Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #42 // Review
The Omega Rangers continue their mission to recruit or capture individuals endowed with powers from the Morphin Grid. Their latest quarry's power source is emanating from the world Breel, a planet familiar to Trini and Jason from their early days as Rangers. The Omega Rangers infiltrate a gathering of the galaxy's most vicious conquerors, hosted by Breel's Queen Adriyel, seeking out this empowered individual while avoiding detection. Meanwhile, the Rangers on Earth deal with mounting suspicions of their lost friend's whereabouts and prepare for an attack by the villainous bounty hunter Dayne.
Like many iconic franchises, Power Rangers sometimes falls into the comfort of formulas. A monster terrorizes the city, the Rangers battle it, the beast grows larger. Giant robots are summoned to fight them, the monster is destroyed, and the Rangers learn a valuable lesson for the kids at home. Lather, rinse, repeat. Thanks to the format of the medium, Boom's comic books can tell stories that tweak or avoid the formula all-together. Boom's Power Rangers comics have played with time in a way the show could not, as well as show behind the scenes drama that would be likewise problematic. It's not that there's anything wrong with giant city-stomping battles or explosive demonstrations of martial arts. Yet a change now and then is good to keep a franchise fresh, as issue #42 demonstrates.
At its heart, issue # 42's external conflict is a stylish, stealthy caper in the vein of James Bond and Oceans 11. The Omega Rangers are using their wits and infiltrating to use their goals, not only taking down their targets with the regular brute force. Even while their plan goes awry, and they do get into a tussle. The readers still get to see a refreshing side of the Rangers thanks to Parrot's unique script. Speaking of, while Parrot has made a name for himself as being a lover of references to prior Power Rangers canon, the fan-service in issue #42 takes it to an entirely new level. Inspiring cameos that not only help further solidify the various seasons as one cohesive universe but doing so in a way that doesn't bring down his self-contained story.
While issue #42 refreshes readers with some engaging external conflict, Parrot also makes sure to keep his readers invested in the internal as well. # 42's emotional beats are captured splendidly by artist Daniele Di Nicuolo. The tense terror of Emmisarry's offer to Garrison Vox, Trini's tragic heart-to-heart with Kiya, and the opulent affair on Breel are all gorgeously framed and bring so much life into Parrot's already stellar script.
Issue #42 Continues the on-going drama of "Necessary Evil," while leaving its audience clamoring for more. An intriguing look into narrative-territory not often frequented by the Power Rangers franchise, that still feels authentic to the franchise.
A
