Power Rangers/Ninja Turtles III #2 Review

Welcome back to the third installment of the Power Rangers/Ninja Turtles saga. Last time, we saw that the Rangers and Turtles had been working round the clock to deal with the formidable alliance of The Shredder and Lord Zedd, and while they’ve been able to beat back their attacks, the bad guys have only grown more persistent. Wishing to be more proactive, Raph and Tommy attempted an ill advised reconnaissance mission to the Moon Palace, only to be ambushed by the villains. To make matters even worse, it seems that Shredder and Zedd have been making their own Power Coins for their henchmen, as demonstrated when Ranger versions of Bebop and Rocksteady made quick work of our heroes. Fortunately, Leo, Jason and Splinter arrived to help even the odds. Our heroes escaped, but in a shocker of an ending, their escape only came at the cost of Splinter’s life.

Before we get too far into things, I want to make a note of something. In power Ranger comics, it is customary when a character is narrating that the captions bear their Ranger color and power coin to indicate whose internal monologue we’re hearing. I bring this up because the comic opens with narration from Tommy, but despite Tommy being the Green Ranger in these comics, including in that Flash Forward we saw in the first issue, the narration captions show the coin of the White Ranger. A mistake, or not so subtle foreshadowing. I suppose we’ll find out.

In any case, as you can imagine, our comic opens with our heroes dealing with the fallout of Splinter’s Death, and as you can also imagine, no one is taking it especially well. Definitely not taking it well is Leo who attacks Tommy in a blind rage just for talking to him, blaming Tommy for his father’s death. Raph tries to calm Leo down, but Leo is just as pissed at Raph as he is at Tommy. Leo has had it with this shit and Storms out, Donnie, Jason and Trini going with him to make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid in his anger and grief ridden state.

At the Moon Palace, we get a moment that I really like. You’d think Shredder would be celebrating the death of his long time adversary, but surprisingly, he’s actually kind of disappointed. He always imagined killing Splinter in a grand and epic battle worthy of their rivalry, and despite the fact that they were enemies, he feels that Splinter deserved a better end. Zedd mocks Shredder for mourning his enemy, but Shredder brushes it off and gets down to business. After all, their henchmen aren’t going to bestow new Ranger Powers on themselves.

Back at the command center, Mikey is in the training simulator fighting monsters and the others are really worried about how quiet and serious he’s acting. Raph insists that Mikey needs to blow off some steam to work through his grief and tells Zack and Kim not to let him out until he starts cracking jokes.

Meanwhile, Billy has made an interesting discovery. At the same time that Zedd incinerated Splinter, there was a surge of Morphin Energy originating from an entirely different dimension. No one is sure what this means exactly, but more than likely, this is how they bring back Splinter at the end of all this. But no time to dwell on this potential deus ex machina, we have have bad guys to deal with. It seems Tokka and Rahzar are attacking Sydney Australia and Karai and Leatherhead are attacking Tokyo Japan, and each of them have been outfitted with shiny new Ranger Powers. That’s right people, fucking Leatherhead is a Power Ranger, because this series will not rest until every Ninja Turtles character ever gets Ranger Powers, and I swear to God, or The Morphin Masters, or that Weird Space Cow head from the Ninja Turtles Archie Run from back in the day (He was a God, right?), if we don’t see Wingnut and Mutagen Man as Rangers by the time this is over, I am going to be very disappointed. Anywho, the Rangers head out to combat these threats, and good news, Billy and Donnie have been tinkering with the Shadow Morphers in their spare time so the Turtles can morph even when the corresponding Rangers aren’t in close proximity, though the morph still won’t last much longer than twenty five minutes.

While our heroes from the command center split up to fight the morphed villains, Leo’s group, who have set up shop in the turtle lair back in New York City. The team is monitoring the fights, and while Jason is angry that they’re not out there helping their friends, Leo, going off the pattern of previous attacks, correctly deduces that these attacks are actually a distraction from Shredder and Zedd’s true target.

Said target is a military base where the captured Technodrome from the last crossover is being stored. Well, it’s not long before the bad guys come knocking, and the soldiers guarding the base stand very little chance against a morphed Bebop and Rocksteady and Shredder who still has access to the Green Ranger Powers. Donnie, Jason and Trini arrive and mix it up with the villains while Zedd heads into the Technodrome. And so our comic ends with Zedd finding what he came for, that being Shredder’s reserve supply of Mutagen, but also finding Leo, who is here for his head.

This was a solid second chapter. As I said last time, the death of Splinter was a huge event that will have lasting consequences and this comic shows us exactly that. A rift has officially formed between both teams and neither really knows how to deal with their grief, not even Shredder. I actually want to highlight that moment because it’s a nice carryover from the last crossover. This series has actually done a lot for Shredder’s character. He’s still unapologetically evil, no question, but we have seen moments here there that shows us that there’s still a human being under than sinister mask. A human being with a very twisted sense of honor and morality, but a human being nonetheless. Beyond that, I don’t really have any notes here, the action was great, the character stuff was even better and the story feels like it’s been moving at a steady pace. Top Marks all around. We’ll see if they can keep his up in issue three. Until next time.