COMIC REVIEW – MMPR: Ninja Rangers #2

Disclaimer: That katana that Tommy is holding in his hand does not appear anywhere in this comic book. In fact, neither does Tommy or any of the other guys, as it’s a solo outing for the ladies this time around.

In our second Ninja Rangers short story, Kim and Aisha are shopping and Kim has a bunch of clothes she wants to try out… which puts Aisha to sleep or something. Then Rita and Zedd cast a spell on the mall where everyone is hogging the good stuff and so the girls morph into Ninja Rangers, try to fight them off, and then eventually turns everyone normal by showing them the bill, which comes up pretty high.

Folks may recall that a similar story appeared in the old run from Hamilton Comics and this is more or less the same idea, but a different approach. Again, it’s a brief little story, it’s something I’d actually expect would fit in as an episode of the show, but expanded to include the other stuff. The art is consistent with the style of the other stuff; nothing special. All in all, an okay story.

COMIC REVIEW – MMPR: Ninja Rangers #1

This series is a flip book that also features a VR Troopers comic on the other side. However, this review (as well as reviews for the rest of the series) will only focus on the Ninja Ranger stories. Fact is that I don’t know much about VR Troopers and I don’t think I can add anything to those stories… not that there’d be much to add if Marvel’s MMPR output has been any indication, but I digress.

Anyway, Marvel’s secondary series focuses on the “Ninja Rangers” a.k.a. the colorful pajamas. Generally speaking, the stories in this series are generally of a higher caliber than the main book, which isn’t saying much, but it’s something worth noting as we head on into this venture.

Case in point; today’s story, where Tommy notices a kid on his basketball team throwing games for loan sharks. Lord Zedd creates actual loan sharks and we get some brief Ninja Ranger action and a lesson learned. Cliche lesson aside, the story is pretty good with its smaller scope and focus, deviating somewhat from the familiar formula by focusing on a Ranger or two.

COMIC REVIEW – Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #7 (Marvel)

Marvel’s Power Rangers series ended with this seventh issue and… you know, that’s probably a good thing since I seem to say the same thing regarding these comics over and over again. So it’s not the most auspicious exit around and apparently, Ron Lim had turned in for the rest of the show, so we’ve got Stone Canyon Shakedown, a story written and drawn by Grant Miehiem, which is the Rangers fighting a lava monster… it’s fine. The art is alright, but the Rangers look somewhat blocky. Not quite Romita Jr. blocky, but enough that it’s noticeable. Still, fairly harmless story.

And then, we end this run with Major Munch, written and drawn by Darick Robertson… yes, the guy who brought you THE BOYS wrote and drew a Power Rangers comic strip. Amazingly, it is kid-friendly fare. And even more amazingly, it’s quite fun. A Captain Crunch rip-off thing hypnotizes citizens with his cereal and commercials in a nefarious scheme indeed. Not a bad way to end this series; Tommy’s fist bump morph never became a thing, though.

I’ll leave that to the imagination.

Did Not See Samurai… Because It Didn't Air Yet

But I did hear the theme song… which sounds pretty… uninspired. It seems like somebody over at Saban thought “Why bother coming up with a new theme song? Let’s just rip the original Go Go Power Rangers song from ages ago and replace the lyric involving Mighty Morphin with Samurai related tripe. PROBLEM SOLVED!” Almost as if the song was an attempt to lure old fans in… kinda like the return of Bulk.

If I get a chance to see the first show, I’ll relay my thoughts. But I certainly hope a revival of Power Rangers doesn’t mean “ripping off the old show” despite the same people being responsible.

Maybe you know something I don’t… we’ll see.

EDIT: Apparently, I somehow thought that the show was debuting this weekend, when in fact it’s airing on a Monday. Oops.

No amount of Bulk will convince me that Samurai is worth watching…

So they managed to snag Paul Schier (sp) to reprise his role as Farcus “Bulk” Bulkmeier in the upcoming Power Rangers Samurai show. Nice touch for the old-school fans; Bulk is pretty much the longest-running character in the Power Rangers franchise, from the very first episode (and pilot episode) to several appearances on Lost Galaxy and even that Forever Red episode. So for anyone looking for that hint of legitimacy and hope that the new series might be on the right track, Bulk’s a pretty good sign.

Bulk, however, isn’t enough to convince me that Power Rangers Samurai is worth following in the long haul. That all depends on the show itself and what it offers. From the few clips and promos I’ve seen of the show, it doesn’t look too bad. I’m actually cautiously optimistic about this one.

We’ll see this weekend, I suppose.

COMIC REVIEW – Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #6 (Marvel)

First major positive with this comic; they finally got rid of those annoying sidebars that could’ve gone to more of the cover image. It’s just too bad they started this new format with one of the more awkward group shots ever drawn. What in blazes is ol’ Tommy looking at that’s making his helmet look so sad?

Anyway, we continue with two more stories in the mighty Marvel mold… for whatever that’s worth now. The first story features the Rangers fighting elemental monsters in a story that seems a lot grander in scope, but because of the length of these stories, it’s anything but. Too bad; something like this could’ve been at least a full comic book or two.

The second story features rock monsters kidnapping little kids and the Rangers have to save them. There is nothing I can say about this story beyond it’s average fare in a few pages, but at least Ron Lim is around to supply some consistent art throughout both stories. I might not be a fan of the way he draws the teens (they look like generic Marvel characters instead of people), but for what it’s worth, it’s the best art this run has scene and that has to count for something.

PPV Predictions – WWE Royal Rumble 2011 (Follow Up)

It just occurred to me that during my predictions diatribe over the whole THREE MATCHES, I neglected to mention the Divas Title match, which Eve Torres won for some reason despite not being part of the original line-up. You know, there’s a very good reason why I didn’t bring up the match and why I didn’t acknowledge its existence in the original post;

I didn’t care.

Anyone who has read the previous predictions posts on this blog (or watched the video of me trying to watch RAW 900) should know that I don’t care for the Divas matches in general. Trying to watch these women bounce around the ring is depressing and makes me yearn for the days when WWE had competent women wrestlers who were capable of putting on a decent match every so often. It seems rather sad that when there are hot women in tight spandex on my TV these days, I want to take a piss.

I don’t blame the women; I’m sure they try their best, but their best isn’t enough and nobody else is giving me sufficient reason to care for these ladies. They have no personalities whatsoever and are nothing more than glorified interchangeable Barbie dolls.

Maybe Awesome Kong will change that perception when she eventually debuts… but I have a feeling she’s just going to be repackaged as the “black” Bertha Faye. It’s been more than a decade since such a gimmick was pulled off; I’m sure Vince is anxious for a revival.

My predictions:
Edge retains his World title.
Miz retains his WWE title.
John Cena wins the Rumble.

The results on the card:
Edge retains his World title. (1-0)
Miz retains his WWE title. (2-0)
Alberto Del Rio (YES!) win the Rumble! Thank GOD! (2-1)

POST-SHOW NOTES: It just occurred to me that Dolph Ziggler and Randy Orton, the two guys who were competing for world titles and lost, were entered into the Royal Rumble match. I guess the bump to 40 wasn’t so good after all, was it? It also just occurred to me that Kevin Nash did not tear a quad during his more-than-brief stint at the Royal Rumble. Good show, Kev.

Later.

PPV Predictions: WWE Royal Rumble 2011

Okay, so what we have here is a three-hour pay-per-view with a hundred dollar price tag and all we get are THREE matches… Two World Title matches which will see the champions retain their titles so that they can drop them at the next PPV (yeah, that’s right – both Edge and Miz walk out with their titles. That’s my pick.) and a Royal Rumble match that just got a boost from the traditional thrity-man format to a bloated forty-man format. Now, I said that I would reserve judgment for the match until I actually see it for myself (whether it’d be tonight through a stream or when the eventual DVD comes out), but hearing about this announcement beforehand made me wonder if they had enough talent to fill such a match.

Now here’s the deal… this is probably just a one-off thing to see if they could pull it off. If they manage to pull this off without a hitch, then it might work. However, there’s barely enough talent to pull it off, which means we’ll be getting surprise entrants for the sake of having surprise entrants. And if that’s the whole point of the bloating of the Rumble, then it’s a pretty pointless move since you could still have surprise entrants with the standard format. Hell, the whole concept of the Rumble that made it fun to watch is that you didn’t know who was going to show up. Now they just list off the list of participants in WWE.COM and randomize the order of entries. It’s just pointless.

So who’s gonna win the Rumble? I’d like to see someone new win it and get a title shot at Wrestlemania… maybe win the title. Someone like John Morrison, Alberto Del Rio, or CM Punk might be good candidates to win the match and seem to be popular choices among certain people. In fact, I would be more inclined to spend the hundred bucks on Wrestlemania if the main event featured a newcomer to the main event picture and quite possibly win the big one, earning him some fresh credibility and making a new star in the progress.

It’s the best idea to push if WWE insists on this whole “youth movement” that people claim they’re pushing for, not having old fucks like Triple H or John Cena win the Rumble again… although that’s going to happen anyway because WWE isn’t forward thinking.

So, to sum up my diatribe above:

My predictions:
Edge retains his World title.
Miz retains his WWE title.
John Cena wins the Rumble.

That is all.

STONE COLD! STONE COLD! STONE COLD! To Host Tough Enough… WHAT?!!!

Apparently, WWE has tapped Steve Austin to host WWE Tough Enough… I honestly don’t know why they thought Austin was the absolute best choice for this. Personally, I think he should just be a trainer on the show and stun everybody.

In any event, good for me. Nice to see him get another TV show that he could make entertaining… sadly, this isn’t going to be a Nash Bridges where the show is still entertaining without him, but who knows what could happen? It’s Tough Enough from USA Network and not MTV.

Then again… maybe I shouldn’t raise my hopes here.