Power Rangers' Shattered Grid FCBD Issue Originally Included The Phantom Ranger

The Power Rangers Shattered Grid Free Comic Book Day issue did not disappoint, but Kyle Higgins and Ryan Parrott revealed an original take on the story that featured an even bigger twist.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers writer Kyle Higgins and Go Go Power Rangers writer Ryan Parrott recently broke down the Free Comic Book Day issue, which revealed some significant additions to Drakkon and Zordon's storylines. As they told the Ranger Danger podcast though, at one point it included a big twist involving the Phantom Ranger from Power Rangers Turbo.

"The version that we had, the whole story was narrated by Zordon and walking you through what the Power Rangers are and why they work, and etc, etc," Higgins said. And at the end, it was going to be a splash page of Zordon looking directly at the reader and he says 'so, will you help me save them all?'. So then it was basically going to be, you would then see that scene later during Shattered Grid and you would realize, like going into the third act, that it was going to be Zordon recruiting/creating the Phantom Ranger."

That's a pretty big introduction, and all these years later the Phantom Ranger's identity is still unknown. Higgins and Parrott had their own take on his identity, but it seems they aren't spilling those beans just yet.

"And we had a take on who it was that I'm not gonna...Ryan just said don't spoil that, but we had a take on it to finally get into the identity of the Phantom Ranger, and for a variety of reasons we decided not to tell that story, and then it turned into what you see here," Higgins said.

"What we really liked about the idea was that the free comic book day issue would end with Zordon speaking to the Readers essentially and it's basically saying 'you could be a Power Ranger too, will you help us save them all', and then when you see it from a different perspective later int eh series you would realize 'oh my God he's actually speaking to the person that he's going to turn into the Phantom Ranger."

The Phantom Ranger was introduced in Power Rangers Turbo, but also made appearances in Power Rangers In Space. The rumor goes that his identity was supposed to be revealed at the end of Countdown to Destruction (In Space), but due to FOX requesting two episodes for the finale instead of three, his parts of the arc had to be cut.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #28 is written by Kyle Higgins and drawn by Daniele Nicuolo and sports a cover by Jamal Campbell. The official description is located below.

"The Mighty Morphin team splits into two strike forces-one with RPM and one with Time Force - to battle Drakkon across worlds... even as all hope seems lost!"

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #28 is in comic stores on June 20.

So Power Ranger fans, would you have liked to see this version of the FCBD issue? Who do you think the Phantom Ranger is? Let us know in the comments!