This article is about a/an comic book issue in the Power Rangers comic sub-franchise by Boom! Studios. |
Power Rangers #6 is the sixth issue of the ongoing Boom! Studios comic book series, Power Rangers. This issue continues the Unlimited Power story event and is a continuation of Power Rangers #5 and Mighty Morphin #6.
Synopsis[]
The Omega Rangers have formed an uneasy alliance with Lord Drakkon… and now must trust Astronema and Ecliptor in order to survive. But do the would-be Princess of Evil and her mentor have something else planned for their new allies?[1]
Plot[]
This issue starts twelve years prior to the events of Mighty Morphin where Andros and his sister Karone are playing with a giant ring ball thing to train their telekinesis outside KO-35’s capital of Inquiris. The unseen narrator states that Princess Astronema has always lived a horrendous life of misery and tragedy despite growing up under supposedly peaceful circumstances. She couldn’t have known that this was because her parents were secretly agents of her future master Dark Specter. As the narrator reveals, this would unfortunately come to an end when the Power Rangers attacked Inquiris and started murdering anyone that stood in their way to taking control of the planet. Karone would have died as well but Darkonda was able to save her and give her to Ecliptor since her family (with the exception of Andros) were all killed in the invasion. In the intervening ten years or so, Ecliptor trained her relentlessly and raised her into the psychopath she would become who is now motivated by revenge on the Power Rangers.
However, the flashback is cut off and it is revealed that Ecliptor himself is the narrator and has been recounting it to Trini who wants to know if he is full of it talking about evil Power Rangers committing mass murder on KO-35. Ecliptor points out that they have been bumming around the universe with the fascistic mass murderer Lord Drakkon and yet she is questioning the existence of cruel Power Rangers? Before the argument can continue, XI appears from the cockpit and demands to know what he wants since Ecliptor isn’t known to break into ships to give a history lesson. Ecliptor then reveals his goal; since the defeat of the Horrid King and the Horrid, Jason, Zack and Astronema have been captured by Space Patrol Delta and are going to be transferred to a nearby spaceport to be taken to S.P.D. Headquarters via Maglev train. Once there, Jason and Zack would presumably be tried for aiding and abetting a known criminal (Drakkon), letting a terrorist escape, and Astronema would be tried for crimes against humanity. Drakkon confronts him that he has the entire United Alliance of Evil (a combination of four armies) at his beck and call but instead comes to arguably his worst option instead though Ecliptor points out that Dark Specter finding out about his right-hand woman being captured with Ecliptor helpless to help her would result in Astronema and him both being killed for being incompetent. Trini asks XI if they can just go talk to S.P.D. but XI just says they’ll be locked up for being fugitives with Ecliptor adding that Zordon has declared them terrorists which means that Ecliptor is their only ally. Trini obviously points out that this “alliance” is one of convenience and Ecliptor will try to kill them when Astronema is flee with Ecliptor only giving his word and then taking his leave whilst revealing that the train leaves at dawn. Trini bemoans the fact that this will lead to injury with XI confirming that the SPD agents are highly skilled and Drakkon delights in the fact that the only two options Trini has really are.
Meanwhile, in some space prison, Astronema is trying to compose a knuckleduster out of nails whilst Zack takes a nap but Jason points out that she’ll just be fried when the guards activate their personal forcefields. Jason apologizes on the behalf of his fellow Power Rangers for the deaths of Astronema’s parents but she berates him by saying that she has bashed many Power Ranger skulls in and wishes to do the same to him when she gets out. Jason takes fake reassurance and reveals his quest to bring down the Empyreal to try and seem more human to her but she refuses to believe it since all of their actions to save Earth are apparently selfish and trying to save their own hides whereas she isn’t at least lying to herself about her nature. Jason rebukes that her being honest with herself isn’t much better since she is still the princess of evil with Astronema rebuking that titles are just that and that good and evil are subjective terms based on perspective and that they’re still sharing a cell regardless of their natures. She reminds him that he’s dead meat once she gets the chance and he sarcastically responds that he admires her “righteousness.”
Later on, at dawn, the maglev is ready to transport to the Onyx spaceport for the prisoner transfer and will make it in less than an hour since it can travel at up to 200KMPH. The prisoners are behind laser bars and there are three heavily armed guards happy to die to keep their prisoners captive and the speed makes it impossible to get a teleportation lock on the ship. As XI reveals this to Trini and Ecliptor (Drakkon mysteriously absent), on a Star Wars Jabba the Hutt style ship, they decide to race up alongside the ship and jump on before it can outrun them. Trini points out that this is utterly insane and suicidal but Ecliptor just points out that they are travelling so fast that they will die instantly should they miss although he then has to claim that he is not going to kill anyone for revenge as he only wants Astronema when Trini reminds him not to kill. They stick the landing but a scream from Trini combined with external sensors on the ship alerts the pilot droid and it deploys two guards (a male and a female) to intercept them. On the roof, Ecliptor tells Trini to hurry up and get inside before security arrives but her problems balancing allows the guards to exit the hull and begin firing on them whilst also not being surprised by Ecliptor’s presence. Whilst Ecliptor duplicates himself (or something) to fight the guards, he orders Trini to break into the jail cells and free the prisoners whilst he fights the guards. As she does so, he flips over the male guard and mocks him for lacking a Morpher and referencing the and offers him to stand down but the guard refuses and orders the female guard to annihilate their escape skiff. The right stabilizer is blown out and Ecliptor orders XI to hold course but the ship explodes with the robot barely managing to jump safely onto the ship as the male guard appreciates the equalizer.
Inside the ship, Trini breaks in through an exterior vent and tells XI to bring the skiff down to get the prisoners off the ship but gets no response for obvious reasons. Although the third guard is absent for the moment (likely checking on the other prisoners), Jason tells her to hurry as Zack apologizes to Astronema for abandoning her but she promises that they will meet again. Unfortunately, before Trini can do anything, she is found by the third guard who mocks her for being a mockery of the Power Rangers ideals and refuses Trini’s offer of an explanation. Fortunately, though he knocks down Trini, he is close enough to Jason’s cell for him to grab and knock out the guard using the laser bar’s electrical charge. Elsewhere on the planet, Drakkon meets with an incredibly obese purple alien who is apparently a galactic crime lord or something and is very surprised to see Drakkon (since he has been presumed dead since Shattered Grid and only the Omega and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers were aware of his return). The obese alien is accused of cheating the Omega Rangers out of their fusion converter (a reference to the encounter with The Horrid) and the alien tries to deny this only to have Yale to appear and roar loudly in his face so the alien promises to tell the truth if he is called off. When Drakkon does so, he promises to get the information but wants to ask about “private business” first.
Back on the maglev, Jason and Zack are free with the latter asking about Ecliptor and Trini reveals his relationship to Astronema whilst releasing her. Astronema questions her motives but Trini’s response amounts to “enemy of my enemy” as Zack and Jason morph and Trini takes command and demands stealth due to being heavily outgunned. On the roof, the three Omega Rangers find the area almost empty and Trini tries to call XI for exfil but is interrupted by a squadron of police droids who have had lethal force authorized. As Jason saves Astronema from laser fire, Zack twirls his Omega Scythe over his head which destroys one of the droids as Jason slices the other in two with his Omega Sword. Unfortunately, when he looks up, Astronema has swiped the sidearm from that guard from earlier to his frustration. Fortunately, when Jason deactivates his helmet and forces her to look him in the face in his execution, she cannot bring herself to do it but the burly guard from before leaps in from the vent. Astronema blasts him through the shoulder but he unfortunately plunges off the edge of the train to his death; the Omega Rangers are now accomplices to a murder. Across the roof, Ecliptor and XI are doing a far better job fending off the other two guards as XI reassures Ecliptor of Trini’s competence. Deciding enough is enough, the two floor their guards and Ecliptor uses his eye beams to sever the connection between the ship segments which renders them safe and the groups meet up. Ecliptor is relieved to see Astronema who callously comments on the guard’s death to Zack’s disgust whilst Trini claims they’ll stop her next time as the villains teleport away to fight another day.
As police droids appear, the Rangers teleport out to the Garrison Vox where the engines are repaired thanks to Drakkon and they flee. XI decides to start their search for the Empyreal but Zack reminds him that they’ve faced that thing all of ONCE and they only survived because the Empyreal got bored and left of his own volition. Even the Garrison Vox’s arsenal being utterly helpless against the being so what’s to stop the Empyreal from easily killing them all in their next encounter without even batting an eye? Below deck, Jason and Trini hold a meeting where she is bummed about being an accomplice to the guard’s murder. Jason assures her of her impressive leadership qualities and that he made the mistake of being caught in the first place and that they must remain resolute in their quest to save existence itself. However, Trini asks at what cost since they just killed a police officer and have been branded traitors and terrorists in the supposed mission to save he universe. Although Jason says that the ends justify the means, Trini points out that Drakkon said the same thing to justify his suppressive and fascistic actions in the World of the Coinless. Just because your end goal is righteous doesn’t mean that you should do immoral and repugnant things to reach that mission objective. The comic then ends on a shot of the Empyreal having destroyed yet another planet as Trini comments that knowing that there is a choice between doing good for the sake of the greater good and doing evil for a supposedly righteous cause is what separates them from people like Drakkon and Zedd.
Appearing[]
Featured Characters:
Red Omega Ranger | Jason Lee Scott |
Black Omega Ranger | Zack Taylor |
Yellow Omega Ranger | Trini Kwan |
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- Zordon of Eltar (mentioned)
- Astronema's Family (mentioned)
- Astronema's brother (flashback)
- Darkonda (flashback)
- Quantrons (flashback)
- Dark Specter (flashback)
- Quiblow (mentioned)
Locations:
- KO-35 (flashback)
- Planet Onyx
- S.P.D. Onyx
- Planet Inquiris (flashback)
Covers[]
Errors[]
- In the shot of Darkonda taking Karone, he doesn’t resemble his TV counterpart (looking more like a fish-cyclops whereas previous comics had him in his TV form) but then more closely resembles his TV appearance when he gives Karone to Ecliptor.
- When Jason is held at gunpoint by Astronema and says “you gotta be kidding me, after everything I did?” the letterer fails to put asterisks on the preceding sigh.
Notes[]
- This comic reveals that the events of Shattered Grid is apparently common knowledge throughout the universe given the obese alien’s knowledge of Drakkon’s supposed death.
- The flashback that opens the comic is basically a retelling of Karone’s kidnapping shown in the Power Rangers in Space episode “Never Stop Searching.”
- One added detail is that her parents were supposedly slaves of Dark Specter which is never addressed in the original episode (mainly because it would affect nothing although whether this will matter in later issues by Boom! remains to be seen).
- During his fight with the male security guard, Ecliptor comments that he should be “put on the C or D Squad.” This was a reference to the squad system present in Power Rangers S.P.D. where the season’s protagonists were the B-Squad Power Rangers.
- Dark Specter is shown to be much smaller in this comic than he is in the TV show during the opening flashback. In the TV show, he is shown to be at least as big as the planet Earth itself and towers over the Dark Fortress whereas here he is more comparable to Bowser from the Mario franchise in size.
- Alternatively, this might have been just the holographic protection to fit on the unnamed planet where he was appearing to Ecliptor and Astronema or the perspective of the hologram making him appear much smaller than he really is.
- Another strong possibility is that he actually can change his size as suggested in the episode “The Rangers' Leap of Faith” when he impersonated Zordon.
- Alternatively, this might have been just the holographic protection to fit on the unnamed planet where he was appearing to Ecliptor and Astronema or the perspective of the hologram making him appear much smaller than he really is.
- How much of Dark Specter’s retelling of Karone’s history is actually true and not an exaggeration or even a lie is a subject of debate. Convincing the Omega Rangers makes sense as a strategic move since getting them on his side could be advantageous to Astronema’s goals (given they were easily able to knock out Lord Zedd with a single Zord). On the other hand, he could be telling the truth given evil Power Rangers like Drakkon and Trek exist.
- For whatever reason, the evil Power Rangers in Ecliptor’s flashbacks are drawn so that their helmets resemble the faces of Quantrons. What this means remains to be seen.
- When Astronema was training, the Ninja Storm Red Ranger and S.P.D. Blue Ranger helmets were seen in the background. What this means, why they were there, and how they were there since this was long before either of those series is unclear.
- When Astronema was training, the S.P.D Blue Ranger, Ninja Storm Red Ranger, In Space Yellow Ranger, RPM Green Ranger and an Unknown Black Ranger helmets were seen.
References[]
Footnotes[]