This article is about a/an comic book issue in the Power Rangers comic sub-franchise by Boom! Studios. |
Saban’s Go Go Power Rangers: Back To School is a special issue of the Go Go Power Rangers comic by Boom! Studios that focuses on the daily lives of the Power Rangers.
Synopsis[]
It’s Spring Break for the Rangers, and the first time since they received their Power Coins that the Rangers will be apart. As they each embark on their own week-long vacation, these teenagers with attitude discover that being a hero doesn’t always mean having to morph!
Plot[]
The gang meets up in the Command Center, having returned home to Angel Grove after a peaceful week of spring break doing separate activities and go back and forth asking each other what they did over break. Kimberly and the other encourage Jason go first, despite his initial reluctance to do so.
The Micropachycephalosaurus[]
Jason spent his spring break volunteering as an ASL student teacher's assistant at the Angel Grove Children's Center. The teacher, Mrs. Effendi, introduces the children to Jason and then gives Jason a special assignment by helping a little girl named Eliza Reyes. Eliza recently lost her hearing in an accident and has trouble communicating with others in sign language, Mrs. Effendi wants Jason to try and work with her on it.
Jason tells his friends while telling the story that while he is great at teaching physical activities to kids, learning problems and tutoring kids to overcome them aren't his strong suit as he felt more pressure to try and help Eliza succeed. Eliza doesn't take his approach well and soon gets frustrated, despite Jason's positive encouragement. Jason felt like a failure as he knew Eliza was depending on him and he couldn't figure out how to reach her. The next week, he goes to Mrs. Effendi's house and tells her he may resign as he doesn't feel confident he can help Eliza. Mrs. Effendi speaks in sign and says that his sign language skills have improved in the time he has been with the students. Jason isn't so sure as Eliza seems so unhappy. Mrs. Effendi says that pride in a teacher's ability alone cannot reach kids and it is important to respect each student's individual ways of learning. Jason realizes he needs to be able to put that pride aside and be willing to learn with his students in all the different ways they do.
The next day, Jason tries a different approach and asks Eliza to talk about what she likes. Eliza shows Jason that she likes to draw dinosaurs, since her father is a paleontologist. She opens up to him and tells him the name of her favorite dinosaur in sign language, Micropachycephalosaurus, a complex word in sign to read, but Jason manages to interpret it correctly and is impressed by how well she is communicating with him. Eliza smiles and asks Jason what his favorite dinosaur is, to which he responds that her favorite is probably his favorite too.
Zack's story[]
Zack tells his spring break story next, having visited his older brother Benjamin at his congressional aide job in Washington D.C. to help him with a legislative case on residential and small business insurance reform. Zack meets California Senator Kamakau whom is trying to get a bill passed to help reform insurance claims and Benjamin assures the senator that his little brother can pull through on helping file the paperwork. Later, Zack is at a desk and is intimidated by how much paperwork is involved, but his brother explains that this case is important. Benjamin says that not all good deeds in life are glamorous or brings reward and sometimes, especially in politics, doing the right thing can give you more enemies than friends. But this filing needs to be done as the bill will die in office in the final vote without it, as the last time it was presented before the senate, a filing error resulted in the bill being shot down. If the bill fails, a lot of people could be homeless and/or lose their businesses and Senator Kamakau could lose her job next election due to greedy insurance companies refusing to pay out. He shows him a file, revealing the bill is for Angel Grove to cover insurance for damages caused by Rita's monsters and the Power Rangers. Many of the articles have comments from selfish insurance company executives and adjusters saying that the people of Angel Grove should just move and abandon their homes or that they will only cover natural disasters and not a penny more. Seeing all these selfish comments in the articles and what might happen to his home if they fail gives Zack the determination to work hard to get the paperwork filing completed.
Zack tells his friends that he couldn't go about this problem as a Power Ranger and repeats what his brother said, the good done in the world isn't always the coolest or most rewarding, but it needs to be done. After hours of work and days of long sleepless nights, the bill comes to a vote and it passes into a law. Senator Kamakau thanks her hard working staff for their efforts on national television as the aides celebrate, while a very tired Zack is fast asleep in a chair, his brother Benjamin smiling as he goes back to work.
Trini's Story[]
Trini is next and tells her friends she was in northern Baja, California at the Northwind Ranch. The horses there are all rescues from places where they were neglected, abused or starved by their cruel owners. At Northwind, they get a second chance at life and a happier home on the ranch. Trini's favorite horse was Pineapple, a young mare that was abused by her previous owner, which Trini cared for.
One day, a bad storm hit and knocked down the fences, with the thunder spooking the horses and some of them running off away from the ranch, including Pineapple. Trini rode a horse to the canyons and wouldn't stop until she found her, and sensed somehow she was nearby. Trini then sees Pineapple trapped and injured in-between two rocks below her in the canyon and surrounded by coyotes who are ready to attack and eat her. Trini morphs into the Yellow Ranger and uses her whistle to scare off the coyotes, but her morphed form scares Pineapple as she bucks trying to get out and hits Trini. Trini takes off her helmet and tries to calm her down, but soon realizes she is in an area with no cell service to call the ranchers. It was getting dark and the coyotes could come back in greater numbers to attack Pineapple again and it was a long climb back up the canyon on foot. Trini knew she had to help Pineapple, and to do that meant getting hurt by her as the frightened horse didn't understand her intentions. As Trini tries to pull Pineapple out, the mare bites her as it hurts and reminds her of how her old owners used to treat her. Despite the fact her instincts were telling her to run to get away from the coyotes, Trini felt responsible and didn't want anything bad to happen to the mare as she calmly tells Pineapple that she promises nobody will hurt her again and hugs her. She tries gently to tug Pineapple out of the rocks, getting her out as it starts to pour down rain and escapes before more coyotes come, both safely returning to the ranch together.
Billy's Story[]
Billy tells his friends that he spent the spring break doing public speaking, albeit against his will as his parents wanted him not to be cooped up in the house and work on his social skills. He is sent to the Skylar Street Food Festival to do a public speaking event to get recognition on his resume and at ivy league colleges. Billy walks into a tent, passing by a pair of racists who angrily comment about its occupant, a Syrian girl named Nazik Al-Khoury who just moved to America with her parents and was originally from Scotland. She spills some food while trying to run the kitchen and is naturally upset as she is scared of the hostile people outside and is supposed to speak on behalf of her parents at the event. Nazik feels tremendous pressure, as her speech is an appeal to remain a citizen of the U.S. Billy comforts her and tells Nazik that the people who bully her are the real trash and not her. He confides in her that he was pressured by his parents too and isn't good at speaking in public crowds either. He offers to help her at her speech in a unique way, which Nazik accepts. Billy walks on stage and orchestrates an accident by spilling food, which upsets the audience further, but this briefly distracts them from Nazik.
Nazik explains on stage that it wasn't Billy's fault and spilling the shakriyeh was (supposedly) an accident. She explains that, like many immigrants before her, all she wants is to live with her neighbors, make new friends and build a better life in the US by working hard with her community to build a brighter future. With her newfound confidence and determination, Nazik manages to impress the crowd with her public speech. Some of the people in the crowd ask her parents about where they are from and what shakriyeh is as they loved how good it smelled and want some. Nazik's younger siblings tell her how proud their father is of her for standing on stage and speaking to the crowds. Nazik thanks Billy for his help and hugs him for being so kind for her.
How I Spent My Spring Break[]
Kimberly's turn is next, though she complains that her story won't be as interesting as the others because she was stuck at home studying. Her parents, now divorced, are "helicopter parenting" her into studying to overcompensate for not being there for her. However, Kimberly sneaks out at night to train as the Pink Ranger. The story switches back and forth to a school notebook with Kimberly explaining her secrets to sneaking out called "Kimberly's Guide to Breaking and Exiting". On the first Friday, Kimberly morphs once she sneaks out and goes out to do target practice with her bow. On Saturday, Kimberly writes in her notes again and narrates that she never snuck out of the house a year ago, but her parent's divorce changed that. She seems to harbor resentment to her father for leaving her mom and how "phoned in" their affection towards her seems. She covered up her sneaking out by making a white lie to her parents that she had taken up walking and jogging to keep in shape if she is caught coming back in.
On Sunday, Helen Hart notices that a window has been left open in the house and on Monday she notices that Kimberly didn't bring down her clothes to the laundry room. On Tuesday, Kimberly is in her Zord flying around on a moonlit night and does so again on Wednesday. Kimberly confesses she loves being a Power Ranger, a lot, as she loves her powers, her Zord and her friends and that being a Ranger and able to see the world by flying through the sky gave her a love of all of the world and a desire to protect it. On Thursday, Helen finds that there are mudprints on the wall of the house where the garden is while watering the lawn and finally figures out what is going on. On Friday morning, Kimberly is on top of her Zord watching the sun come up in the air and then decides to return home.
Upon trying to sneak back into her room from the window at night, Kimberly finds her mother standing in her bedroom waiting for her with a very stern look on her face. Helen angrily tells her daughter she knows when she is lying to her, as she has raised her long enough to know certain tells to when Kimberly is lying and heard her climbing in and out of the window. Helen places a stack of textbooks at Kimberly's desk and tells her she is grounded and will do a month's worth of study prep for her return to school next month. Kimberly sulks but agrees to her punishment, as the Pterodactyl Dinozord can be seen flying away in the distance. Kimberly narrates that she learned that relying on the same trick once too often ultimately gets you in trouble.
Epilogue[]
Covers[]
Reprints[]
- Go Go Power Rangers Volume Six
- Go Go Power Rangers Volume One Deluxe Edition
Errors[]
- to be added
Notes[]
- In Jason's story, the Angel Grove Children's Center windows have different drawings on them made by the kids when Jason heads into the building. Among the drawings are pictures of Godzilla, a Kamen Rider, Kaneda from Akira, Finn and Jake from Adventure Time, Ultraman and the Blue Ranger.
- Zack's story addresses a source of complaints by people in the real world in how the world of Power Rangers deals with property damage caused by Rita's Monsters and the Power Rangers. It is shown that greedy insurance companies do not wish to cover any damages nor do some politicians, but a bill was eventually passed into law by the U.S. Congress to provide federal aid to victims of monster attacks and have rights to claims from insurance agencies for damages.
- Kimberly's story addresses that by this point after the events of Shattered Grid from the Go Go Power Rangers timeline, Kimberly's parents have officially been divorced for several months.
- Shakriyeh is a lamb stew made with a yogurt base sauce. It is a popular Syrian dish usually served for large groups of people such as family gatherings or special celebrations.
- In Billy's story, he mentions he stays morphed under his clothes. This is a callback to Issue 10 of the main comic book, as Billy was often scared and lacked confidence in his early days as a Ranger.
References[]
Footnotes[]