stephanie_yuzuki 's review for:

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Vol. 1 by Kyle Higgins

3.0

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This comic begins as a loose retelling of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers season 1 starting just after Tommy Oliver was freed from Rita Repulsa's mind control. While it's shown the events prior to this in the series have happened and presumably played out in the same way, the setting's been updated to the 2010s. This comic tries for a more serious look at the world of Power Rangers; people regularly are evacuated for monster attacks, the Rangers must go out of their way to protect civilians during fights (especially when using their giant robots) and the goofy Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger villains are now much more sinister and monstrous (although it's a little tough to be scary when you're named Rita Repulsa, Squat and Baboo). Tommy's dealing with harassment from a spectral Rita undermining his confidence but hasn't told the other Rangers out of fear of looking weak. He puts a strain on the team, especially with Red Ranger Jason Scott. This, of course, is what Rita wants. I like what the comic's doing, but it's hurt by how focused it is on Tommy. The rest of the team doesn't have nearly the same focus here. I would've preferred starting at the beginning so readers could get to know the whole team. It also has that odd tendency to draw the Power Rangers with skin-tight suits that accentuate their figures that the actual costumes never do that Power Rangers comics often do. It's like artists for comic adaptations can't accept anything other than the common US superhero portrayals. I hear the comic gets much better later, so I'm interested to see how this happens.