This article is about a/an comic book issue in the Power Rangers comic sub-franchise by Boom! Studios. |
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #20 is the twenty-first actual issue of the Boom! Studios comic book series, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers which begins its numbering with Issue 0. It features the Mighty Morphin team.
Like every fifth issue of a story arc, this comic deviates from the main plot to bring focus on a single character. This issue focuses on the past of Grace Sterling, following her revelation last issue that she was once the Red Ranger and introduces the Power Rangers of 1969 as well as Psycho Green of the Psycho Rangers.
Synopsis[]
An eye-opening new piece of Power Rangers history is revealed! Well before Jason, Zack, Kimberly, Billy, and Trini became Power Rangers, Zordon was forced to recruit Rangers to battle a foe who’s downright… psycho.[1]
Plot[]
The issue opens with the 1969 Moon Landing as viewed by five different people. Nikolai Chukarin, a KGB intelligence analyst, watches from his home in Moscow, Jamie Gilmore, a British singer and musician, watches from a pub in London. Terona Washington, an African American soldier, watches from an Army hospital where he is convalescing following injuries received while fighting in Vietnam. Daniel O’Halloran, a college student involved with the anti-war movement, watches with with a crowd in a park. And Grace Sterling, the head of NASADA ’s secretarial pool, watches from NASADA’s headquarters. As the astronaut sets foot on the Moon’s surface, a ship on the other side of the Moon senses the presence of life and starts to revive someone from suspended animation.
Afterwards, Grace’s co-worker Marcus finds her on the roof of the NASADA complex. She is bitter that she wasn’t up there, even though she had scored tops in her class on astronaut training. Marcus tried to raise her spirits and say that times are changing, but she resigns herself to the possibility that her dreams of being up in space will never come true. At that moment, she is teleported by Zordon and Alpha 5 to the Command Center where she finds Terona, Jamie, Daniel, and Nikolai trying to figure out what is going on. After calming them all down (and activating the Command Center’s translation software so Nikolai can understand everyone), Zordon and Alpha 5 explain why they have been called there.
Around 1869, Dark Specter sent his right hand Psycho Green of the Psycho Rangers to the Earth’s moon under orders to free Rita Repulsa from her space prison. However, thanks to defense cannons they had on Earth, Zordon and Alpha 5 shot Psycho Green out of orbit, and his ship crashed on the moon. Unbeknownst at the time to the either Zordon or Alpha 5, Psycho Green survived and his ship placed him in suspended animation until it could detect lifeforms for a possible rescue attempt. The current Moon Landing has triggered the systems in Psycho Green’s ship to start the reanimation process. Zordon and Alpha 5 have jammed the radio signals to prevent a rescue attempt, and begs the five people assembled to use the power of the Power Rangers to stop Psycho Green once and for all before he releases Rita. Grace accepted the mission once she learned she could get her wish and be on the Moon, and brought the team together by encouraging them to at least try to go along with it. Thus she, Terona, Daniel, Jamie, and Nikolai became the Red, Yellow, Pink, Black, and Blue Rangers respectively; with Grace being the the de facto leader due to her experience at NASADA.
Alpha 5 then teleported the 1969 Rangers to the moon near the Aitken Crater, where Grace had a brief moment where she cried tears of joy as she touched the lunar surface. The moment was ruined a bit by her team bickering thanks to Nikolai and Jamie’s culture clash and Terona and Daniel being on opposite sides on the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, but Grace soon got the situation under control; sending Jamie and Nikolai on reconnaissance while she, Tenora, and Daniel examined and secured Rita's dumpster prison. Eventually Psycho Green found Jamie and Nikolai and attacked. He hit Nikolai so hard that he would have flown off into space had Grace not caught him. Psycho Green then picked up a boulder and crushed Jamie to death. The Rangers fought back, but Psycho Green shattered the visor of Daniel’s helmet, causing him to die from asphyxiation. Grace, Nikolai, and Terona managed to combine the Power Sword, Power Lance, and Power Daggers to form a modified version of the Power Blaster, but rather than destroy Psycho Green, it energized him to take on a larger, more powerful monster form. The three Rangers retreated to what would become Rita Repulsa’s Moon Palace and found one of the defense cannons that took down Psycho Green’s ship. After looking at it, Terona mentioned that it would have to be a point blank shot for it to work. Nikolai took the cannon, told Grace and Terona to make the world worth fighting for, allowed Psycho Green to swallow him whole, and fired the defense cannon which killed himself and Psycho Green.
Back at the Command Center, Terona and Grace were furious at Zordon over the deaths of Daniel, Jamie, and Nikolai; with Terona saying that it was irresponsible of Zordon to send people not trained in either using their powers or working together into battle, and Grace livid at the apparent shallowness of Zordon's apology. Their anger was magnified by Zordon's insistence that they would have to surrender their powers now that the danger had passed. Grace insisted that they could use the powers they have to fix the world and do so much more like ending the Vietnam War or the Cold War. Zordon refused as this would breach his code of ethics, as it is not their place to interfere in mankind's affairs, even if the intent is good. Both are disgusted by Zordon's actions, and end up leaving the Command Center; with Grace still in possession of Psycho Green’s dagger.
The Ongoing Misadventures of Squatt and Baboo[]
Squatt and Baboo face the Megazord, only to get smacked around by the heroic robot. The two try to escape using the Bye-Bye Bomb, but their Zord fingers make it hard to press the button. They try to combine into a stronger form to fight back when the Megazord activates his Power Sword, becoming the "Super-Mega Squaboozord", only to get sliced back into their regular robot forms. Afraid they will be destroyed if they stick around, the two try again to activate the Bye-Bye Bomb before the Megazord in Tank Mode shoots them with its cannons. They succeed just in the nick of time before the cannon fire hits them. Squatt and Baboo revert back to normal from their Zord bodies and once again go flying into the dimensional void to another unknown part of time and space....
To Be Continued....
Covers[]
Reprints[]
- Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Volume Five
- Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Year Two Deluxe Edition
Errors[]
- During the montage of the 1969 Rangers observing the Apollo 11 moon landing, Nikolai's family is watching the event on television in Moscow. However, the flag of Russia at the Kremlin is incorrect for the period, as it should be the Soviet Union flag and not the Russian flag, which was abolished from use after the 1917 Revolution and not restored to use until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Notes[]
- This issue is the first appearances of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in 1969.
- This would also be the first appearance of Terona Washington.
- This issue would be the first and last appearances of Nikolai Chukarin, Jamie Gilmore, and Daniel O'Halloran.
- This issue would also be the first appearance of Psycho Green of the Psycho Rangers.
References[]
- ↑ Comixology
Footnotes[]