Power Rangers/Ninja Turtles II #2 Review

Welcome back to Power Rangers/TMNT II. Last time, the Turtles and the Rangers learned that several villains had gone missing and the perpetrator was a mysterious new Ranger. That Ranger turned out to be Casey Jones, who is apparently evil now.

We open at the Technodrome in Dimension X, where we learn that Rita Repulsa is indeed back, now sporting a new look that resembles her Mistress Vile outfit from the Boom Studios comics. It turns out the villains getting abducted was Rita building herself an army so she can invade Earth and conquer it once and for all. However, Rita cannot help but notice that there are no dead Rangers or Turtles before her and demands an explanation. Rocksteady insists that they had the heroes dead to rights until Rita’s Ranger showed up. That’s when we see Casey, standing way off to the side and leaning against the wall like a brooding anime anti-hero. Incredible, the dude has been evil for five minutes and he already thinks he’s Vegeta. Casey antagonizes Rocksteady and Goldar for their failure, but Rita breaks up the fight reminding her minions that they all have work to do, especially Stockman who is apparently vital to their plan

Back at the Turtles base, our heroes regroup go over what they know. Mikey also dubs evil Casey “Ranger X.” Ha, I get it. And a heartfelt go speed racer to you as well Michelangelo. Anywho, everyone pretty much agrees that Casey has to be brain washed, bringing up Tommy’s evil origins as an example of how this is Rita’s usual MO. When it came to the evil Green Ranger, the rangers destroyed the Sword of Darkness, it broke Rita’s hold over Tommy’s mind. So, our heroes figure that breaking Casey’s souped up Hockey Stick, it will yield the same result. Oh, by the way, Casey’s Ranger weapon is a souped up Hockey Stick. That is not only awesome, but it also makes way more sense than Merrick from Wild Force using a Pool Cue.

Speaking of Casey, we see him meeting with the voice on the other end of the portal from last issue and we finally see that it’s Krang, interdimensional warlord and secondary main villain of TMNT. In this scene, Krang reveals something very interesting. Turns out Dimension X once had its own Power Rangers, but they were wiped out when they rebelled against Krang and the Utroms and Casey’s morpher is the only one still functioning. By the way, the remaining Morphers are colored Red, Orange, Blue and Purple. GEE, I WONDER IF THE TURTLES WILL USE THESE MORPHERS AT SOME POINT! Well, the least subtle foreshadowing I have ever seen in my life aside, a suspicious Krang wonders why Casey chose to betray his friends. Casey says that playing hero only gets one so far. It was time to pick a side, and Casey wanted to be on the side that was clearly going to win. Krang, still not entirely convinced, demands that Casey kneel before him. Casey hesitates, but ultimately capitulates. Rita enters and demands Casey leave so she may converse with Krang alone. Krang is concerned that they’re playing with fire by trusting Casey, but Rita thinks that fire will be necessary if their enemies are to burn. Rita also asks if Krang has had any luck finding The Shredder. Krang says no, but assures the empress that Oroku Saki will not elude him forever.

After that, we get a brief but awesome scene of Zordon and Splinter playing chess, both lamenting how they’ve drafted children they both clearly care for into a war that may never end, but understanding that it is a war that must be fought. It’s not a terribly significant moment, but God help me, I love it.

Meanwhile, a portal has opened up in the skies above Angel Grove. Rita’s invasion has begun, so it looks like it’s all hands on deck for our heroes. Good news is, Billy has completed the shadow Morphers, which will allow the Turtles to assume the Ranger powers at the same time as the rangers themselves. According to Billy, it will only work if the turtles remain in close proximity to the Rangers they’re shadowing and even then, to will only last about twenty-five minutes or “the length of a Saturday Morning Cartoon” as Leo puts it, but it should be enough to turn back the invasion.

While the Rangers battle Rita’s army in the City, Casey, Stockman, Scorpina and Bebop, who has apparently been cured of his Swine Flu and been enhanced with a kickass robot arm, have arrived at the Command Center, Stockman having used his genius intellect to develop a device that will allow the villains entry without a Power Coin. Scorpina insists on going after Zordon, but Casey insists they’re there for a different reason. However, our heroes anticipated that someone might try to break in while our heroes are occupied in the city and Raph, Tommy and Jason are there waiting for the villains. Raph squares off with Ranger X and does his best to talk some sense into his friend. Raph does manage to smash the hockey stick, but to Raph’s shock, nothing happens. Casey says that he’s not actually brainwashed but acting on his own free will. When Raph asks why, Casey says it will all make sense eventually.

While the other heroes have things just about wrapped up in the city things aren’t going so well in the command center, especially since Bebop and Scorpina have decided to go rogue and try to off Zordon anyway. Zordon tells Alpha to go run, but Alpha refuses to abandon Zordon and stands his ground. However, before Bebop can blast the little robot into scrap metal, help arrives from the most unexpected of sources. And so our comic ends with Shredder arriving to attack Bebop, saying he cannot allow this invasion to continue.

Lotta cool stuff in this issue. The concept of Shadow Morphing is seriously cool and something I’d like to see implemented in official Rangers content. The scene with Splinter and Zordon was cool, and I loved seeing the characters find common ground. The fight scenes were all next level and overall, I just had a blast reading this bad boy. Many questions remain, chief among them being, just what in the hell is going on with Casey. Join me next time when we hopefully find out.