(Will add in a banner at some point in the future)
Right, so this is the last issue that I’m going to do a review on… but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the end of the road for me as far as this latest rehashing of Mighty Morphin is concerned, right?
Right?
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.
Continue reading “COMIC REVIEW – Power Rangers Unlimited (2026) #2”
Right, so here’s the deal. Today, we do the Green review while Thursday sees follow-ups on the Unlimited and MMPR comic runs. With that in mind, we now have the first issue of Boom’s third ongoing Power Rangers comic, which is the closest thing to an Old Man Logan scenario for Tommy Oliver as you could possibly get. And for what it’s worth, nothing about this issue explains whether this is its own thing or related to the other books… but honestly, for whatever it’s worth… it’s alright.
I’m going to keep my thoughts fairly brief here and will not bother with a break because there isn’t much to spoil. Besides our hero in green, there are a couple other familiar faces that we’ve seen perhaps one time too many permeate these Boom! comic efforts. The initial plot is also familiar fare to anyone who has read these sort of tales; the remaining hero in seclusion, dragged out by an old foe for one final mission to save what’s left of the world, hoisted back into action despite his better judgment and conscience. As before, the details of how we got here and what our heroes will be dealing with are kept vague, adding to the mystery. Is the mystery compelling enough? I don’t know… depends on the individual reader. I will admit that I am somewhat curious as to the questions that still need answer… which is more than what I can say for the other two series.
Of the three series to come out of Boom’s output right now, the one that I had the least interest in from the getgo turns out to be the more interesting of the bunch. Whether that holds for the next couple issues (I figure three is enough) is another story.
When last we saw our heroes, they were being overwhelmed by a new villain that’s a rehash of an old villain in Rita Rabiosa and one of their own has seemingly decided to set their communicator on Do Not Disturb, hence why they’re not answering the call. Also, I had a lot more questions than I had answers and was hoping that this issue would at least fill in some holes that desperately needed filling.
Well, about that…
Continue reading “COMIC REVIEW – Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (2026) #2”
Lo and behold, another Power Rangers comic review and so soon after the last one since this is the most recent release. Some mild spoilers on this one, kids, but much of my criticisms of the previous comic can also apply to this one. Too much of a tease and leaving me with more questions than I would care for.
Continue reading “COMIC REVIEW – Power Rangers Unlimited (2026) #1”
Well, here we are. The bold new era of Boom Studios’ Power Rangers comic output comes in the form of another MMPR comic, set ten years after the team last got together and went their separate ways. Only for a new foe based on an old foe to return and tear everything down. So I finally got around to reading the first issue of this new book and… meh.
I say that not as a negative but rather with ambivalence. Because the issue doesn’t give you much, other than maybe a couple nuggets as to where the Rangers are at now, as well as an inkling of who or what this new Rita Rabiosa happens to be. It gives you the big moment, there’s an action bit, and there’s even Zord action throw in for good measure, but it’s clear that this first issue is more of a tease than a genuine first chapter. There’s more to come and that’s kind of the problem; I needed more than what they gave me. All I got was more questions. Sometimes, that’s a good thing and more than enough if you’re already sold on the premise… but when you’re NOT sold on the premise, you need a little more meat on those bones and I didn’t really get that.
Look, I like the brief interaction between the Rangers before they morph, even if the dialogue feels a bit off at times, but stilted dialogue has always been a Power Rangers thing, so that’s expected. There’s one particular development that anyone who has seen Once And Always would appreciate and I do like that inclusion here. And of course, I am rather curious about one missing member of the team… probably the first time in a long while that this particular character has been intriguing within these comics, so I give kudos on that.
But, again, there’s very little substance to be found here. I also found the artwork to be a bit… uneven. The action bits are fine, the zords are fine, but the human characters look rough and Kim looks like she just got out of bed. Again, there are questions that I hope the series will answer, but it’s mostly sizzle and no protein. Honestly, this is one of those times where I wouldn’t have minded holding off the action until the next issue – set the scene, tell us where these people are at, make it so that this scenario is as urgent as they say it is. It’s supposed to feel like a big event, but given how many “big events” Boom like to throw into these Power Rangers comics, it feels like business as usual. That’s not a good feeling to have when you’re entering this “bold, new era” of Power Rangers that feels too much like the familiar.
And if I didn’t hammer it enough times, I’m going to do so again – the new costumes still look awful. It’s not just the matter of being different; it’s the matter of these looking like bootleg figures from the international rip-off shop. The Boom record for shitty Ranger designs continues onwards, I’m afraid, and that Unlimited preview with the Strikng Tiger Hidden Bear Ranger thing isn’t any better.
It sounds like that I’ve been overly critical of this thing and that I don’t like it. Fair enough, but at the same time, I don’t dislike this enough to completely drop it. As much as I have questions and wish this first issue had done more to fill in some backstory, I do want to see how this pushes forward, which is nice considering this is from the same writer who wrote that Beyond The Grid, which is what caused me to drop that initial Boom run in the first place.
Good job, folks. You kept me around for another issue. That’s the highest praise I could give this thing right now. Let’s see if next issue does more.
Zord Quest is a story that treads on fairly familiar territory; after an incident separates the Rangers, each one goes through their own personal trial to prove their worth as heroes in order to overcome the latest monster of the day from Lord Zedd. Chances are you’ve seen some variation of this story when it was called Alien Rangers and the little kid Rangers each went on their own personal journey to recover a piece of Zeo Crystal that would set up the next incarnation of Power Rangers.
Zord Quest almost follows that same template, but doesn’t quite hit the mark. It’s a one-shot story that gets resolved quickly. The trials that the individual Rangers go through serve only to reinforce their teamwork and apply their newly learned lessons to use in order to defeat the latest monster of the week. The trials themselves are resolved fairly quickly with no real substance behind it. There’s a sense that Zord Quest wants to say something, but fails to actually say anything.
On top of that, the continuity snafus are hard to ignore. The story supposedly takes place during the second season (or Year Two, as the book calls it), but they’re still using the Dinozords, which were mostly inactive and replaced with the Thunderzords. (Funny how all these MMPR Boom comics that wasn’t their main series always default to using the old Megazords and not the later ones despite timeline placement.) Lord Zedd is at least the main baddy. but his characterization is inconsistent with what was established during that time. It’s a story that neither fits with TV or comic continuity and as someone who followed this franchise since the very beginning, things like this do grate a bit.
Still, I’d be hard-pressed to call this bad. At worst, it’s a fairly ho-hum story with some questionable continuity snafus that almost harken back to the Hamilton Comics days, but on the other hand, it’s also straightforward in its storytelling that leads to the very obvious resolution and on that count alone, it’s more than fine. I do appreciate the much grittier artwork that’s at least a fair departure from the usual bland artwork that I’ve seen in some of these Mighty Morphin comics during that series run. It’s not quite perfect.
Zord Quest doesn’t offer much in terms of substance or anything that hasn’t been done before, but it makes for a quick read if you’ve got nothing better to do and can forgive the continuity gaffes. I’d call this “merely okay” and move right along.
This comic book is a questionable piece of shit… I say questionable because the premise that it presents on paper is intriguing and could serve as a potential dramatic piece, but the execution of that premise ends up making the concept less so.
A three-issue Elseworlds mini-series published in prestige format (fancy cardstock cover and premium paper pages), Act Of God begins with a wave of black light that permanently depowers all the super-powered beings, rendering them normal humanoids or equivalents. That means you get stuff like Superman suddenly acting like a drunkard, Green Lantern obsessing over that guy who beat him up, and other heroes being hopelessly lost before some of them decide to be trained by Batman so that they can keep fighting crime or something. Every affected hero reacts differently to their new circumstance, but most of them react so poorly and their reactions are often in conflict with their traditional portrayals.
Somewhere in the thought process lied an interesting idea that could have developed into an interesting story. What was the cause of this Black Light event that depowered the heroes? How do the heroes cope to their new circumstances? How does this affect the overall power structure and hierarchy? Is this just an Earth thing? There are so many ways you could go with this thing and Act Of God approaches this in the most banal way possible that it almost comes across as parody.
The only real positive to be found is in Dave Ross’ artwork. While there are some panels of questionable quality that might have slipped through the cracks, I thought the art was really well done here. I only wish that it wasn’t tied to three issues of utter rubbish that could have easily been confused for something that was written today.
Absolute garbage. Avoid like the plague.
For anyone who has sampled my Winners And Losers Of 2025 list, you already have a pretty good idea on what I think of this series, but for the rest of you folks – particularly you folks who are disenchanted by modern Star Trek television properties – might I recommend that you give Redshirts a shot?
Continue reading “COMIC REVIEW – Star Trek: Red Shirts (2025 Miniseries, IDW)”
Shortly after publishing the previously-unseen edition of Batman #428 – the alternative third chapter of the controversial “A Death In The Family” storyline that depicted the non-death of Jason Todd a.k.a. Robin – DC put out a four-issue mini-series dubbed A Death In The Family: Robin Lives. They claim this to be from the DC Vault, which implies that this was a previously shelved story that never saw the light of day because readers voted for Robin to be put down.
But instead, it’s a whole new story. A whole new What If story… that gave me pause because I am always weary of these continuations of vintage properties written and illustrated by people who were probably babies when these things first graced the public consciousness. What gave me hope was that this was being written by J.M. DeMatteis, a veteran who’s been doing this for decades and should have a good idea on how to tell a follow-up to a previously unearthed 1988 comic book. That’s the only hope I had going into this, since the overall art quality is… less than stellar.
And you want to know something? At first, this series had promise. Opening the series up with the Joker shot dead in the head and then having the story bring us up to that point is not a bad idea on paper, though it did spoil things for me. I knew where they were going with this and I was almost dreading it, but the story up to that point had been pretty solid. Jason Todd struggling with how to move on after suffering a horrific beating at the hands of the Joker as well as the loss of the mother he barely knew, Batman struggling with his lack of experience in fatherhood in trying to comfort the boy, and… well, the shrink felt a bit excessive and the narration is a bit much, but for three issues, this was a somewhat solid story with some decent character moments.
However, once we hit that fourth and final issue, that’s when things fall apart. I’ll try not to spoil too much here, but the way that final issue played out gave me flashbacks of Return Of The Joker, the Batman Beyond animated movie. If you know the plot to that film, then you’ll get a sense of dejavu here, except with a chance in player pieces. And when all is said and done and we get to that final epilogue… let’s just say that it only took a couple pages to kill off any goodwill that the first three issues brought up.
That’s the best way to sum up Death In The Family: Robin Lives. It starts off great, goes along smoothly, and then eventually falls off a cliff before landing headfirst onto a block of concrete. Maybe there’s a better ending stashed away in the DC Vault that got sidelined in favor of what we got here. Hopefully, it doesn’t take four decades to have that see the light of day.
