Justice League/Power Rangers #5 Review

Justice League/Power Rangers #5  Review

Writer: Tom Taylor

Art Team: Stephen Byrne

Boom / DC Comics

Release Date: August 9, 2017

Cover Price: $3.99

Go, Go Justice Rangers!!!

Well look at what we have here folks.  Justice League/Power Rangers decided to return to local comic shelves this week, a mere 3 months since its last issue pulling a Dark Knight III: Master Race on us all, returning like the ex-girlfriend we were all too happy to see return after leaving us high and dry in the past. I even forgot to get my review up last night because it was that out of my mind.  However we’re not here to debate the release schedule of titles, we’re here to review them … so let’s get down to business, try to remember what happened in issue #4, and see if issue #5 reignites the passion for this series.

Things start off with Wonder Woman walking into a N.A.T.O. meeting, in the Power Ranger universe, and filling everyone in on just what’s exactly about to go down. Thankfully her Power Ranger pals are there to help her, dressed to the nines in DC universe armor, weapons, and attire since they’ve lost their power coins. After some resistance from the ‘powers that be’ the heroes get their message across making it clear they’re here to help.

Moving on we begin to check in with our other heroes and get updates on how everyone’s handling their job in dealing with the threat at hand. Flash is on the lookout for Lord Zedd, Green Lantern Stewart is dealing with Brainiac’s forces in the air, while Batman, Superman, a now possessed Cyborg, teamed up with the black, yellow, and blue Rangers are all aboard the Brainiac spaceship pursuing the bottled city of Angel Grove.

We get some quick plot movement aboard the spaceship as Cyborg, who was taken over by Brainiac the previous issue, before being stabbed and subdued by the Rangers, is rebooted by Batman (everyone agrees he shouldn’t know how to do this) resulting in a quick fix. The group moves forward, quickly finding the bottled city next, but before the group can get out of dodge Cyborg mentions "that while connected with Brainiac he sensed someone else aboard the ship". With a page turn its revealed to be Alpha 5.   

Superman tells the rest of the group to get to safety he will deal with Brainiac, and rescue Alpha, whisking off to do just that. However once Supes goes one on one versus the Brainy Green One he’s handled easily because of Brainiac’s access to kryptonite.  Superman looks on helpless at the hands of Brainiac, who while distracted with Supes, lets his guard down, allowing the Rangers, who never left, to sneak up from behind the villain taking him down. Batman pockets the kryptonite, the rest of the heroes secure the bottled city, and they all start their decent back down to Earth to finish off Lord Zedd.

When the heroes who fought Brainiac return, they give the uniformless Rangers the power coins taken from them.  Everyone powers up and readies to finish off the threat on the ground, which is still the giant monsters of Zedd’s creation they have left to deal with.  Thankful for his rescuers efforts Alpha 5 decides to take matters into his own hands, using a Zedd device to grow to Zord sized proportions, taking on the giant slug monster as our issue concludes to be wrapped up in issue #6 possibly next month!

Overall, I do genuinely get a chuckle out of the Batman scenes in this series, because he’s portrayed so over the top its funny, and the art is pretty to look at especially in the action sequences and scenes, but there isn’t much else here besides a surface level crossover aimed at what feels like a younger age than myself. If you have kids who aren’t yet in their teenage years I think they’d enjoy this, if they cared for the Rangers and the Justice League but adults expecting a crossover like the first Batman TMNT should avoid it.

Bits and Pieces

Justice League/Power Rangers is a paint by numbers crossover title but not in a bad way. The story is decent enough, and the art looks great, but this isn’t really the book I expected however it is something I’d recommend more for younger readers into these teams.   

6.5/10