Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #31
Brandon S
Recap
During the events of Shattered Grid, the sinister Ranger Lord Drakkon set out to conquer the Morphing Grid and become a god. To do this, he captured a number of Rangers and absorbed power from their Morphers. Forcing the Rangers to divide their forces; part to stop Lord Drakkon himself and the remained to save those who had been captured. While they were successful in rescuing the captured Rangers, once Lord Drakkon became a god they too were consumed in a white light. Their fates unknown…until now…
Review
Our story takes place concurrently with the final events of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Shattered Grid as Promethea/Terra Venture attempted to escape Lord Drakkon’s reality-bending. Promethea has found itself hurtling through the unknown having sustained damage. Through Grace Sterling’s narration, we’re given insight into some details. Due to being literal moments after Shattered Grid, the captured Rangers can’t morph which leaves only the rescue party able to do so. Nobody seems to know where they’ve arrived but wherever it is it appears to be dying. We then shift to Tyler (Dino Charge Red Ranger) who is among the powerless and moments from being crushed by the falling apart Promethea. Thankfully, he’s saved by the Dark Ranger who references Tyler’s battles against the Vivizords in several episodes of Dino Charge. This confuses Tyler when Dark Rangers suit disappears without warning, revealing it to be Heckyl. A former enemy turned ally at the end of Dino Charge. But Heckyl doesn’t want his identity discovered and cuts Tyler off before making a hasty retreat.
Now we get two simultaneous scenes. The first is Terona (the Yellow Ranger of Grace’s failed Ranger team) talking to Grace and being hopeful about them finding a way out of this alien place. Grace isn’t as optimistic and knows they’re trapped outside of all their worlds in a sort of void. She wants Terona to find any chance of accessing the Morphing Grid but this only brings grim news. There is no connection and Rescue Team is low on power. Each having only enough for a few more Morphs. The Green Psycho Dagger that they’re currently using to keep Prometha afloat similarly will run out of power eventually. Grace asks that he runs every test possible before calling the Rangers together. The other scene shows the Rangers gathering as Prometha continues to fall apart around them. Each ending up gathering in the docking bay. Heckyl notes that the engines of Promethea are destroyed and that their Rangers aren’t acting normally. Things look bleak but Tanya (Mighty Morphing Yellow) is hopeful and believes that things aren’t as bleak as they look so long as there are Rangers. They then gather for Grace to inform them of all this and to offer their non-Ranger skills so that they may survive long enough to find a way home.
After a map of Promethea and a montage of the Rangers just doing varying degrees of mundane things, forty days pass and they discover a Distress Beacon. Something that takes them all by surprise. Karone (Lost Galaxy Pink Ranger) opposes this as a waste of resources. Noting they only have a few Morphs left and can’t risk going to save others when they can barely protect themselves. But Tanya (Zeo Yellow) believes they should help even if they don’t have their Morphers. Mike (Lost Galaxy Magna Defender) agrees that nobody else should die. Terona speaks and brings up that they only have a few more months of power left. Grace following his need and noting that they need to see if these people can lead them to civilization or just surviving a while longer. Karone decides to remain to protect the Prometha while a team of Rangers assembles to investigate. Specifically Tanya, Mike, Heckyl, Cam (Ninja Storm Green), Andros (Space Red), and Ranger Slayer (Drakkonverse Pink Ranger).
The rescue party flies after the stranded vessel wholly unaware that another vessel is approaching the Promethea. Revealing that the Distress Beacon was just a decoy. Something Magna Defender catches onto quickly after arrival while Karone readies for battle. Coming face to face with another new Ranger (the currently unnamed Solar Ranger).
Karone thinks she’s saved before noticing the Solar Ranger is injured. Immediately following that up with wondering how the Solar Ranger morphed at all without the Morphing Grid. But the Solar Ranger remains silent, raises her hand, and releases a surge of energy. But it isn’t just a surge of energy but a siphon that drains the Morphing Energy aboard the Promethea…including the Psycho Green Dagger. Karone tries to fight the Solar Ranger, commenting that she’s just like Lord Drakkon. Another Ranger in a Morphing Gridless world without anyone by their side to prevent them from turning evil. But before the fight can progress, the Solar Ranger flees. Just in time for Promethea to receive a message from the Ranger team. Telling them the Distress Beacon was a trap and that they now stood surrounded by monsters without their powers.
On the Adventures of Blue Senturion & Ninjor, they track the Putty Rangers to a desert planet. Ninjor being impatient about the stakeout they were on. Ninjor attempts to blow their cover which greatly annoys Blue Senturion. Leaving them unaware of the Putty Rangers arrival and the subsequent discovery of the Red Battlezord. The Putty Rangers wanting to perform a joyride with it before taking it to Venus. Seeing the clear and present threat, the pair stop arguing so they can deal with it.
Final Thoughts
First off, the Adventures of Blue Senturion & Ninjor was okay. Nothing really to say about it beyond that. With that out of the way, let’s move on.
After the phenomenal Power Rangers Shattered Grid event, whatever followed had big shoes to fill. Unfortunately, this doesn’t even fill the shoes of the normal Mighty Morphin Power Rangers comic. The issue as a whole suffers greatly from too much tell don’t show and was largely bland. While it makes sense to montage some of the time passing, they glossed over everything which undermines a number of things.
The first is that the stakes that should be present are greatly lessened. We’re told about their struggle but we don’t see anything to suggest it after to intro. We don’t see any friction or getting to learn about the other characters aboard the Promethea. No planning or making the most of what they had. Just a single two-page montage that gave us nothing besides what the narration said. This page, in particular, was one of the more painful ones to read as you’re supposed to go left to right when the paneling suggests going top to bottom from left to right while reading.
The second and third issue is that this glosses over the Rangers as people and puts too much emphasis on them as Rangers. They do give a brief line noting they were chosen for who they were as people, while simultaneously undermining it. On numerous occasions both in and out of the comics, Rangers have shown they are more than capable and willing to do what’s right even without their powers. Cam is the tech genius for his team (having designed all their Zords and weapons himself) but they seemingly forgot he has such skills. Heckyl is an alien with the ability to shoot lightning and use telekinesis who similarly got his skills glossed over. Which raises the question why didn’t Cam or someone else simply design weapons they could use without needing to be Morphed? Why didn’t they consider using their standard weapons that didn’t require being Morphed like the standard blasters if hand-to-hand wasn’t a viable option? By not considering these things they reduce the Rangers to being incapable out of Ranger Mode which does a great disservice to them.
The plot moves at a snail's pace and thanks to glossing over great character development opportunities during the forty days trapped beyond the grid you don’t really care for anyone. You don’t feel any stakes and the excessive exposition was exhausting. The story is good in concept but it fails to deliver. Solar Ranger, despite having an interesting design, loses a lot of originality by being Lord Drakkon lite. The best part of the whole comic was the covers. I honestly can’t recommend this to anyone. Especially if you read the comics up to this point or watched any of the shows. The new creative team is off to a rough start and has A LOT of ground to make up if they hope to survive…
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #31: Disappointed Grid
- Writing - 4/104/10
- Storyline - 5/105/10
- Art - 6/106/10
- Color - 3/103/10
- Cover Art - 9/109/10
Agreed. Terrible comic after Kyle Higgins did such a great job with Shattered Grid.