 This article is about a/an comic book issue in the Power Rangers comic sub-franchise by Boom! Studios.
|
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Return #2 is the second issue of the comic book limited series, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Return.
The series is written by the original Pink Ranger Amy Jo Johnson and Matt Hotson to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Power Rangers.
Synopsis[]
Amy Jo Johnson-the Pink Ranger herself-continues leading this alternate universe story, with the classic Mighty Morphin Power Rangers plagued by tragedy. Kimberly reflects on a shocking choice she had to make all those years ago when telling the story of the Rangers' final hour against Rita and Zedd!
But, did they make it out in time, and what ramifications did their final battle have for Earth in the present, including for Trini's mysterious niece, Selena?[1][2]
Plot[]
Chapter Two: The Next Power Ranger
Kimberly decides to tell the story of what happened 22 years ago in the hopes of discouraging Selena from becoming a Power Ranger.
The final battle on the Moon in 2001.
The Evil Space Aliens popped open a bottle of champagne in celebration of the death of Zordon and Alpha 5 on the Moon, only for the Power Rangers to storm in with their Zords. Lord Zedd is ready for them, telling Finster to prepare their army of monsters. What they don’t know is that this is a diversion, as Kimberly and Tommy are preparing the Benevolator, a device that the Rangers made filled with Morphin Grid Energy that will theoretically incapacitate the enemy of all evil by releasing a wave of purification. All the couple has to do is push a remote detonator once the device is placed, deciding to plant it in Rita and Zedd’s Bedroom.
Rita leaves the throne room to fetch Squatt from his bedroom as he is missing all the excitement and then stumbles upon the Green and Pink Rangers in her bedchamber. She calls forth some Putties to try and kill Kimberly and takes on the Green Ranger personally.
Outside, Jason is facing Goldar in his Zord and ordering his team to hold the line as they need to keep stalling the enemy army until the device is activated. Lord Zedd revels in watching the final battle against the Power Rangers, but is concerned that his wife has not returned yet, ordering Finster to go find her.
Back in Rita’s bedroom, she admits that she didn’t think the heroes had the guts to try and kill her. Tommy says that the Benevolator will not kill Rita, it will purify and pacify her, make her into a good person. Rita mocks the Rangers for being too weak to kill their enemies even after the death of their mentor Zordon. She zaps Tommy with her wand, sending him flying into the Benevolator, she then relentlessly casts magic blasts, gloating in triumph that it is all over for them. Just as she is about to kill Tommy, powering up her wand with a huge amount of energy, an arrow fired by Kimberly pierced her heart, killing her.
Distraught, Kimberly said she didn’t mean to kill Rita, but her husband Tommy says it is fine as they had no other way of stopping her. Squatt runs in to see Rita lying dead on the floor with the Rangers standing over her. The couple saw their plan had run into a complication: the casing of the Benevolator has been damaged and the Grid Energy inside is now activated as the glass slowly cracks further. They try to get a hold of someone, contacting Jason who is struggling to hold their positions outside as Goldar is smacking them around.
Billy says that there is a fail safe detonator that activates the Benevolator in ten seconds. Kimberly knows that isn’t enough time for them to get out of there, but Tommy says that he can push the button and teleport out of there. Kimberly refuses to leave her husband behind, reminding him that they vowed “‘til death do they part”. Tommy says that she absolutely cannot stay behind (implying that Tommy knows she is pregnant).
Billy adds that there is something he forgot to mention, the Benevolator’s power is proportional to the amount of dark energy it comes in contact with. Unfortunately, with all the new monsters that have been spawned, he calculates that the force of energy released will set off an explosion that will make a huge hole in the moon the size of Angel Grove. Jason says there is no other way as their Zords are taking heavy damage and they are about to be overwhelmed.
Kimberly is crying, refusing to leave her husband, but he reminds her that she promised him if things got bad she would bail out. He tells her that he loves her and gives her one last kiss as Jason shouts over the comms that they need to detonate now as the Zords are failing, ordering Billy, Zack and Trini to bail out as their Zords get ripped apart by the enemy forces, with all four of them teleporting out just in time. Lord Zedd relishes in victory, only for the last thing he would ever hear being Squatt rushing in and giving him the tragic news that his wife is dead as the Benevolator detonated.
The Rangers teleported back to Earth and watch the lunar explosion from the ruins of the Command Center, they at first celebrated except for Kimberly who is horrified and in tears. They then realized that Tommy isn’t with them as Trini goes to comfort her best friend over the death of her husband as Kimberly starts to grieve. Instead of blowing a hole on the Moon’s surface, the Benevolator’s explosion blew off a large chunk off of the Moon.
Kimberly in the present ends the story saying that her husband saved the world that day at the cost of his life. She doesn’t know what happened in those final moments before the device detonated, but Kimberly feels that if only she stayed with her husband, maybe she could have saved him. Selena says she is sorry to hear that and asks what happened to the other Rangers. Kimberly says that the world didn’t need them anymore and they all went their separate ways, they were only kids when they became Rangers and they needed to live their own lives as adults.
Selena says that Kimberly did more than move on, she seems to have abandoned her life entirely, hiding behind a new name and living out in the woods of Canada in isolation. Kimberly says she just needed a fresh start and ran away from being Kimberly Hart and a Power Ranger to do so. She then picks up Trini’s morpher and tells Selena that her late relative would not want her to be the next Power Ranger, she believes that Trini entrusted the morpher to Selena to give it to her best friend to hide away as no one should be the next Power Ranger. If the morpher fell into the wrong hands it would be disastrous and promises to keep it safe. She opens a hidden safe where her morpher is and stores Trini’s morpher inside.
Selena asks to hold Kimberly’s morpher, which she allows, but then Selena acts strangely by asking if she enjoyed killing Rita. Kimberly asks why she would say something like that, which Selena presses further by asking if she even felt a teensy bit of relief that every enemy she had was killed. Kimberly is upset by Selena’s insinuation, saying that the Rangers had no intention of killing anyone that day and that the Benevolator had a malfunction causing that to happen. Selena then asks Kimberly if she thinks there would be anyone like Rita and Zedd again, if the world would need the Power Rangers again. Kimberly says no, with Selena having a sinister grin on her face asking if she is sure about that.
Selena reveals her true nature.
A violent burst of energy erupts out, shattering the windows and lighting in Kimberly’s cabin home as “Selena” reveals herself to be a white haired villainess with Rita Repulsa’s magic wand holding Kimberly’s morpher: “How about now?”
Kimberly is terrified and shocked, dodging a swing from her assailant’s wand, but manages to fight back and knock the morpher out of “Selena”’s hand. “Selena” says that it will take more than that to hurt her and she has waited so long for this. Kimberly demands to know who her attacker is, but both hear a car pulling up to the driveway. “Selena” is surprised that Kimberly was expecting company, speculating that she has a secret lover and she can’t wait to meet them.
This angers Kimberly who dives for her morpher, but she trembles as she holds it, hesitating to attempt to morph for a second until “Selena” goads her to do it. Kimberly shouts: “It’s Morphing Time!”, but gets whacked hard on the head with Selena’s wand and knocked out before she can even start morphing. “Selena” takes the morpher back and says that she really doesn’t think it is.
A black Dodge Charger parks and its driver exits the vehicle, a voice says that she is home and asks why are all the lights turned off, only to see the house torn apart. She then sees that the hidden safe above the fireplace has been left wide open and its contents are missing. The young girl then starts to worry:
“Oh no…Mom!?!”
To be continued…
Appearing[]
Featured Characters:
| Red Ranger | Jason Lee Scott (flashback) |
| Blue Ranger | Billy Cranston (flashback) |
| Black Ranger | Zack Taylor (flashback) |
| Yellow Ranger | Trini Kwan (flashback) |
| Green Ranger | Tommy Oliver (flashback) |
| Pink Ranger | Kimberly Hart |
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Rita Repulsa (flashback)
- Lord Zedd (flashback)
- Goldar (flashback)
- Scorpina (flashback)
- Squatt (flashback)
- Baboo (flashback)
- Finster (flashback)
- Madame Woe (flashback)
- Dark Warrior (flashback)
- Genie (flashback)
- Eye Guy (flashback)
- Minotaur (flashback)
- Pudgy Pig (flashback)
- King Sphinx (flashback)
- Frankenstein Monster (flashback)
- Terror Toad (flashback)
- Goatan (flashback)
- Polluticorn (flashback)
- Shellshock (flashback)
- Putty Patrollers (flashback)
- Z Putty Patrollers (flashback)
- Selena
Locations:
- Moon (flashback)
- Earth
- Command Center (flashback)
- Kimberly's House
Covers[]
Errors[]
- The description for the advertisement of the issue erroneously refers to Selena as Trini’s niece when she stated in the previous issue that she was the daughter of Trini’s cousin, making her the first cousin once removed of the family.
- In the panel showing a close-up of Trini's Morpher and a photo of her and Kim, Trini's right hand is not fully colored, exposing the background behind it, the line art also extends past the edge of the photo.
Notes[]
- Based on the description of releasing a wave of purification made of Grid Energy, the Benevolator was essentially something like a Z-Wave bomb. Due to a miscalculation by Billy and it malfunctioning, the device has the destructive force of a nuclear weapon when exposed to a large amount of dark energy.
- Amy Jo Johnson and David Yost did a live reading of Issue 2 on social media, reprising their roles as Kimberly and Billy.[3]
References[]
Footnotes[]
