Mighty Morphin #1 was a good kickoff to the new dual series approach to Power Rangers at BOOM! Studios. Now it’s time for the Omega Rangers to take the stage in Power Rangers #1, out this week. Before diving into this issue, readers should know Ryan Parrott was featured on our AIPT Comics podcast this week to discuss both series. What distinguishes this team from the main one is the fact that these are heroes who live and fight in space. In this first issue, they are back on Earth, but it appears it’ll be brief as their attempt to save the universe won’t have them stay long.
Similar to Mighty Morphin, it’s quite clear Parrott is very good at juggling multi-character and multi-plot stories. That’s key for a team book, especially one like this which features so many characters. Opportune scene changes help keep your focus on who is where in the narrative with a natural flow to the plot and pace. This issue zips around quite a bit, from an opening combat scene in space to the characters hanging out on the beach, to a check-in with Zordon, and other locales too. These scene changes keep the story moving forward quite well.
One might say this book is a bit more edgy — the team isn’t beholden to elder Zordon, for instance — which gives the team a bit of a surprise factor. This works for a few reasons, one of which is making both teams right, but also putting them at odds going forward. It’s also smart since this team is in space mostly and add to the foreign nature of a team untethered from Earth.
Look at all the light effects!
Credit: BOOM! Studios
The book opens with a great action sequence Ender’s Game fans will adore. The team is training in zero gravity and it’s a quick and cool looking way to bring readers on board for their ability to strategize and look cool doing it. Francesco Mortarino draws the issue with Raúl Angulo on colors. Mortarino goes all in on some complex backgrounds, aided by Angulo’s colors that help mute them a bit and make them a subtle purple. This lifts the characters off the page, showing off their costumes. There’s also a cool effect showing off the eyes of the characters through their mask that helps bring your attention to their humanity. There are plenty of light effects in this issue that make the book very sci-fi and futuristic looking. Well done.
This issue doesn’t quite bring the entertainment value Mighty Morphin does, however, which is in part because a major chunk of the book is devoted to an escape scene. It’s not quite worthy of the page time it gets, running five pages. It’s certainly captures the security measures the team must get through, but it lacks the big action one might expect from the team. Comparatively to Mighty Morphin, it’s just all right. It does cap off with a huge twist though, which is exciting.
Overall, Power Rangers #1 marks a great first start for the dual series approach. Parrott has shown he’s very good at writing team books and keeping up your interest while Mortarino and Angulo dazzle with colors and good details.
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