A Whole New World — Reviewing ‘Power Rangers Prime’ #3

To make a good rebooted universe, it’s important to find the right balance of “familiar” and “new” to throw into the mix. You have to shake things up, while giving the audience enough touchstones to be able to follow wherever the story might lead.

Power Rangers Prime has achieved this formula in a masterful way, as the third issue shakes things up even more. What Melissa Flores, Michael Yg, Fabi Marques, and Ed Dukeshire are pulling off here is morphin-ominal.

Eltarians are the colonizers of Earth. Power Rangers are mostly myth. VR Troopers are celebrity law enforcement. Rita Repulsa has a connection to the morphing grid. An unlikely group of young people (human and alien alike) have been brought together.

If that isn’t a solid mix of familiar and different, then I don’t know what is. We’re only three issues in, and this world already feels fleshed out with such massive depth. It feels like I’ve been reading about it for way more years. That’s because Flores has such a love of this franchise and a deft hand at character writing and world building. Showing the pages with that love and knowledge, filling in the gaps with flourish.

Seeing a Rita that is evil, but quite different than any version we’ve seen before is definitely a delight. Flores playing with Rita in the final years of the previous volume was a favorite aspect of mine. To see her  playing with the character more here is great. Even the unexpected moment of team-up at the end, and Rita’s part in birthing new Power Rangers is exciting.

Speaking of which, I really like the slow burn here. The team takes its time getting to the point where we learn and know these characters before they invariably become the Rangers of the story. This gives us a group that is having to learn to be around one another with clear flaws and cracks.

Darkness is inherent in this world, being colonized and all, yet here is still the light of hope. Yg and Marques make sure to deliver that on all counts artistically.

All of Yg’s artwork has a dense feeling to it. Plentiful details and scale allow every panel to showcase this fully fleshed out world. Not just the settings, but also the characters have a presence and sense of personal authority. Just a tinge of rough textures help reflect the harsher side of this story while the fluidity of everything else showcases the softer side. All of the work showcases emotions is really working as that energy radiates off the page.

Deceptively simple choices in paneling keep it all moving and growing. We get a bit of a fight here and the characters are almost dancing across the page in the moment. It’s not a huge fight but it’s also monumentally big in importance. Yg makes sure that is felt with how it’s laid out and brought to fruition. Can’t forget that moment where our first full Ranger of the era arrives and how damn glorious it all feels.

Within the color palette, Marques is pulling from the same well. A lot of the colors feel bright and shiny. This shows how, despite the oppression and colonization, those doing the conquering try to make it all feel ‘normal’ and ‘acceptable’ to keep the colonized in line. Alongside all those shiny bright colors, though, are a lot of darker tones. Shadows and heavier versions of certain color tones help to give that heaviness that is ever present.

There is a sort of toned down quality to many of the establishing colors. This gives the world a semi familiarity and grounded sense before the really vibrant fantastical ones arrive. I love how there is a distinct difference to how the colors play out based on the overall lighting from day to night, or inside vs outside. Marques makes sure that whatever colors are present reflect the amount and type of light that is reflected upon them.

Characters are going through a lot here. We see it on their faces and through their body movements while also hearing it in their words. Dukeshire is more than practiced at nailing the sort of light and dark of Power Rangers stories. He allows each character, new and old, really have a solid identifiable voice on the page, taking each of the words as scripted and infusing them with the right emotional energy with just a few choices.

Modifications allow the words to reach their max potential, while also making sure their placement and flow on the page also reaches a certain level. Some of these characters might be new to us, but their voices are already becoming quite familiar.

Power Rangers Prime #3 is now available from BOOM! Studios.