Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #30 Review

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #30 (Shattered Grid) Review

The end of the biggest Power Rangers event in history, Shattered Grid, is almost over. This event has pushed every single Power Rangers team to the brink of non-existence. Drakkon has proven himself to be the most powerful villain that the Power Rangers have gone up against. Now with their backs against the wall the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers team have been able to assemble all of the remaining Power Rangers from across time and space to launch one final strike against Drakkon and his army. With all the surprises we have gotten so far it is not hard to expect even bigger surprises to happen before Shattered Grid reaches its final issue. Let’s find out with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #30.

Writer: Kyle Higgins (Shattered Grid); Ryan Ferrier (The New Adventures of Blue Senturion & Ninjor)

Artist: Daniele Di Nicuolo (Shattered Grid); Bachan (The New Adventures of Blue Senturion & Ninjor)

Colorist: Walter Baiamonte (Shattered Grid); Jordan Lawson (The New Adventures of Blue Senturion & Ninjor)

Story Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10

Art Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10

Overall Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: At Rita’s Moon Castle Rita Repulsa smuggling welcomes Zordon to her home and wonders if she should put a choker on Commander Kruger. Kruger gives Rita an angry look and tells her to try.

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Zordon gets the conversation back on track by stating Drakkon has put a great strain on the Grid and could end all of existence if he continues his ways. Rita understands that Zordon is there to ask for her help but reminds him that she is not scared of a Power Ranger. Zordon says that they need her help as Drakkon’s powers are based around the Green Ranger Power Ranger powers her Coinless Universe self gave him. Zordon finishes by saying only Rita can do what none of them, including another universe version of her, could accomplish. This intrigues Rita.

At Drakkon’s base, Drakkon finishes melting the Ninja Steel he stole and crafts a new sword with the Saba saber as the base. As he finishes his new sword Drakkon tells Finster to assemble their forces as he is expecting the Power Rangers to strike now that they have Ninjor on their side.

At the Command Center the different Power Rangers team get their weapons ready and talk with one another, including Jen Scott reuniting with Eric Meyers (Quantum Ranger) and Coinless Trini using the Black Dragon armor.

As that goes on Grace asks Coinless Kimberly (The Ranger Slayer) if she is going talk to Trini or the other Rangers. Coinless Kimberly says she doesn’t know what to say and would rather focus on the coming battle.

Outside the Command Center all of the Power Ranger teams assemble with their Megazords. Jason Scott gives an inspirational speech about how while Drakkon may have stolen many powers he does not have what they are or are a part of. Jason then says that they will fight together as they are Power Rangers. Everyone raises their fists and scream “POWER RANGERS.”

With his speech done Jason approaches Kimberly Hart. Jason gives her the Dragon Dagger and Green Ranger shield. Kimberly tearfully thanks Jason and they hug.

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A little later the Power Rangers successfully teleport near Drakkon’s base and notice the Ranger Sentries nearby. As they get ready Lauren Shiba tells Jason she is glad they got to meet.

Suddenly a number of Power Rangers are hit by a blast from Drakkon’s Space Ranger Sentries. Lauren tells all the Power Rangers with Battalizers to put them on. With everyone ready Jason leads the charge against Drakkon’s forces.

At Drakkon’s throne room Ninjor and Kruger take out the Red Ranger Sentries guarding the room. Rita uses her magic to discover the location of the Green Ranger Candle in the room.

Outside Drakkon’s castle the Power Rangers are using their Megazords to help even up the numbers.

Just as the battle starts turning in the Power Rangers favor Drakkon appears. He quickly takes out the Gold Ninja Steel Ranger and steals his powers.

Serpentera suddenly shows up and destroys several Megazords, including the Dino Megazord.

Several Power Rangers try to attack Drakkon together but he knocks them all back with his sword.

Kimberly appears from behind and uses her Power Bow to fire the Dragon Dagger at Drakkon. She successfully lands a hit and Drakkon’s powers suddenly start to weaken. Before the Power Rangers can continue their attack Drakkon decides to teleport away.

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Drakkon teleports into his throne room and finds Rita sitting on his chair with Zordon, Kruger and Ninjor next to her. Rita mocks Drakkon for how he built the foundation of his powers off the Green Ranger powers she gave him. Rita then tells Zordon that she will not hesitate to kill Drakkon.

Before she does Finster-5 uses Lord Zedd’s staff to knock Rita, Krugger, Ninjor and Zordon out.

When Finster-5 goes to check on his master. Drakkon states that his powers are getting weaker with each passing moment. Finster-5 tells Drakkon that he must not try to gain more power from the Grid as it could destroy him. Drakkon approaches Finster-5 and gets behind him. Finster-5 tells his master he loves him. Drakkon thanks Finster-5 for his loyalty and snaps his neck.

As the fighting outside between the Power Rangers and Drakkon’s forces intensifies Drakkon enters Finster-5’s lab. There he turns on the device with all the Power Ranger morphers he has gather. He turns it on and  begins to merge with all the Power Ranger powers. As he does so a white light covers his body. End of issue.

The Good: Once again Kyle Higgins knocks it out of the park with the latest chapter of Shattered Grid. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #30 delivered exactly what should be expected from the penultimate issue of a big event. Everything from strong character work to incredible action is all in this issue as we head into the final issue of the Shattered Grid event.

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Opening Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #30 with Zordon and Commander Kruger recruiting Rita Repulsa gave this issue a strong hook to kick things off. With Rita finally brought into the fold Higgins further put over the idea that Drakkon is a threat that Zordon and the Power Rangers need to exhaust every possible resource to combat. The entire tone of this opening scene has the necessary tension as we see how both Zordon and Commander Kruger wish they didn’t have to turn to Rita to aid in the fight. Knowing this Rita was able to be such a smug witch that kept her in a villainous light even when she is assisting the Power Rangers.

What made Rita’s recruitment even better was the fact that there was instant payoff in this sub-plot. Not waiting to see what Rita and Zordon do until the final issue of Shattered Grid was a reminder of how we are at the point that the Power Rangers can’t waste any time in taking down Drakkon. That sense of urgency elevated the major battle that was going outside Drakkon’s castle and what Zordon recruited Rita to do.

Speaking of which, the revelation that Rita was the key in taking Drakkon down because his powers were based around his original Green Ranger powers was well executed. It made complete sense given how we’ve never seen Drakkon ditch any of his powers. Instead all he has done is add on top of the original Green Ranger powers. Seeing as that was the case it was only logical that the Green Candle came back into play as it was what Rita used to take away Tommy Olivers Green Ranger powers in the original TV Show. Bringing this story element back into play for Shattered Grid was a great nostalgic move by Higgins that made sense within the rules he established for the comic book Power Ranger Universe.

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Having all that go on inside the castle further intensified the battle we saw take place against the Power Rangers and Drakkon’s army. Higgins did a fantastic job building to this with how we saw the Power Rangers make their final preparations. Scenes like Jen Scott reuniting with the only other Time Force Power Ranger in Eric Meyers was a touching scene. It balanced out with how we saw the other Power Ranger teams interacting with one another before the final battle.

This scene also finally brought the Coinless Universe version of Kimberly Hart, the former Ranger Slayer, into play. This is the first time we have seen Coinless Kimberly in the present as her story in Go Go Power Rangers finally wrapped up. Though we don’t see her do much else in this issue it was still good to see her. Given that she has yet to have her payoff against Drakkon it won’t be surprising to see Coinless Kimberly play a major role in the Shattered Grid finale.

All of these interactions perfectly built up to Jason Scott being the one to make the final inspirational speech to all the assemble Power Ranger teams before the big battle. Higgins did an excellent job paying off all the development he has done to show Jason as the ultimate Power Rangers leader. This was his shining moment to wipe away any question about why Jason is one of the most important Power Ranger in its history.

Jason’s show of force as leader was made even better by his scene with Kimberly right afterwards. Not only was Jason handing over a the Green Ranger shield and Dragon Dagger a greater leadership move but also shows the brother-sister bond that Higgins has developed between Jason and Kimberly. This was clearly something that Kimberly need to help heal from all the pain she has been through.

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And like the Rita development, Higgins did not wait to payoff what Kimberly would do with the Green Ranger powers. Just seeing her fire the Dragon Dagger with her Pink Ranger Power Bow at Drakkon was a fantastic visual. And with all she has been through this was a rewarding scene for fans. The fact that it help to weaken Drakkon at the same time that Rita was using the Green Candle made this attack by Kimberly even better.

Though no one Power Ranger stood out in the major battle outside Drakkon’s castle just seeing them all fighting together with Battilizers, Megazords and every other weapon at their disposal was a spectical to behold. The entire battle had an epic feeling of something that we have been building to since Shattered Grid started. Adding in elements like Serpentera surprise appearance just made the entire battle feel bigger than you could imagine as a fan.

All of this led to what is the strongest hook ending since Drakkon killed Tommy Oliver to kick off the Shattered Grid event. Drakkon killing Finster-5 so he wouldn’t stop him from doing what he wanted to achieve his goals was more heart breaking than expected. Higgins had develop such a good rapor between these two that you really felt like Finster-5 loved serving Drakkon. So for Drakkon to kill Finster-5 just put another nail in how evil of a villain Drakkon truly is. Now with Drakkon going all in with trying to become one with the Grid it’ll be very interesting to see how the Shattered Grid ends and who is left standing after all of this.

As great as Higgins writing was an equal amount of the credit for the success of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #30 has to go to Daniele Di Nicuolo. Nicuolo absolutely knocked it out of the park with all the different Power Rangers and Megazords he had to draw. What made the artwork even more amazing was that there was never a point that it felt like too much was going on in a single panel or page. Nicuolo packed every panel and page perfectly to keep the action and dialogue flowing at a natural pace.

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The Bad: As phenomenal as Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #30 is the one minor complaint for this issue was the disappearance of Coinless Kimberly in the final battle. While she may end up doing something in the final issue of Shattered Grid it would’ve been great to see her team-up with Mighty Morphin Kimberly to land the Dragon Dagger strike. That would made an already great moment even better, especially given how we saw the two Kimberly’s interact in the Ranger Slayer arc over in Go Go Power Rangers.

Overall: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #30 delivered incredible moments that will have fans talking for a long time. Kyle Higgins clear vision for what he wants Shattered Grid to be comes off the page. That clear vision only adds to how epic of an event Shattered Grid has turned out to be. Adding in the best artwork Daniele Di Nicuolo has delivered to date made Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #30 a phenomenal issue from top to bottom.