This article is about a/an comic book issue in the Power Rangers comic sub-franchise by Boom! Studios. |
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #31 is the thirty-second actual issue of the Boom! Studios comic book series, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers which begins its numbering with Issue 0. It features a new team of Rangers. The events of Beyond the Grid begin here, which will involve the aftermath of the Shattered Grid comic event. Kyle Higgins exits as the writer and is replaced by Marguerite Bennett. This issue features the Dark Ranger who made his cameo debut in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #29.
Synopsis[]
“Shattered Grid” is over and now a new team of Rangers must rise! What is the secret behind this new team and what ancient evil threatens the future? [1]
Plot[]
The story opens on the white void of nothingness created by Lord Drakkon wiping out the multiverse, but then something begins to re-materialize back to its normal state: the Promethea, which was stuck mid-teleport when the void enveloped it. With no space or time to coordinate its location, the base exits from the teleport randomly and at an unstable velocity due to the warp of space-time before returning to normal. The stress of the jump results in multiple fires and structural damage on all sections of the station and Grace frantically handles the power source of the base, the Green Psycho Dagger, to come to a complete stop. The energy of the dagger's chaos energy supercharges Promethea enough to shield it from being erased entirely, but the place they are in is a strange dimension with ruined or bizarre planets and unfamiliar surroundings. In the vast areas of the ship, the few Rangers that still have powers are rescuing crew personnel and their de-powered comrades from the wreckage and fires. Cam on the other hand is assessing the damage report and what needs to be repaired on the monitors.
Terona Washington, who is Grace's chief technician aboard the base, informs her that scans indicate it gets worse, this place they are in is some kind of entropy plane as all the stars and planets in this realm are dying. On the lower decks, Tyler is saved by the Dark Ranger from a falling support beam, who suddenly gets de-powered and reveals he is Heckyl, though the ex-villain tries his best to conceal his face and walk away after saving him. Terona's further analysis makes the situation grimmer as spatial scans show this is a place out of the normal parameters of space-time and seems to exist outside of it. Everything they ever loved or cared about including their world just ceased to exist in that white void they escaped from. There is no way out since there is no space left to exit this dimension, even if they could, they would just end up in a void of nothing.
In the Reactor room, Karone is pinned down and begins de-morphing as Andros rushes to try and help her. In a ship hangar bay, Mike is trying to keep a damaged door from opening and depressurizing the oxygen out of the hangar, but his Magna Defender powers fail on him and the vacuum of space threatens to suck him out the airlock. Tanya saves him and the door rips off in such a way that the breach is patched temporarily. She calls on Kim to take Mike to the medical bay. Grace and Terona's scans for Morphing Energy then show why the Rangers are losing their powers..there is no Morphin Grid here in this dimension.
Promethea cannot move as its engines are blown. The Ranger's morphers only have enough auxiliary energy for a few more morphs before going dead for good if they cannot establish a link to the Grid. Grace then prepares to tell the Rangers what is happening. She gives a speech about survival, how the fear of the unknown could keep them alert and alive and asks all of them to use their civilian skills to make a bad situation more tolerable by helping out around the base. But above all else, they will never give up and find a way home. (Though Grace herself admits doubt in that hope, brought on by her past failure as the Red Ranger.)
Promethea remains stranded for forty Earth days as it is slowly repaired. During the eleventh day, Andros reports that yet again, deep space scans show no signs of life. Meanwhile, Karone is trying to convince Terona to somehow rig her Galaxy Morpher to last longer. But Terona says when her powers fade, it will be permanently gone unless they get a link to the Grid back. On the twelfth day, Kim is arguing with Grace, saying she doesn't belong here and the Rangers that found out about her past with Lord Drakkon are hostile towards her. Kim wants to risk her life to search outside for help, seeing herself as a burden. Grace refuses as she doesn't want to lose another Ranger and Kim is an asset to keeping them all alive since she can morph.
On day fifteen, Mike trains with the others in a recreational dojo on the base. On day twenty, Heckyl and Cam are working on trying to fix damaged base systems. On day thirty, Mia invites the Rangers to dine on her soup. During the montage, Grace opens up a journal file stating that they are making the best of a bad situation, but every passing day makes things seem more hopeless as their attempts to contact help or find a link to the Grid. She questions if there is even a point to struggling if there is nothing left out there to fight for...
On day forty, a ray of hope happens when Promethea picks up a distress beacon, meaning there is someone alive out there. Karone points out the base's engines aren't fully operational and have so little thrust they might as well be sailing backward. Kim views a rescue mission as a pointless waste of resources, as they barely have enough power to provide support for the crew they have aboard and wasting morphs to protect a stranger would mean certain death later on. Tanya disagrees, saying as Power Rangers they should still try to help and never surrender who they are as heroes just to save themselves. Mike agrees, saying even if they lose their powers, no one dies on their watch.. ever. Terona mentions the station has only enough power for two or three more months, so they cannot support more people on board. Grace doesn't care, as this could be the only link they have to the outside and a chance of getting home. Grace orders Kim to prep her "team" as Terona and Karone stay on Promethea to monitor the situation.
The Rangers morph and use a scout ship to head towards the distress signal and relay their progress to Cam upon approaching a derelict pod. Unbeknownst to the crew of the Promethea, an alien ship is approaching them undetected, with its pilot noting the decoy was successful and it is preparing to board the "alien" vessel. While the Rangers on the scout ship scan and board the pod, Karone is on the bridge. Mike observes the inside of the pod and soon figures out that this was bait to lure them away and they fell for it as Karone hears a haunting melody and sees an unidentified and distorted purple female Ranger has teleported into the bridge. Karone is surprised and puts her helmet up, trying to speak to the Ranger thinking she is a rescuer or just lost like them. Karone asks how the female Ranger is able to morph and notices the Ranger is in bandages and tries to offer to help her, but the Ranger simply raises her right arm and creates some kind of swirling vortex that sucks away Karone's Galaxy Morpher energy as well as that of the Green Psycho Dagger.
Promethea goes dead except for life support and communications, while Karone is de-morphed. Karone thinks this is how the Ranger can stay morphed, by feeding on the morphing energy of other Power Rangers. Once she is finished, the Ranger is no longer distorted and fully formed and attacks Karone. Karone tries to talk to her, but the Ranger is silent as she fights a bit more then uses an emitter device to teleport away.
Karone tries to radio for her brother Andros about what happened, but it turns out the pod they are on was a death trap as the Rangers powers fail on them and are now facing unknown hostile reptilian-like aliens surrounding them without any ability to morph!
To Be Continued....
The New Adventures of Blue Senturion and Ninjor[]
Blue Senturion and Ninjor are doing a stakeout in the desert at night. Ninjor is impatient and wants to act, resulting in the two bickering. The Mutant Rangers appear, this time disguised as the Turbo Rangers, and the Red Mutant Ranger orders his team to start digging where Monsieur Muster told them to. Once they get underground, they unearth and operate a relic from the past, the Red Zeo Battlezord! The Mutant Rangers want to take the old Zord for a destructive joyride before sending it to Venus to be part of their boss's collection. Ninjor and Blue Senturion stop arguing and witness the Zord emerge from the ground, deciding they need to put a stop to the Mutant Rangers before things get worse!
To Be Continued...
Covers[]
Reprints[]
- Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Volume Nine
- Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Beyond the Grid
- Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Beyond the Grid Deluxe Edition
Notes[]
- Power Rangers 25th anniversary reference on the Jordan Gibson variant cover: Forever Red
- One of the rangers in the new team is Dark Ranger, originally Deathryuger who appeared once in the movie Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger: Gaburincho of Music. For Power Rangers Dino Charge, his identity was hinted at in the toys' audio as Talon Ranger.
- Among the depowered Rangers seen aboard Promethea are Mia Watanabe, Joel Rawlings, and Tyler Navarro.
- On the All Green Rangers cover, Lord Drakkon's visor is mistakenly colored black instead of red.
- Given the issue's narrative, this story arc is in conjunction with the timeline of Shattered Grid, as the erasure of the Multiverse by Lord Drakkon is still in effect for now from the perspective of the Promethea crew.
- The Scout Ship the Rangers use is a jet/shuttle modeled after the Pterodactyl DinoZord.
- Much like the first issue of the Shattered Grid story arc, Issue 31 sold out quickly and Boom! Studios had to make a second wave of prints to keep up with demand.[2]
References[]
- ↑ Boom Studios official site
- ↑ http://tokusatsunetwork.com/2018/10/first-issue-of-beyond-the-grid-power-rangers-story-arc-sells-out/
Footnotes[]