Mighty Morphin Power Rangers didn’t premier in America until I was in third grade. At this point I was nearly too old to start following a series that would last this long, but since one of my friends the same age as me turned me on to it, I didn’t care. It was a substitute for the Ninja Turtles, which I loved when I was younger, but had nearly forgotten at that point as it was barely on TV anymore. It had giant robots, which I didn’t much care for, but the mutant monsters and superheroes was what got me hooked.
Two years ago, when Boom Studios premiered a new Power Rangers comic with the original run of characters, I was pretty psyched. Even reading the first couple of issues I realized it wasn’t written for the original viewers of the show, but instead current audiences. Nevertheless, it had all my favorite characters, including the Green Ranger, Tommy Oliver, who I have been a fan of from the start. I thought it was cool to see a new story featuring the original lineup, as if the show had never changed from rangers to ninjas and kept evolving.
The comic story did change however, and I’m glad it did. As the main series progressed, a new character, in a new universe, appeared—Lord Drakkon. Sounds a bit like “Dragon,” right? That’s because he is the Dragon ranger—Tommy. Combining the costumes for the green and white rangers, this version of Tommy never fought Rita Repulsa and stayed evil, until finally killing Rita herself. His yearning for power grew so much that he defeated the other rangers, stole their power coins, and used the powers to create his own army that would fight alongside him, as Drakkon crossed the barriers of other universes where other rangers existed and took their power as well.
This fight crossed both the main series, as well as Go Go Power Rangers, the prequel series. It introduced alternate versions of our main six, as well as the other generations of rangers since the late ‘90s, when the lineup truly began to change, bringing space, mystic, and megaforce rangers into battle, commanded by Zordon and Anubis Crugger.
Recently published, Shattered Grid brings this fight to an end, saving the good Tommy, while not quite defeating his evil counterpart. Yet, despite its cheesy conclusion, the events of this battle may not be done completely, allowing the series to continue on the darker path it had taken, versus the original lighthearted, third-grade approach to the rangers.
If you were a fan of the Power Rangers in any of its generations, I highly recommend starting the series from issue #1. Most of the issues are now available in trade, and if your public library has Hoopla, both series can be found in their entirety for free.