readers up to speed on who each character is and where the team’s focus is right now. The plotting of this issue is quite good, catching us up with subplots with Bulk and Skull, the traditional villains, as well as the tensions on the team itself.
This costume is slick!
Credit: BOOM! Studios
There is also plenty of action. Marco Renna does a fabulous job when the Power Rangers get into fight mode, and their costumes are incredibly slick as they fight. There is a manga-vibe to Renna’s work that enhances the speed in the action sequence with every kick and punch looking slick. The action is well-designed by Renna, too. From the new Power Ranger costumes scene in the flashback to start the book to creatures, there’s a mature and quite cool aesthetic that is seen throughout.
Colors by Walter Baiamonte bring out the shine in every costume and add much-needed volume to masks and muscles. Exposition heavy moments read well thanks to good placement of panels and angles on the characters. The check-in with the bad guys is well done too, with creepy greens and blues used to convey a sense of unease and weirdness with these strange characters.
Maybe I’ve been away from this series too long, but the team itself doesn’t seem very cohesive or on the same page. Aisha is quite combative, for instance, and while some team members like Tommy are chill, some of these characters are too emotive and angry. Sure, they are teenagers, but a few of these characters almost seem to dislike one another.
That aside, there are a lot of characters in this book and it’s never confusing as to who is speaking and where allegiances lie. Parrot has done a good job keeping things understandable and flowing well. Team superhero books aren’t easy and I was never left confused by the plotting in the book.
Mighty Morphin is a great start to a new two-title approach from BOOM! Studios, deftly telling a story involving many characters in a slickly visual package that’s hard to resist. Having only dabbled in the Power Rangers comics, I’m curious where this goes and can’t wait to see how well a two-title format with two different teams works.
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