The Power Rangers franchise have entered uncharted territory with the direction where Ryan Parrott and BOOM! Studios are now taking them. For the Mighty Morphin team specifically are now dealing with a new person wielding the Dragon Power Coin to become the new Green Ranger. With a seventh Ranger on the team, who embarrassed him in their first fight, caused Lord Zedd to step up his game in whole new ways. Now with Green Chaos Crystal powered Putties it looks like Lord Zedd is an even bigger threat then we ever knew. Let’s see how things go with Mighty Morphin #3.
Writer: Ryan Parrott
Artist: Marco Renna
Colorists: Walter Baiamonte and Katia Ranalli
Story Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Synopsis: Over ten thousand years ago on Planet Bivix a young Zordon uses cloaking technology to scout the planet along with his mentor, Zartus, before they reveal they are from Eltar to the people. Zordon laments how when his work is done that he wants to settle down to start a family and live a life as a farmer.
In the present the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers do their best to hold their own against Lord Zedd’s new Putties. In the middle of the fight the Green Ranger is knocked out. The Blue Ranger (Billy Cranston) sees this and knocks all the Putties around the Green Ranger away to give them a chance to teleport away, something the Yellow Ranger (Aisha Campbell).
As that happens Lord Zedd commands the Prime Putty to attack the Black Ranger (Adam Park) and turn him against the other Rangers. This works and the Black Ranger starts seeing his teammates as monsters and attacks all of them alongside the Putties. The Yellow Ranger is able to knockout the Black Ranger. After this the White Ranger (Tommy Oliver) tells everyone they need to regroup and they teleport away to get the Black Ranger help.
In the Command Center, as the others take Adam to get medical attention, Tommy and Kimberly Hart talk to Zordon about the Putties attack and new power. Before they can come up with a strategy Alpha-5 informs Zordon that they were able to follow the teleportation trail for where the Green Ranger went.
Over in Promethea, Grace Sterling has her team work on healing the Green Ranger and making sure the Dragon Power Coin’s power was not affected by the Putties attack. Zordon suddenly appears before Grace and immediately demands she hand over the Dragon Power Coin to him. Grace says she is not as she is using it to keep Earth safe. Zordon warns that he will get the Power Coin back even if he has to use force. Grace wishes him luck with that.
Elsewhere a Putty attacks Bulk and Skull. They are saved by Candice, who throws a trashcan at the Putty
In the medical room inside the Command Center, Aisha calls out Billy for keeping it from the team that he knows about the Green Ranger. Billy admits to working with Grace to recharge the Dragon Power Coin but was doing it to help everyone. Billy promises to fix this situation he’s placed them all in.
On the Moon, Lord Zedd decides the Power Rangers have been given enough time to regroup. He sends more Green Chaos energy to the Prime Putty. This energy causes all the Green Chaos Crystal powered Putties to combine into a giant Putty.
The Power Rangers immediately teleport to the area where the massive Putty is at. They summon their Zords and form the Thunderzord and White Tigerzord to fight the new Green Chaos Putty. End of issue.
The Good: Mighty Morphin #3 works well to further set-up the new path that Ryan Parrott is taking the Power Rangers franchise post-Necessary Evil. Everything that is going on feels like uncharted territory for both the Power Rangers and us as the readers.
The feeling that we don’t know exactly where everything is going is part of why it was so exciting to read Mighty Morphin #3. Parrott plays well into how the insertion of a new Green Ranger into what is currently going has made things even more complicated. Even though both Billy Cranston and Grace Sterling had the best intentions in mind to provide an additional alley in the escalating war with Lord Zedd and other force the secrecy is coming back to bite them. This issue does a good job showing how differently Billy and Grace deal with being called out once Zordon and the other Rangers begin to learn their part in the creation of the new Green Ranger.
Aisha being the one that discovers Billy’s role in helping recharge the Dragon Power Coin continues the added focus her character has gotten. Since being introduced in Necessary Evil we have seen Aisha step up as more of a second-in-command than Rocky or Adam. Everything she tells Billy is exactly what he needed to hear because keeping the Green Ranger a secret from them will lead to more problems. Which we see here as the Green Ranger has caused Lord Zedd to seek out even greater powers to use.
This plays in well with how Grace being confronted by Zordon had a different tone. Rather than being apologetic like Billy was, Grace continued to show defiance as she made it clear Zordon was not in charge of Promethea, she is. Grace making it clear that she is doing what she believes is best to protect the world made what the Green Ranger’s return represent a greater focus for this series. Especially since we still don’t know who the new Green Ranger is, we are left wondering even more who Grace choose to wield these powers.
For Zordon, we once again see how after the Omega Rangers broke Lord Drakkon out of prison that he has become way more aggressive. The impact the events of Shattered Grid had long-term for this franchise continue to show with how Zordon is actively taking more responsibility in acting as a Guardian. He isn’t the young, hopeful kid from Eltar that we see in the flashback or the calm mentor figure from the TV show. Zordon is shifting more into an authority figure and all these latest events are just causing him to act more in this way. What this more aggressive Zordon means for the future of both Power Ranger comic books will be interesting to see play out.
With all this going on for the Power Rangers side Parrott continues to make Lord Zedd an even bigger threat. We see that with how he has been able to power up his grunt Putties to now be too powerful for the Power Rangers to be able to take on. With how overwhelmingly powerful the Putties are now it does put into question what else Lord Zedd will do to be a bigger threat of the Power Rangers. The whole vibe that Lord Zedd now has reminds me of how powerful he came across when he first debuted in the franchise.
Marco Renna keeps up the animated style that BOOM! Studios Power Ranger comic books have come to be known for. Seeing the Putties making them radiate energy as they fight the Power Rangers added to how menacing they are. It also added to how they are powered up in a very anime-esque way. Even the way the Power Rangers are presented when they show up at the end and assemble their Zords had that same impact of characters powering up you see in anime.
The Bad: The sub-plot involving Candice is still moving at a snail-like pace. All we know about her is that she is a secret agent from Eltar on Earth. Getting more into why she is on Earth and how that could relate more to what we see in Zordon’s flashback that opened Mighty Morphin #3 will help her sub-plot be something to pay more attention to. Right now it just seems like we are spinning our wheels with how Candice relates to the main story going on.
Overall: The problems that the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers team are dealing with continue to pile up. Lord Zedd’s latest power upgrade to the Putties that we see in Mighty Morphin #3 he has become an even bigger threat. Add in the mystery of who the new Green Ranger, things aren’t getting any easier for Zordon’s Power Rangers. That makes the interest in what will happen next in Mighty Morphin.
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