Category: Power Rangers

Boom’s Practices Suck

I usually save this for the wrestling related bits, but this is something that bothers me a bit.

Hardcover editions should be for collecting pre-existing issues and including some neat little bonus bits, not including stories integral to your overall narrative. Boom including stories in their MMPR hardcover collections that are part of their overall story (Volume 1 has a Drakkon related thing and Volume 2 has the origins of their custom Psycho Ranger paint job) is a pretty scummy move in an effort to drive more people in to rebuying shit they already have.

They’re basically Malibu Stacy with a new hat.

Ordered The Book… Got It Sooner Than Expected

Ordered a copy of this a couple days ago and came in sooner than I thought it would. Praise the glorious patrons of Amazon Prime for timely shipping times.

I’ve never had one of these things before (the publisher has made a bunch of these apparently), so I don’t know the general gist of what to expect beyond a bunch of pictures and some behind the scenes tidbits.

For those wondering, it’s got a few design sketches, some screenshots, some behind the scenes photos for the MMPR years, and lots of promotional imagery that we’ve seen plenty of times over the years. It’s not the deepest historical retrospective and it’s not quite the “tell-all” or “down and dirty” reference book that will reveal anything that hasn’t already been said before, but for a general overview on the history of the franchise and some choice design material to see how it came, it’s a cool little thing to check out that’s meaty enough to give each entry in the franchise a little bit to shine.

This is my bedtime read, by the way.

Shinzon… Drakkon… Rhaka Kahn…

This Praetor fellow… eh, not entirely sold. If only because there’s a sinking feeling in the back of my mind that this is just going to be another Drakkon repackage since BOOM and whoever’s writing stuff needs to continue their hard-on for such a wretchedly lazy character.

However, I remain somewhat cautiously optimistic that this is someone different, especially since it’s no longer Kyle “JDF’s Secret Love Slave” Higgins writing the thing.

Not a fan of that Solar Ranger design, however.

Actually, now that I think about it, the art is actually pretty hideous… especially when it comes to faces.

Oh well… I haven’t been completely turned off by this new direction. But I’m just hoping we eventually get back to what’s advertised on the cover and these fellows can end up in their own spin-off comic or something.

So This Live Stream That The Power Rangers Has…

On the main Power Rangers Youtube channel, which I’m guess is their official one, they have a continuous live stream where they show random clips of Power Rangers and past seasons. You can check that out via this link if you want. (Never mind: It’s gone now.)

Just one question: do they show anything other than Mighty Morphin and the recent seasons on this thing?

I know that, on occasion, they’ll show clips from some of the Disney-era seasons like Ninja Storm or Jungle Fury, but it just seems like they’re only showing the non-unionized seasons of Power Rangers rather than the unionized ones? Almost as though they don’t want to pay royalties to those other actors…

Oh… wait… Right…

Den Of Geek Talks About Amit's Bad Power Rangers Ideas

Source: http://www.denofgeek.com/us/tv/power-rangers/234583/power-rangers-seasons-we-never-saw

Den Of Geek, a geek website, decided to post a musings of sort on three rejected ideas from former PR writer Amit Whatshisface. This covers the Hexagon season intended for Ninja Storm (which I thought was a fucking horrible idea), his Go-Busters/Cyber-Corps pitch that would’ve taken place on Mirinoi (where those Lost Galaxy colonists ended up being ages ago), and an alternate take on Power Rangers Samurai.

Out of the three ideas, the only one that I was the most intrigued by was the Samurai take; mostly because it didn’t come off as fan-wankery as the other two ideas did, but also because I’d have to imagine that any other take on Samurai should’ve been better than the Samurai season we eventually did get.

The guy wrote two good episodes of Power Rangers; one of which is the best anniversary episode the series has concocted. But all his ideas beyond those episodes just come off as really shitty fanficcy wankfests.

Boom Studios Has Fucked Up The MMPR Archives

Longtime fans of Power Rangers will recall a series of comics produced by Marvel in the series heyday that focused on the Ninja Ranger portion of MMPR Season 3. One issue in particular features a story called Dark Thunder, where Lord Zedd seemingly creates Dark Rangers from old powers and had them pilot old Thunderzords to confront the Ninjazords, only for said Rangers to go away and never to be seen again. It is a popular story among the fandom, despite being the usual poorly-crafted drivel that comprised the majority of that Marvel run.

As of late, there have been reports that MMPR Archive is missing a page from this story, specifically the concluding page of this Dark Thunder storyline that ultimately went nowhere, but its omission is noticeable. At first, I thought this was just an issue with the printed versions, but turns out even the digital version on Comixology is missing this vital page that concludes the story.
Yeah, so this is a pretty major fuck-up. And I am quite frankly amazed that Boom hasn’t taken the time to address or even fix the issue. Too bad, because aside from that one major omission (for the sake of completion more than anything,) this is a nice comprehensive collection of the early comics from Hamilton and Marvel. But I would be extremely weary of purchasing a physical book until this particular snafu has been fixed.

Bought The MMPR Archives Volume 1 Collection

For those who don’t know, Boom Studios just released the first volume of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Archives comic collection, which is supposed to collect all the previously published comics from ages ago. Volume 1 collects all the Hamilton Comics series (6 Volume 1 issues, 4 Volume 2 issues, and 3 issues of a retelling of the TV show that was unfinished due to the license running out) as well as most of the Marvel Comics output (both their MMPR comic and their secondary Ninja Rangers run.)

For what it’s worth, it’s a pretty neat compilation with the artwork mostly unaltered (covers were changed to remove publisher logos and such) and the quality of the prints being clean for the most part. I bought this digitally for roughly 20 bucks, but I wouldn’t mind coming across an actual physical book if I can find one.

Anyway, having a collection on hand is spurred the idea of trying to look at some of these comics individually and doing quick little write-ups on each issue. It’s certainly worth thinking about.

Soul Of The Dragon: Kyle Higgins' Tommy Wankfest Continues

So Boom Studios recently announced another Power Rangers comic book and wouldn’t you know it; it’s yet another Tommy-centric comic book written by Kyle Higgins. Oh boy, because clearly we haven’t had enough of the Tommy Wankfest from Mr. Higgins, what with the alt-universe “Evil Tommy” bad guy that reeks of unoriginal fanficcy tripe (we’ve all done that bit, even me).

I was fine with the focus when the book started because the transitional period of the Green Ranger and the addition of a new member of the team was something that was never really touched on. And then you toss in an alternate universe ruled by an evil Ranger that everyone knew was an evil Tommy because of course it was. And then we had to find a way to keep that worthless character around and make him the central villain of a major comic event.

Look, I’m going to reserve judgment on the whole Shattered Grid thing until it reaches its eventual conclusion and I’d imagine I’m probably going back to the beginning of the series and giving some quick thoughts on each chapter. And this older Tommy comic might give me a couple chuckles here or there (though to be honest; I’ve been that road as well, so that’s not quite original territory, either.)

But I’m warning you folks; if the end of Shattered Grid isn’t Kyle Higgins inserting himself into the story and giving Jason Frank a blowjob, then all the hype would’ve have been for nothing.