Category: Comic Reviews

Hamilton Comics’ final Power Rangers foray before losing the license to Marvel Comics was a three-issue retelling of the Power Rangers story in a somewhat abridged format. And in a pleasant change of direction, this is the only series in the Hamilton Comics period that sticks with the same art team. And it’s probably the best artwork that this run has seen; managing some approximations of the main characters while also re-interpreting the classic monsters to stuff that… don’t anything like the source material. Hell, Rita is still in purple rather than her usual brown rags, but whatever. They saved their best artists for this final hurrah and I couldn’t be happier… even if it meant the other book had to suffer as a result.

It’s funny that out of all the Hamilton stuff that I’ve read thus far, their best story is an abridged retelling of what happened on the TV show, right up to the White Ranger being introduced. While it’s not a point-for-point adaptation – the story as well as the artists take liberties with the material – it does boil down the major plot threads; the forming of the team, the introduction of Green, the introduction of Zedd, Green’s final battle and transition to White. This is basically an elongated version of the two-page quickie origin story that they’d use to have back in the old days where they just show the major points and move on. That’s what this was and it works for the time allotted.

Saga ended after three issues, but was intended to be a full six-issue miniseries. According to Don Markstein, the idea was to introduce his own plot to the framing story involving Jim, the business owner whose warehouse is constantly under attack. This would lead to him starting a campaign to defame the Rangers;  a campaign that would’ve gained traction as time went on. It’s actually a very intriguing plot point for a story. It’s too bad it never got that far.

Who knows how the story would’ve played out if the series had been allowed to continue its run unabated? Regardless, what you have here in Saga is a solid abridged recapping of the first two and a half seasons of MMPR that’s pretty accurate to the source.

A fine note to end the Hamilton era on.

The final issue of Hamilton Comics’ second miniseries ends on a bit of a whimper, with two underwhelming stories.

The first, “The Lost Ranger”, features Rocky getting amnesia and forgetting that he’s a Ranger… it’s the classic trope of someone forgetting who they are and relearning it before story’s end… but because the story is short, the way Rocky gets back his memory is underwhelmingly goofy; he trips. Oops. Lame.

The final story, “Footloose”, has the Rangers fighting off a bunch of sentient Putty boots… it is perhaps the single most stupidest thing I’ve read in this Hamilton run and it’s probably very fitting that they saved the dumbest idea for last. Not exactly an inspired end to this run.

Both stories are drawn by Gray Morrow, yet both have drastically different styles. The first being a more traditional comic book style that looks pretty good and the second boasts the semi-realistic, detailed look that feels off. Also of note, the Rangers lack the chest logos here, which is more in-line with the actual show, but that sort of design choice has been a thing for most of the stock illustrations.

And so ends Hamilton Comics’ contribution to Power Rangers… well, there’s still the MMPR Saga miniseries, but since that’s mostly a recap of the show, we won’t count that. For now, Hamilton was done concocting new adventures and that honor would go to Marvel.

And we’re back to the two story format for the last couple issues… oh well, it was fun while it lasted, I suppose. On the bright side, however, both stories are illustrated by Sparky Moore and it’s probably his best work in these books if I’ve been completely honest. If only he had been available for the final issue, but that’s another story.

Anyway, the first story is called “Bad Attitudes”, where Baboo concocts a ‘tude tick that bites all the teens and gives them bad attitudes, causing them to bully people, kick stuff, and not care about monster attacks… all while in their suits. We learn a few things in this story; apparently, the suits are machine washable and the citizens of Angel Grove apparently have really short-term memories to forget something as vital as the Rangers roaming around without their helmets and stuff, acting like total fucking delinquents. When you can set aside the glaring questions that this thing raises, it’s a silly little story that has a bit fun for a bit. I didn’t mind this one. This was fine.

The other end of this book gives us “Gray Skies.” An interesting concept that sees Lord Zedd unleashing a swarm of mini flying elephants to terrorize the city… and the Rangers counter by sending bats from a cave after them. I like this story because it’s thinking outside the box. Rather than fisticuffs leading to the eventual Zord fight, there’s an inventive and believable solution to this whole ordeal. Most of all, it’s something that probably wouldn’t have been possibly on TV without making it look really cheap, so kudos on producing a comic story that works best as a comic story.

Hey, if the run ended here, it’d be a hell of a way to end it on… alas, there is only one more issue left.

The second issue of this second miniseries from Hamilton Comics is the only issue in this run to feature one full-length story as opposed to being split into two stories. Unfortunately, even in this format, “The Yesterday Bomb” is a story that still feels rushed.

The plot of the book is fairly straightforward; Lord Zedd concocts a bomb that sends the Power Rangers and their Thunderzords back to the age of the dinosaurs and now they have to find a way to make it back and stop Zedd’s evil robot to wrecking havoc on the city. In theory, it’s not a particularly bad story and does have the makings of something that could’ve been spread out over a couple issues. In execution, the plot does come off as feeling a bit rushed and while I don’t care for the decompressed style of storytelling in comics that span several issues, there are times where I wished they had turned this into a two-part story.

Al Bigley returns for penciling duties while Sparky Moore handles the inking. I honestly wished that it were the other way around simply because Moore is the better of the two artists. A lot of the complaints that I’ve had with Bigley’s past work in these books are prevelant here; everything comes across as hastily drawn and a bit of a mess. Somehow, the art in this issue might actually be worse than Bigley’s previous outings, with one frame in particular depicting Billy as an older gentleman rather than a smart looking teen. I want to say that this book either predicted or inspired the means by which to write off David Yost from the series in the future, but that’d be giving this book too much credit. But, yeah, the art here is pretty bad; quite possibly the worst I’ve seen.

All in all, The Yesterday Bomb is a neat premise on paper, but the execution leaves much to be desired.

So not long after the conclusion of their first miniseries, Hamilton Comics begins their second miniseries of MMPR comic books – although this one lasts about four issues before being abruptly cancelled due to an expiring license, as Marvel would pick up the slack by the time the movie rolls around… for better or worse, but we’ll get to that.

Right off the bat, the miniseries does a far better job of matching the paradigm established in the middle portion of the second season. One of the issues with the first mini is that the stories were written with the first season in mind and newer elements like Lord Zedd and the new Rangers were swapped in with the old stuff without so much a change in their actual mannerisms. Here, Lord Zedd is very much his own character, the new Rangers are very much their own personas, and Tommy is established as the leader after not being much of one in the back end of the previous mini. Baby steps, kids.

As before, we have two stories in this issue. The first story, “While The Cat’s Away,” sees Lord Zedd heading off to some other galaxy to take care of business, leaving Squatt and Baboo to concoct their own plan to defeat the Rangers. Said plan involves a droopy monster that is eventually defeated by an oven that shoots awful food. Said oven cooks awful food because Bulk & Skull fixed it… or ruined it… or whatever you think. This is standard fare with a smart ending and I like the attempt at giving Squatt and Baboo more than the bumbling roles they usually adopt on TV.

Unstoppable Force is the second story, which involves inertia. A monster with stretch limbs is attacking, nigh invincible, and is eventually defeated when it falls off a cliff after the Megazord steps aside… it’s a unique ending to an otherwise average story.

Both stories feature are by returning artists; John Heenik for the first and Sparky Moore for the second. Both have stepped their game and continue to produce some of the best art in this Hamilton run.

The final issue of the first miniseries is another two-story issue.

The first story, “Attack Of The Gargantutron!”, poses an interesting premise; a monster is attacking and the teens are summoned to take it on, but they can’t answer because they’re in the middle of class! There’s a couple little bits that I liked here; Alpha recording a log entry (recording in MORPHIN MODE no less), the P.E. teacher calling for a new, unseen character called Kimberly Smith (either that or nobody knew who these characters’ full names were), and the Rocky dream (not THAT Rocky or THAT kind of dream, either). Story is nothing special; your usual Ranger fare. Al Bigley returns for art duties here and somehow the line art is just all over the place. The most you can say that characters look like what they’re supposed to, but they’re drawn in the most exaggerated manner possible that it comes across as goofy. I want to say that this gets better, but it really doesn’t.

Shop Till You Drop… Dead! is the second story in which Finster concocts a shopping mall as a trap for anyone involved, since all the shop merchants and staff are really monsters in disguised. Rocky and Kim eventually get caught, but then escape and help save the day. You know, maybe this should’ve been in the last issue and the “Grounded” story should’ve been placed here; then there’d be continuity. In any event, this is another story concept that would’ve benefitted from a full issue, but otherwise is fine. Gray Morrow returns to handle art duties for the first time since the very first issue and it’s pretty rough goings. The costumes are drawn more like  something out of a bootleg production, not proper MMPR. There is one particular frame that would probably appease some horny teens back in the day, but other than that, the art is pretty poor here.

So that’s the conclusion of the first miniseries. Next up, we’ve got the second Hamilton mini that comprises four issues. Will the writing be a little more consistent? Maybe…