Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers #8 Review

Halloween is over everyone, which means it’s back to business as usual, meaning we have a lot to catch up on, starting with Power Rangers.

If you recall, last time, the rangers had all but been defeated and stripped of their powers by the Black Dragon and are hiding out in a pocket dimension within the command center, Billy had been captured and imprisoned by Rita and is now sharing a cell in the dark dimension with Goldar, and Rita had taken control of the Zords and is presently using them to terrorize major cities around the globe. Tommy, the only ranger who still has access to his powers, and Jason hatched a plan to stop Rita and take down the Black Dragon, with Jason Piloting the Dragonzord manually, which brings us up to speed.

Last time, the Black Dragon had overwhelmed the Dragonzord, mostly due to the physical strain that comes from piloting a zord without powers, afterwich the monster went after Tommy. Tommy does his best, but even with his ranger powers intact, there’s simply not much he can do against a forty-story cyborg dragon monster. Fortunately, the Black Dragon doesn’t want Tommy to have an excuses for losing and shrinks down to human size. Curiously, before the Dragon delivers a death blow to Tommy he appears to hesitate, allowing Jason to swoop in and attack with the recovered Dragonzord, severing the Black Dragon’s arm and forcing it to retreat.

Elsewhere, in the pocket dimension, the other Rangers have found a way to contact Alpha, who, despite being in pieces in Rita garbage can, is still conscious. From what they learn from Alpha, the rangers get the idea to reverse the power of the black dragon using his severed hand and, using Tommy’s coin as a conduit, restore their powers.

At Rita’s palace, Finster is hard at work fixing the Black Dragon’s cybernetic arm. Rita takes a moment to probe the black dragon in order to ascertain his motives. The Dragon only sais that his motives are his own and in return for his services to Rita, asks only that he be the one to finish the Green Ranger.

Back in the pocket dimeniosn, Zack takes a moment to apologize for having been such a dick to Jason ever since he joined the team. It’s a brief but nice moment, but it’s soon time to get to work. Trini seems to have found a way for Tommy to temporarily transfer his powers to the other rangers. Tommy gives it a whirl and it works, with the unusual side affect of all the rangers being colored Green.

What Works: Whereas the last issue gave us something rarely seen in Power Rangers in terms of threat level, this issue gave us some things rarely seen in Power Rangers in terms of character development. There’s the scene with Zack and Tommy, the scenes with Rita and the Dragon and even a brief scene with Billy and Goldar that I didn’t cover in the main review each one showing more dimensions to the characters than we usually got to see in the show. The Black Dragon in particular continues to prove an awesome antagonist and a great mystery. I have a theory as to what his deal is, but I’ll wait until it’s actually revealed to see if I’m right. What Doesn’t: I don’t really know

Overall: 5/5

Honestly, this is probably the strongest issue thus far. Kudos to Kyle Higgins and his team.