Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers #44

BOOM! Studios

Writer: Ryan Parrott

Artist: Daniele di Nicuolo

Ask the general public what they think of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers and you’d likely get a lot of the same responses. It’s cheesy.  It’s formulaic. It’s about selling toys to kids. These are all true but that doesn’t detract from how enjoyable this series can be for all ages. I grew up on Power Rangers and it’s probably contributed to my love of superheroes and mecha. I’m a fan and as a fan, I can say that I enjoyed this book.

SPOILERS START
Our story starts with the rangers at the mercy of a giant dog monster who has thoroughly defeated their Megazord. Suddenly, they’re rescued by a group of multi-coloured mech suits that look like something from Evangelion. The tables turn and a team of “Omega rangers” promptly finish the canine baddie, give our regular rangers a cold stare and teleport away. The rest of the story focuses on the Omega rangers with some exposition from Zordon as he explains their background. Meanwhile, the Omega team debates the safety of the regular team before launching an ambitious attack on Lord Zedd’s base.
SPOILERS END

This is quite an enjoyable read. The writing by Parrott isn’t going to win an Eisner but it hits all the right notes for this franchise. We have the goofy jokes and cheesy dialogue that Power Rangers fans will love, especially with the villains. One of the things Parrott handles really well is the voices of the characters. There’s a lot of characters featured in this issue but everyone sounds like they should. Lord Zedd sounds like he did in the show. The rangers, Zordon and Alpha sound like on the show. Bulk and Skull make a hilarious appearance(as they always do) and they sound like in the show. Same for all the other villains like Goldar or Finster and I’m sure fans will love that. Parrott has successfully adapted all these personalities to this book and he deserves a lot of credit for that.

A flaw in the writing of this book, however, is that it won’t be as accessible to newcomers. Due to starting with a story in progress you’re left wondering what’s going on at first. It’s easy enough to get a grasp of the overall plot but there’s still stuff that could confuse people. We have a scene where the white ranger Tommy dramatically returns to the command centre. The thing is there’s not really anything to show that he’s a ranger or explain his importance. Throughout this book, the characters are enjoyable from a fan’s point-of-view but a newcomer will likely be lost.

The artwork by di Nicuolo fits this book well. The humans look fairly simple but there’s a lot of detail given to monster and mecha designs. It creates a nice contrast and there’s a lot of physical expressions to help get emotions across. A nice touch is how the light will hit the rangers’ visors in order to show their facial expression while armoured.

There’s a nice use of colour in this book as well. Baiamonte and Ranalli have used the colours to create a nice contrast between panels dependant on the characters featured. Panels featuring the villains, for example, are fairly dark with lots of greys, blacks, and whites mixed with muted primary colours. Any page where the rangers feature on the other hand is far brighter with a larger variety of colours. Alongside the difference in detail, this adds to that contrast I mentioned earlier and emphasises the good vs evil aspect of this franchise.

Overall this is a respectable and fun book if you’re a fan of Power Rangers and have a grounding in the series. If not and you’re trying to get into Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers then I’d recommend finding another jumping-on point.