Dig Into The Origin Of The Solar Ranger In MMPR #33

A ragtag group of Power Rangers are stranded out in the farthest reaches of space, beyond the view of the Morphin Grid. With their powers fading and no Zords to call upon for help, they were attacked by a mysterious Power Ranger called the Solar Ranger. Now a few of them have tracked her down to learn about her story and the deadly Praetor that rules this area with an iron fist.

Much of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #33 is spent with the Solar Ranger’s origin story. She didn’t get her powers from someone like Zordon. She inherited the strange Solarix device after a mistake led to the death of an alien monk. Since then, she’s been on the run from the Praetor and his forces who will stop at nothing to get the Solarix.
This could have come through as a history lesson, but the creators keep the information going at a brisk pace and artist Simone Di Meo has some fantastic visuals to move everything along. This picks up considerably when the Solar Ranger recalls her first few battles against the Praetor’s henchmen. She morphs, but not in the traditional way. It’s like she’s missing something. This is represented by glitches that appear around her body, like she’s fading in and out of existence.

Letterer Ed Dukeshire keeps the story moving with some solid caption box placement. There’s one shot that really stands out, when the Solar Ranger gets to a part within her tale where she has to stand up and fight against impossible odds. The text gets much larger and there’s an added emphasis on a particular word that eliminates all doubt as to the heroic qualities of this character.
The chaotic nature of the Solar Ranger comes through not only in her design, but her color scheme as well. You can’t call her the Purple Ranger or something like that. She’s much more. This is a Ranger that shouldn’t exist way out here beyond the reaches of the Morphin Grid. Colorists Walter Baiamonte and French Carlomagno give her a unique flow, especially for her arms and legs which look like a glimpse into the cosmos.

Introducing a new character into the wide world of the Power Rangers can be a monumental task. Writer Marguerite Bennett does this with deft precision, weaving the Solar Ranger’s story into the plight of our current team of Rangers as they each see a part of themselves within her. While I’m still getting up to speed on their backgrounds, this was a great way to help build the bonds not only between the team members, but between them and the reader.

The Beyond the Grid storyline really hits its stride in MMPR #33. Now that the Solar Ranger has been pulled into the fold, we get a look at the big bad in the Praetor and what this group is really up against. It wasn’t enough that they were potentially stranded on a ship that was slowly dying. Now they’ve got to deal with an army of aliens and spaceships without Zords to help them out. This issue brings everyone together in a big way and leaves on such an awesome cliffhanger.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #33 from Boom! Studios is currently available at your local comic shop and digitally through ComiXology and Amazon Kindle.