Tommy Oliver made the Green Ranger the most iconic of the Power Rangers. In Amy Jo Johnson, Matt Hotson, and Nico Leon’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Return series we are in an alternate future where Tommy is no longer around. We learned in the second issue that Tommy ended up sacrificing himself in the final battle to put an end to Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa. Decades in the future a new Green Ranger has debuted in the pages of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Return #3.
ORIGIN OF LORD ZEDD & RITA REPULSA’S DAUGHTER
In the build up to the new Green Ranger’s debut we got more details about the final moments of the Power Rangers vs Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa final battle. Specifically, we saw what happened inside Bandora Palace during the final minutes. In that we learned that Tommy Oliver didn’t immediately push the button to set off the bomb after Kimberly and the rest of the Power Rangers teleported away from the Moon.
What stopped Tommy? It was the surprise appearance of Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa’s baby daughter, Selena Repulsa, crawling into Rita’s room. Noticing that baby Selena saw her mother’s body lying on the ground Tommy tried to keep the her calm. Tommy didn’t get much time as Finster and an army of Putty Patrollers attacked Tommy.
Tommy did his best to protect Selena but was overwhelmed. A punch from one of the Putties had Tommy stumble into pressing the button to activate the bomb. Outnumbered and only ten seconds to escape Tommy made the choice to protect Selena by giving her his wrist communicator to teleport her off the Moon.
Tommy’s sacrifice unfortunately did not mean that Selena would remember the Green Ranger as her savior. Instead, Selena ended up being found in a park by Bulk and Skull. Several years later while searching for her family’s legacy Selena would find Finster still alive. Finster would then tell Selena that it was Rita, not Tommy, who saved her. He would then help Selena gain the power of her parents.
NEW GREEN RANGER CARRIES ON TOMMY OLIVER LEGACY
While the flashback focused on telling Selena’s origin story it wasn’t the only revelation. We also learned that in the final seconds a still alive Rita Repulsa transferred her consciousness into the Morphin Grid. To bring back her mother Selena captured all the living Power Rangers and stole the five Power Coins to activate a machine that would allow Rita to escape the Morphin Grid. When Selena activated her machine it did not work out as intended.
Kimberly Hart told the reason Selena’s machine failed to connect to the Morphin Grid was because she need to use the six Power Coins and she only had five. Kimberly then revealed that before she said goodbye to Tommy he gave her his Dragon Power Coin to pass on to their daughter. That was when Tommy and Kimberly’s daughter, Olivia Hart, teleported in as the Green Ranger.
With this reveal it is shown that Kimberly didn’t just disappear after the final battle due to heartbreak. Rather, Kimberly left to keep her promise to Tommy by secretly training their daughter to become the next Green Ranger. It does show that Kimberly didn’t come to throw away her connection to the Morphin Grid. It was actually the opposite; Kimberly was making sure that Olivia was prepared to lead the next generation as the new Green Ranger.
Adding to the reveal was the fact that Jason, Billy, and Zack were visibly surprised to see Olivia Hart as the Green Ranger. Based on the reaction it could be questioned if Tommy and Kimberly were able to share their happy news about being parents. Kimberly changed her name and went off the grid in order to raise her daughter.
Now that Olivia as the Green Ranger is no longer a secret, we could see a new era for the Power Rangers in this timeline. Though that does bring to question who will be the new Yellow Ranger, as Trini Kwan passed away when Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Return started.
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