Review: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #52
[Editor’s note: This review may contain spoilers]
Writer: Ryan Parrott
Artist: Moisés Hidalgo
Colorist: Walter Baiamonte & Katia Ranalli
Letterer: Ed Dukeshire
Reviewed by: Sean Blumenshine
Summary
As tensions rise between the OMEGA RANGERS and the MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS over the return of (SPOILER), Kimberly takes it upon herself to interrogate their new prisoner. Meanwhile, a team of Rangers on a crucial intergalactic mission come face to face with the herald of a new threat heading straight for Earth!
Positives
Jamal Campbell’s cover is great. I love the level of detail. And the sheer rage on Kimberly’s face. It’s an enticing cover.
Adam is confronted with the idea about the accountability of superheroes. And while he knows that the Rangers are held accountable by Zordon, no one holds him accountable or even knows he exists. Not much is done with it in this issue but it’s an interesting idea to inject into Power Rangers.
Negatives
The art is mostly fine. The colors are cool and there’s a nice style. But one scene in particular is way too over the top. The conversation between Kimberly and Drakkon goes a little big in the art. The scene is an intimate power play. The art is explosive with big and crazy backgrounds and hugely expressive faces. It kind of killed the scene for me. I get the idea; it’s show to high the emotions and tensions are. Personally, I don’t think it works for this scene. Less might have been more.
Structurally, this series continues to frustrate me. It wants to be about both the Mighty Morphin team on Earth as well as the Omega Rangers in space. The book isn’t really big enough for that. The last issue had a really cool cliffhanger with Zedd and Rita who are naturally not in this issue. The two stories will be probably intersect at some time as Necessary Evil did. But, reading it as single issues, it’s a little frustrating to jump back and forth between the two. It kills the story’s momentum. The things that excited me about the last issue are not present in this one at all. I still wish the two teams had their own books.
Verdict
While there are some solid moments, this issue does not work for me overall. A lot of it has to do with the focus on the Omega Rangers. This book is so serialized but that becomes hard to get sucked into when the focus consistently shifts around. There are a couple of spots where I don’t love the art as well. The issue is not terrible but I didn’t enjoy it.
