Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #1 Review

Tommy continues to wrestle his self doubt while striving for perfection as a Power Ranger.

Plot Summary

Bulk and Skull start us off with a recap of previous events not described in Issue #0. They decide that starting a premium podcast starring Bulk and discussing all things Power Rangers is a good way to make some money. They are airing the episode early because they are excited that the Green Ranger is now working with the other Rangers to stop Rita’s evil monsters.

Bulk and Skull interview a few people over their opinion of the Rangers working with the once evil Green Ranger and the opinions vary from neutral to distrusting to suspicion over the bridges destruction. Tommy is a target for an interview for Bulk and Skull’s show and tries to remain neutral until Kimberly deflects for him. Tommy and Kimberly head to class and realize they both have a training later at the Command Center and they both agree to get coffee after.

Zack falls asleep in class again and the teacher issues him a detention after school. Jason defends his friend and ends up with the same detention himself. At lunch the group discusses their punishments and plans for the afternoon. Billy and Trini decide that running a diagnostics on the DragonZord would be a good idea as to avoid a repeat of their last fight. Tommy looks for a place to sit during lunch. His self-doubt Rita manifestation makes him aware of students watching his bridge destroying break video on their phones and he decides to sit alone.

On the Moon at Rita’s palace, we discover that the dark crystal shown in the last issue is fueled by chaos. The destruction of the bridge and fight surrounding that event gave the crystal a good initial charge.

Back on Earth in detention, Jason talks with Zack about him sleeping in class. Zack brushes it off as family stuff and the two then turn the conversation to Tommy joining the team. Zack is a little hesitant since Zordan never got their opinion on a former enemy joining the team. Jason expresses faith in Zordon’s judgement.

Meanwhile in the Command Center, tommy and Kimberly are running a training simulation. The exercise is a no-win scenario and Tommy ends up losing some innocents thanks to his self-doubt Rita distracting him. Tommy decides to work on training late and passes on his previous coffee date with Kimberly. Frustrated, Tommy returns home to find Scorpina waiting to ambush him.

Art

Hendry Prasetya continues with this issue and everything is still looking great. There is not a lot of action this issue so you really get to see a lot of the characters in their everyday clothes and in normal interaction. The panel flow was solid and I never found myself confused as to which part of the page to look at next. The characters were expressive and it added a great layer to the dialog  to help you understand their feelings or tone.

Power Rangers #1 Tommy is uncool at lunch

Thoughts

In all honestly, this book really has a #2 kind of vibe going. This makes sense because #0 was actually the first issue and this is technically the second. Why publishers do this is beyond me, but it might be very confusing and off putting to a new reader. There was not a lot of action and the book spent a lot of time exploring the day to day life of the Power Rangers. This is not necessarily a bad thing or out of the ordinary for a Power Rangers story. I a still intrigued as to what the black crystal is and how Tommy’s self doubt manifestations might endanger the Power Rangers later on. I’m going to keep reading for sure!

Is It Worth My Money?

At $1.99, this book is a great value. It’s cheaper than most single issue comic books and quality is right there with the more expensive books out there.

Is It Worth my Time?

A dialog heavy book, but the easy flow makes it go fast. A really quick and easy 20 minutes to finish the book. Time well spent if you’re following the series. If this is the first issue you’ve picked up, I’d say you should read issue #0 first (or check out my review for a synopsis!).

Writer:

Kyle Higgins

Artist:

Hendry Prasetya

Colorist:

Matt Herms

Letterer:

Ed Dukeshire

Editor:

Dafna Pleban

Cover By:

Jamal Campbell

Published By:

Boom! Studios