Review: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #1
21 years ago today, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers first appeared on Fox television. It was 1993, I was 13, and I was all about that shit. I used to go to the library and get these books that were based on episodes of the show and had actual colored photos in them and then I’d print copies because I was madly in love with Billy, the Blue Ranger. I’m pretty sure I wore overalls a lot because he did. There’s been more than a dozen different variations of Power Rangers shows over the years, but I’m still a huuuuuge fan of the original and when I found out that Papercutz was releasing a graphic novel, I pre-ordered it immediately.
So, the Rangers are hanging out at the Angel Grove Youth Center, as is tradition. Doing karate, sharing quips, watching Bulk and Skull act like Neanderthals. You know, the usual. Meanwhile, a few miles south in the desert (I didn’t know there were deserts in California, but there ya have it) an archeological dig is interrupted when a stone giant named Olk arises out of the sand. He was designed to protect the area and will destroy anyone causing it harm.The teenagers with attitude morph and battle ensues. The monster has a beam that mixes things up and screws with the Rangers and their zords. Rita Repulsa and her cronies take advantage of this situation and, as always, try to destroy Angel Grove and its Rangers. She doesn’t win, of course. She never does. She never learns.
The nostalgia factor is definitely what pulled me in and they stayed true to everything from the original. It features all the usual characters: Alpha-5, Zordon, Rita, Squatt, the Putty Patrol. The writings is as god-awful (the phrase “dudes and dudettes” is used not once or twice, but three times) as it ever was. If you’re familiar with the show, then you know the kind of cheesy jokes and dialogue that was written into it. There wasn’t any Emmy-nominated writing back in the day and there certainly isn’t in this comic. But I loved it then and I still love it now. I think older fans of the show and kids would enjoy this graphic novel.
I’m excited this exists, even if it only took 21 years to get here, and I’m looking forward to volume 2.
