Power Rangers: Soul of the Dragon

This article is about a/an graphic novel in the Power Rangers franchise.

Power Rangers: Soul of the Dragon
Editor	Dafna Pleban
Cover artist:	Nick Robles
Writer:	Kyle Higgins
Penciller:	Giuseppe Cafaro
Inker:	Giuseppe Cafaro
Colorist:	Marcelo Costa
Letterer:	Ed Dukeshire
Release date:	December 5th, 2018
Publisher:	Boom! Studios
Issue Guide
Publication Order
Previous	Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Year One Deluxe Edition
Next	Power Rangers: The Psycho Path

Power Rangers: Soul of the Dragon is a graphic novel published by Boom! Studios and written by Kyle Higgins. 

Synopsis

After his time as the Black Dino Ranger in Dino Thunder, Tommy Oliver has moved on from being a Ranger, letting the S.P.D. Rangers defend the world. Unfortunately, his son goes missing, and he'll have to discover some things about his past and join up with some surprising teammates to find him and bring him home safely.

Continuity and Placement

• Sky Tate's appearance as Earth commander of Space Patrol Delta places this story following Power Rangers S.P.D. (2025) in the timeframe established by Once A Ranger, where Bridge Carson reveals that he has become the new Red Ranger to replace Sky who had himself been promoted when Fowler Birdie retired as Supreme Commander and was replaced by Anubis Cruger.
  • Tommy Oliver is said to have last morphed 8 years ago. Assuming this refers to Dimensions in Danger, the last time Tommy canonically appears morphed, the earliest this story could take place is 2027, nine years after Dimensions in Danger and two year after S.P.D..
  • Tommy recalls that he first received his Zeo Power Coin 20 years ago. Given that he had the Zeo Power Coin in Dimensions in Danger, the latest this story could take place is 2038.

Plot

At Bridgeport Township High School, after his department is cut, Tommy Oliver attends a going away party with his wife Katherine Hillard-Oliver.

The following day while driving Katherine to the airport for her work trip to Triforia (the home of the Gold Zeo Ranger) Tommy wonders if they did good work as Power Rangers. Katherine reminds Tommy how they saved the world countless times and helped the world advance at an incredible rate so he should enjoy some well deserved rest. After Katherine leaves Tommy suddenly feels pain in his back.

While being checked out by some doctors about his cybernetic back implants, we learn that sometime in the past Tommy was involved in a solo fight with a big monster. During the fight, Tommy’s Master Morpher is damaged and he gets a severe back injury. Sometime later, Tommy contacts his son, JJ. As they catch up, JJ apologizes for not attending his dad’s party because of his work at S.P.D. keeping him busy. JJ’s ride to a concert arrives and he says he has to go. After hanging up the phone, Tommy stares at his morpher and an old picture of the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers team. Elsewhere JJ runs into a gang who quickly try to capture him. Though JJ is able to put up a fight, a mysterious person catches him off guard with an explosion. A few days later Anara (JJ’s SPD colleague) finds and tells Tommy that JJ has disappeared. She then reveals JJ recently quit S.P.D. and asks Tommy to reach out to a number of someone she thinks knows about JJ’s disappearance.

After talking to Katherine about this, Tommy goes up to the S.P.D. satellite headquarters above Earth to talk to Sky Tate (former S.P.D. Blue Ranger and current S.P.D. Commander). Sky reveals that he and the other S.P.D. officers knew something was off with JJ so they decided to give him space, which is when he suddenly went off the grid the previous day. Sky assures Tommy that S.P.D. is on JJ’s disappearance case. Tommy calls Katherine and says he is going to look for their son. Katherine backs Tommy up on what he wants to do. While talking to Anara, Tommy learns that JJ was working on a case where someone named “The Witch” kept popping up. She leads Tommy to a gangster bar. Tommy decides to go inside alone. In the bar, Tommy notices a suspicious group and brides the bartender to get their attention. When the group approaches Tommy they instantly attack him. Tommy morphs into his Black Dino Ranger form and is easily able to fight the group off. When the group runs off, Tommy leaves from the back with Anara.

Anara is stunned that Tommy morphed. Tommy’s powers suddenly become unstable and he de-morphs. Anara takes a look at the Master Morpher and discovers that the coin inside it is being destroyed each time Tommy morphs due to the damage to the morpher. Tommy says he is already aware of this but will do anything to save his son. Anara tells Tommy that he will need her to save JJ as he can’t rely on just his Ranger powers. Tommy and Anara then watch a gang running a demonstration of their new product. They are shocked to see JJ there. JJ uses the gang’s special crystal to morph into a version of the MMPR Green Ranger. Tommy and Anara are suddenly caught by one of the gang members. Tommy morphs into his Red Turbo Ranger form and confronts JJ. During the fight, JJ is able to blast Tommy in the face which destroys Tommy's helmet and knocks him unconscious.

A little later, Anara is able to wake Tommy just as the buildings in the area collapse on top of them. Tommy is able to protect them both by powering back up. When they get out of the wreckage, Tommy’s back implants stop working and he is forced to reveal details of his injury to Anara. While Anara helps him, Tommy talks about his past and how he wants to help JJ not go down the wrong path. Anara says JJ may have felt Tommy’s shadow to be too great but they must focus on figuring out what the crystal JJ used is. Tommy goes to the apartment of Finster. After catching up, Tommy asks Finster about the green crystal. Finster is able to detect some magic behind the crystal and tracks its point of origin to Pasten’s Tower. Tommy mentions the person responsible is going by “The Witch,” maybe meaning Rita Repulsa is back. Finster gives Tommy a special weapon to battle the dark magic behind the crystal.

Near the tower Tommy morphs into his Red Zeo Ranger form and takes on the guards in the area while Anara tracks down JJ. Anara is able to find JJ, who reveals to her that he is undercover. Tommy catches up to them and finds this out as well. JJ reveals he has been in deep cover to discover what is going on with the power crystals that have appeared. As Tommy and JJ argue about the secrets “The Witch” suddenly appears. The Witch is revealed to be Scorpina. Tommy, Anara and JJ try to fight Scorpina but she easily overpowers them. Scorpina throws Tommy and Anara off a building and teleports away with JJ as her prisoner. After recovering Tommy tells Anara he needs to go back to see if Finster knows anything else that could help them. When they get back to the apartment they find Finster’s dead body. While looking around Tommy discovers a statue in the form of Finster. Finster’s final creation talks to Tommy about how Finster discovered the crystals come from Lokar. It goes on to reveal that Lokar requested the son of Tommy Oliver as a sacrifice from Scorpina in exchange for great power. The statue gives Tommy Finster’s final apology and says Tommy has always risen above the odds. It then crumbles into dust.

Tommy blames himself for how bad he made things turn out. Anara tells Tommy to focus on the now so they can save JJ. Tommy suddenly realizes something when looking at his phone. Elsewhere Scorpina prepares to sacrifice JJ to Lokar. As she makes her preparations Scorpina reveals when she tried to steal one of Rita’s spell books Rita banished Scorpina to the Talos Dimension. She goes on to state that after Zordon’s Wave wiped out Lord Zedd, Rita and Lokar’s other allies, she struck a deal with Lokar to return. Lokar returned Scorpina several decades into the future, gave her dark crystal with similar powers to the Power Rangers and sacrifice Tommy’s son to him. As Scorpina is about to begin the ritual Tommy, as the White Ranger, appears with Katherine, Blue Senturion and SPD Power Rangers as back-up. JJ reveals that he activated his tracker so the SPD could find him. 

Tommy and his allies are able to take on Scorpina and her allies. As a last resort Scorpina uses the dark power crystals to take on a new form and grow in size. She immediately knocks Tommy away, causing his back injury to paralyze him again.  Noticing that Scorpina grabbed JJ, Tommy throws his Master Morpher to JJ. JJ is able to catch it and uses it to morph into the Mighty Morphin Green Power Ranger. With his new power JJ is able to help turn the tide of the fight for his allies. Eventually Lokar appears and states that Scorpina has failed. Lokar then forces Scorpina and her allies to return to the Talos Dimension. As Scorpina’s remaining allies are arrested Anara compliments JJ on being a natural with the Dragonzord power coin. Tommy, Katherine, JJ and Anara hug.

A few weeks later at the docks Tommy and Katherine tell JJ and Anara they’ve decided to leave and figure out what is next. Tommy states that he feels he is officially done being a Ranger and knows that the future is in good hands now. While Katherine and JJ promise to stay in touch Tommy thanks Anara for all the help she provided.

After Tommy and Katherine leave on their boat JJ and Anara get a message saying they are needed off planet. JJ morphs into the SPD Green Dragon Ranger.

Characters

Rangers

Green Ranger White Ranger Zeo Ranger V Red Red Turbo Ranger Black Dino Ranger	Tommy Oliver
Counterfeit Green Ranger Green Ranger S.P.D. Green Dragon Ranger	J.J. Oliver
S.P.D. Red Ranger	Bridge Carson
S.P.D. Blue Ranger	Lina Song
S.P.D. Shadow Ranger	Anubis Cruger

Allies

• Anara
• Katherine Hillard-Oliver

S.P.D. Deka Ranger	Schuyler "Sky" Tate
Blue Senturion	Blue Senturion

• Finster
• David McCarthy

Villains

• Lokar
• Scorpina
• Maurice
• Evil Space Aliens (flashback)
  • Rita Repulsa
  • Lord Zedd
  • Goldar

Notes

• This is one of Kyle Higgins' last Power Rangers projects.
• The story also serves to help explain the disappearance of Scorpina from “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” and her absence from the Zordon wave scene at the end of “Power Rangers: In Space” as well as resolving the fate of Lokar. 
• Fans and comic book news sites have dubbed the story as "Old Man Tommy" as a meme, a reference to the popular X-Men story "Old Man Logan". 
• Despite Tommy not morphing into the Red Turbo Ranger in Dimmesions In Danger, it is revealed that the Master Morpher can allow Tommy to use those sets of powers and he just chose not to use them then.
• Anara speculates that either Billy Cranston from “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” or Angela Fairweather from “Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue” may have constructed the Master Morpher
• Soul of the Dragon revisits a concept of the Morphin Grid seen in the Color Swap Arc of Go Go Power Rangers, that each specific color of a Ranger gives a boost in a specific set of stats. The dealer of the performance enhancing crystals explains that his merchandise is almost like the real thing and goes over certain colors and what they give their user.
  • Black: Enhanced Strength. Zack has been shown to be much tougher to take down in a fight than the other Rangers. One example of this is his fight against Batman in JL/MMPR, while injured, Zack was still able to hold his own for a bit before Batman successfully held him down to restrain him.
  • Blue: Enhanced Intelligence. This was seen in Go Go Power Rangers when Kimberly noted that her intelligence was enhanced when she took on Billy's powers. 
  • Yellow: Enhanced Agility and Speed. This was proven true in Go Go Power Rangers, as Jason felt he was faster while his powers were in the Yellow spectrum when he outran the Breel creatures chasing him.
  • Pink: Balanced stats. Enhancing combat attributes that a user may be weaker in to turn the wielder into a well rounded fighter.
  • Green: Unknown, as the dealer's demonstration was interrupted by Tommy getting caught eavesdropping and causing a ruckus.