The 10-Year Time Jump Gets Mighty Morphin Power Rangers’ New Era Off To A Solid Start (Review)

BOOM! Studios is kicking off their Power Rangers relaunch with the team that started it all, but this isn’t quite the team that you’re used to seeing. The premise behind Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #1 is that 10 years have passed since the Rangers were on active duty, and when a new threat requires them to suit up once again, the changes keep on coming. That’s a major hook of the new series, and it works incredibly well, especially when paired with the unpredictable new threat. There are some things that weigh the first issue down, but there’s a lot here to get excited about moving forward, and it’s a solid start to the next chapter of the franchise.

Writer Marguerite Bennett, illustrator Andrew Lee Griffith, colorist Joshua Jensen, and letterer Ed Dukeshire are at the helm of this new era of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, which takes place 10 years after most of the Rangers retired from duty. I say mostly because Billy is the lone person who stayed involved in Power Rangers business, and seeing how they all contrast against each other with their lives outside of being Power Rangers is one of the highlights of the issue, and it continues to deliver in unexpected ways all the way through to the end.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

PROS	CONS
Utilizes The 10-Year Time Shift Well	Could Have Used More Time With The Rangers Before Their Return
A Real Villainous Threat	Artwork Is Inconsistent In Book’s First Half

A New (But Familiar) Threat Anchors The Series

While you might expect the Rangers themselves to be the anchors of the new series, it actually feels more like the new villain is the glue that holds this series together. That threat is the person known as Rita Rabiosa, who not only brings the Rangers out of retirement, but also throws all of the normal conventions into chaos with how insanely powerful she is. Even on Repulsa’s best day on the TV show, she isn’t as much of an immediate threat as Rabiosa seems to be.

There’s also the mystery about who Rabiosa actually is, how or if she’s connected to Repulsa, and why she’s attacking Earth now. She proves to be a true threat rather quickly, even overpowering the Zords, and coupled with the absence of Zordon this time around, the status quo of the Power Rangers quickly starts to fade with each page, and that’s quite welcome.

Griffith, Jensen, and Dukeshire hit the ground running and establish the looming threat in stunning fashion from the very first page, and it only makes you want to learn more about this new threat and what she’s capable of. We get a hint of that later with an epic Zord battle, which also establishes that the Rangers might just be way over their heads. It’s a shame we don’t get to see much more of Rabiosa in person, but hopefully we won’t have to wait too much longer to see her in action.

Shaking Up The Status Quo

When a revival of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was announced, there were fears of the series treading the same ground as previous books. The time shift certainly addressed some of those fears, but after issue #1, that appears to be even less of an issue. Bennett quickly establishes that these aren’t exactly the characters we previously knew, especially in the case of Zack, Trini, and Tommy, though we’ll get to him in a bit.

The revelation related to Trini is the biggest shake-up, and it leads to some of my favorite parts of the issue. Those who watched Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always will have an idea of what we are talking about, but the change immediately raises the stakes for Trini and changes the situation for the other Rangers as well, though not in as direct a way. The exchanges between Trini and Billy in this regard are delightful, and there’s a particular line between them that I simply adored, indicating that their dynamic is likely going to be a constant highlight over the course of the series.

Then the book throws in a final hook before it’s finished involving the Green Ranger, and it’s certainly one that will have me eagerly awaiting answers from future issues. It’s compelling on its surface already, but it has the potential to really reshape who the Green Ranger is and his relation to being a Power Ranger, and it also happens to be one of the best looking sequences in the entire book.

As for what didn’t quite click, I would have loved more time seeing the Rangers processing this sudden shift back to being Rangers and what that means for each of their individual lives. That is obviously going to be a part of the series moving forward as well, but just a little more context and backstory would have been great. There’s also the art style, and while it delivers a stunning first page, some of the artwork in the command center just feels off in terms of facial expressions and scale. The artwork starts to really hit its stride after the midway point, and that bodes well for issue #2.

Overall, this is a solid start to a new era of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and if the series builds upon this foundation, we could be in for a stellar and delightfully unexpected Mighty Morphin adventure.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #1 is in comic stores now.

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