The “Necessary Evil” storyline that has consumed the current Go Go Power Rangers and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers series has been a lot of fun. The story told between the two series have provided a lot of great groundwork for what the Power Rangers comic book franchise is post-Shattered Grid. There are still a lot of questions to all the threats that exists in this new post-Shattered Grid continuity. The rise of the Omega Rangers has particularly been the driving force of the “Necessary Evil” storyline with Jason Scott Lee, Trini Kwan and Zack Taylor have secretly making up the new Power Rangers roster. How much longer can the former original Power Rangers keep up this secret from their friend as the threats from across the universe hit Earth? Let’s find out with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #44.
Writer: Ryan Parrott
Artist: Daniele Di Nicuolo
Colorist: Walter Baiamonte and Katia Ranalli
Story Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Synopsis: In Angel Grove Dayne has completely pinned down the Thunder Megazord with the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers unable to do anything.
As Dayne goes in for the final strike the Omega Rangers appear in their own Zords. The Omega Rangers are able to use their teamwork along with their Zords to completely dominate Dayne. Dayne desperately tries to hit the Omega Rangers Zords but he just gets knocked down.
Dayne shrinks back down to normal size. The Omega Rangers exit their Zords. The Omega Rangers tell Dayne to surrender.
Dayne instead fires a shot at the Omega Rangers. Omega Red Ranger (Jason Scott Lee) easily cuts the shot in half with his sword. The Omega Rangers then fight Dayne while the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers watch from their Thunder Megazord.
The Omega Rangers eventually defeat Dayne. Omega Red Ranger calls Xi to send them a containment canister to put Dayne in.
The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers all approach the Omega Rangers. They ask the Omega Rangers where they came from. Instead of answering the Omega Rangers teleport away with Dayne, leaving the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers confused.
Back in the Command Center Zordon reveals the details of the Omega Rangers as an ancient faction who had been dormant for so long that they became a legend. Rocky and Adam wonder what it means for their place as Power Rangers. Billy meanwhile wonders if the Omega Rangers are there because of Lord Zedd. Kimberly shows more concern for how they were unable to defeat Dayne. Zordon tells the Power Rangers that he and Alpha-5 will monitor things until they learn more.
Tommy suddenly shows up and says they should just be happy the Omega Rangers are on their side. Everyone is happy to see Tommy up and moving again. Tommy apologizes for not being with the others in the fight with Dayne and promises not to let the results of that fight happen again.
Over on the Moon, Finster, Squatt and Baboo are afraid to approach Lord Zedd after Dayne’s failure. Lord Zedd yells at everyone to enter his throne room by calling them all morons.
Lord Zedd tells Goldar, Finster, Squatt and Baboo that with Dayne’s lost he requires more Dark Rangers. Squatt mentions that the Green Crystal was destroyed. Lord Zedd gets pissed off because the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers were close to being defeated before the Omega Rangers interfered. Lord Zedd demands they find a way to fix the Green Crystal. Finster, Goldar, Squatt and Baboo rush to do as Lord Zedd commands them to.
Above the Earth the Omega Rangers have docked there Zords on their spaceship Trini thinks they should’ve said something to their friends. Jason reminds Trini that if they did that they would have put the new timeline at risk and cost them their powers.
Kiya brings up how unimpressed she was with the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers performance with Tommy in charge. While they hate saying it, both Trini and Zack agree that they should do something to help their friends.
A little later, Jason contacts the Blue Emissary to tell it what happened with Dayne. The Blue Emissary sympathizes with the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers predicament but is confident in Zordon’s ability to train them.
Jason is not happy with this as his friends almost died because of Lord Zedd’s latest move. Jason reminds the Blue Emissary that he and the others agreed to become Omega Rangers to ensure Earth was protected from those empowered by the aftershock of the Shattered Grid event.
Blue Emissary understands from Jason’s words that what he is asking isn’t a request to stay on Earth. Jason confirms this. He goes on to say what he is requesting is the Blue Emissary to allow them to do something far more dangerous
Back at the Youth Center in Angel Grove, Bulk and Skull interview various people about their thoughts on the new Omega Rangers for their Ranger Station channel. People’s thoughts range from indifferent to angry to happy about their being more Power Rangers.
Nearby Tommy pulls the team aside to talk about some training he thought would be good for them to do. Aisha voices her concern how Tommy, Kimberly and Billy are ignoring what just happened with Tommy almost dying and a new Power Rangers team having to have them. Kimberly reminds Aisha that they are fine and things worked out. Rocky reminds Kimberly that he, Aisha and Adam are still knew to being Power Rangers and that they are just concern one of them will die before they admit they may be over their heads.
Back on the Moon Finster is carefully putting the Green Crystal back together. A sudden explosion sends Finster and Goldar flying through a wall. Baboo points out that the explosion came from the outside.
Nearby the Omega Rangers have landed on the Moon in their Zords. An army of Putties confront the Omega Rangers. Not wasting time the Omega Rangers leave their Zords and start mowing down the putties.
Kiya is unimpressed by the Putties powers. Jason that not all of them have a mainline connection to the Morphin Grid which makes the Putties annoying when fighting alone.
As Goldar, Baboo and Squatt join the fight Jason calls for the Diamond Formation. This formation allows Jason to enter the Moon castle.
Jason eventually makes it to Lord Zedd’s throne room. He makes quick work of the Putties protecting Lord Zedd.
Lord Zedd comments on the legendary Omega Rangers being a real thing. Lord Zedd then tells Jason that while he may have bested Dayne he is now facing the truly evil being. Lord Zedd and Jason as the Omega Red Ranger then get ready to fight each other. End of issue.
The Good: With each passing issue of “Necessary Evil” the story has escalated to have everyone get time to develop their respective character arcs. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #44 was no different. This issue accomplished a lot to further the things both the Mighty Morphin and Omega Power Rangers are dealing with at the moment.
Even with dealing with a large roster of characters Ryan Parrott continues to show how he never loses control of the respective voices of each character. All the dialogue that Parrott writes for both the Mighty Morphin and Omega Power Rangers showcases where each character is at during this point. No one ever sounds like they are out of place or reacting in a way they shouldn’t. It is all done to further compliment the larger “Necessary Evil” story arc.
This is best shown with the argument between the new and old class divide that exists within the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Both Aisha and Kimberly in particular highlight how the team is still trying to make the transition of power work. Especially with what the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers team have gone through with the crisis involving Drakkon there is a wide gap in experience level.
Aisha, Adam and Rocky haven’t been through the dark times Kimberly, Billy and Tommy have been through. The reaction of the new Power Rangers is totally understandable. They don’t know what it is like to fight out of the darkness and how not worry about every little thing won’t help. And they are being eased into this war with Lord Zedd with things continuing to escalate before they’ve become comfortable being Power Rangers alongside the veterans.
It is not an easy position for them to be in. Which compliments how harden veterans all the original Power Rangers are. Seeing how Kimberly and Jason in particular react to pushing forward with this war with Lord Zedd it makes the new trio stand out even more. Aisha, Adam and Rocky are bringing a new, fresh perspective in the Power Rangers approach to things. As things escalate their perspectives will be even more important portion of the “Necessary Evil” narrative.
The internal battle with the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is also an interesting challenge for Tommy Oliver to go through. On the show the transition to becoming the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers’ leader was not much of a struggle. Tommy naturally adapted to his leadership responsibilities.
But once again we see how Tommy is struggling to keep the team together. Especially after being defeated by Dayne in the way he did Tommy was shown to walking on eggshells. He understood that he didn’t have much leg to stand on when Aisha and Rocky called the others out for their recklessness. This furthers Tommy’s individual arc of learning how to lead everyone as a united team that plays to each other’s strength. How Tommy figures out how to be the leader we know him to be will be interesting to see.
On the other side of the Power Rangers, Parrott played well into the Omega Rangers trying to keep themselves a secret from the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.team. Even though they had to intervene in the conflict with Dayne the Omega Rangers kept themselves professional enough not to speak with the Mighty Morphin team.
The reaction from Trini perfectly played into how difficult of a position the Omega Rangers are in. Trini being the first to speak up made how the entire conversation went have greater weight. Throughout Power Rangers comics we’ve seen how Trini more so than anyone else has been built as the voice of reason for the team.
This played well in contrast to Kiya continuing to be the outsider in the Omega Rangers. There was no filter to Kiya calling out how the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers did not live up to how highly Jason, Trini and Zack spoke of them. Parrott was careful not to make Kiya come across as someone that you dislike because of these comments. Instead Parrott crafted her dialogue, along with Zack and Trini, to show that Kiya had a point about the way the Blue Emissary was having them work as the Omega Rangers.
This further pushed the narrative of Jason growing as a leader again. We see that with how he goes from wanting to keep the Omega Rangers focused on the aftermath of Shattered Grid to listening to what the others said about the current events on Earth. This is exactly what you want to see from a leader, as Jason adapts his approach to take in the feedback from his team when speaking with the Blue Emissary.
The interaction with the Blue Emissary was another showcase of Jason’s leadership. Jason made sure to never make it seem like Blue Emissary can talk down to him or the Omega Rangers. If this partnership is going to work Jason made it clear that the Blue Emissary must let the Omega Rangers do more than they have thus far. It is a great step up moment that once again shows what a great leader Jason is.
Which leads to a fantastic scene on the Moon with the Omega Rangers once again showing how powerful they were. Both this fight on the Moon and the earlier fight with Dayne showcased how much of a well-oiled machine the Omega Rangers are. This builds on the hype how the showdown with Omega Red Rangers vs Zedd and the other Omega Rangers vs Goldar will turn out.
On the villain side of things, it was great to see Lord Zedd absolutely pissed off over the Omega Rangers defeating Dayne. Lord Zedd calling out his minions for not being prepared for the Omega Rangers built on how he is someone you don’t want to piss off. Even when the Omega Red Ranger powered through into the throne room Lord Zedd still came across as a huge threat. There is just a terrifying aura around Lord Zedd that Parrott perfectly plays into.
What’ll be interesting to see from Lord Zedd’s plot to get his own Dark Rangers is how the Green Crystal plays a role in this. Anytime the Green Crystal is used as a plot device there is a greater importance felt to the story. Especially now after Shattered Grid, there could be a direct tie-in to the current issues with the Morphin Grid that are brought into play.
Daniele Di Nicuolo once again delivers fun artwork throughout Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #44. His design for the Omega Rangers Zords had a sense of awe as their sleek designs made them stand out from the bulky designs of the Thunder Megazord. The action sequences also had a great flow that showed off the teamwork of the Omega Rangers. That led to a fantastic splash page of the Omega Red Ranger and Lord Zedd ready to fight each other.
Nicuolo’s artwork for the talking head scenes were also well done. He made the characters have very animated expressions that match the dialogue they were given. It got across how many tension filled scenes we got between characters.
The Bad: The only negative I have for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #44 is how Dayne was made to look like a total chump against the Omega Rangers. Up until now Dayne was built up to be one of the biggest badasses in the universe. That was thrown away with how the Omega Rangers completely squashed Dayne. Even if the Omega Rangers were meant to defeat him it would’ve been better if he retreated rather than allow himself to get knocked out. But in getting defeated and captured so easily it makes him look weaker if he ever appears in the future.
Overall: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #44 is another strong chapter in the “Necessary Evil” storyline. The Omega Rangers make their presence felt on Earth created a lot of intriguing character interactions. Those interaction led to choices made that build hype for the future of “Necessary Evil.”
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