For anyone curious parties out there, the final issue of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Return – the four-issue miniseries penned by OG Pinky Amy Jo Johnson and Matt Hotson – recently came out and concluded that run. And yes, I did read the series… and I have mixed feelings on it.
I’m going to save my thoughts on the whole deal for a later time, but I will say this. The Return is probably one of the better Power Rangers comic projects that I’ve read in a good long while – I’d go so far to say that it might be the best of the bunch. An alternate take on the original team thirty years later that is not tied to any continuity or canon, so it is totally self-contained and requires only the most cursory familiarity with the Power Rangers lore. The characters are well written and true to form, the artwork is tremendous and captures the look and feel of the show it’s based upon, but obviously updated to the present day, and most of all, it’s just a really good story that feels like a genuine, mature take on the material that doesn’t feel too grim and gritty for the sake of feeling grim and gritty.
Do I have issues with The Return? A few, but none that detract from my overall enjoyment of the series. It did leave me with some unanswered questions and there are a couple moments that had me shaking my head, wondering why they’d go in that direction unless… well, I’m saying more than I should.
Like I said, I have mixed feelings on this thing… but on a whole, I enjoyed The Return. Is it a better anniversary celebration than Once And Always? I’m not sure that’s a fair question as both do their own thing and are different enough to be distinct. If you’re going to read one Power Rangers comic series, make it this one. It’s totally worth checking out.
dtm666 