Marvel Comics took over the license of producing MMPR comics, beginning with an adaptation of the first MMPR motion picture and following up with not one, but two short-lived comic series. For this run, we’ll be focusing on the main MMPR comic and get to the Ninja Ranger stuff later down the line.
Each issue has two stories and unlike the Hamilton comics which tried to keep the formula of the show intact, the Marvel kinda sorta does its own thing. The first story has the Rangers at a computer club where they marvel over the Internet, inspiring Zedd to create a virus-based monster, while the second story has the Rangers dealing with a copycat monster of sorts. For what they are, they’re perfectly adequate and quick little reads; something that would work as part of a digest edition or something like that. The characterization could use a little work; other than little sparks from Billy spewing technobabble, all these Rangers could be interchangeable.
The low point of these comics was the art, which is basically that rough-looking style with square faces and thin eyes that was the style in the mid-90s. The first story isn’t all too bad and is the typical Marvel 90s style that dominates most of the stories in this run, but the second story is where the art takes a nosedive, with characters not resembling who they’re supposed to be (Rocky is blonde here, whereas on the show, he wasn’t) or the action bits just being a confounding mess of visuals. Never been a huge fan of the art for this Marvel run and it doesn’t get any better from here.
dtm666 