The book doesn't say when exactly this story takes place but it's after season 13, Power Rangers S.P.D. because Sky Tate, the former S.P.D. Blue Ranger is now the head of Space Patrol Delta. What's weird about it though is that Tommy can't be that much older than he was the last time we saw him on the show in Power Rangers Super Ninja Steel, which took place in 2018, only seven years before the events of S.P.D.
Instead of a single graphic novel, this should've been a mini-series because there's a whole lot more material surrounding this story than we were even able to see. Especially with Lokar and Scorpina, Tommy and Finster's friendship, and the accident that damaged the Master Morpher and injured Tommy to the point where he needs cybernetic enhancements for his back, which is actually pretty cool to see, but at the same time, we only get a brief flashback to the fight that injured Tommy, and not much information is given as to who was strong enough to take out Tommy Oliver in battle, when he's morphed as the Green Ranger and the White Ranger.
I also don't really know whether this graphic novel takes place in the primary Television Power Rangers Universe, or the BOOM! Studios comic book Power Rangers Universe. If it takes place in the TV universe, then it ignores some things from Power Rangers In Space as well as season 2 of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. In the TV show, when Andros unleashed Zordon's energy upon the United Alliance of Evil in the finale of Power Rangers In Space, Rita, Lord Zedd, Divatox, and Scorpina (presumably) were transformed back into a Human form, turning them good, and then Rita became Mystic Mother in Power Rangers Mystic Force. However, the monster characters like Goldar, Squatt, Baboo, Finster and Elgar, plus the Machine Empire, were turned to dust and vanished forever, making it impossible for Finster to be a good guy in this comic.
However, if it takes place in the BOOM! Studios comic book universe, then events will have happened slightly differently than they did in the show. Also, if it does take place in the TV universe, when did Rita have time to banish Scorpina to Lokar's dimension? When she was banished from the Moon Palace because Lord Zedd unexpectedly showed up again? Or maybe it was when she was plotting to regain control by putting Zedd under a love spell and marrying him? Especially since she didn't seem all that banished when she disguised herself as Sabrina to lure Adam and Aisha into a trap, which happened BEFORE Rita came back. Especially since Scorpina mentions that Rita banishing her happened during Tommy's initial time as a Ranger, which was right around the midway point of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 1 and Scorpina continued to show up on the show after Tommy gave up the Green Ranger powers the first time in Episode 35, "The Green Candle Part 2".
Personally, I like to believe that because Kyle Higgins, who wrote the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers comic for BOOM! Studios through the Shattered Grid arc, wrote this book, it takes place in the comic book universe, otherwise it does mess with the continuity of the TV show. It also makes more sense for the comic book universe since Scorpina kinda just disappeared from the series after the first two or three issues and I don't think she's been seen again since.
The artwork in this graphic novel is actually pretty cool. It's by Giuseppe Cafaro, an artist I'm not familiar with at all, and it looks pretty cool. Tommy looks more like Jason David Frank in this book than he does in the ongoing monthly series, which is pretty cool. I don't know how I feel about the S.P.D. Green Ranger suit having the Dragon Shield added to it just because it's Tommy's son from "Dimensions in Danger", J.J. wearing the costume. But I do like the way Cafaro drew Scorpina's new look following Lokar giving her what amounts to a stronger version of Rita's old powers.
Final Thoughts and Rating: Overall I thought Power Rangers: Soul of the Dragon was a pretty good story. It's a bit more fan fictiony than Kyle Higgins's regular issues of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers were, but that's really only because Jason David Frank acted as a special consultant on the book and apparently had a major say in what the story was about. But, in a way that worked for this story, because it didn't make it too dark and grounded like Higgins's work tends to be. However, there's also a lot of wasted potential in this book, as instead of a service wide conspiracy or infiltration within S.P.D. that resulted in J.J. being captured, it turned out he was undercover. Also, there's no Zord fights, and aside from Kat, none of the other Mighty Morphin Power Rangers show up in this book, just some S.P.D. people like Doggie Cruger, Sky and Bridge. Oh and we don't learn much more about Tommy's Master Morpher except that it was narrowed down to either Billy, the original Blue Ranger or Ms. Fairweather from Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue built it. I'm giving Power Rangers: Soul of the Dragon 8/10 stars.
Power Rangers Wiki: https://powerrangers.fandom.com/wiki/Power_Rangers:_Soul_of_the_Dragon
No comments:
Post a Comment