Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Pink #1 Review
We’ve covered Boom Studios’ Power Rangers comics here on the site plenty of times, but today’s subject matter is a little more interesting. While the series we’ve been discussing started from the beginning, this comic is taking place later much later within the Power Rangers canon. Allow me to explain. In the third season of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, Kimberly, The Pink Ranger, was forced to choose between her life as a Power Ranger, and following her dreams by competing in the pan global gymnastics competition. While her duties as a Ranger were important, Zordon never intended to prevent the rangers from living their lives and following their goals and dreams, so Kimberly left the team, not to be see again until the Power Rangers Turbo movie (which is a can of worms for another day). The intent of this comic is to show what Kim was up to after leaving the Power Rangers.
We open in Amsterdam where Kim, after having one the another medal, is desperately trying to call her mom who missed the competition, meaning something is very wrong. Worried about her mom, Kim gets on her motorcycle and high tails it to France … which she seems to think will take six hours. Okay, I’ll admit, geography wasn’t always my best subject, but Kim here seems to be suggesting that the distance between The Netherlands and France is roughly the same distance as my home in Connecticut is from my family’s summer cottage in upstate New York. Now, correct me if I’m mistaken, but I can almost guarantee that it’s quite a bit further than that. Anywho, Kim makes it to her mother’s house to find it completely deserted. Assuming the worst, Kim retrieves a special lock-box from the closet containing a bow and arrow, a sweet Hawkeye costume and a spare Power Rangers communicator that Zordon gave her in case of emergencies. Battle ready, Kim goes outside, ready for just about anything, though I bet even she wasn’t ready for a small army of fish monsters. Kim uses her arrows and her martial arts skills to take down the fish monsters, saving the life of a gay named Serge in the process. Serge tells her where the fish people have been coming from and Kim calls Zordon for help. Zordon says that the Rangers are off planet at the moment and can’t come to Kimberly’s aid, but he gives her the next best thing, and temporarily restores her Pink Ranger Powers. As cool as this is, we can’t go any further until we address this. One of the more infamous our of context lines in Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers was Zordon saying “Too much pink energy is dangerous.” The line is amusing on its own, but in context, it essentially means that more than one Pink Ranger could destabilize the Morphing Grid, the power source of the rangers, and by this point in the series, another had taken up the mantle of Pink Ranger. I’m sure there’s an explanation for it, but I thought it was worth pointing out.
Anywho, Kim tracks the fish monsters to a cave where she’s surprised to find none other than Goldar leading them, apparently trying to strike out on his own from Rita and Zedd. To that end, he’s assembled this fish monster army and has kidnapped Kimberly’s mom. And so our comic ends with Verto, Goldar’s apparent second in command, transforming Kim’s mom into a fish monster.
What Works: On paper, this is a great idea. Kimberly is a fan favorite character and the idea of a power ranger as a solo hero is something that’s never really been done before.
Kim’s costume’s are really cool, both her Hawkeye getup and her modified Power Ranger costume.
What Doesn’t: The first half of this comic is very exposition heavy, which can make it hard to follow, which isn’t even getting into the plot holes I mentioned in the review itself.
Overall: 3/5
Don’t take that low score as a slight because ultimately, I did enjoy this comic. That said, I think it was a bit too dialogue heavy and hard to follow for my taste.