Category: Musings

COMIC REVIEW – Power Rangers: Soul Of The Dragon (Boom Studios, 2018)

(2023 Update: For some reason, I kept refering to the title as Sins Of The Dragon rather than Soul Of The Dragon. This has since been corrected.)

So anyone who has followed this blog have noted my somewhat “stern” criticism of Kyle Higgins’ obsession with JDF to the degree that his entire run has been all about him. I could say it’s all about “Tommy” and such, but let’s be honest. It’s all about that JDF wankfest. On a similar note, those same people who followed this blog will also have noted that I don’t particularly care for JDF as a personality. Countless posts can be found to further corroborate this point.

With this in mind, I came into Soul Of The Dragon – the first one-shot graphic novel in Boom’s Power Rangers line – with a bit of trepidation, but to my surprise and utter delight, what I got was actually a pretty decent, somewhat low-key story about an aged Dr. Oliver, past his prime, searching for clues as to the whereabouts of his missing son. There are familiar cameos, there are flashbacks and references to past events, there’s some twists and turns that seem somewhat obvious if you’ve been following the main series for a while, but it makes sense within the context of the story.

The whole thing is basically a last hurrah for the Tommy Oliver character before he passes the torch, so to speak. And while it isn’t the Old Man Logan approach that some folks would have wanted, it is nonetheless a satisfying final chapter for the franchise’s most popular character… Finster.

The artwork is interesting, with an attempt to give these characters as close to a resemblance to the actors who portrayed them as possible. In this regard, it’s a mixed bag; sometimes, they nail it and other times, not so much. As a whole, the art tends to be a bit rough, sometimes feeling as though it was drawn on a sketchbook quickly and color was splashed on later before it went straight to print. You see this often with the characters, though the scenery isn’t too bad either.

Soul Of The Dragon is probably Kyle Higgins’ best work. It’s a simple but effectively decent story, a good read, and gives Tommy a good last hurrah that lacks the ballyhoo people would’ve liked and was better for it. A highly recommended read if you want a quick PR comic to read, and that’s the highest praise I’ve levied towards the Boom run thus far.

Power Rangers (Mostly) Leaving Netflix

Source: https://www.whats-on-netflix.com/leaving-soon/power-rangers-library-set-to-leave-netflix-in-february-2021/

So, I made mention of this on the DTM-Cast a couple weeks ago, but for those who missed the news, Netflix is going to be shitcanning most of the Power Rangers seasons from its service come February 1st, with only Mighty Morphin, Beast Morphers, Ninja Steel, and some of the holiday specials will still be up there… Oh yeah, Legendary Farce’s extended edition is also going to be sticking around. Excellent; I need to give that thing a piece of my mind.
Obviously, this sucks. Mind you, I’ve got most of the old seasons on DVD, but when it comes to stuff like Samurai or Dino Charge, I’m going to be shit out of luck in that regard. Honestly, I don’t get the thinking behind this. Maybe it’s rights issues. Maybe Hasbro has their own shitty streaming service nobody is going to buy… or maybe they’ll lose their minds and put this shit on Youtube for free and that will probably cause Haim Saban to go nuts and buy back the franchise. The man wants his money, after all.
Either way, it sucks that most of the series is going to be off a service that is used by millions and we’re all stuck with whatever shitty Netflix original series or Adam Sandler film is posted every once in a while. Fuck me, can we turn back the clock ten years to back when we had Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares on this fucking service?

Does Anyone Give A Shit About No Time To Die Anymore?

No Time To Die, the 25th James Bond feature film and rumored to be the final film featuring Daniel Craig as the title character, is apparently going to be delayed for the umpteenth time from an Easter release to later this fall, because apparently the studio really want people to come to theatres to see this really, totally awesome movie, you blokes you.

Okay, so the saga of No Time To Die is one best told by others and I will direct you to this fellow here, who is more of a Bond aficionado than I. But apparently, the movie is done. They’re just waiting for this pandemic to over with so people will flock to cinemas and catch this awesome movie with this new girl agent that might be the new 007 or something. Or maybe we’re doing the codename thing for realz.
At this point, does anyone really care?
The Daniel Craig era hasn’t been a huge runaway hit. Casino and Skyfall are probably the only two really good ones and the other two are just… there. For the diehard fans, I’m sure they just want to watch the movie and they don’t care how. As long as it’s out and over with. This compulsive need to debut this film in theatres is just sad. Does it suck for the movie houses? Sure, but at this point, best option would be to stay home and wait for the movie to show up there.
Whatever, who cares, right?