The artwork is pretty great. I mean Simone Di Meo is a brilliant artist. She really does a good job with everything from the backgrounds to the characters. I'm not super familiar with her work, so I don't know if she was an artist on the IDW Ninja Turtles comic or not. Her name isn't anywhere on either Mighty Morphin Power Rangers or Go Go Power Rangers but she seems to know how to draw characters from both universes, so that's good.
The writing in this issue isn't great. I'm not a fan of Ryan Parrott's work. I first encountered it when he wrote Power Rangers: Aftershock, the one shot graphic novel that served as a bridge between the 2017 Power Rangers movie and the sequel that was originally supposed to be made, and now just serves as a wrap up of that particular part of the Power Rangers Universe. And while that book works within the framework of the caliber of writing in the movie, as a comic book, it didn't work quite as well since there was no follow-up to it and it was weird. Here, I don't know if Parrott is even familiar with either Power Rangers or Ninja Turtles. I mean he has to be familiar with at least one of the franchises, if not both, but the way he wrote this book makes it appear that he's unfamiliar with both franchises. It's almost like he forgot to write an issue or two and this is actually the third issue. I understand the concept of starting a story in the middle of the action. I mean, Star Wars does it perfectly as do many comic books including Detective Comics #27, the first ever appearance of Batman from 1939. But this actually feels like Parrott forgot to write the beginning of the series and just started in the middle of it, unlike both Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 and Justice League/Power Rangers #1.
The story is that the Rangers are busy as ever fighting Rita's monsters and they're starting to have difficulty balancing their regular, every day lives and their secret superhero lives. Things aren't helped by the fact that Tommy has disappeared for apparently no reason. Meanwhile, the Turtles face a new member of the Foot Clan, who I won't reveal. All I'll say is that this ends with the Power Rangers and the Ninja Turtles fighting each other, despite the Turtles knowing exactly who the Power Rangers are and the Rangers not supposed to be knowing who the Turtles are. Either way, Shredder has a lame plot that somehow involves Tommy and the new member of the Foot Clan. Yeah, it's incomprehensible at best.
The sad part is is that again, the book looks really cool and a crossover between the OG Power Rangers and the Ninja Turtles is a really cool idea. If we were still living in 1993 when Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was just starting and the Ninja Turtles were still popular, coming off of three live action movies as well as major toy sales and the fact that the 1987 cartoon was still on the air. Hell, we got an on screen crossover between Power Rangers In Space and Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation in 1998 when the Turtles were mind controlled by Astronema to infiltrate the Astro Megaship and steal it from the Rangers in the fourth episode of Power Rangers In Space. The fact of the matter is that the IDW version of the Ninja Turtles fits better within the darker, gritty, more realistic tone of the DC Universe, which is why Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was such an awesome concept and made for a great animated movie. No matter how adult you make the Power Rangers, it's still a children's superhero show, and that just doesn't fit with the awesome version of the Ninja Turtles that IDW has been doing for the past nine years.
I'm betting that this crossover works better when it's complete and we can actually read the story as a whole. Because, quite frankly as a first issue, this comic fails at every turn, except in the art department. One of my favourite shots is an establishing shot of the inside of the Angel Grove Youth Center, which takes in the entire set. Which is something that the TV show never got to do. Oh and the two page spread of the Turtles and the Rangers coming at each other at the start of their fight near the end of the book was pretty cool too.
Final Thoughts and Rating: Overall, Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 is an issue worth skipping unless you're reading the five issues of this crossover mini-series all together because it doesn't do a good job of introducing this crossover and it feels like an issue or two was missing before this one came out. If you REALLY want to check it out, do so, but it's not necessary unless you buy the collected edition, which will probably come out sometime next year, as four issues have already come out and the fifth issue is forthcoming, whenever this pandemic ends. I'm giving Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 2/10 stars because the artwork is pretty awesome, but what little story there is leaves way too much to be desired to be an effective hook for a first issue.
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