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Tag Power Rangers
“Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Return #1” Video Review – Mighty “Mature” Power Rangers
“Power Rangers Unlimited: The Morphin Masters #1” Video Review – Semi-Omnipotent Wizards
<I>Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #115</I> Video Review – Peeking Back In
A <I>Spider-Gwen: Smash #1</I> Video Review – The Mary Janes with Mary Jane?
An <I>Outsiders #2</I> Video Review – Sea Monsters!!!
Power Rangers Cosmic Fury – “Take Off” Review
SERIES: Power Rangers Cosmic Fury
EPISODE: S30:E6 – “Take Off”
STARRING: Hunter Deno, Russell Curry, Kai Moya, Tessa Rao, Chance Perez, Jordan Fite
WRITERS: Becca Barnes, Alwyn Dale, Maiya T, Cameron Dixon
DIRECTOR: Charlie Haskell
PREMIERE DATE: September 29, 2023
SYNOPSIS: As Solon lands in trouble, Ollie tracks the Rangers and attacks their base.
New around here? Check out the Power Rangers review archive!
By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder
Cosmic Fury has been kind to the Solon character. Obviously she’s the subject of a big portion of this episode. But you also have Billy, the franchise’s go-to tech genius, referring to her for advice and guidance. It’s very reminiscent of the way Alpha 5 and Alpha 6 were portrayed back in the day.
Fern takes the last remaining Cosmic Fury morpher to rescue Solon. She intends to use it as a blaster, but the Cosmic Orb creates a bond between she and Solon that morphs her into the Orange Cosmic Fury Ranger. Her powers are, fittingly, based on the Solonosaurus.
With that, Fern becomes the first Orange Power Ranger in the show’s history. (No, Boom’s outfit from that one SPD episode doesn’t count.) I can’t say an Orange Ranger was on my bucket list for the show. Rather, I’ve marked out for things like the show getting its first Indian Ranger in Beast Morphers, or its first same-sex couple in Dino Fury. But it’s a cool little distinction for the Fern character. And of course, it’s nice to see her graduate to Ranger status.
Apparently, the morpheus that Billy created for the Cosmic Fury team don’t necessarily designate a color for the Rangers that wear them. They just connect them to the Morphin Grid. If he had been able to designate colors, you’d think Fern would have morphed into the Blue Ranger, as the morpher she took was originally intended for Ollie.
We get some intriguing dialogue from Lord Zedd in this episode, as he essentially explains to Ollie why he’s evil. He more or less tells him that only the strong survive, and that’s why he has to become “the most powerful being there is.”
It’s interesting to me that, 30 years in, Power Rangers is diving (albeit just remotely) into the intricacies of what makes people evil. The show hasn’t necessarily thought the concepts of good and evil through much over the years. Our villains have largely been mustache-twirlers who’ve been evil just…because. I don’t know that we necessarily needed this dialogue from Zedd. But it’s nice to see him get another layer as a character.
Lord Zedd shows Ollie an energy tube emitting blue Morphin Master energy, and refers to it as the way to becoming “the most powerful being there is.” It can’t be a coincidence that we got a Zordon reference in the last episode, and now we’ve got a tube filled with blue energy. And they’re on the planet Eltar, for cryin’ out loud!
Is Cosmic Fury going to bring Zordon back? If so, I’m not sure how I feel about that…
Email Rob at robsiebert0220@gmail.com, or check us out on Twitter and TikTok.
Power Rangers Cosmic Fury – “Rock Out” Review
SERIES: Power Rangers Cosmic Fury
EPISODE: S30:E5 – “Rock Out”
STARRING: Hunter Deno, Russell Curry, Kai Moya, Tessa Rao, Chance Perez, Jordan Fite
WRITERS: Becca Barnes, Alwyn Dale, Maiya T, Cameron Dixon
DIRECTOR: Charlie Haskell
PREMIERE DATE: September 29, 2023
SYNOPSIS: The Rangers try to steal a zord out from under Ollie’s nose.
New around here? Check out the Power Rangers review archive!
By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder
At the top of the episode it’s established that Lord Zedd has set up prisons all over the world, and that the various Ranger teams that have tried to fight him off are now prisoners too. I suppose we can use our imaginations as far as what teams stepped up to fight Zedd. Everything we’ve seen up to this point makes it seem like all previous Ranger teams have their powers. (See my theory on the Mighty Morphin Rangers and “Legendary Battle.”) It’d be easier to note which Rangers probably aren’t in prison from fighting Zedd…
Let’s do that, shall we?
- Some of the Lost Galaxy Rangers. We saw Leo, Damon, and Karone back on Earth in “Legendary Battle.” But the others could still be on Mirinoi.
- Some of the Time Force Rangers. Wes and Eric are probably imprisoned. But the rest of the Time Force Rangers should be in the future.
- The SPD Rangers. Depending on how you view the Power Rangers timeline, the events of SPD either haven’t happened yet, or occurred in an alternate universe. Take your pick.
- The RPM Rangers. Alternate universe. Though they could have come to help.
- The Dino Charge Rangers. Same as RPM.
They did a nice job of coming up with a catchy little song about Lord Zedd for the Rangers to sing. It even becomes a mini musical number of sorts. It wasn’t “The Silva Switch” by any means. But it was neat. “Meat Chrome” is a fun name for a metal band, too.
Ollie: “Nice? That doesn’t sound like CEO behavior.” Good line.
Dude’s looking sharp in his leather jacket, by the way.
Fern being in jeopardy with the Rangers made for some nice drama. When Ollie figured out she was there to help divert his attention away from Zayto, I appreciate that he tried to shoot her. They could have just had him shove her down or something. But I mean, why wouldn’t he kill her? At least in passing. He’s evil, remember?
The zord that everybody’s fighting over is a dragon zord. I’ll reiterate that every dragon zord on this show is at a disadvantage by virtue of the coolest zord in the show’s history being the Dragonzord from MMPR. Sad, but true.
We see Fern in the zord cockpit with Izzy (shown above). That kind of thing has rarely, if ever, happened before. Usually the zord interior footage is from the corresponding Sentai. But as the Cosmic Fury suits are American creations, they obviously had to do that here.
Squillia mentions a new crush. We see a picture, and those looking close enough can see that it’s Heckyl from Dino Charge wearing goggles. This part of Cosmic Fury is going to be awkward for me, as I’ve seen virtually none of Dino Charge. But apparently Heckyl used to be a villain…?
Email Rob at robsiebert0220@gmail.com, or check us out on Twitter and TikTok.
Power Rangers Cosmic Fury – “Off Grid” Review
SERIES: Power Rangers Cosmic Fury
EPISODE: S30:E3 – “Off Grid”
STARRING: Hunter Deno, Kai Moya, Tessa Rao, Chance Perez, Jordan Fite, David Yost
WRITERS: Becca Barnes, Alwyn Dale, Steve McCleary
DIRECTOR: Michael Hurst
PREMIERE DATE: September 29, 2023
SYNOPSIS: En route to gaining new powers, the Rangers face a threat to their base.
New around here? Check out the Power Rangers review archive!
By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder
I recall showrunner Simon Bennett saying that with only 10 episodes this season, there wasn’t a lot of time for character focus. Or at least episodes focused on the growth of one specific character. But I’m liking the character-based stuff we’re seeing so far in Cosmic Fury. We’ve got Javi losing his arm, and thus facing an identity crisis in terms of his ability to play music. We’ve got Aiyon having a crisis over Zayto’s absence. We’ve got Amelia stepping up into a leadership role. Certain Rangers have gone entire seasons without this much development. I’m digging it.
Amelia, Aiyon, Javi, and Izzy go out into the desert to hook up an antenna, and come across a “scuttle worm” that turns into a monster. They’re doing their best to make it seem like the Rangers are stranded by giving them headwraps to wear. A nice little detail. Though frankly, I’d have preferred to see their clothes covered in a little more sand. Everything looks very clean.
With the antenna hooked up, the Rangers are able to receive video signals from Earth. They see that Lord Zedd’s forces are invading. J-Borg says, “Power Ranger teams across the globe are fighting back. But something is effecting their zords!”
It’s funny what one little line can do. One of the plot holes we frequently see in big alien invasion storylines on Power Rangers is the question of why other Ranger teams don’t come to help. With that line, Cosmic Fury addresses that, though granted we don’t see it.
General Shaw, played by Teuila Blakely, makes a cameo in one of the transmissions, just as she did in Dino Fury. Nice to see her again, of course.
Say what you will about the guy-in-a-rubber-suit nature of the monsters on Power Rangers. But I was watching this episode with my four-year-old, and she was reacting to it. Especially when it slimed Javi.It’s always important to keep perspective about who this show is really meant for…
Using the Morphin Master’s staff, Billy is able to connect to the Morphin Grid and grant the Rangers new powers. Cosmic Fury adapts elements from two different Sentai seasons: Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger and Uchu Sentai Kyuranger. These suits, however, are uniquely American. We’ve had American-made Rangers on the show, of course. But this is the first time we’ve had an entire team of American-made Rangers.
Unfortunately, a decent number of fans online weren’t happy with the suit designs. I myself saw a bunch of criticism of the material that the suits are made of, which isn’t the spandex we typically see. Granted, we see them very briefly here. But I don’t love or hate the suits one way or the other. Not yet, at least. I definitely appreciate the show doing something special for its 30th anniversary.
I love that Javi, the Black Ranger, has a combination axe/guitar as a weapon (shown above). Obviously, it fits his character to a T. I can only assume that’s another American addition, as opposed to a weapon that a Sentai character had.
Amelia realizing that she’d become the Red Ranger made for a nice crowning moment. It’s especially nice that they didn’t just have her graduate to leader arbitrarily. After everything that character went through in Dino Fury, and all we’ve seen her do thus far in Cosmic Fury, she deserved it.
Email Rob at robsiebert0220@gmail.com, or check us out on Twitter and TikTok.
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