Power Rangers/Ninja Turtles II #3 Review

Welcome back friends. Last time, Rita Repulsa, now aligned with General Krang, launched a full scale invasion of earth with her army of Power Rangers and TMNT villains. The Rangers and Turtles, who were able to assume Ranger form thanks to Billy and Donnie’s Shadow Morphers, to fight off the invading forces. While all this was going on, a small group of villains, led by Casey Jones, now an evil Ranger and not under mind control as our heroes assumed, raided the Command Center. Fortunately, our heroes were prepared for such an event and Raph, Tommy and Jason were waiting for them. However, when it looked like the villains had our heroes on the ropes, help arrived in the unexpected form of The Shredder.

We open with Bebop, apparently devastated that his boss has switched sides. Shredder tells Bebop to mind his tongue or he’ll remove it. After very quickly putting Bebop and Scorpina in their place, Shredder makes it abundantly clear that he has not turned good. He just doesn’t want to see Krang and Rita ruling the world that he already called dibs on. While Tommy makes it clear that he doesn’t trust Shredder, understandable given what went down between them in the last crossover, neither he nor Jason are in a position to look a gift horse in the mouth so the Rangers fight alongside Shredder while Alpha escapes, transferring Zordon’s consciousness to a mobile platform to keep him safe.

Elsewhere in the command center, Stockman is tinkering with something as Raph has finally caught up with Casey. Casey tells Raph it’s too late as Stockman sets off an explosion that forces the Turtles and Rangers to demorph. With our heroes now powerless and hopelessly outnumbered, Alpha activates an emergency teleporter and our heroes retreat as Rita gloats.

Later, Rita and Krang explore the ruins of the command center, planning to use its technology to conquer earth once and for all. Casey has an interesting question for our villains. Why Earth? Both Rita and Krang have these vast, allegedly unstoppable armies that they could use to take over any planet in the cosmos. What makes Earth so special. Amusingly, both villains admit that there’s really nothing special about Earth. They give the old song and dance about how Earth is already destroying itself and conquering them would be doing them a favor, but it’s clear that in reality, it’s only about pride at this point. Time and time again they’ve tried to conquer the planet, but they’re never quite able to finish the job, something Rita says will change, thanks to Casey.

Meanwhile, our heroes have regrouped in the New York City Sewers. Turns out, Stockman destroyed the Power Node, which stabilizes the Rangers connection to Morphin Grid, meaning that our heroes are cut off from their powers until they’re able to build another one. Shredder arrives and reveals the problem with that plan. The only way to build a new node is to acquire materials located in the furthest reaches of space. Shredder knows this because the plan to destroy the node was his to begin with. Naturally, after getting his shell handed to him by a space witch and a wad of chewed up bubblegum that rides around in a robot that looks like Sloth from The Goonies, Leo is in an exceptionally bad mood and is ready to slit Shredder’s throat at the mere sight of him. Fortunately, Raph, Tommy and Jason are there and vouch for the fact that Shredder is not their enemy, at least not this time. Shredder makes things real simple for everyone. Rita and Krang kicked him out of the club, and he wants to kick their asses. Does Krang even have an ass? Never mind, I don’t want to know. In any case, as much as he doesn’t like it, if he’s going to make sure that there’s a world left for him to conquer, Shredder going to need the heroes’ help.

Three days later, the villains have all but taken over Angel Grove, April reporting on the situation to The Turtles. Apparently, something is going on at the command center. April can’t get close enough to see what it is, but she’s pretty sure whatever Rita and Krang are up to, it involves the Zords. This is bad, but there is some good news. Billy and Donnie have been experimenting with the Power Coins and the Mutagenic Ooze that created the Turtles and may have found a new way for the Rangers to Morph.

And so, our heroes spring into action, the Rangers using their modified coins to mutate themselves into anthropomorphic versions of their respective power animals. Gotta say, The Rangers turning into The Extreme Dinosaurs was not on my bingo card for 2023, but here we are. Anyway, despite some difficulty adjusting to their new forms, our heroes are doing a great job wrecking Rita’s army. Leo takes a moment to comment on how Tommy has turned into a dragon, even though Dragons aren’t real. Uh, fellas, I feel like I shouldn’t have to remind you that half of you are giant turtles trained in ninjutsu who eat pizza and the other half are teenagers in rainbow spandex who use robot dinosaurs to fight off alien warlords. Dragons aren’t exactly that far outside the realm of possibility here, don’t overthink this.

Anywho, while Leo and Tommy have their pointless little debate, their nearly overwhelmed by a swarm of putty patrollers, until their saved by, Casey? A very confused Tommy and Leo get ready for a fight, Casey insists he comes in peace and even gives Leo a mobile portal generator that will allow our heroes to enter Dimension X and steal a new Power Node from Krang’s stronghold. Casey says that with all of Krang’s forces now on Earth, his stronghold will be defenseless, meaning they can destroy it no problem and end Krang’s invasions once and for all. Now’s when Casey reveals what’s really going on. While he was Krang’s captive, Casey had a lot of time to think. For as many times as they’ve beaten back the forces of evil, they always come back time and time again. The heroes can’t keep doing this forever, so Casey joining up with Rita and Krang was actually part of a long con to finish off the bad guys permanently. Casey admits that it’s a gamble, and regrets that people had to get hurt in the process, but if this works, they’ll have dealt the villains a crippling blow. And so our comic ends with the mutated Rangers and Splinter staying behind to defend Angel Grove while Shredder and The Turtles enter Dimension X.

Another great issue for this crossover. Shredder’s face turn was nice, The Rangers new forms are awesome, the explanation of Casey’s true motives was intriguing, all in all, this comic was a blast. Next time, we see what Dimension X has in store for our heroes.