Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #19 Review

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #19 Review

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #19 Review

BOOM! Studios’ Mighty Morphin Power Rangers series has been a pleasant surprise. Basing this comic on the most iconic version of the Power Rangers, the Mighty Morphin era, has helped the series have a nostalgic aura around it. At the same time, Kyle Higgins has taken a franchise known for how cheesy it has been for decades and given it a serious edge. Everything we have seen so far has been a great update to the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, including elements from future eras of the team. That has been once again shown with this latest arc centered around Finster executing his own plan, without the guidance of Rita Repulsa. How dangerous will Rita’s minion prove to be on his own? Let’s find out with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #19.

Writer: Kyle Higgins

Artist: Hendry Prasetya

Colorist: Matt Herms

Story Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10

Art Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10

Overall Rating: 7.5 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: In Barcelona, Spain a person is suddenly transformed into a mole monster and attacks citizens walking the streets.

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Over in Angel Grove, Kimberly is having breakfast with her father, who tells Kimberly that he is going to propose to his girlfriend. Kimberly does not hide her lack of excitement well for her father’s announcement.

Kimberly’s father spots Tommy and calls him over to their table. When he does both Tommy and Kimberly get a call from their Alpha that takes them away before things could get awkward between them and Kimberly’s father.

At Billy’s house, Billy’s mom continues to watch the footage of her son being pulled out of the rubble on loop. When Billy comes out of his room to go out for the day she reminds Billy to keep in touch with her.

A little later while running in the park Billy voices how much his mom has been on his case since returning from the future to Trini. Trini reminds Billy that his mom was just terrified by how long Billy was lost and how she believes he and Tommy were trapped for days in the rubble. They suddenly get contact by Alpha and teleport to where they are being called to.

Jason and Zack are the first to arrive in Barcelona morphed as the Red and Black Ranger, respectively, to deal with the mole monster attacking the city. They are quickly joined by the other Rangers.

Just as they are all together a second flying monster shows up and quickly electrocutes Green, Pink and Yellow Ranger, separating them from the others.

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The two teams try to fight back the monster but fail to do any damage. They are quickly overwhelmed by the two monsters strength.

Black Ranger decides to teleport behind the mole monster and leads the flying monster to fire an electric attack at them. Black Ranger gets out of the way of the attack a split second before it hits.

With the mole monster taken out the six Rangers focus their attacks on the flying monster. After a long battle the Rangers are able to defeat the flying monster as well.

Sometime later the Rangers confront Finster at his prison cell about where all the monsters he created are. Finster plays dumb by saying he created so many monsters that he doesn’t know where they are now.

The Rangers assemble back up at the Command Center where Saba says they are still a few days away from finding Zordon’s exact location.

Jason wonders if Billy can come up with a device to find all the monster out in the world. Billy and Alpha say they are working on something. Zack thinks they should get the government to help them out but Jason is opposed to it.

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Zack then notices Grace Sterling on the viewing globe requesting to meet the Rangers outside the Command Center.

The Rangers are surprised Grace found the Command Center. Grace greets Alpha and Alpha says hi to her back, much to the Rangers confusion. Grace then reveals that she was once picked by Zordon to be the Red Ranger. End of issue.

The Good: Kyle Higgins does not waste time in setting the table for the next arc. The surprise the ending of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #19 speaks to how strong the build up to it was. In doing so Higgins is able to create even more excitement in learning about the Power Rangers history while also further elevating Finster as a villain.

Before getting to the ending, I must first touch on the fantastic job Higgins did to make Finster into a villain that is possibly just as dangerous as Rita Repulsa. That is saying a lot given how very little character development Finster received in the TV series. Higgins took full advantage of how much of a blank slate Finster was and turned him into a villain that always seems to be planning something after executing his original plan. That sense of planning made the final dialogue sequence between Finster and the Rangers create further interest to see what Higgins has planned for the villain when he circles back to his plot.

The threat level Finster presents to the world is further elevated by how much trouble the Rangers had with fighting two of his newest monsters. Seeing the Rangers barely able to damage the monsters when split up into two groups put into question how they will be able to deal with all the monsters hiding in the world. The struggle forced the Rangers act in ways they wouldn’t normally, such as Billy having to shoot Zack to get him out of the way of in order to save him from being killed. That struggle made the fact Zack was the one who came up with a quick plan to defeat the mole monster elevate him as a Ranger in the field.

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With how tough the fight turned out to be Higgins provided a strong reason for Grace Sterling’s presence in this story. There is absolutely no way the Rangers can handle things on their own, especially without Zordon around. Putting Grace in a position to provide them with the help they need further expands on this world created for the comic book version of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

The big reveal of Grace being a former Red Ranger under Zordon was a strong way to transition into the next big story arc for this series. This reveal quickly provides us with a strong understanding as to why Grace would be the one would seek out the Rangers for a a team-up between them and her organization. It also creates even more questions as to what other operations Zordon and Alpha have run during their time on Earth before the current era of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

For as much focus as the team’s adventures as Power Rangers was highlighted it was nice to see Higgins continue to develop their lives outside their superhero lives. Continuing to emphasize how Billy, and by extension Tommy’s, parents have not gotten over the traumatizing experience of their children missing further showed the consequences of their adventures. This spotlight humanizes the Power Rangers world more as we see that they do struggle with how to balance being superheroes while being normal teenagers that try not stress their parents out.

Along with this, it continues to be fun to see how Higgins is developing Kimberly and Tommy’s relationship. Even though we know they get together does not mean that Higgins needs to rush their love story. By taking his time we are able to see more of their individual personal lives develop, just as we saw Kimberly’s restrained emotions for her father’s engagement. These small touches make the time that Kimberly and Tommy finally have a real talk about their feelings have an even greater impact.

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With Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #19 filled with action Hendry Prasetya had plenty of opportunity to show off his strengths as an artist. That is exactly what Prasetya does as he creates some strong action panels that elevates the danger presented by Finster’s latest monster creations. That is nicely balanced out by how Prasetya continues to do a fine job with how he draws the various characters reaction in and out of the Power Rangers helmet.

The Bad: Nothing.

Overall: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #19 is a strong end to an arc that elevated Finster as a villain. Kyle Higgins did an excellent job expanding the Power Rangers mythos by treating them as protectors of the Earth rather than just Angel Grove, as seen in the TV show. The final reveal that ended this issue creates a strong transition to what may be the best story arc of the series so far. If you have ever been a Power Rangers fan I highly recommend picking this series up, especially with what is coming up in the immediate future.

1 thought on “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #19 Review

  1. I love that the rangers are venturing outside of Angel Grove and couldn’t be more excited to see some of the secret history of the rangers. This series has been so awesome and Finster is so cool as a villain. Probably one of my favourite comics right now.

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