Power Rangers Unlimited #1
Marcell Hines
Recap
Get ready for a groundbreaking new series featuring all your favorite Rangers across time and space!
This is it, Power Rangers fans! All of your favorite Rangers from every season and every series of the long-running television and comic series will finally be united in ways you’ve never even dreamed!
At a mysterious base on the planet Aquitar, a morphinomenal program is taking shape… Under the guidance of the eccentric Operator, the Striking Tiger Unlimited Ranger calls upon Power Rangers from across time and space to form elite teams and battle a rising evil!
In the first issue of this all-new ongoing series, get ready as Power Rangers superfans Joey Esposito (Batman: Urban Legends) and Kenny Porter (The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive, Fearless) alongside superstar artist Alessio Zonno (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III) draw from across thirty years of canon to bring together unlimited dream teams of your favorite Rangers.
Review
The multiverse is in chaos, and only the Power Rangers are able to stop it. Which team, you ask? All of them. With the dimensions influx, random teams of rangers lead by the new Striking Tiger Ranger are all that stand between reality and its destruction. However, it might even take more than that to keep the universes safe.
If there is any ranger that has gotten the most spotlight since Boom! Studios came along and started these comics, it’s the original Yellow Ranger Trini Kwan. In Shattered Grid she was the de facto leader of the resistance against Lord Drakkon, in the Go!Go! Power Rangers! Spin-off title her romantic subplot with Jason lasted until the end of the series, and by the end of the original comics run she would be promoted to leader of the Omega Rangers. Now she’s the star of Power Rangers Unlimited, but she’s not like the Trini that we knew from the show or even got to know through the comics.
Kenny Porter and Joey Esposito team up to offer a familiar setting for Power Ranger stories, but still manage to put a unique spin on things with the whole “random teams of rangers” gimmick. Trini in this setting is much more standoffish in this first outing, but given her tragic backstory it makes sense. She comes from a universe similar to that of the TV show, where instead of being killed by Robo-Rita (long story) in the Once & Always special (leaving her daughter Minh to assume the mantle of the Yellow Ranger), Trini survives and her loved ones dies instead (including her daughter). We don’t know why exactly Trini specifically was chosen for this mission, but that, along with the identity of the mystery villain who is causing all this chaos, is something to look forward to.
Alessio Zonna’s line work is very distinctive and lends itself to action scenes just like it did in their other series “I Heart Skull-Crusher!”. While I’m not a fan of the Striking Tiger Rangers suit design, it does stand out amongst every other ranger shown in this issue, and there are a lot of them. Raul Angulo’s colors perfectly highlight these multi-colored do-gooders by making each rangers’ suit distinctly pop out against the backgrounds.
Final Thoughts
PR Unlimited #1 is a good start to a new PR tale for those that might not be interested in the regular Mighty Morphin Power Rangers series going on right now as it explores more of the vast continuity of the series with an intriguing story and solid art.
ICYMI: Power Rangers Unlimited #1: Dimensions In Danger
- Writing - 7/107/10
- Storyline - 8/108/10
- Art - 8.5/108.5/10
- Color - 9/109/10
- Cover Art - 7.5/107.5/10
