All posts relating to the ever-present Power Rangers franchise and all incarnations within.
Don’t have heroes.
Boom! Studios’ first off-shoot Power Rangers miniseries was surprisingly not focused on TOMMY, but rather on Kimberly, fresh off not being a Ranger anymore. For you see, this takes place after Kim left the team to be a gymnast at the Pan Globals… but things are amiss. People have gone missing in the French village that her dear old mother lives in and she had find out what it is… so how does Kimberly take on the enormous task for solving the mystery of the missing Frenchmen?
Continue reading “COMIC REVIEW – Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Pink (2017)”
(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.
Source: https://www.whats-on-netflix.com/leaving-soon/power-rangers-library-set-to-leave-netflix-in-february-2021/
You know… I whipped this banner up a year or so back when an issue of the now-cancelled Go Go Power Rangers comic book teased this image of Lord Drakkon – Boom Studios’ woefully uninspired and hackneyed take on the whole “Evil Tommy” idea that had been the subject matter of most of the wankiest of wankfest fanfiction. My disdain for this worthless character was such that when his presence was teased as such, I ceased giving these people my money and stop reading the comics altogether.
Came across a rather hilarious piece of business recently that I thought was worth talking about briefly here.
A Newsarama interview with BOOM! Studios’ President of Publishing & Marketing Filip Sablik and Retail Sales Coordinator Morgan Perry revealed their beliefs that there are too many comics on direct market store shelves and that publishers need to earn their space on said shelves. Now, to clarify, the interview itself isn’t too bad – they did mention that BOOM had to reduce the number of titles they have in the works to focus on the quality of their remaining books. That’s actually something to be commended upon and an attitude most publishers should take on. Instead of releasing a billion books to the market, just release a few that are going to sell and focus on those.
However, BOOM! Studios is also the company that has a billion variant covers for each issue of their Power Rangers comic, which no doubt contributes to there being too much product occupying store shelves. Quite frankly, there’s no reason to have a billion variants to what would’ve been an otherwise run-of-the-mill comic when one or two would suffice. And some of these alternate covers are just the laziest things ever conceived, whether it’d be the “action figure” covers or the Cardzillion-based card covers. Not to mention… are the stuff they’re currently running with really worth occupying that precious yet overcrowded direct market shelf space?
As an aside, I want to also post a transcript of a speech given by Image Comics publisher Eric Stephenson during the annual ComicsPROl membership meeting. He’s got an interesting and refreshing take on the ailments of the comic industry as well as offering some possible solutions on how to fix it. There’re some points that I agree with and some points that I don’t, but it’s a fascinating read, regardless.
Said transcript can be found here:
https://www.newsarama.com/28069-image-publishr-talks-at-comics-pro.html
The first eight episodes of the current Power Rangers season, Beast Morphers, has just hit Netflix. This is good news for those who, like myself, haven’t been able to catch the show through Nick or whatever channel it would air on due to not having it available to them for one reason or another. I only got wind of this recently and thus have not had the chance to watch it, but knowing it’s there, I might give it a whirl when I have the free time.
The first season of the Hasbro-era of Power Rangers, Beast Morphers is based on the 2012 Super Sentai season, Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters. This marked the first time that the series actively went back to an older season of Sentai as the basis for its source material rather than a more recent or current series. The second season is slated to feature the “Dino Ranger Crossover” featuring the return of Austin St. John as JASON… and apparently, nobody else.
So, like I said, I’ll check it out when I have the chance and who knows? It might mean some material for this blog. We’ll see.
Two months into my self-imposed moratorium on Power Rangers comics, especially after word broke that Drakkon was making a comeback in one issue, which turned out to be a flashback thing or something. But just the fact that we’re teasing a possible return leaves no hope going forward.
dtm666 