Tag Ranger Slayer

Weekly Comic 100s: Leviathan Dawn, Star Wars, and More!

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***”Weekly Comic 100s” keeps it nice and simple. Comic book reviews in 100 words or less. Straight, concise, and to the point.***

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

Raising a glass to Dan DiDio, who’s gone from DC as of last week.

The way some people are talking about this, you’d think he’d died or something. That’s obviously not the case. But it does feel like the end of an era. DiDio had been with DC for 18 years, starting as a vice president in 2002, then moving up to executive editor in 2004, before becoming co-publisher in 2010.

Coincidentally, 2002 was also the year I started buying comics on a weekly basis. So for yours truly, DiDio is particularly synonymous with DC. I remember reading his old “DC Nation” columns as far back as my college years, God help me.

So here’s to you, good sir. Thank you for the memories.

TITLE: Leviathan Dawn #1
AUTHOR: Brian Michael Bendis
ARTISTS: Alex Maleev, Joshua Reed (Letterer)
RELEASED: February 26, 2020

Despite the reveal of Leviathan’s identity being a letdown, Event Leviathan was a fun read. So I’m happy to see Bendis and Maleev back at it.

This issue sees the reformation of a group longtime DC readers will be familiar with. (The cover makes it pretty obvious.) The lineup is an odd assortment. Not characters you’d expect to see working together. But strange teams often make for compelling books.

The only person I might remove from the group is the Question. He’s better as a lone wolf.

TITLE: Star Wars #3
AUTHOR: Charles Soule
ARTISTS: Jesus Saiz, Arif Prianto (Colorist), Clayton Cowles (Letterer). Cover by R.B. Silva and Guru-eFX.
RELEASED: February 26, 2020

This whole “going back to Cloud City” thing is still really stupid. Not quite as stupid as Luke getting a between-movies lightsaber. But close.

But we do get pretty great scene in this issue. One of our villains, Commander Zahra, reveals that the crew of her Star Destroyer consists of those who lost someone close to them on the Death Star. She frames the destruction of the space station as a massive tragedy caused by an act of cruelty from the other side. It’s much like Leia frames the destruction of Alderaan. It’s a really nice switch in perspective.

TITLE: Detective Comics #1020
AUTHOR: Peter Tomasi
ARTISTS: Brad Walker, Andrew Hennessy (Inker), Brad Anderson (Colorist), Rob Leigh (Letterer). Variant cover by Lee Bermejo.
RELEASED: February 26, 2020

The other night a co-worker of mine, about 22-year-old, sees this cover. She then asks me: “Why does Batman look so fancy?” Oye. Kids…

For yours truly, Brad Walker’s stock is rising. Particularly as a Batman artist. He’s not a favorite of mine, per se. But he’s on his way.

Tomasi is doing a religion-themed story with Two-Face. We don’t get into the meat of it. Just a little scene as the issue ends. But I’m a sucker for that kinda stuff. So I’m anxious to see what the “Church of the Two” is about.

TITLE: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #46
AUTHOR: Ryan Parrott
ARTISTS: Daniele Di Nicuolo. Walter Baiamonte (Colorist). Katia Ranalli (Color Assistant), Ed Dukeshire (Letterer). Cover by Jamal Campbell.
RELEASED: February 26, 2020

In an issue that features the return of the Ranger Slayer (the cover pretty much gave it away) and the Gravezord, a very tense “sparring session” between Tommy and Jason, and a fight in an asteroid field, Zack and Adam steal the show with a single page of heart-to-heart conversation.

Sadly, via his Twitter Daniele Di Nicuolo has announced he’s ending his Power Rangers run soon. That’s a big loss, as he’s arguably the best artists BOOM! has had on this line. Not sure what issue is his last, but #50 seems as opportune a time as any.

TITLE: Action Comics #1020
AUTHOR: Brian Michael Bendis
ARTISTS: John Romita Jr., Klaus Janson (Inker), Brad Anderson (Colorist), Dave Sharpe (Letterer). Variant cover by Lucio Parillo.

Ugh. They dragged Young Justice into this?

Yeah, Action Comics is a little bit of a mess right now. Primarily because Romita is on a cold streak with these last several issues. But also, look at all the heavy hitters we’ve got in this story. The Justice League, the Legion of Doom, Leviathan, and now Young Justice. Metropolis is being decimated. Yet the high stakes aren’t coming across. It almost feels like business as usual. We also have Batman in another big dumb robot suit, which doesn’t help.

But next issue, the fight drags on. And I do mean drags.

TITLE: X-Men/Fantastic Four #2
AUTHOR: Chip Zdarsky
ARTISTS: Terry Dodson, Rachel Dodson with Karl Story and Ransom Getty (Inkers), Laura Martin (Colorist), Joe Caramagna (Letterer).
RELEASED: February 26, 2020

What’s surprising me is how political this book is. Not in a real-world sense. But we’ve got the X-Men on their little island nation of Krakoa, and the fallout that comes from the Fantastic Four “invading.” Then we’ve got Doctor Doom on Latveria, and the risk of starting a war with Krakoa. The scope seems so much bigger than you’d think it would be.

Valera Richards refers to Doctor Doom as Uncle Doom? Well, it’s not like she was ever going to have a normal childhood…

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MMPR: Shattered Grid: 25 Morphinominal Moments, Part Three

Rob Siebert 2 Comments

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

So as we continue to work our way through Shattered Grid, I’d like to highlight the fact that these are in (mostly) chronological order. We’re going through these moments in the order we read them. We’re certainly not ranking them in any way.

(Part One. Part Two.)

11. Jason and Lauren (MMPR #27)
As Shattered Grid progresses, an unexpected and perhaps unlikely romance begins budding between Jason and Lauren Shiba of Power Rangers Samurai.

Why Jason and Lauren? Eh, why not? It makes a kind of sense, as they both know the pressures of leading a team of Rangers. But part of its appeal is in just how out of left field it is. After all, when you’ve got a bunch of hormonal teenagers in the same space for a lengthy amount of time, this kind of thing is bound to happen, isn’t it?

12. Ranger Slayer vs. Alpha 5 (Go Go Power Rangers #10)

Like the evil Green Ranger before her, the Ranger Slayer, under a spell cast by Lord Drakkon, invades the Command Center. But while Tommy simply incapacitated Alpha 5, this version of Kimberly has a more…physical approach.

We certainly never saw Alpha take a beating like this on the old show, and for good reason. Seeing our robot buddy beaten up like this would have scarred most of us for life…

13. Zack talks to himself (MMPR #28)
Way back in MMPR #5, Kyle Higgins established that before Rita chose Tommy to be the Green Ranger, she tried to tempt Zack into the role. While he obviously refused, Zack never tell his teammates about Rita’s offer. Until he does, at the encouragement of his counterpart from Lord Drakkon’s timeline. Issue #28 gives us a nice little callback to that.

By and large, I maintain that the BOOMverse’s take on Zack is too moody and broody. But the idea of him being Rita’s original pick for the Green Ranger remains a really interesting idea.

14. Bringing Down the Dome (MMPR #28)
Over in the world of Power Rangers RPM, Dr. K is quick to answer Zordon’s call to action from issue #27, as she’s developed technology that can fend off some of Lord Drakkon’s arsenal. But the domed city of Corinth has been fending off his attacks for hours. Jason and Lauren are sent in to help (see above), but Drakkon has reinforcements of his own.

What follows is a battle filled with characters and zords from across the franchise’s history. It’s so expansive that it’s truly a shame it all has to be condensed into one issue. Still, we get a hell of an exclamation point in the end, as Dr. K and Jason have to bring down the dome protecting Corinth.

15. Future Kimberly, Present-Day Juice Bar (Go Go Power Rangers #11)

Once the Ranger Slayer comes to her senses, she aligns herself with our heroes. They wind up taking her to the juice bar, sitting her right next to her past self. And of course, no one recognizes that there are two Kimberly Harts in the room.

Still, it’s interesting to not only see future Kim getting to re-live her past, but watching her tell present-day Kim to enjoy it all while it lasts. And kudos to Dan Mora for drawing future Kim on the balance beam (shown left). That’s something we saw quite a bit of on the show. But we’re obviously seeing it from a whole new perspective here.

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MMPR: Shattered Grid – 25 Morphinominal Moments, Part Two

Rob Siebert 3 Comments

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

We’re back, and still counting down moments from Shattered Grid. It’s 25 Morphinominal Moments for 25 years of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers!

(Check out Part One if you missed it!)

6. Enter the Ranger Slayer (Go Go Power Rangers #9)
Go Go Power Rangers maintained an interesting balancing act during Shattered Grid. It had to continue doing its own thing, while also introducing us to the Ranger Slayer, and giving her a story that ties into the event overall.

Of course, the Ranger Slayer is the older Kimberly counterpart from Lord Drakkon’s universe. This take on Kimberly definitely has a Katniss Everdeen vibe going for her. She gets a strong introduction too, complete with a couple of oddly humorous lines from Miss Appleby. Mora re-uses this same action pose later in the issue when we see her in morphed form.

And then to boot, we get this next little moment…

7. “Who let you go outside with that haircut?”

I mean, we’ve got two Kimberlys. At that point, you can’t not have a hair joke, right? At least she made herself laugh.

8. Power Rangers Zeo (MMPR Annual 2018)
Zeo has been surprisingly underrepresented in the BOOM! books. Luckily that will be rectified a bit once Marguerite Bennett and our new creative team take over. But MMPR Annual 2018 was the first time we’d seen the Zeo covered by Kyle Higgins and the crew.

Drawn by Marcus To, the story shows us the team’s farewell party for Jason after he loses the Gold Ranger powers. But amidst it all is a great little scene between Tommy and Jason on top of the Command Center. They reminisce about old times, and Jason talks about how good it was to be a Ranger again, if only for a short time.

Of course, there’s a big swerve near the end. But I adore the idea. Scenes like this are a big part of what makes this BOOM! Studios MMPR run so great.

9. Zordon and the Emissaries (MMPR Free Comic Book Day Special)
One of the highlights of Kyle Higgins’ work in the PR universe was MMPR #15, a Zordon-focused issue, following everybody’s favorite blue head in a tube as he travels through a dimensional rift and meets his counterpart from Lord Drakkon’s universe. In the MMPR special that came out on Free Comic Book Day, Higgins once again got to play around with Zordon. This time with co-author Ryan Parrott, and illustrator Diego Galindo.

As the conflict with Drakkon continues to escalate, Zordon seemingly travels to an etherial plane of sorts to meet with three emissaries, in the hopes that they will ask the “Morphin Masters” (long story) to intervene. These emissaries take the shifting forms of various red, blue, and yellow rangers, which is fascinating. They’re seemingly speaking to Zordon from inside the Morphin Grid. So it makes a sort of sense that they would take on these familiar forms.

While there’s certainly no need for us to see them again, I certainly wouldn’t mind another appearance from these emissaries, if not the Morphin Masters themselves.

10. Tommy lounging.
This might seem relatively insignificant, given all Shattered Grid throws at us, but I love this panel. Daniele Di Nicuolo, along with inker Simona Di Gianfelice and colorist Walter Baiamonte, show us Lord Drakkon slumped down in his throne. He almost looks like a petulant young king. If you’re just doing a quick scan of this page, it’s easy to mistake Tommy’s expression as a smile. But of course, it’s not. He’s stewing as he stares into the Red Zeonizer Crystal he stole from his Zeo-era counterpart (see above), who was loved by his friends and fellow Rangers…

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