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Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #114 by Melissa Flores, Simona Di Gianfelice, Raul Angulo, and Ed Dukeshire for BOOM! Studios
The Darkest Hour continues, bringing rangers together and rallying them, BUT I wouldn’t call it a positive development.
Check out MMPR Review for 113 Here!
“Hive” seen you around here before.
Rocky and Adam find themselves on Mistress Viles’s ship. After the usual banter, they shout to identify other potential inmates from their cell. Zoom out, revealing a lineup of spandex-clad alumni. We expected to see Shelby and Ivan from Dino Charge, but surprisingly, it doesn’t just extend beyond space; it spans even time. Conversely, a new villain lackey, Angel, is also introduced. Thoughts on him below.
An arch, A triangle, and A gun.
Billy and Coinless Trini, trying to reopen the Master Arch hidden in the Bermuda Triangle, are ambushed by The Phantom Ranger. Trini diffuses tension in her unique style while the Morphinaut-turned-Phantom explains how his connection to the grid propels him to seek the Emissaries to fix the Dark Specter-infected Morphin Grid.
Back to Action: In Angel Grove
The Hyperforce Rangers, accompanied by a motley crew of Rangers picked up along the way, engage the Thralls in a random quarry. Sqautt and Finster fashion a monster from an industrial crane. The Chronos Megazord steps in since the home team can’t deploy their zords!
During the battle, the Death Ranger sneaks up on Kimberly, attempting to possess her. Using her fears and doubts, he manipulates her to morph into one of his puppets. Matt tackles the immortal embodiment of death, rescuing his ex and ally. Before departing, Skull-head conveys his regards to Kim’s love, Tommy.
Not so Safehaven
Having been captured by Vile and Specter, Tommy is subjected to torture and manipulation. Even when he morphs, a concussive blast from Dark Specter shocks the White Ranger. Playing possum, Tommy lands a cheap shot on Dark Specter, only to be blindsided by a now corrupted Adam and Rocky.
Come Together.
Back on Earth, the Omegas reunite with the refugees and enjoy some cat cuddles. Kimberly is distraught, and Matt again is self-loathing, believing they should have sacrificed themselves to save Tommy from his current state.
The Phantom Ranger and Zordon share a brief but meaningful moment, reflecting on the past 10,000 years. They find themselves in yet another predicament against evil, facing it together in a new capacity.
At this juncture, they recognize the need to locate the Emissaries, but the question remains: How does one traverse from Earth to wherever in the universe they are? Billy proposes returning to the Bermuda Triangle to rebuild the Master Arch and travel to save their friends and the entire universe.
Drakkon tags along “for support,” running his mouth. In response, Kim lands her fist into his gut, having given up on THIS Master Arch and ready to lead an assault on Safehaven to reclaim the last working Arch and save the universe and, more importantly, their friends.
Thoughts from THE GRID
Once again, Missy Flores and the team over at BOOM are playing in the Morphin toybox and pulling out the great ones! To see Rose, Danny, Maya, Xander, Preston, and the always buttery Bridge was a treat! But I will say Xander and Danny were a bit unrecognizable till the roll call. Secondly, WHY does this Angel guy look like a Dollar Store knockoff version of Drakkon?
Using the Phantom Ranger in this cosmic capacity is a smart move! Knowing his connection to The Grid gives us a player/coach vibe that I think we will see down the line. Let’s hope he’s not too broody from all his years working solo. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the few panels of The Phantom and Zordon having that kindred war bond alluded to, that there are just some things that can’t be fully said, but you “get it.”
The whole Matt and Kimberly back and forth with all the emotions and doubt, I hope, pays off soon. It’s not that I don’t like the characters, but I’m ready for others to shine.
Speaking of shine, this is a small gripe, but when Tommy got blasted, I would have liked to see his suit not fully materialize, not in just that one panel. It would have been a great parallel to his current situation.
Speaking of suits, there is a difference between the Death Ranger’s minions and Dark Specters Rangers. Seeing the MMPR diamonds changed to black pushed me to think that the other “Spector Rangers” (Because we’ve had way too many Dark Rangers) could have done something similar. Maybe do a full palette swap and fill the suits in black with a bit of color on the hands, arms, and helmets? Take Jack’s SPD RED suit: turn the Red side of his suit to Black and the #1 side Red. I think there was room for a better take on the corrupted Rangers.
ART thou Covered?
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