Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers #3 Comic Book Recap/Review

Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers #3 Recap/Review: Death to Underlings!

Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers #3 Comic Book Recap

In a strange prison, two aliens are visiting a willing captive. The prisoner asks if his queen Rita sent for him, and when informed she did not, he wants nothing else. The prisoner’s name is Goldar, and he refuses to eat the food the alien guards have brought him. Rita will never allow him to leave, because he failed her. He lost her Green Ranger.

Tommy wakes up home, where he is comforted by his mother. However, he is alarmed when she tells him she knows he is a Power Ranger, and exposes herself as Rita. As the great queen taunts the young man, he cries out, only to wake up, realizing it was all a dream. The other rangers are worried about Tommy, so they send their robot servant Alpha to get the young man some water. Trini promises they will get to the bottom of this.

In Rita’s palace, the queen announces she can tell Tommy is close to breaking. She is not linked to the Green Ranger anymore, but she is still in tune with his powers. After all, she is the one who gave them to him. Scorpina apologizes for her earlier failure, but Rita dismisses this. In her eyes, Scorpina did fine. She did fail to get the power coin, but she drove Tommy into battle and pushed him to his limit. Rita’s crystal is fueled by green chaotic energy, and their battle created much of it. And once they begin their final attack, they will be able to fully power the crystal and open a portal.

The only other thing they need is the dragon dagger, and though Rita has lost that too, they can make another. This new dagger will be unstable but should be enough to open the portal. With a simple spell, the aliens sacrifice one of Rita’s minions to create the unstable blade. Meanwhile, Trini begins a medical scan of Tommy. The young man notices the Yellow Ranger’s prowess over medicine, and she admits to having some interest in being a doctor one day. Trini asks how much Tommy remembers of being other Rita’s spell, and though the man does not say, she can tell he remembers everything. She comforts the Green Ranger, saying this sort of thing takes a while to get over, but reassuring him their is hope for the future. Suddenly, the two hear some noise outside.

They rush out with Alpha only for the small robot to be suddenly crushed <WHKOOM> by the Dragonzord <DIGITAL T-REX ROAR>. The two quickly transform into Rangers, but Tommy can immediately tell something is wrong. He can’t teleport into the Dragonzord, so Trini tells him to stay low, and she summons her Sabretooth Tiger <DIGITAL ROAR>. The two Zords do battle until Tommy is able to use his Dragon Dagger to distract the Dragonzord. It turns on him, and is about to devour him alive, when suddenly, Tommy wakes up back in the medical room. The whole incident was apparently some sort of vision.

It is during this time that the other Rangers meet in a diner to discuss Tommy. Zack believes there is more going on here than what their new ally is telling them, and is having trouble trusting the Green Ranger. Though Kim is quick to defend Tommy, Zack points out the young man was hand picked by Rita and brainwashed by the evil woman. They don’t know what, exactly, Rita did to the Green Ranger, and that makes Tommy dangerous. Zack still wants to give him a chance, but insists they need to be more careful. Jason, who has been quiet throughout this discussion, admits that Zack is right, and there is something going on here. He wants to help too, but points out they can’t do anything unless Tommy admits there is a problem. The talk ends early when they are called back to base by Trini. There is something they all need to see.

Back at their headquarters, the Power Rangers are shown a scan of Jason’s powers, which look similar to how all the Power Rangers look, except for one – Tommy. The Green Ranger’s powers look considerably different. Zordon is quick to say that this may just be Tommy’s body getting used to his new powers, but without more tests, he cannot say for certain whether or not Rita is involved. Tommy, who up until now has been quiet, finally admits that Rita has been appearing in his mind. The others, especially Zack, are upset and worried at this news. Jason points out that Tommy is making it difficult to earn their collective trust. Suddenly, the alarm sounds. Deep underwater, Scorpina has emerged within the Dragonzord. The unstable dagger and Rita’s crystal worked perfectly to give her full command of the mighty Zord.

On the surface of the ocean, a couple on a cruise are enjoying the view. A woman is cold, but her partner warns her that is the nature of the sea. You never know just how fast the weather might turn…

Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers #3 Comic Book Review

Hello and welcome to Comic Island! My name is Arden, and this is my recap, and review, of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers #3!

Alright, so let’s talk some Power Rangers. I quite liked issue three, mostly for the reasons I have already discussed in my reviews for issues one and two. On the whole, the writing and the art of the comics are done really well. The artist, Hendry Prasetya, really shows his stuff in issue three, especially when it comes to the Zords. Seeing the Dragonzord and Sabretooth in action this issue was a lot of fun and kind of worth this comic’s cover price alone. Kyle Higgins’ writing is also on point and the man does great work too. I still really like the way this guy is depicting the Power Rangers. He gives each member of the team a lot of things to do and depth in a very small amount of time. This is a really great comic overall.

One thing bothers me with issue three though, and it bothers me quite a bit. Not one but twice we are given fake-outs in the form of Tommy’s visions. On some level, that’s okay, as it indicates Tommy’s declining mental status and the ever encroaching effects of Rita’s influence. That’s good old fashioned character development on a very basic level. But on the other hand, it is a bit of a cheap writing gimmick, particularly with the second vision. That piece, with the Zords fighting and such, felt like it was there not so much to develop Tommy’s character but instead was there to insert a little bit of action in this comic where there would otherwise be none.

That’s okay, as comics do that sort of thing all the time. You want each issue to offer something of substance for the reader so they don’t skip it until the next comic when something more interesting happens. However, when it comes to something like this as a writing technique, it is a bit cliche and convenient, and this comic, thus far, hasn’t had to rely on such cheap tricks until now. I suppose from the first two issues I was expecting more out of the comic, and I just don’t feel they needed to stoop to such levels just to throw a bit of action in the comic. This Power Rangers comic in my opinion, has been better than that up until now.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I find the visions annoying but not nearly bad enough that they ruin the comic itself. I still recommend Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers #3. It’s a well made comic. If anything, I am increasingly concerned that these comics are so good that I’m getting spoiled. Not only do minor flaws like the visions stand out more because of the comic’s otherwise outstanding quality, but I also think this is giving me an artificially great opinion of Power Rangers. Looking over other adaptations of the franchise, I’m starting to think this might be one of the best interpretations of the content thus far. That’s fine, but it does mean all the stuff I’m excited about for Power Rangers probably isn’t as good as I would hope.

My dim memories of what little I have seen of the TV shows makes me think that the writing of this comic is way better than the writing in most of the shows, and the art, free from the confines of special effects, tends to make the Power Rangers look a lot better than anything the show could ever quite muster. Is it a fair comparison? No not at all, but that’s kind of my point. It’s like if you only ever ate sushi from a great restaurant. You would have a great opinion of sushi, but if you went to the grocery store to buy a day old platter of California Rolls, well, odds are you are going to be disappointed.

Nevertheless, I am glad to be doing this. It’s cool to go into a franchise cold, knowing very little about the universe and characters and seeing what the comic can accomplish on it’s own. On that merit, Power Rangers does a great job at not only introducing me to the franchise, but also getting me to become invested in the content. But yeah, if I ever do get into other Power Rangers content, I suspect I am in for a bit of a rude awakening. Let me know if I’m wrong in the comments section below. I’m curious if there are other examples of outstanding work with the Power Rangers, or if, as I suspect, this is one of the better adaptation of the Rangers.

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