Time of morferów – review of the comic book “Power Rangers. Second year “

Power Rangers, ridiculed by many, adored by others. Despite the kitsch (or maybe thanks to it?), The brand has gained a huge fan base. Most of the time, the heroes of the morphic web could only be watched on TV screens, but from 2016 the franchise also started to conquer comics.

Mastodont!

The first nerdy love of my childhood was Godzilla. I have always been attracted to large monsters and robots that destroy cities. However, the problem was that there were only a few tapes with the King of the Monsters in the nearby VHS rental. How many times can you watch the same thing? Okay, honestly, a lot of times. And it did not get boring. However, at some point, the Power Rangers series became a revelation for me , providing me with various monsters and zords duels several times a week. And teenagers were the heroes. With time, the love flew away and the next seasons (and there are twenty-eight of them!) I missed.

Pterodactyl!

Publishing series from Boom! Studios have let my love for Rangers revive. Kyle Higgins’ recipe for success was simple – it was enough to take what people like the most, ie the first line-up of “exceptionally gifted teenagers” (to quote Zordon), update them and create a story for a more mature audience. From the very beginning, the story was aimed at people with a certain idea of ​​the franchise, as it placed the plot in the middle of the first season, thus ignoring the genesis of the characters. Year Oneit showed a group that Tommy Oliver (Green Ranger) had just joined, though from here on, the comics and the series diverged. The Zordon team was forced to face a completely new threat, which turned out to be Lord Drakkon from another dimension, i.e. Tommy, who never got out of the charm of Rita Repulsion. 

Triceratops!

Power Rangers. Second yearcontinues this thread. Tommy (the good one) and Billy try to find themselves in the alternate reality of Lord Drakkon, which they found. Meanwhile, the other Rangers in the main timeline make strenuous attempts to reach out to their friends. Drakkon in his world is a ruthless dictator who has defeated the rest of the Rangers in the past and used their Power Coins to create his warriors. Heroes, used to fighting Rita’s monsters, are forced to face an enemy they have not dealt with yet – humans. As the plot develops, there are new threads in which screenwriter Kyle Higgins explores areas unknown to the series. It’s great to show that the teens at Angel Grove weren’t the first Power Rangers squad at all, but there was already a squad in the 1960s, which did not fully accomplish its mission (by the way, the first male pink Ranger <3 appears there). All of this works quite well, though the human adversary, alternate realities and secret organizations are getting closerPower Rangers to a typical DC and Marvel superhero. Although there are more kitschy monsters than in the first volume, you can feel that writing action scenes with their participation is not fun for the scriptwriter.

The second year, apart from the main plot, offers a plethora of short stories. Among them are a few gems. My favorite is the story of Jason, who must combine superhero duties with school and extracurricular activities, without having time for private life and sleep. Comedy episodes are just as great, such as the one in which Mięśniak and Czacha become the new Rangers (finally!).

Saber-toothed tiger!

I am sure that the success of the Power Rangers comic book would not have been possible without a great graphic design. The main artist, Hendry Prasetya, has a relatively realistic and neat line that Matt Herms and other colourists can perfectly fill with colors. In most cases, monsters look mediocre – Japanese designers, even if they operate in the sphere of kitsch, are in a class of their own, which no one here can catch up with. Fortunately, the character designs – both the updated teen looks and any new armor for Drakkon and his Rangers – perform very well.

The old adage goes, “America is all bigger,” and in the case of the Power Rangers comic, you can’t disagree with that. The Polish edition has a hard cover, lots of accessories and standard dimensions. And it’s all fine. Until it is placed next to the original edition from the American market (and this is the one I have in Year One) – then it turns out that what Egmont released here is a few centimeters smaller in each dimension. The number of pages has also decreased; as many as seventy-six were left! I do not have the original edition, so I am not able to say what exactly was cut out, but the loss is all too visible. It is a pity that in this way the Polish reader gets a defective product.

Tyranozaur!

Rarely do popular franchises get such a good new comic book life – and in the form of a continuous story rather than a mini-series. Kyle Higgins is able to create the right balance in her story between respect for the original and new ideas. I am waiting for the next volume and I quietly dream that Egmont will also release other titles with Rangers from Boom! Studios.