It Ain’t Easy Being Green — Reviewing ‘Power Rangers: Green’ #1

Since it’s creation, Power Rangers has been a franchise focused on color-coded teenagers with attitude balancing life and heroics. These rainbow-spectrum- clad heroes fight off monsters, deal with school and dating, and save the world.

What happens when the world is beyond saving though?

Enter Power Rangers: Green, the newest series from BOOM! Studios which showcases a stark future with Tommy Oliver as the final Ranger standing. This dystopian saga comes from Paul Allor, Gustaffo Vargas, and Ed Dukeshire.

-SPOILERS FOLLOW-

I’m going to be honest here, I am not sure how I feel about this series so far.

There was no way to fully know what to expect when popping the issue open finally. There was a sort of tone set with the small intro story in the Free Comic Book Day issue a few months ago. It didn’t completely prepare me, though, for what came with this full dive into the world and story.

We soon learn the world was ravaged somehow and, decades later, Tommy Oliver lives off the grid alongside the remains of the Dragonzord. He found Alpha 5 years ago. Reactivated him, they live and farm with a mysterious, seemingly alien, young woman named Mirella Vex, who is Tommy’s daughter. She speaks through sign language, making the assumption that she is likely deaf or hard-of-hearing. An aged and broken Goldar comes calling to ask Tommy for help dealing with the threat of the Red Censer, a magic destroying behemoth.

There are some other tidbits of world-building, but I want to leave some for you, the reader, to discover.

It’s an interesting premise, I’ll give them that. Overall, though, it kind of feels scattershot and trying to dive into things without taking any moments to slow down and really inform the reader. We get snippets here or there that at least paint a small portion of the full picture. Allor is trying to fit a lot into a small space. There are stakes setup, but they are nebulous without more of the foundation which could help us conceive what happened to the world.

There is a female villain, who I think is supposed to be an aged Scorpina or a returned Rita, but we don’t get any information about them. Other than that they are “helping” through ruthless means and are the one seemingly behind the Red Censer.

All of the art has a very rough texture to it, which is befitting the overall scenario. Vargas’ combines that with some more exaggerated body and facial work. It offers a surreal, sometimes silly tone alongside the heavier one it’s meant to evoke. It has a lot of grand strokes which help things feel more epic and wider in scale. All the settings are dense with detail and do feel lived-in and breathing in that mentally tangible way.

A brighter tone radiates through the colors Vargas utilizes. Much of what is on the page is happening in daytime and in wide open spaces or small towns, so it makes sense that the lighting would be much brighter and more natural-feeling. It leaves the heavier, darker tones less space to play around until we’re inside or night falls. They bounce up to a more vibrant level as the fantastical elements are given more of a focus, including the aforementioned Red Censor, as well as Tommy once he dons a (homemade) ranger costume.

Lettering that is given a little extra something can instantly change how a voice is heard in the head. Alpha is out-of-whack and, with a little change to the font, the glitching audio and staticky voice of the robot is loud and clear in my head. I heard each of the pauses, the repeats, and the age of this voice that has worn down. Similar for how Goldar’s lettering is presented. It’s beyond solid work — which is what Dukeshire always brings to the Power Rangers line and books in general.

Power Rangers: Green #1 is now available from BOOM! Studios.