Rangers gets real.
Updating a property in a way that both honors the past while still being representative of the present is no easy feat, but thus far it’s a trick Kyle Higgins and Hendry Presetya have managed to pull off. With issue #6, however, the creators take the first true risk of this fledgling series, pushing the Rangers into new, and decidedly darker, territory.
For the original television series, the monster-of-the-week format didn’t allow for much in the way of adversity. Sure at times the Rangers lost their powers, or got eaten by a pig-person, but by and large there was rarely a threat that couldn’t be handled by a few color-coordinated punches or Megazord beat downs. And that’s what makes issue #6 so compelling at the onset. Rather than imbue his script with the usual it’ll-be-okay-if-we-work-together shtick, Higgins instead leans hard into dangerous uncertainty. The Ranger home base is destroyed. Alpha-5 is down. The fate of Zordon is unknown. These are big problems, and that’s before you even get to the shark-faced monster looking to steal their powers.
It’s serious stuff, and over the course of the issue Higgins really dials up the dread, the introduced Black Dragon every bit as formidable as his craggy visage would suggest. Of course, the page time dedicated to proving him as a threat is sizable, so much so that the bulk of the issue reads as one extended action sequence. It’s exhilarating on a visceral level, with easily the best dose of Ranger action yet, but it also leaves little time for the Rangers to actually ponder on the losses they’ve just sustained. Much of that is intentional, surely, but aside from nailing the prevailing sense of danger, we don’t get far here.
With such an action oriented structure, much is put on artist Prestetya to set both the mood and tone of the series going forward. He rises to the occasion by delivering what is arguably his best issue to date, his pages loaded with fantastic character moments and suspenseful choreography. Quite seriously, the Rangers have never looked better, Presetya excelling in both the collaborative action beats and more character specific moments. We’ve yet to really see the Rangers on the losing side, and Presetya really captures that mix of dogged determination and dawning realization as they realize they’re entirely outclassed, no easy feat given their largely static masks. The effect used to convey Black Dragon draining their powers also works quite well, the colors literally bleeding from their bodies. Presetya still has a tendency to fudge in his backdrops – when he’s not avoiding them entirely – but in this case the pronounced focus on character really works.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #6 succeds in pushing the Rangers into uncharted territory, ramping up the danger in a way that promises larger adversity yet to come. Higgins’ script, while action heavy, hits some strong notes, something sure to be explored in further depth with the bulk of the Rangers now powerless. It’s a quick read, but with some strong narrative repercussions and an even stronger outing from Hendry Presetya, it’s also a darn good one.
The Verdict
While issue #6 is more action oriented than anything else, it does succeed in lending a sense of stakes to a property long devoid of them. In the Black Dragon, Kyle Higgins appears to have a worthy foil, one who knows how to attack both physically and emotionally. His first appearance is made all the imposing thanks to Hendry Presetya's kinetic art, the resulting chapter standing as a visual highlight for the series thus far.
Editors' Choice
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