Power Rangers Beyond The Grid Panel Live Recap

BOOM! Studios is having a big panel at Power Morphicon, and we'll keep you up to date on all the details.

Dafna Pleban, Melissa Flores, Ryan Parrott, Kyle Higgins, Arune Singh, and Nakia Burrise are all on the panel.

Kyle tells the audience how lucky they are, as some of these types of events are just done for cash grabs, something that Power Rangers is definitely not. Ryan's just here for the cosplay, and couldn't be happier that someone brought him two Ranger Slayer bows and a Ranger Slayer action figure.

They reminisce about the big panel at Wonder Con, where they had the audience read the issue of Power Rangers #25, the death of Tommy Oliver. Some cried and some yelled at Higgins, and Parrott remembers someone shaking their head at him. Afterward, Higgins asked the audience if they trusted him, and they said yes, sealing the moment for him.

He touches on the finale, saying that the finale will contextualize why Drakkon had to kill Tommy, all part of his great campaign. Higgins teased the finale, saying "I could've easily called this comic Drakkon wins."

Flores says it delivers on a variety of levels, saying it made her tear up, and if we trusted them with killing Tommy, we should trust them to walk us through the end of this event.

Higgins talks about Daniele's artwork. "What he does so effectively is like a freeze frame of an animated thing, but that's not what it is. That's just the specific image he chose to draw. That frame in issue #29 where the Rangers port in, that image takes my breath away every time I look at it."

Nakia points out that the original Mighty Morphin team is not in the new issues. Higgins teases Beyond the Grid, written by Marguerite Bennett. Higgins says "she doesn't disappoint."

Flores added it doesn't just have to be Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and that the opportunity to expand that is fantastic.

Pleban is good friends with Bennett, and over time really got her invested into the Power Rangers storyline over time, during movie marathons.

Nakia is so happy that Tanya is in the house, mentioning Yellow Zeo a number of times to audience applause.

Pleban says Bennett is very comfortable from her previous work when it comes to working with multiverses and multiple worlds. Flores adds that she picked her Rangers but also had roles assigned for them, and then had to do a bit of bartering with Higgins thanks to the results of Shattered Grid.

Flores brings up the Dark Ranger, and shows some concept art of his suit, but reveals it to be Heckyl of Dino Charge and Dino Super Charge. The Dark Ranger's debut will be detailed in Power Rangers #35, which hits in January.

Also there's going to be an all-new Ranger called the Solar Ranger, and the design looks slick.

Dafna says we are going to be telling the story of the Solar Ranger over a number of issues, and they like to take their time and respect the characters by giving them their due time.

They then move on to Go Go, where Parrott teases that Trini and Jason's relationship will be back in upcoming issues, showing a cover of them embracing with a kiss. It also shows that they have switched Ranger colors, and then another cover shows all the Rangers have switched colors, with Billy as Black, Jason as Yellow, Trini as Red, Zack as Pink, and Kimberly as Blue.

We're also going to see more about the Green Power Coin in Go Go and how Rita got it, and we will see a new villain debut as well. In this arc Parrott's favorite part of the arc is Baboo.

Next is Soul of the Dragon. The book will hit in December, and some concept art is shown. The S.P.D. is in full effect still, but the art shows Tommy in battle in his Green suit, though it isn't known if this is in the past or present.

They show another piece of art, showing that Tommy did in fact end up with Katherine, which drew a nice round of applause.

They then show a new cover with the newest version of Drakkon and segue into Q&A.

You can find out more about Power Morphicon below.

"The Power Morphicon Convention is celebrating its SIXTH show, the expo's first at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. The show is run by veteran convention artist and vendor Scott Zillner who annually puts on nearly a dozen shows in the Los Angeles and Sacramento areas including Japan World Heroes, a convention celebrating Japanese and Sentai related popular culture. Power Morphicon Convention has been held every other year since 2007, and Scott Zillner has been in control of the show since its second run in 2010. Since then, Power Morphicon Convention has been held consistently on even-numbered years."

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #30 is written by Kyle Higgins and is drawn by Daniele Nicuolo and Walter Baiamonte with a cover by Jamal Campbell. The official description is included below.

"This is it. The team up between every Ranger left standing against the unrivaled power of Drakkon, while a covert team led by Grace embarks on what might be their last mission ever."

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #30 is in stores now