Power Rangers Writers Break Down Death Of Rita Repulsa

Power Rangers fans got a big shock in the Free Comic Book Day Shattered Grid issue, and the writers are breaking down how they had to sell Saban on letting them have free reign with Rita Repulsa.

The FCBD issue of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers revealed what happened to the Drakkon universe's Rita Repulsa, showing that after the final battle that defeated the Power Rangers he turned his attention to Rita, stabbing and killing her with Saba. Writers Kyle Higgins and Ryan Parrott sat down with the Ranger Danger podcast to talk about the issue, including what they had to do to get Saban on board.

"The thing that I was pitching from day one on this issue was that we see Drakkon kill Rita in Drakkon's universe, and the note came back for a minute that they didn't want us to do that because they were concerned we would just gloss over it, and I basically had to promise that we would be devoting...I think we had to do a page breakdown to show them we would devote significant page real estate to it, and so I just felt like this has to be in the issue," Higgins said. "You have to have some sort of big reveal in the mythology that fans that have been reading the book will see for the first time. This is the spot to do it, and I don't know where else to do it in the event, because it's not big enough to supersede Drakkon's story in the event but in this free comic book day issue it absolutely can work."

That reveal also comes right after a gorgeous splash page that shows Rita's forces marching against the Rangers, and Parrott liked the idea of Drakkon overtaking the biggest threat.

"Well, I actually really liked it because we go, before that we go 'Rita's the big villain'. And then here comes Tommy and then you basically by the end of this issue you go 'guess what, Tommy has just usurped the big villain' which is exactly what the series is setting up, so I really liked that," Parrott said. "How it was like 'oh you know how we just told you in that big double splash that this character's really important? We just killed her.' I like that a lot."

You can find out even more about Shattered Grid here, and the adventure continues in Power Rangers #28.

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 included 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 stores June 20.