Our comic book spotlight continues with one of the big crossover series from both BOOM! Studios and IDW Publishing titled Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. As the title suggest this series has seen BOOM! Studios and IDW coming together to tell a series featuring the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Growing up both the Power Rangers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were right up there with Batman, Spider-Man, X-Men, and Star Wars as key parts of my life.
This isn’t the first time these two franchises crossed over as the Power Rangers In Space and Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation TV series’ crossed over back in the late 90s. Unfortunately, that crossover did not turn out to be the magical dream crossover fans were hoping for. Now finally at the end of 2019 the Power Rangers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles got another chance to crossover thanks to a partnership between BOOM! Studios and IDW. This new crossover has been everything I was hoping for when it comes to seeing these two franchises meet.
That is all thanks to the excellent writing and artwork from the creative team of Ryan Parrott, Simone di Meo, Alessio Zonno, Walter Baiamonte and Igor Monti. Part of the fun of this series is that you don’t need to be reading the current ongoing Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Much like the Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossovers, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is self-contained in its own continuity. All you need to know that this is the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers a little after Tommy Oliver became the Green Ranger and that the Turtles have been fighting Shredder and Foot Clan for some time.
Speaking to Parrott’s strong writing is that he takes that foundation for both franchises to use this crossover to explore the family aspect of both the Power Rangers and TMNT. Right from the opening page you get the idea that all these characters have a unbreakable bond with their respective teammates. At the same time, he treats them as the teenagers they are with the angst you expect from these characters.
That goes in well with how Parrott has used this crossover as an opportunity to explore the fact that Tommy Oliver is adopted. For some having Tommy spotlighted again may be too much but it works within this series. How Tommy’s past as an orphan is explored has given an added layer to why this crossover is happening in the first place.
Using Tommy as a springboard for why this crossover is allowed the adventure both the Power Rangers and Ninja Turtles are on take different route it takes. Specifically, with how both teams end up switching roles because Shredder was able to steal the Green Ranger powers. Just typing those words about Shredder becoming a Green Ranger gets me hyped. Meo and the rest of the art team for this series did a phenomenal job merging the Green Ranger suit with Shredder’s armor for a unique version of the powers.
As previously mentioned, with this new power Shredder was able to force the Power Rangers and Ninja Turtles to swap roles. Seeing the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers squad take on a proto-Ninja Ranger forms has been fun to see. This situation allowed Parrott to further show how Jason, Kimberly, Zack, Trini and Billy are more than their powers. These five, along with Tommy, are all extremely skilled and resourceful that they can still help fight against Shredder and Rita Repulsa’s forces.
The same goes with the Ninja Turtles and April O’Neil becoming Power Rangers. Their designs in particular just scream new toys as soon as they morphed into their Power Ranger forms. Having April join the Turtles in this adventure as the Pink Ranger was also a nice surprise as it gave her the opportunity to have more of active role in the story. It all added to how both the Ninja Turtles and April had this fun rush of being public heroes after working from the shadows for the first time.
As mentioned before, Shredder getting the Green Power Ranger powers was enough of threat for both teams to face. Adding in Rita Repulsa and her team-up with the newly powered Shredder further elevated the dangerous situation that was taking place on Earth. Having a large amount of experience writing Rita Repulsa in the BOOM! Studios Power Ranger comics Parrott immediately established the villain as a badass. Her first meeting with Shredder was explosive and played extremely well in establishing a shaky alliance between them.
There are a lot of great character moments from these story beats that Parrott and company just absolutely nail. As a Power Rangers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle fans this crossover is everything I could hope for. With how Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #4, the last issue released before the break, ended there is no way not to be hyped for the final issue that is scheduled to come out on June 17th. If you are a fan of either franchise, I highly recommend reading the first four issues of Morphin Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to be ready to pick up the fifth and final issue of this crossover when it comes out.
To comment on this article and other Comic Book Revolution content visit our Facebook page, Twitter feed and Instagram. You can catch up with all of Kevin’s thoughts about comics, anime, TV shows, movies and more over on Twitter. You can also watch the fun and silly videos Kevin is making over on his TikTok.
