Mighty Morphin has been on a whole different, unexpected road following the events of “Necessary Evil.” Rather than getting back on modernizing the stories we saw during this period in the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers show we have been introduced to a new Green Ranger wielding the Dragon Power Coin. With this unexpected addition it has made Lord Zedd step up his game to an even higher level by introducing Green Crystal powered Putties. The new powered up Putties have proven they are too much for the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers to handle even with the new Green Ranger on their side. What will happen next as Lord Zedd looks to continue his reign of terror? Let’s find out with Mighty Morphin #4.
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 inside the Sanctuary of Zaren on the Planet Eltar, Zordon gets reprimanded for not following his training about how to interact while on other planets. The Supreme Guardian then says that even with what happened Zordon is getting promoted to Chief Guardian. Zordon hesitates at first, believing his fellow Guardian Zartus being better suited, but eventually accepts as he understands how quickly Dark Specter’s power is growing. Zordon says he will need the best warriors possible by his side.
In the present the Power Rangers battle the giant Chaos Putty with the Thunder Megazord and Tigerzord. The Chaos Putty is still able to overpower both Zords. Eventually the Chaos Putty creates several normal putties to attack the Thunder Megazord. The Red and Black Ranger teleport outside the Thunder Megazord to try to get the Chaos Putties off their Zord.
Elsewhere while Skull is knocked out Bulk calls out Candice for cheating even though Skull loves her. Candice is shocked hearing Skull loves her. When Skull regains consciousness Candice has disappeared.
Back at the battle the Tigerzord is now fighting the Giant Chaos Putty alone with the Thunder Megazord and other Power Rangers distracted by the smaller Chaos Putties covering their Zord.
Suddenly the Green Ranger appears and summons an upgraded version of the Dragonzord. Grace Sterling then contacts the White Ranger to let him know that Prometheus modified the Dragonzord so it could combine with the Tigerzord.
As the Dragonzord and Tigerzord begin the process of combining Lord Zedd appears and fires a massive energy blast at the two Zords. The blast ends up heavily damaging both the Dragonzord and Tigerzord.
The Power Rangers are suddenly teleported back to the Command Center before they are killed by the Chaos Putties. Zordon and Alpha-5 reveal they weren’t the ones who teleported them back. Before they can talk about what happened Candice appears in the Command Center and reveals her real form and name as Zelya of Eltar, who also is responsible for teleporting them back to the Command Center. Zelya informs Zordon and the Power Rangers that she is on Earth to inform them that the Third Eltarian War is close to starting.
Back in Angel Grove, Lord Zedd tells his minions that the Power Rangers will learn the consequences of invading his home and taking him captive. Lord Zedd begins to create a massive energy bubble around Angel Grove.
Seeing this Grace immediately teleports the Green Ranger back to Promethea HQ.
In the Command Center as the Power Rangers try to figure out how to get back into Angel Grove the Green Ranger suddenly appears on TV. The Green Ranger asks Angel Grove’s citizens to not panic while in Lord Zedd’s bubble. The Green Ranger promises to not abandoned them and will save them no matter what. To earn the citizens trust the Green Ranger takes off his helmet to reveal themselves to be Matthew Cook (Kimberly Hart’s ex-boyfriend and one of the few who knew about the Power Rangers identities due to the events of Shattered Grid). End of issue.
The Good: After months of build up in the fallout from the “Necessary Evil” storyline we finally learn who the Green Ranger working for Grace Sterling and Promethea is. The person turning out to be Matt Cook wasn’t all the surprising. He was suspect number one for who was under the helmet. While that wasn’t a surprise everything around the reveal in Mighty Morphin #4 continues to keep interest high for Ryan Parrot’s plans for the franchise.
Of everything going on the most intriguing aspect of the current story that Parrot is building is everything that has to do with Eltar. Parrot has found a his grove with this particular aspect of the Mighty Morphin series. With Mighty Morphin #5 in particular we see how all the flashback scenes from thousands of years ago involving a young Guardian Zordon is coming into play in the present. All of the flashbacks we’ve gotten thus far was all built to the big reveal from Zelya of Eltar, who was posing as Candice on Earth, that the Third Eltarian War was about to begin. That was the mic drop moment that was needed to connect the flashbacks and present-day scenes we’ve seen in Mighty Morphin thus far.
Zelya’s reveal makes all the talk around Dark Specter in both Mighty Morphin and Power Rangers series’ an even bigger deal. For one, Dark Specter wasn’t someone we saw the Power Rangers deal with until In Space. Now with the details we got from Zordon’s flashbacks and Zelya’s talk of the Third Eltarian War we could be in store for events that accelerate the events from Power Rangers In Space during the Mighty Morphin era. This creates so many more possibilities to for the future of Mighty Morphin series beyond the current Lord Zedd and new Green Ranger arc.
At the same time, Parrot has done a great job positioning Lord Zedd to reach a new level of power with his current upgrade. Lord Zedd was already a terrifying villain before his two big defeats at the hands of the Omega Rangers and the new Green Ranger. Those two events are proving to be extremely important as Lord Zedd has had his eyes opened to his old ways of taking over aren’t working. Now Lord Zedd has grown so powerful he is able to take out both the Dragonzord and Tigerzord with one energy blast and then incasing Angel Grove in a massive energy bubble without breaking a sweat.
These two consecutive actions along with what he told Goldar and the others help strongly position him as a major force. Especially with the tease of Dark Specter possibly appearing in Mighty Morphin or Power Rangers or both this was needed. Because we know that Dark Specter is Lord Zedd’s boss from the Power Rangers In Space season. Now with his upgraded powers Lord Zedd is positioned to grow as strong as Dark Specter if what we saw in Mighty Morphin is an example of his current power level.
While the reveal of Matthew Cook being the new Green Ranger with the Dragon Power Coin was not surprising I can’t hate on the decision. This is something that has been building over the course of all the BOOM! Studios Power Rangers comic book. Parrott in particular has spent time developing Matt Cook to be an important supporting character since he found out that Kimberly and the others are Power Rangers.
What is more interesting about Matt being the Green Ranger is the fact that the reveal came with him announcing it to the entire world. In doing so Matt breaks one of the biggest Power Ranger rules to not reveal your identity to the public. How this decision ends up impacting the rest of the Power Rangers. It particularly puts Billy in a tough spot as he is now placed in a position to reveal his role in Matt becoming the Green Ranger, something Aisha just found out.
Marco Renna does a very good job proving a lot of energy to this action heavy issue. The scale of the Thunder Megazord, Tigerzord, and Dragonzord taking on the Chaos Putty appropriately felt like a bunch of kaijus fighting in a city setting. That made the show of power that Lord Zedd had even more impressive. Renna also gave Matt Cook’s big reveal as the new Green Ranger the appropriate sense of importance with the splash page that closed out Mighty Morphin #4.
The Bad: While there was a lot of action for the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers to be involved in I’m ready for the team to stop playing audience members in their own series. So far it just feels like Tommy, Kimberly, Billy, Aisha, Rocky, and Adam are along for the ride rather than playing important roles in progressing the story. Billy may be the exception since he was working with Promethea. But even then, he is still not in control of what is going with the Green Ranger. This is their show and they need to step up to do more than just doing the fighting and talking to Zordon after a fight.
Overall: The reveal of who the new Green Ranger is won’t be a surprise to reader of the BOOM! Studios Power Ranger comic books. While it wasn’t a jaw-dropping surprise the impact of who the Green Ranger is and what he does at the end of Mighty Morphin #4 works well to build another strong pillar for this series. That said, what really elevated Mighty Morphin #4 was all the details we learn about Eltar and how Zordon and the Power Rangers will factor into the bigger picture for the universe. Power Rangers fans will be extremely excited by all these references to future events and characters.
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