Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #1 (2016) Review

Mighty Morphin Character Time

Written by: Kyle Higgins
Art by: Hendry Prasetya, Matt Herms and Ed Dukeshire
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: March 2, 2016

I have to thank Kyle Higgins before I continue with my review.  After reading Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #0, I went back and marathoned the entire first season of Power Rangers and while my wife rolled her eyes every time she went through the room, I had a great time.  I haven't really watched it since it first aired when my kung fu kicking friend, Brett, made me watch it with him back in the day.  He watched it for the martial arts (he has like six black belts in things I can't even pronounce) and Amy Jo Johnson while I watched it because I was too lazy to get up and go home.  I wouldn't admit it then, but it is such a fun show and I'm glad I was lazy and also that I decided to read and review this series.  Is this issue as good as the #0 and will I now spend every waking hour catching up on everything Power Rangers?  Let's find out...


The issue starts off with a little Ranger Station action.  You know, the Bulk and Skull run vlog which is 'Your home for all things Power Rangers."  It's a nice little recap that gets the reader up to speed on the Green with Evil story that this arc is based on, but if you read the #0 issue, it is a little redundant and not as well done.  It actually surprised me that Kyle Higgins backtracked like this.

There are a couple of cool things in it, however, like when Bulk unsuspectingly interviews the Power Rangers about the new Green Ranger...including Tommy himself.  Afterwords, Kim asks Tommy if he'd like to get some coffee later (with a funny line about juice included!) and we are thrown into an issue that is more about character and less about Morphin.

It starts with Zach and Jason getting detention and continues with Trini and Billy trying to figure out Tommy's Dragonzord problem from last issue.  We also see more of Tommy trying to fight off Rita's influence before we go off to see a bit more of Rita's grand plan.  It's all pretty cool story-wise, but if you were expecting any real action at all this issue, you are going to leave very disappointedly.

That is a bit of a lie since the issue continues in the Pocket Dimension where Kim and Tommy are running a training mission and while Zordon believes in Tommy, we see that Tommy doesn't really believe in himself.  It doesn't help that Rita is there every step of the way putting him down or when he fails he takes it harder than he should...especially when we find out what type of mission it was.

The issue ends with Tommy still trying to figure out if he fits in with the Rangers when he gets an unexpected visitor.  Of course, it's all part of Rita's plan and it really doesn't look good for the Green Ranger.

Steve Orlando continues giving us his Bulk and Skull backup and like Kim says in this issue, they are better in small doses.  Unfortunately, we already got a heavy dose of them at the start so this feels like overkill.  I'm not saying that I don't want to see what they are up to later on (maybe I am), but I really didn't care this month.

This was a bit of an odd issue.  After loving the #0 issue, I was ready for the series to hit the ground running and get even more action and adventure.  Kyle Higgins had other plans and slowed things down to concentrate on character, but we really didn't get anything new here.  I hope that changes the next issue because I really am excited about this series.

Hendry Prasetya's art continued to impress me even if that was affected by the lack of action as well.  I don't think anyone out there would argue that the draw to this book is the hope of seeing the Power Rangers fighting crazy monsters in all their glory.  With that absent here, everything kind of falls flat.

Bits and Pieces:

After the really good #0 issue, this one was a bit of a disappointment.  Kyle Higgins slows things down, but that really isn't what the Power Rangers are about.  Hopefully, the character work he lays down here will pay off eventually, but it left me feeling let down in the here and now.  Everything else suffers from the halt in momentum and while I'm still on board with the series, I hope things pick up next issue.

6.5/10