Yeah, so I didn’t catch the new MMPR issue yet. So that’s going to be a bit delayed… however, I did catch the next issue of this Unlimited series, which introduces us to another Psycho Ranger person, which means we bring in the appropriate In Space characters (Andros and Karone), pair them up with a bunch of other Rangers including SPD’s Sky Tate, and Trini is having a job in whatever her new base of operations happens to be while also being homesick.
This review (such as it is) is going to be brief because it brings to light the main gimmick of this series; there’s a situation and Trini has to assemble a bunch of Rangers together to deal with it. In a sense, I like the idea of having different Rangers from different teams getting together and going on wild adventures that otherwise would not have been possible on TV for a variety of reasons and this gives Unlimited a sort of anthology feel that I could almost get behind. I would have not issue with this series being a collection of self-contained stories, with each issue featuring a bunch of different Rangers dealing with different threats or solving different problems. If you need to pull together something that lasts a couple issues, sure, why not?
This issue highlights that piece of business, creating some frictions among Rangers with different styles and approaches to the chain of command. There’s the matter of trust slowly developing and earned. The new Psycho Ranger proves to be an intriguing idea of sorts for an antagonist that isn’t far off from the usual Psycho Ranger paradigm; they being an amalgamation of prior Ranger data associated with their color. As a standalone thing, I liked the story well enough and I liked the idea of Unlimited being this anthology series with standalone adventures.
As it turns out, the thing that this series is sold – Trini being the mission commander who can summon any Rangers for any task at hand – feels more like that exists because that’s what the book is sold on, rather than something that is necessary for the book. Trini’s involvement in this story is largely minimal. There’s no advancement towards the threads established in her particular development nor the spoiler at the end of the first issue, which is largely ignored here. Yes, there’s an overarching plot at play here, but the issue is at its best when it has none of the overarching stuff and just focuses on the wall-to-wall Ranger action and interactions.
If you were to lose the bits with Trini, the overall antagonist we don’t know, and the spoiler character at the end of the first issue and made this all about the main Ranger story, it would have made for a fun time. As it is, you have this decent standalone that’s saddled with this other stuff that’s contractually obligated to be there and hasn’t moved forward in any way, shape, or form.
We’ll do the third issue when it comes out and call it quits afterwards. Hopefully, that won’t translate to my interest in this series.
