Pain From The Depths — Reviewing ‘Power Rangers Prime’ #6

Fear is one of the most powerful emotions. It can hold us back while filling our minds with dread.

Part of becoming a Power Ranger means finding the ability to overcome things like fear, to stand up for yourself and others in the name of what is right. While the universe is a bit scrambled, this still remains largely true for the Power Rangers Prime.

Peeling back the curtain, Melissa Flores, Jo Mi-Gyeong, Ellie Wright, and Ed Dukeshire bring us a story of fear, courage, and origins for the Blue Prime Ranger.

One of the beautiful things this universe has done is blending multiple eras of Ranger history into one story. It takes various spaces, races, and elements that never interacted too much and pairing them off. Mark, the aforementioned Blue Ranger, being half-Human and half-Aquitian opens so many interesting avenues. The people of Aquitar were only a small blip in the overall landscape of the 30+ years of Power Rangers television.

They deserve much more to be done with them.

Flores weaves Mark’s backstory and the present day stuff seamlessly. It makes sense that, as he sits captured by the VR Troopers, the fears and moments of the past come to the forefront of his mind. Each one washes over the other till the moment of courage happens. A timid and traumatized young person rises up and takes back their power.

Something really powerful comes from this story and moment. All of it is born from Flores’ continued clear love for this franchise and everything within. She’s able to show that love while looking at everything with a critical eye, mixing and matching the pieces with practiced ease and gusto.

A light touch, with a heavier hand not far behind. This describes much of the story overall within this issue. Naturally, that encompasses the artwork as well. Mi-Gyeong sits within that sweet spot between more natural and more exaggerated artistic styles. The harder pencils and rougher textures shine through the somewhat lighter exaggerated depictions.

This bodes well for the heavy level of alien races and spaces featured this month. Each has their own energy and appearance while letting it all flow together. Leaning into the fact that these various people and species are very different from one another.

Similarly, Wright brings a heavier and more somber color palette to bear. So many of the various colors are more muted, laden with shadows and darker tones, compared to the more vibrant flashiness we expect from Power Rangers. Those bits are still in play though as there are various elements that need the more unusual color swatches. They just happen to be naturally muted amongst the tones of this world.

Blues and browns play more of a role here, fitting with the Aquitar setting.  The color tone choice is  mirrored in Mark’s appearance and feeling on this adopted world.

Dialogue and captions split the two time periods. One often leads into the other even as everything around them changes. Dukeshire knows how to wield the given lettering with power. Voices ring true and loudly, even those we’re unfamiliar with, on the page. This sells every emotion and action moment without fail, drifting through the currents of the issue to arrive precisely as they are intended.

Power Rangers Prime #6 is now available from BOOM! Studios.