Hello, my friends. No matter how mighty our featured team of heroes can be, evil finds a way to get even-more malicious and thus, our noble forces must make the necessary upgrades in order to keep fighting the good fight. As they do just that, I welcome you back to another entry of…
Over the past two parts, we’ve looked at the entire Mighty Morphin era from both the smaller Arizona-based Hamilton Comics and the massive might of Marvel Comics. From the original five and the inclusion of Tommy Oliver to the initial line-up changes, constant new Zords and even a few minor uniform additions, we’ve seen various battles that were fought, life lessons that were learned and numerous tales told over a single comic, half-a-comic or even translated from the big screen. This time however, our villainous foes have taken on new forms and are delivering their masterfully mad might upon the world. With our team’s regular batch of outfits, weapons and Zords not able to properly fight them, it’s time for them and all of us to make some necessary changes.
As you may have spotted from Part 2’s proclamation of “To Be Continued”, our six Rangers wound up as children due to the events of Season 3’s final episode “Rangers In Reverse”. With the Orb of Doom placing them in their predicament, it then leads into the 10-episode mini-series “Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers” where the Alien Rangers of Aquitar have been called in to battle the forces of evil while our regular Power Rangers try to find a way to return to their young adult selves. Although Billy Cranston managed to create a Regenerator that’s energized by their Power Coins and he was able to return himself to his regular form, Goldar and Rito Revolto stole the device shortly afterwards before Rita Repulsa & Lord Zedd destroyed the Power Coins. As such, the rest of the child-sized Rangers had to embark on a globe-trotting, time-spanning journey that saw them gathering shards of a potentially powerful object called the Zeo Crystal (which our heroes previously came across, shattered into five pieces and scattered them across various points in the past via Zordon in order to prevent it from falling into Master Vile’s hands). Although their mission was ultimately a success and the Aquitian Rangers were able to return to their home planet as a result, Aisha Campbell decided to swap places with another young lady who got to take her spot amongst the team. Not only that, but Goldar and Rito had managed to swipe the completed crystal and placed a bomb underneath the Command Center which managed to blow it up. Thankfully, the two goons lost the Zeo Crystal, and our heroes were able to recover it in order to take their place as a new kind of Morphinominal team.
Originally airing on Fox Kids from April 20 to November 23, 1996, this show combined its original footage with that of the Super Sentai season known as “Chouriki Sentai Ohranger” in order to present the featured team as they go up against the might of the Machine Empire. As for the comic license, that would wind up with Image Comics who published their first issue in September 1996 and wound up initially selling 19,436 copies. This was supposed to be the start of an ongoing series and there were even plans for a mini-series where the team would’ve crossed paths with Rob Liefeld’s own superhero group known as Youngblood. In addition, another Saban-based superhero team known as Beetleborgs was supposed to get their own book from the publisher. Unfortunately (and for unknown reasons), the company lost its license to the property after the lone issue came out and all of those plans were scrapped as a result. As for their only contribution to the franchise, we have Tom & Mary Bierbaum writing the story, Todd Nauck handling the pencil work, Laura Penton as our colorist and Quantum Color FX taking care of the color separations. So, what kind of tale was this group initially planning to tell? Let’s summon our critical Zords and find out.
We open with our heroes fighting the Machine Empire’s foot soldiers known as Cogs who were disguised as U.S. Military officials. During the scuffle, it’s revealed that the devious leader known as King Mondo was attempting to use his minions in order to sneak them into a military base and steal a Pulse Bomb for his own devious use. Ultimately, our heroes manage to defeat them before they get praised for their efforts by being rewarded with the Citizens’ Medal of Valor. Within the crowd, Billy is observing this alongside Bulk & Skull who’re admiring them and still serving as Junior Police Cadets (even though the season had them and Lt. Jerome B. Stone leaving the police force before they open and operate their own private detective agency). When Cranston mentions that the team has “what it takes”, Bulk and Skull casually joke with him on how he wished that he had “the guts and skill” to either be a Zeo Ranger or a Junior Police Cadet as Billy gets glumly reminded of his prior Ranger duties being brought to an end (at least for this moment in time). During the presentation, the Yellow Ranger (a.k.a. Zeo Ranger II Yellow) named Tanya Sloan quietly talks with the Pink Ranger (a.k.a. Zeo Ranger I Pink) named Katherine “Kat” Hillard as they express how bad they feel for Cranston, especially with him not being a Power Ranger anymore.
Over in the distant world of Gamma-Vile, a devious ruler named Master Vile (who’s the father of Rita Repulsa) finds his domain under attack by the Machine Empire’s Cogs. With the Machine Empire attempting to usurp control of his planet from him, he thinks that his son-in-law named Lord Zedd is somehow connected to this. As such, Master Vile orders for him and his daughter to be summoned. He then demands to know why King Mondo is attempting to attack his world, to which Rita and Lord Zedd pretend to play dumb in response. Back on Earth, the ceremony wraps up before the Rangers get teleported away. Afterwards, they land in a secretive spot within the bushes just outside of Angel Grove High School before they all begin to head out to take part in various activities. Katherine then asks the Red Ranger (a.k.a. Zeo Ranger V Red) himself Tommy if he would like to watch her during her ballet rehearsal. While he’s initially unsure, they’re suddenly approached by a young woman named Justine as the Blue Ranger (a.k.a. Zeo Ranger III Blue) named Rocky DeSantos says that she’s a friend of his and that she’s also the Drama Club’s President. From there, they ask him if he would like to audition for the upcoming school play presentation of “Camelot”. Oliver decides to take them up on their offer, unaware that Kat has developed a hint of jealousy towards her boyfriend. From there, our heroes proceed to take part in various school-based activities with Tanya playing some softball, the Green Ranger (a.k.a. Zeo Ranger IV Green) named Adam Park doing some martial arts training, Rocky hamming it up during Camelot rehearsal, Tommy working on the role of Lancelot while Justine tries to practice their kiss scene with him and Katherine in the middle of her ballet practice, but not being able to fully concentrate.
Meanwhile, Bulk & Skull return to their apartment where they’re met upon by their landlady named Mrs. Crabtree who complains about their “noisy guests”. They tell her that their “friends” are from the Honor Society and that they’re helping them with a charity dance before they head to the garage. Once inside, they discover Goldar and Rito (who were suffering from amnesia as a result of the blast that destroyed the original Command Center and wound up as Bulk & Skull’s butlers for a while) are jamming out to the Paper Lace song “Billy Don’t Be A Hero” as Bulk tells them to quiet down. Back over on Gamma-Vile, Master Vile receives a message from King Mondo’s loyal right-hand robot named Klank and his pint-sized partner named Orbus as the former says that Lord Zedd must be surrendered to his master. He elaborates by mentioning that Zedd never forgave King Mondo for forcing him off of his moon base and has been plotting to regain control ever since. Master Vile then scolds his son-in-law for being somehow behind this whole ordeal before Klank also adds that Lord Zedd was “experimenting with some kind of great power” behind his back. As such, Master Vile easily decides to hand his son-in-law over, much to Rita’s dismay. Zedd then says that they can’t give in to their demands that easily since they can potentially drive their attacking forces back. When Master Vile asks him how they can do that however, Lord Zedd has an answer yet doesn’t immediately respond. Over at the Command Center, Zordon, Alpha 5 and Billy receive a communication link from Zedd as he asks them for help against King Mondo’s invading forces. He adds that if nothing is done to stop him from taking Master Vile’s fortress, then the Machine Empire will be a true force to be reckoned with and he’ll ultimately conquer Earth. As an incentive to convince Zordon into sending his team to go help, Lord Zedd mentions that he’s saved the energy that came from the destroyed Power Coins. Billy is stunned by this revelation, but Zordon tells him that they can’t let it distract them since King Mondo and his armada would become nigh unstoppable if he got them. As such, he says that they must summon their Rangers at once. Over on their moon base, King Mondo and Queen Machina have been informed that Lord Zedd has asked the Power Rangers for help. She asks her royal husband if he’ll tell his armies to retreat, but he refuses to do so since the Power Coins’ energies have given him something to fight for. As such, he gives the order to send his message to Klank. Back at the Command Center, our heroes have gathered and learn that they’re going to help Lord Zedd fend off King Mondo’s army. Billy also says that the energies of their destroyed Power Coins are also there and that they must retrieve them. Katherine assures him that the Zeo Crystal gives them much grander power than their Power Coins did, but Adam mentions that the Zeo Crystal was made up of five shards and Cranston was forced to step down as a Power Ranger due to there not being enough of them. Billy assures them that this has nothing to do with his former powers and that it’s something that must do. From there, the team proceeds to morph into their outfits.
Afterwards, they summon their Zeo Zords and form the Zeo Megazord before they take off into space with Cranston accompanying them, with him even mentioning that he’s modified their combiner robot in order to have interstellar capabilities. As they make their way towards Gamma-Vile, Tommy tells his comrade that they know how much he misses his powers and that he shouldn’t get his hopes up since it’s likely that they won’t be able to restore them to him even if they do reacquire them, to which Billy says that he’s not concerned with that and that their main priority should be keeping those energies away from both Lord Zedd & King Mondo. Eventually, they arrive at their destination and observe the ongoing battle. From there, Oliver tells Tanya & Rocky to take the built-in Zeo Fighters and Billy to stay inside the Zeo Megazord. Meanwhile, he heads down to the planet’s surface alongside Katherine and Adam. As they all set their plan into motion, Tommy, Kat & Adam are fighting the numerous Cogs as Oliver starts to get overwhelmed by the vast amount of foot soldiers and calls out to her for some help. However, Hillard’s jealousy towards him and his stage partner Justine comes into play as she mentions how he’s not the only one who needs some support from his friends. He then apologizes for “something stupid” that he thought he said, but she tells him that she’s sorry since they have to concentrate on their mission. Meanwhile, Rocky & Tanya manage to shoot down some Quadra Fighters and even get Billy involved as he uses the Zeo Megazord to strike some down. Ultimately, they’re able to defeat every last Cog.
However, their fight isn’t done yet as Klank has a monster named Scrap Heap assemble itself before he launches Orbus onto it in order to make the creature grow. With a giant adversary standing tall over them, the Rangers reassemble within the Zeo Megazord and shift it from Space Cruiser Mode to Full-Battle Mode in order to properly fight the monster. While Scrap Heap unleashes a barrage of missiles at the combiner robot, Klank heads out to meet up with Master Vile. As they watch the fight from afar, Lord Zedd and Rita actually proceed to root for our heroes. Meanwhile, Master Vile has led Klank towards a basement chamber where he proceeds to hand over a container that’s holding the Power Coins’ energies in order to get some “peace and quiet” as a “personal favor”. Back on the battlefield, the Zeo Megazord recovers and begins to make some progress. However, Scrap Heap manages to fire another round of missiles at the Rangers.
Tommy says that they have to do something, but Billy tells him that their foe is “nothing but firepower”. Suddenly, Oliver gets an idea as he uses the Zeo Megazord to grab one of the missiles and throw it back at the monster. It proceeds to hit the creature and set off all of the other missiles within its body in order to destroy him. With the creature decimated, the Rangers proceed to leap over to the moon base as Tommy tells Lord Zedd and Rita to hand over the Power Coins’ energies. While Zedd tells them that they’re not going to willingly do so, Master Vile comes in and says that he gave them to King Mondo’s forces much to the shock of them and our heroes. Oliver contacts Billy who admits that he also heard this stunning revelation and that they must do something about this. And so, the series comes to an abrupt end with Cranston mentioning that King Mondo will now be able to harness those energies in order to either conquer or destroy their home world.
Thankfully for the franchise, the comic license wouldn’t stay vacant for too long. It ultimately wound up with Acclaim Entertainment, which was a video game publishing company based out of Glen Cove, New York. Between 1994 and 2002, this division published several books for various properties, including our featured team for this section: “Power Rangers Turbo”. Combining its own footage with the Super Sentai show called “Gekisou Sentai Carranger”, this season ran from April 19 to November 24, 1997, and actually began with the franchise’s second overall film called “Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie”, which was released in theaters on March 28. Because it didn’t get a comic book tie-in of any kind, I’ll only mention a few plot details about it. Specifically, it involved a group of space pirates (who serve as our main villains for the season) going after a wizard named Lerigot in order to properly join forces with a demon named Maligore and gain vast power & riches. During some practice for an upcoming charity fighting competition, Rocky attempts to perform a move and somehow launches himself out of the ring, causing him to injure his back. As a result, when the time comes for Zordon to introduce new outfits and Zords to his team (despite the fact that the Zeo Crystal is an artifact that continually gets powerful) in order to stop the impending threat, an orphan named Justin Stewart is the one who ultimately takes his spot on the team before they go on to smite Maligore. In terms of how the team got translated into comic book form, Acclaim Books would publish three digest-sized periodicals that covered a few of their adventures. First up, there was “Power Rangers Turbo Vs. Beetleborgs Metallix” which came out in May 1997 and saw the team crossing paths with another Saban property known as Big Bad Beetleborgs, which the show was initially called before it got renamed to Beetleborgs Metallix for its second and final season. Afterwards, a pair of Saban Powerhouse books would come out in October 1997 that not only had their own individual Power Rangers Turbo stories, but also included tales from other Saban shows such as Masked Rider, Samurai Pizza Cats and even a singular tale for Beetleborgs Metallix. For those last two, we’ll only be covering our featured team’s ventures. So how does this point in the team’s history pan out on the written & drawn page? Let’s shift into turbo for ourselves and find out.
First up, we have our crossover tale between the Turbo Rangers and Beetleborgs Metallix as Robert L. Washington III is in the writer’s chair. We have Howard Simpson & John Heebink taking care of the penciling duties, while Dennis Calero & Kristin Sorra (known together as Atomic Paintbrush) handle the book’s colors. As for the ink work, that was taken care of by the team of Rich Rankin, Rodney Ramos, John Floyd, Bill Anderson, Bob Almond, Charles Barnett III and Kim Demulder. After opening on a one-page tease for the eventual clash of our featured superhero teams, we truly begin with our trio of Beetleborg heroes at their school as they discover that Josephine “Jo” McCormick has passed her test and is going to participate in the Big Young Women’s Schoolympics Challenge in Washington, D.C. However, she’s not entirely comfortable about it as her older brother Andrew and their friend Roland Williams ask her why she’s bothered by this good revelation. She expresses her nervousness about the competition requiring them to be in age groups that also includes a spelling bee and that she’ll be competing with older kids in front of a large crowd. Fortunately, they assure her that she’ll do great and to essentially not worry about it. Meanwhile, their foe named Nukus has Lester “Les” Fortunes drawing monsters for him to use. He then mentions his new Dimensional Scanner that will allow him to contact monsters from various dimensions. Les tries to tell him that they don’t need help since he already draws monsters for him, but Nukus reminds him that his creations haven’t been able to defeat the Beetleborgs and that’s why he’s looking for help. He even reminds Fortunes that if those monsters refuse to cooperate, then he can just “draw evil copies of them”.
Over in Angel Grove, our heroes are having a picnic to close out the summer season as Adam mentions that they’re taking a much-needed break from fighting their regular foe. With Justin about to begin a new school year, Katherine is also going to start her tenure as a student-teacher.
Meanwhile within their respective hideouts, Divatox and Nukus begin to search for monstrous help across parallel worlds before they come across each other. After they argue with each other on who’s the better devious ruler-to-be, they then mention that they each have an opposing superhero team that constantly foils their plans. Ultimately, they come up with an idea on how they can help each other out. Nukus will provide Divatox with some drawings of a changeling monster that she’ll make copies of and in return, he’ll create a pocket dimension that will absorb the energies emitted from both heroic groups while they fight. Once they gather enough energy, they’ll strike once both teams are worn out and rule Earth together. Though they agree to this plan, they also think to themselves how they’ll betray each other in order to take command of the planet for themselves.
From there, they set their plan in motion as Divatox receives a drawing of a changeling monster and places it into her giant copier. Back with Nukus, he has Les create a pocket dimension for him. Meanwhile, Divatox is able to make several copies of the changeling monster before they proceed to change themselves into either a Turbo Ranger or a Beetleborg.
Later, Andrew, Jo and Roland are working at Zoom Comics for their after-school job. Suddenly, the faux Turbo Rangers burst in and announce their intention to find the Beetleborgs since they don’t want them on their turf. The kids recall seeing the Turbo Rangers as TV characters, but nowhere near as rude as what they’re seeing. Andrew then tries to calmly talk to them, but the faux Red Turbo Ranger picks him up and says that they’ll show the Beetleborgs who’s boss before he throws the kid away. In her defensive anger, Jo responds by shoving over a pile of boxes onto her adversary. Meanwhile, the faux Bettleborgs arrive at Angel Grove via a wormhole and confront our heroes as they mention how they’re going to “put the Turbo Rangers in their place” and that they’ll become Earth’s true defenders before they cause some trouble. Justin then tells his teammates that he remembers the Beetleborgs as comic book characters from his younger years, but he also remembers them as heroes before Tanya says that they can’t let this opposing group cause some trouble within the park.
Back over at Zoom Comics, our youthful heroes are trying to figure out how to get the supposed Rangers out of their store in order to prevent them from messing it up. Jo then realizes that despite the fact that the back door is being guarded, they can actually creep their way out as they proceed to “Bug Out” and transform into tiny bugs before they get outside, revert back into their human forms and summon their armors. At the same time, the Turbo Rangers proceed to morph into their outfits.
Once the morphing sequence is complete however, the faux Beetleborgs manage to attack them while mentioning that they already knew their identities. Weirdly though, our heroes actually mention that their opponents had the gall to assault them before they were fully transformed. Meanwhile, the faux Turbo Rangers manage to follow the Beetleborgs outside and also tell them that they’re aware of their secret identities. Afterwards, the young heroes get fired upon as they also call their foes out for shooting at them before their fair fight actually starts. Both scenes then have the fake heroes mentioning that they’re heading back to their hideouts before they head into their respective wormholes. As our actually heroes head after them, the faux figures manage to arrive in the pocket dimension before they transform into rock formations.
Once both superhero teams finally come across each other, they immediately mistake each other for the faux figures that led them here as they proceed to fight each other. The Beetleborgs go on the early attack as the Chrominum Gold Beetleborg (a.k.a. Andrew) disorients the Turbo Rangers with his Data Laser’s Tornado Beam, followed by the Platinum Purple Beetleborg (a.k.a. Jo) using her Metallix Baton to strike the female Rangers. In addition, the Titanium Silver Beetleborg (a.k.a. Roland) uses his Metallix Grabber to subdue Tommy. During all three attacks, both sides claim that that other attacked them first with even Justin telling Roland that he’s never seen them use their special weapons. Meanwhile, Divatox and Nukus are delighted at the sight of seeing both superhero teams duking it out against each other while they’re collecting a vast amount of energy from them.
Back in the pocket dimension, Adam is in the middle of fighting Andrew as they argue with each other over who provoked who first. When the Green Turbo Ranger tells his opponent that he dared him to follow him back to his hideout, the Chromium Gold Beetleborg says that he didn’t and that he’s never been to this location before. Meanwhile, Jo calls out Kat and Tanya for double-teaming her, to which the Pink Turbo Ranger says that it’s not their style and they’ll offer to fight her one at a time. She then mentions that all they want to do is to defend Earth against monsters, to which the Platinum Purple Beetleborg is surprised by her statement. At the same time, Roland is fighting Justin as the latter chastises him for attacking others “before they’re ready”, to which the Titanium Silver Beetleborg calls him out for going after him and his comrades while they were in their civilian identities. The Blue Turbo Ranger says that he and his team would never harm children before he throws his opponent aside and helps the Red Turbo Ranger get freed. Williams then assumes that they’ll gang up on him, but Stewart surprises him by returning his weapon instead.
At that moment, everyone realizes that they’re not their true enemies before they calm down and even share their unique mentors, bases & vehicles with each other. During their conversations, Jo talks with Justin and learns that he’s the newest Power Ranger. He says that he’s considered quitting the team due to his teammates being older than him, in addition to feeling outmatched at times and that he’s afraid that he’ll let his teammates down. Fortunately, she tells him that he’s good enough and has already proven it to his team. As such, he should keep believing in himself since his comrades only want him to keep trying. When her upcoming school competition gets brought up, she realizes that her teammates told the Rangers about it and that this whole conversation was supposed to convince her “to think about things”.
Unfortunately, Divatox and Nukus are furious that our heroes stopped fighting just shy of them collecting enough energy to create their portal. As such, they have a back-up plan to make them resume their brawl. Just as both heroic groups try to figure out where their fake foes came from or even where they went, their concerns get immediately answered as the faux Turbo Rangers and the fake Beetleborgs change out of their rocky disguises. From there, they proceed to merge their outer elements and become mashups of both superhero teams.
As the mashed-up changelings charge right at them, our heroes decide to team up and fight back, starting off with Tanya and Kat swinging Jo around as they use her body to hit their foes. Meanwhile, Tommy and Andrew manage to punch several more faux figures, while Roland helps Justin effectively kick the rest of their adversaries. The scuffle then concludes with the Pink Turbo Ranger and the Platinum Purple Beetleborg jump kicking their final foe.
Just as their foes retreat, the Turbo Rangers suddenly get contacted by Alpha 6 (who actually talks in a hip-sounding accent) who tells them that they have to stop fighting since the pocket dimension that they’re in is actually absorbing their fighting energies in order to create a dimensional vortex to Earth. As such, they have to limit their fighting output. He then tells his team that he’s analyzed the Beetleborg’s technology and that it’s compatible with their own tech. Just as he’s about to explain how it can be properly combined, the transmission gets cut off via the dimensional interference. Suddenly, the changelings merge together in order to become a giant robot as they loom large over both superhero groups. They soon find themselves in a perilous situation since they have to prevent their foes from crushing them, but they can’t let enough fighting energy get built up in order for a dimensional gateway to form and allow their foes to go after Earth. Thankfully, Justin gets an idea as he mentions Alpha 6’s notion of their tech being compatible with each other. As such, he says that they can combine their unique weapons with each other, as well as bringing their Turbozords together with the Battle Vehicles in order for them to emit less fighting energy.
As such, the Rangers proceed to summon their Turbozords while the Bettleborgs call out for their Bettle Battle Vehicles. After they scan each other’s automobiles and discover the most optimal combination, they all unite their vehicles together and create a special combiner robot called the Ultra-Mega-Turbo-Bettle-Battlezord (complete with Turbo R.A.M. Metallix Mode). All eight heroes then proceed to leap into it before they engage the unified Changeling.
Ultimately, they manage to come out on top as they blast the combined Changeling monster and obliterate it. From there, Divatox blames Nukus for presenting her with a failed monster whose own destruction has disrupted the vortex and is also causing the built-up energy to get released. However, he chastises her monster copier before they terminate their alliance. Meanwhile, Alpha 6 contacts our heroes and tells them that the monster’s self-explosion has created a temporal rift that will send them all to their respective homes and that they must hurry since it’ll ultimately close. After our superhero teams thank each other, the comic ends with all of them driving their vehicles into the portal in order to reach their respective worlds.
Next up, our heroes will find themselves within a heated situation as they plunge “Into The Fire”. With Robert L. Washington III still in charge of writing duties, he’s joined by Ron Lim on pencils, while Bill Anderson, Bob Almond & Kim Demulder return to ink the story and a studio called Color Monkeys find themselves in charge of coloring this entry. We begin at the juice bar where our main group is looking over a pair of chimpanzees that Jerome Stone (who’s now running the business) had adopted. Unbeknownst to them, these animals are actually Bulk & Skull (having been turned into chimps by Divatox’s dim-witted nephew Elgar in the first episode of the season) as they talk to each other about their desire to become legit fire fighters. Meanwhile within their submarine known as the Subcraft, Divatox tells her top advisor named Porto that because she’s “low on energy”, she would like to get in touch with some fellow space pirates from the fire dimension as he preps to contact them. Soon enough, a communication link is established as the fiery leader tells her that he and his group will assist her. Despite the fact that his scanners have picked up a lot of heat from Earth that his people can use for power, they only have enough to send a few of their own warriors to help her. He then explains that the only way they can send more is if they directly tap into it, but once they’re on Earth, they’ll be able to create their own heat source, such as a volcano. With that revelation, Divatox demands for his fire warriors to create a volcano in the middle of Angel Grove.
Back at the Juice Bar, Tommy finds it amusing that the two chimps are dressed up as fire fighters. However, Justin nervously mentions how he doesn’t share that notion. Just as Jerome emerges with a birthday cake complete with lit candles, Stewart proceeds to freak out from the small flames. Katherine then approaches him and asks him what’s wrong, to which he mentions that he has a bad history with fire. He explains how he once had a scary experience with flames during a basement-based science experiment when he combined two elements that ignited into some fire, causing him to accidentally knock the table over while its contents fell onto some nearby laundry. As a result, he nearly burned down his family’s house, but he thankfully left to get some timely help. Hillard then tells him that even though he went through a traumatizing experience, he still has to confront his fear, especially since they’ve tussled against various monsters. As such, she reminds him that if it comes up again, he can think about all of the things that he’s been through as well as the people that count on him.
Just then, they get contacted by Alpha 6 as they find a private spot before getting informed of a dimensional portal that’s opened in Angel Grove and some geological occurrences happening near it. Specifically, there’s a geothermal induction where something has created a volcano. As such, the team proceeds to morph into their outfits.
From there, they arrive at the scene where an erected volcano was formed as several fire creatures emerge from it. As our heroes proceed to fight them, they mention to each other that they can’t let their foes run around town. At the same time, they have to find out what exactly these creatures are. While they work to prevent their heated fiends from reaching anything that could catch fire, Justin mentions that Divatox is somehow behind this while he mentally tells himself to keep his cool.
As the Turbo Rangers continue to fend off their volcanic foes, they mention how even though their suits protect them from the intense heat of their adversaries, they must decimate the volcano in order to save their city. They also hope that the chimpanzees stay away from the area while they believe that their Turbo Navigators can scan the area in order to provide them with some useful information. Stewart then sets up their navigator in order for them to pick up any kind of extra-dimensional activity before he’s met upon by some volcanic beings. He tries his best to fend them off, but he’s ultimately captured and overwhelmed by a large group before he calls out for help. Thankfully, Tommy comes to his rescue just as the fiends mention that they work for Divatox and that they’re building up enough power to bring their forces over in order to help her conquer their world. With our heroes now aware that they must destroy the volcano in order to prevent even more heated soldiers from arriving, they realize that their regular weapons aren’t able to affect their foes. As such, they’ll use their Turbo Special Weapons against them.
Adam, Tanya, Justin and Katherine proceed to use their unique weapons on their volcanic adversaries as they make some significant progress. While Oliver keeps his personal weapon at the ready, the chimpanzee duo of Bulk & Skull is biking their way towards the area in order to prove their worth as legit firefighters. Back with our heroes, they’ve noticed that their fire foes have stopped their attack. However, their adversaries have instead merged themselves together in order to become a giant flame monster. Just as Bulk & Skull arrive and see this, they immediately retreat.
Thankfully, the Rangers manage to summon their Turbozords before bringing them together in order to create the Turbo Megazord. Once they reach the cockpit, Katherine tells Justin that despite how tough their situation looks, his teammates need him and that he must remember what she’s told him. Despite his internal worries, he ultimately gathers enough courage to engage the enemy alongside his comrades.
As such, the Turbo Megazord proceeds to fight the massive fire being. Just when things start to get tough, Tommy manages to summon the Turbo Megazord Saber where he and his team proceed to defeat the giant creature. Justin then comes up with a calculation that sees them firing their combiner Zord’s Turbo R.A.M. at the right spot of the volcano in order to “reverse the artificial induction” and effectively stop it. From there, they proceed to fire away at the volcano and effectively destroy it. Afterwards, the comic ends back at the Juice Bar as Stewart gets praised by his teammates for his brave effort against the unified monster.
To close out this batch of comics, we have our heroes playing a dangerous game of “Simple Simon Says”. For this tale, Dan Slott takes over writing duties, Ron Lim continues with his penciling responsibilities, Andrew Pepoy & Keith Aiken handle the inks, while Dennis Calero & Kristin Sorra (a.k.a. Atomic Paintbrush) return to take command of the colors. We kick things off in Tommy’s uncle’s garage where he’s working on his race car while Justin asks him why he’s building said vehicle, especially since they have access to high-end vehicles as Power Rangers. Oliver tells him that there’s a special feeling one gets when making something with their own hands before he tells Stewart to start the engine, to which he speaks into a remote and successfully does so. Justin then explains that he has a voice-activated remote and that he helped Alpha 6 place miniature versions within their teammates’ helmets in order for them to vocally summon their racers & Zords. Suddenly, a high-end mutant servant named Rygog teleports in along with some mutant henchmen called Piranhatrons as our heroes now find themselves forced into a fight against these fiendish foes. Though they’re able to fend them off, Rygog is able to steal the remote before he and his cronies successfully retreat.
He ultimately makes it back to the Subcraft where Elgar rubs it in his face for getting hassled by some mechanic’s tools, yet Rygog says that he still managed to accomplish his mission. Divatox them comes in and takes the remote from her servant before she gives it to Porto in order to turn it into a monster. He ultimately transforms the device into a creature called Simple Simon as it becomes eager to face the Power Rangers, to which Divatox tells him that they’ll draw our heroes out by causing some havoc, starting with their familiar hangout spot.
As such, we shift over to the Juice Bar as Ernie gets dazed by his rabid juicer that Katherine ultimately shields him from. Just then, Adam & Tanya find themselves saving civilians from an out-of-control soda machine and jukebox. Thankfully, Kat is able to reach the fuse box and shut off the building’s power. As Ernie sends the customers home in order to figure out what caused this suddenly weird phenomenon, Adam offers to stay with his friends in order to make sure that no one got left behind. Just then, Tommy and Justin arrive as they see the mess that was recently caused before Hillard tells them him that Divatox is probably behind this. Just then, they get contacted by Alpha 6 and their new mentor Dimitria (who mainly only talks in questions) as they inform our heroes that a monster is on a rampage through their town yet could possibly have a dark purpose. As such, the group proceeds to morph into their outfits and head out to confront the creature.
Soon enough, our heroes teleport in front of the monster as Tommy recognizes it as Justin’s voice-activated remote. They then realize that Dimitria’s concern was correct as it turns out to be a trap. While Oliver and Stewart manage to cover their ears in time, Simple Simon is able to get Katherine, Tanya and Adam under his control before he sends them after our remaining heroes. As he and Tommy attempt to avoid their mind-controlled friends’ attacks, Justin realizes that their foe is controlling their comrades via the remote-chips that he and Alpha 6 installed into the neuro-ports on their helmets. With them unwilling to fight their friends, Oliver and Stewart manage to request for an emergency teleport as they return to the Command Center. From there, they overhear Simple Simon calling out to them as cowards and that he’ll threaten to order their mind-controlled comrades into decimating each other. It even taunts Justin for doing an exceptionally good job of originally creating him, causing him to briefly lose his cool before Tommy reminds him that they have to keep a calm head as a Power Ranger. Just then, Stewart comes up with an idea on how they can defeat their foe. Specifically, he mentions how they’ll “hit ’em fast”.
Just as Simple Simon starts to become impatient and decides to order his mind-controlled Rangers to take each other out, Tommy & Justin drive in on their Turbo Carts as they challenge him to a game of tag. Simple Simon tries to take control of them and their vehicles, but they managed to get far-enough away from him. As such, he orders our brainwashed heroes to hunt them down. From there, a chase ensues as the mind-controlled Rangers gain ground before Oliver and Stewart proceed to go faster than they’ve ever gone before.
Just as his brainwashed Rangers get closer, Simple Simon orders them to overtake their comrades and bring them to him. Sure enough, Tommy and Justin get brought to the monster before he prepares to put them under his spell. Suddenly, Oliver springs into action and strikes him with his Turbo Lightning Sword while mentioning that he didn’t say “Simon Says”. Soon enough, it’s then revealed that Stewart’s plan had paid off as he and the rest of his teammates attack with their signature weapons before all five of them bring their arsenal together in order to form the Turbo R.A.M. Cannon and blast the monster into oblivion.
Having overseen the battle from afar, Divatox gets furious for yet another loss as Elgar and Rygog decide to leave the room in order to avoid feeling her wrath. Later on, our heroes are back at the Juice Bar and have helped Ernie clean it up. Afterwards, Justin discreetly explains how his plan helped his teammates escape the monster’s mind-controlled state. In simple terms, he had them all outrun the sound of Simple Simon’s commands. By having them go faster than the speed of sound, the resulting Sonic boom shook them out of their brainwashed state. From there, the comic ends with Ernie turning on his blender despite Stewart warning him not to. However, the contents get spilled out from it as he and our heroes get covered by it. Thankfully, it’s not because the blender went haywire, but more with Ernie forgetting to put the lid on it.
We now conclude this chapter with the franchise’s comic license getting picked up within a new era of its existence. In 2001 (and towards the end of Power Rangers Time Force’s run), Saban Entertainment and Fox Family Worldwide were purchased by the Walt Disney Company. While Power Rangers Wild Force would initially be shown on Fox Kids, the remainder of its season and all subsequent entries would be shown on either ABC, ABC Family or Jetix. As for the first season that would be entirely viewed on either of these channels, we have “Power Rangers Ninja Storm” which aired on ABC from February 15 to November 15, 2003. Combining its own original footage with the Super Sentai show known as “Ninpu Sentai Hurricanger”, it tells the story of three Wind Ninja Academy students who’re initially less-than-stellar apprentices. However, trouble comes their way when an exiled ninja master has returned to unleash an all-our assault upon the academy as he kidnaps the students and turns its Sensei (who’s also his brother) into a Guinea Pig. Thankfully, the featured three pupils managed to evade his grasp as they retreat with their transformed Sensei and his son into an underground base called the Ninja Ops. From there, our three students are given their morphers and become Power Rangers in order to properly fight the fiend & his cronies while also protecting their city known as Blue Bay Harbor. As for the company that would translate their adventures onto the printed page, that would be an unlikely entity known as TokyoPop, which is based in Los Angeles and mainly distributes manga, anime, manhwa, Japanese light novels & graphic novels. Although the show also received some comics within a pair of kids’ magazines called Disney Adventures and even the European-exclusive Jetix Magazine, I’m limiting this retrospective to regular comics. Unlike the majority of past books where original adventures were crafted upon the printed page via pencils, inks & colors, this particular batch takes a similar path to Marvel’s photo adaptation of “MMPR: The Movie” and simply adapts two episodes per publication. For the purpose of these books, I’ll simply summarize the plots of the episodes that were translated here and give my thoughts on how they were handled.
First up, we have “Volume 1: Dark Sky Overhead” (published on August 3, 2003) where it adapts the series’ first two episodes.
First up, there’s the pilot episode called “Prelude To A Storm” where our three protagonists are out doing some extreme sports. While Tori Hanson does some surfing, Shane Clarke is doing some skateboarding and Waldo “Dustin” Brooks is in the middle of a motorbike race. Ultimately, they each discover that they’re running late for a “class” as Tori manages to pick up the two guys with her van.
As they make their way over to their destination, she asks them why they’re always running late compared to her. Shane tells her that like any group, there’s always different kinds of people and that she’s both logical & “the reliable one”. While he refers to himself as an adrenaline-fueled risk-taker, Dustin chimes in on how there’s also a mellow, reflective dude before he even mentions the Power Rangers. However, Tori essentially tells them to get their heads out of the clouds. Eventually, they arrive within a wooded area before they walk towards a nearby lake and waterfall. Suddenly, they get approached by a group of ninjas before our trio discards their civilian clothes as they reveal that they’re also ninjas. They then proceed to take on the opposing group, only for each of them to fail in comedic fashion. Afterwards, a bird flies in before it transforms into the whole group’s Sensei (who’s named Kanoi Watanabe) who concludes their training session as the massive group of student ninjas swiftly heads out.
From there, he confronts Tori, Shane & Dustin and expresses his disappointment towards them and that he’ll expect them to meet him again in order for him to properly address them about their “lack of commitment” towards their Ninja training before he walks onto the lake, creates a portal and leaves. Our trio proceed to follow suit as they all arrive at the Wind Ninja Academy and meet up with their Sensei.
He tells them that despite their training over the past year, they haven’t grasped “the importance of punctuality”. As such, he tells them to make the necessary changes by tomorrow or else they’ll be expelled, especially since he doesn’t want them to waste their potential. He then dismisses them before he’s met upon by his son named Cameron who wonders why he still puts up with those three students. Just then, Sensei detects a familiar evil in the air as a certain foe is making his arrival from space.
We then shift to the next day at an extreme sports store called Storm Chargers where our trio work and hang out. Suddenly, an alarm clock goes off as they all head out, much to the dismay of their young female boss named Kelly. As they drive their way over to the Wind Academy, the van’s radio picks up a newscast concerning some “atmospheric disturbances”. Just then, they notice an older couple whose car has broken down on the side of the road as Tori & Dustin decide to stop and help them out, much to Shane’s dismay.
Over at the Wind Ninja Academy, trouble has arrived as Sensei is approached by a familiar fiend named Lothor, along with his head cronies. While Zurgane heads out with his top lieutenants, Lothor proceeds to fight Sensei. Meanwhile, the villains approach the ninja students as a female foe named Kapri sends out their henchmen called Kelzaks as they easily overwhelm the warriors-in-training.
While our main trio manage to fix the elderly couple’s car, the otherworldly assault on the Wind Ninja Academy continues to be successful as Choobo casts out some energy balls that traps the students within and sends them up to their spaceship.
With Sensei shocked by this turn of events, Lothor blasts him before his spacecraft begins to tear the building apart. Meanwhile, our trio arrive to see the academy get ripped to shreds.
Back on Lothor’s spaceship, Kapri & Marah (who’re Lothor’s nieces) are trying to divide Earth into their own territories before their annoyed uncle comes in and orders them to be quiet. He then mentions that with every single ninja academy no longer standing in his way, he’ll finally he able to conquer the world. However, Zurgane gets informed by Choobo before he tells his master that they missed three Wind Ninja Academy students. As such, Lothor informs him to search the area and make sure that nothing is left standing.
Meanwhile, our trio is looking over the decimated rubble before they discover and help out Cameron. Suddenly, Lothor’s spacecraft shoots down some lasers as they’re forced to flee for their lives. Cam then reaches a secret door as he opens it and tells the trio to head inside.
From there, he leads the group into an underground base before they’re all met upon by a sentient Guinea Pig. The group is initially stunned by this before Cameron tells them that his dad is stuck in this form. From there, Sensei informs the trio about Lothor. Specifically, he was a great ninja who was banished from Earth after his desire for too much power corrupted him towards the dark side. As a result of their energy fields colliding, it caused Sensei to become a sentient Guinea Pig. Now that Lothor is back, his army is prepared to conquer their planet unless they stop them.
From there, he orders Cameron to give our group their own Wind Morphers. Sensei then tells Dustin (who’s amazed that the Power Rangers are real) that he’ll be the Yellow Wind Ranger. Meanwhile, Tori will become the Blue Wind Ranger and Shane will become the Red Wind Ranger. Sensei then tells them that they’ll now protect Earth as Power Rangers before their computer sensors detect Lothor’s army on the attack. Before our group heads out to confront them, Sensei tells them that their Wind Morphers are activated when saying “Ninja Storm, Ranger Form”.
Eventually, our heroes approach the enemy, only to mostly forget how to morph into their outfits. Thankfully, Dustin is able to successfully do so before Shane and Tori proceed afterwards.
From there, they successfully strike down every opposing Kelzak as an overseeing Lothor is stunned to see actual Power Rangers opposing him.
His field general (apparently called Blue Face) then tries to attack our heroes, but they’re able to dodge and use their Wind gliders before Shane picks up and drops the opposing monster.
Afterwards, the trio unveils their individual weapons as Dustin rocks the fiend with his Lion Hammer. Tori then attacks with some sonic-filled exercise commands that she emits from her Sonic Fin, followed by Shane firing his Hawk Blaster at the monster. From there, they combine their weapons and create the Storm Striker as they deliver the finishing blow onto the creature.
Later, our heroes arrive back at their base before their Sensei congratulates them for their initial success. However, he warns them that further battles with Lothor’s forces await them and that their ultimate foe won’t stop until he either conquers Earth or gets destroyed. As such, the story ends with him telling the trio that as Power Rangers, the future now lies within their hands.
We then move into the book’s adaptation of Episode 2: “There’s No ‘I’ In Team” as it begins with our heroes in the middle of a training exercise. It turns out that they’re off to acquire an item called the Scroll of Three, yet the catch is that they must get it while handcuffed together. Once Dustin sees the scroll, Shane charges right for it and ends up dragging his teammates until they all fall over as he wishes that he could accomplish this mission himself.
Suddenly, they’re met upon by a group of Kelzaks as the trio struggles to fight them while still handcuffed. Thankfully, one of the opposing goons manages to cut their cuffs and frees them before Shane decides to go get the scroll. However, his teammates are surrounded and about to get struck down. With him struggling to make a decision, the Kelzaks deliver the finishing blows before it’s revealed to be a simulation.
Tori then wonders why they keep failing, to which Sensei simply tells them to get some rest and that they’ll try again tomorrow. However, Shane wants to stay put so that “they” can get it right, yet Tori points out that he forgot to include himself in said argument. He then tells his comrades that they have to take their training seriously, to which Dustin tells him that if he’s that good, then he can go handle the job by himself.
Over on Lothar’s spaceship, Marah is playing around with Kapri’s Personal Alien Manager before the latter says that it’s meant to summon aliens for their uncle’s army. She then uses it to summon a monster called Mad Magnet before Marah irritates her and they get into a brief scuffle. Just then, Lothor comes in and gets them to stop before he has Mad Magnet punish them by magnetically attracting them together by their backs. He then tells his nieces that they’ll remain stuck together until they learn how to work together.
Over at Ninja HQ, Cameron is having trouble with getting the team’s Zords to properly combine together before Tori and Dustin arrive. When Cam asks them where Shane is, she says that he’s out as his own “one-man army”. Sensei then tells his Rangers that he will ultimately learn, but he needs time to realize it.
Meanwhile, Shane is skateboarding through the city before Kapri & Marah teleport in and discover that he’s a Power Ranger. From there, Marah uses the P.A.M. to summon Mad Magnet before it begins to cause some chaos upon the citizens. Specifically, it attracts several of them into one big pile before trapping them as a metal statue.
Over at Storm Chargers, Shane asks Kelly how she’s able to be a good boss, to which she says that she gives her employees a chance and works with them. When he then asks her how she can be sure things won’t fall apart if one doesn’t do things themselves, she tells him that she simply trusts those around her, which includes her friends. Suddenly, several victims get pulled past the storefront as Shane goes to investigate. He’s then approached by Mad Magnet as Kapri tells the monster to go after him since he’s a Power Ranger. From there, a fight breaks out as Shane looks to defeat his foe by himself.
Back at Ninja HQ, Cameron, Tori and Dustin manage to catch this via the computer system’s ability to tap into the police surveillance system once their own power reading sensors went off. Tori and Dustin try to head out to help their teammate, but Sensei holds them back since it’s not yet time to do so.
Once the scuffle reaches a warehouse, Shane morphs into his outfit and once again proclaims that he doesn’t need help. However, Mad Magnet uses his power to stick the Red Wind Ranger onto a car before pinning him with some metal objects.
Shane then admits that he needs his friends’ help before Tori and Dustin finally morph, arrive at the warehouse and jump kick the monster away. Afterwards, Shane accepts his faults towards his teammates before Tori tells him while he’s good at his job, he’s also not in it alone. Just then, Mad Magnet recovers as the Rangers take their fight outside.
Just as their foe begins to charge up a powerful shot, Shane notices its energy center as his teammates realize that it’s the fiend’s potential weak spot. From there, they bring out their signature weapons and put them together before they fire the Storm Striker at it. Specifically, it creates a 100-ton weight that manages to crush Mad Magnet.
However, the fight hasn’t ended yet as Kapri uses her device to call upon the Scroll of Empowerment, allowing the monster to recover and grow to a titanic size. Back at headquarters, Sensei and Cam also notice this as the former says that it’s time for their pupils to receive their Zords.
Cameron then contacts the Rangers and informs them that there’s “three powerful robotic assault vehicles” within their subterranean hanger that they’ll now have access to. Shane will be able to drive the Hawk Zord, while Tori gets to take command of the Dolphin Zord and Dustin is now able to pilot the Lion Zord. Not only that, but they’re able to materialize from “Holographic Portals” and that our heroes will be able to operate them via the Power Disks from their Wind Morphers. As they continue to reach new skill levels, he’ll be able to give them new power disks. Once their Zords arrive, the Rangers proceed to leap into them while Mad Magnet attempts to attack them.
Fortunately, our heroes strike back with their Zords’ signature attacks. Shane’s Hawk Zord uses the Flame Attack before Tori’s Dolphin Zord hits the fiend with the Dolphin Water Wall. However, Mad Magnet manages to grab onto the two Zords. Thankfully, Dustin’s Lion Zord uses the Lion Tornado Blast to free them. He then uses his Zord to charge right at the monster with enough force to shatter it into several pieces.
However, it’s able to reassemble itself as Shane wonders how they’ll be able to beat their foe. Sensei then contacts him and says that he needs to feel what’s inside him, to which Shane remembers the Scroll of Three from their exercise and realizes how “One has the strength of three”. As such, they decide to bring their Zords together in order to form the Storm Megazord.
While Mad Magnet tries to attack them, Cam tells our heroes to use their Power Disks in order to reach their next power level.
Once they do so, the Storm Megazord summons its blade known as the Serpent Sword and seemingly becomes three entities. From there, it delivers the finishing strike upon Mad Magnet, resulting in the captured humans reverting back to normal. Once the trio is back at their base, Sensei reminds them of their Ninja code where they never escalate a fight (unless they’re forced to, of course) and that they’ll retain their balanced power as long as they continue to “work as one”.
Over on Lothor’s spacecraft, Kapri and Marah are still stuck together before Lothor decides to go with an interesting tactic. And so, the book ends with him summoning a pair of his own Rangers to use against our heroes.
Moving on, we now have the adaptations of Episodes 3 & 4 within the pages of “Volume 2: Lightning Strike” (published on November 4, 2003).
Episode 3 (“Beauty & The Beach”) opens with Tori finishing up a surfing session before she spots Shane talking to a handsome young man before they briefly share a charming glance with each other. She then asks her comrade about the guy that he just talked to, to which he says that the man mentioned that he found her cute and even wanted to get her phone number. However, Tori gets mad at Shane for letting the guy leave without considering that she would be interested in meeting him. As she heads out to meet up with Dustin, Shane tells her that he didn’t know of her intention and that he can go find the young man for her. Unbeknownst to our heroes, Kapri and Marah are observing them as they ultimately agree to go after Tori for their upcoming scheme.
Later, she arrives at Storm Chargers as Dustin serves as the middleman between her and Shane in order to get to the root of their argument. Tori then chastises Shane for only seeing her as a “girl”, to which he says that she’s more like a tomboy before Kelly comes in and tells him to cease before he makes things worse. Afterwards, she gives Tori an envelope that was left at the store for her, despite the fact that she’s not employed there. She soon discovers an invitation from a youth sports magazine called Girl Sport that claims to have seen her surfing and would like her to take part in a photo shoot for their article called “Beauties Of The Beach”. Just as Shane then starts to mention how it contains “incredibly gorgeous girls”, Tori calls him out on it before Dustin takes his leave alongside his comrade. From there, Kelly asks her if she’s going to accept the offer. Although Tori would like to prove that she’s not “a dopey tomboy”, Kelly tells her that it better be a good-enough reason.
Later, Tori asks Sensei whether she should go through with the photo shoot. However, he tells her how “a ninja’s power flows through them from deep within their being” and that it’s this kind of inner strength that can help her. She says that his advice isn’t helpful, to which he tells her that there’s a difference between helping someone and just simply deciding for someone. After Tori takes her leave, Cameron mentions how physically sore he is after writing weeks’ worth of computer code for his dad, to which he says that he admires his hard work since he feels like they’ll need it.
Over on his spaceship, Lothor observes his nieces setting up their scheme alongside Zurgane and Choobo. Lothor then orders Zurgane to help out once his nieces fail him, to which he says that he’ll have the Kelzaks ready before he heads out. Afterwards, he calls out Choobo for encroaching on his personal space before letting him stay and watch in order for him to “learn something”.
Later, Tori arrives at the sight of her photo shoot, unaware that the two mysterious figures are briefly observing this from afar. Once Tori shows up, she gets approached by the disguised Kapri & Marah as they take her in and change her outfit before they put her in position for their camera.
As Kapri takes out her Personal Alien Manager, Tori notices a massive label on its underside that reveals their alignment to Lothor. With their cover blown, Kapri proceeds to summon a group of Kelzaks for Tori to fight. She’s able to hold her own for a while, but they manage to subdue her before Marah shoots her with their camera.
It then proceeds to create an evil duplicate of Tori before it sucks the genuine article into it. Afterwards, Kapri orders the faux Tori to head over to Storm Chargers and have the male Power Rangers take her to their base.
Meanwhile, the true Tori finds herself trapped within the camera before she tries to contact her teammates to no avail.
Meanwhile, the faux Tori reaches Storm Chargers and manages to convince Shane & Dustin to take her to their secret base, despite her odd behavior. Back inside the camera, the true Tori is unable to find a way out. Just then, she remembers Sensei’s wisdom on how a ninja’s true power flows throughout them. As such, she summons her “Blue Ninja Powers of the Rising Waters” and forms a waterspout that lifts her towards her freedom.
Back with Shane & Dustin, they’re in the middle of driving the faux Tori towards Ninja Ops. Despite the guys’ worrying about their van running out of gas as well as them reaching a work zone, she continues to act rude and refuses to let any inconvenience slow them down. When Shane suddenly spots the young male surfer from early and tries to get her to notice, the faux Tori just yells at them to get moving.
Meanwhile, the true Tori manages to escape from the evil camera before she swiftly makes it back into town. Thankfully, she manages to intercept her teammates’ progress. From there, the faux Tori proceeds to change into the same civilian ninja outfit before it proceeds to fight the genuine article.
Back on his spacecraft, Lothor has found out that Tori has escaped his nieces’ trap. As such, Zurgane tells him that he’ll launch his contingency plan. From there, Shane and Dustin get approached by a monster called Copybot as our heroes proceed to morph in order to fight it.
Meanwhile, the real and fake Tori continue with their tussle as the faux figure has the genuine article on the ropes. Thankfully, the actual Tori summons some water from a wall-based fountain and attacks her doppelgänger with it, causing her duplicate to melt.
Afterwards, she rejoins her teammates as they demand for her to convince them that she’s the actual figure. She proves herself by mentioning Shane’s arachnophobia and even how Dustin’s actual first name is Waldo before she morphs into her outfit. Copybot then sends some Kelzaks after our heroes, to which they easily defeat with their Ninja Shadow Battle.
Copybot responds by getting in a successful strike before it evades their attacks, yet Tori responds with the “Blue Ranger Flood Attack” and gets some good hits on it.
Afterwards, the Rangers combine their weapons to form the Storm Striker and trap the monster within an energy ball. However, Zurgane manages to summon the Scroll of Empowerment in order to make Copybot grow. Cam responds by sending out the Zords as the Rangers bring them together in order to fight on as the Storm Megazord.
However, Copybot makes some copies of itself before it assaults the combiner robot. Cam then informs our heroes that they can use a powerful mode called the Megazord Lightning Mode, but it’ll only last for a whole minute.
From there, the Rangers turn their combiner robot into the Lightning Megazord as it proceeds to swiftly dodge the opposing attacks and defeat the several duplicates. Once its minute-long time limit is up, it reverts back to the Storm Megazord before it brings out its Serpent Zord sword and defeats Copybot with its Triple Strike attack.
Later at Storm Chargers, Shane awkwardly tells Tori that she’s beautiful before Dustin tells her that a customer needs her help in deciding on a surfboard, even though she doesn’t work at the store. Thankfully, she takes up the offer as it turns out to be the same young male surfer named Dil. Over on their uncle’s spaceship, Kapri & Mahra oversee this before Lothor comes in and scolds them for nearly upending his master plan via their doomed scheme. Afterwards, the story ends with his Thunder Rangers returning as they inform him that their plan is in place.
The book then closes out with its adaptation of Episode 4 (“Looming Thunder”) as it begins with Dustin in the middle of a motorbike race. Just then, a pair of racers enter the competition as they pull pass Brooks and win the race. Afterwards, Dustin asks Kelly if she’s heard of those two racers, to which she says that she hasn’t. He then approaches the two racers as he learns that they’re adopted brothers named Blake and Hunter. After he introduces himself, Dustin tries to ask them where they come from as Blake tries to answer, but Hunter mentions how he “wouldn’t have heard of it”. Dustin then asks them for any improvement to his racing skills, to which Hunter tells him not to get too much air from the ramps before he offers him to follow them. However, Dustin has some other business, yet agrees to meet up with them another time before he takes his leave.
Later, he reaches the woods before he calls out to his teammates if he’s missed practice again. Suddenly, he’s met upon by a group of Kelzaks as he proceeds to fight them. However, they manage to pin him down and hold him at blade point.
Just then, Shane and Tori ride in on their own battle bikes called the Tsunami Cycle as they help their teammate out. As Dustin get amazed by his comrades’ special vehicles, he’s then approached by Cameron who actually didn’t want the team to engage their enemies upon their new bikes until they were ready. Thankfully, his teammates proved Cam wrong. Afterwards, he shows Dustin a special big rig and trailer called the Mobile Command Center before presenting him with his own Tsunami Cycle.
From there, Dustin morphs and hops onto his new vehicle before he meets up with his teammates. From there, they proceed to take out the remaining Kelzaks before they meet up at the mobile Command Center and morph back into their civilian ninja form. Despite Shane mentioning how well their new battle bikes were, Cameron says that they can use some fine tuning before he tells Dustin to help him look over some specs in terms of the cycles’ auto-jetting. Afterwards, Shane asks his teammate where he went today, to which Dustin says that he made some friends at the racetrack and that he plans on meeting up with them later. Clarke then reminds him to remember what’s truly important. Unbeknownst to the group, the Thunder Rangers are observing them from a distance before they head out.
Back on his spaceship, Lothor learns from Zurgane that his Kelzaks failed to capture any of the Rangers’ Tsunami Cycles. Afterwards, he meets up with the Thunder Rangers as they tell him that their infiltration plan is coming to fruition. While Lothor does get a little impatient with their scheme, he tells them to carry on while also being aware that he won’t wait forever.
Over on Earth, a massive quake is being caused by an underground creature as it manages to take out the main power for a hospital. Over at Ninja Ops, Cameron’s sensors pick up some “subterranean disturbance” before their base gets rocked by a sudden tremor. After it subsides, Cam, Tori and Shane discover the monster that’s behind it before Dustin arrives from his time at the track. With their foe located at the quarry, our trio proceeds to morph and head out to engage it.
However, the fiend (who gets revealed as Terramole) manages to plunge underground before popping up to attack our heroes. Dustin tries to follow after it with his Ninja Dirt Dive, but the creature hits him back up. Afterwards, it tells our heroes that it plans on tearing their city up before heading out.
Later at Storm Chargers, Dustin introduces Blake & Hunter to Shane and Tori. After Waldo’s two new friends bring up how he’s mentioned some things about his longtime comrades, Shane takes Dustin off to the side and tells him that he was supposed to return to Ninja Ops. Dustin says that he meant to, but then his new friends came by and that they started to check out some motorbikes. However, Clarke tells him that their Sensei isn’t happy. As such, the group heads out. However, Shane overhears Blake & Hunter’s chat as they wonder why someone like Tori is hanging out with Dustin.
Later at Ninja Ops, Sensei punishes Dustin by standing on him while he does a hundred push-ups. Afterwards, Shane arrives back and asks his teammate how well he actually knows about Blake & Hunter. Waldo tries to tell him how “it’s a motocross thing”, but Clarke tells him that his priorities have gotten messed up ever since his new pals suddenly came along. Dustin doesn’t like this notion and asks for Tori to back him up, but she remains silent on this. He then tries to admit that he’s been acting a little bit like an airhead, but Shane essentially tells him to start taking his Ranger duties seriously. Waldo then asks Sensei for some help, but his master tells him that he can only help himself through his actions. Bummed by how his teammates are disapproving of his new pals, he decides to go do some motorbiking.
Later, he completes the racetrack as Hunter and Blake compliment him on his improvement. Dustin then expresses how much he appreciates meeting and hanging out with others who share what he’s into, when they suddenly get rocked by a huge tremor. After they help Waldo up, Hunter notices his suddenly beeping Wind Morpher and asks him if it’s a compass. Dustin says that it has some “cool stuff” before he has to head out. Hunter & Blake then mention how he’s always leaving and that if he wants to be a better biker, then he has to stay and try to improve his lap time. However, Waldo says that he has to depart and that he’ll meet up with them later. Unbeknownst to him, he accidentally left his backpack behind as Hunter and Blake acquire it.
Meanwhile, a fully morphed Shane and Tori are at the quarry as they wonder where their teammate is at. Suddenly, they’re attacked by Terramole. By the time the fully morphed Dustin arrives, he spots his comrades in major trouble. As such, he leaps down with his Lion Hammer and begins pounding the ground with it. As Cameron and Sensei observe this via their base’s computer system, the Yellow Wind Ranger continues to smash the ground until it finally forces Terramole out.
From there, he combines his weapon with his teammates’ unique arsenal as they create the Storm Striker and form a 100-ton weight to smash the being with it. However, Kapri is able to summon the Scroll of Empowerment and make the monster grow. Cameron responds by sending the Zords to our trio before they bring them together in order to form the Storm Megazord.
Terramole then digs underground as the Rangers shift their combiner robot into Lightning Megazord mode. However, its constant attacks prove to be too swift and powerful for it. As such, Cam tells the team to change back into Storm Megazord mode in order for him to supply them with a new power sphere. They then proceed to do so as Dustin inserts a new disk in order for them to acquire a Ram Hammer as they finally defeat the creature.
Later, Dustin is back at the racetrack as he shows his improved skills to his teammates. Shane then asks him where Blake and Hunter are, to which Waldo says that they probably had better things to do. Clarke then tells his comrade that what he previously said shouldn’t be taken as a lack of faith towards his commitment to the team, to which Tori adds that he’s still “a great Ranger”. As Dustin tells his friends to suit up if they plan on riding their Tsunami Cycles, the book ends with the Thunder Rangers observing them from afar as they prepare to unleash their might upon them.
Next up, this specific season of the overall show would release its last Cine-Manga in the form of “Volume 3: Thunder Strangers” (published on February 4, 2004). Despite the fact that this was the season’s first multi-part entry and that it’s actually a three-part saga, this book would only end up covering the first two-thirds of the entire tale.
We open with Episode 5 as Shane and Dustin are looking at something on Cameron’s laptop. When he manages to return, it’s soon discovered that they were observing a Tsunami Cycle and its overall program. Suddenly, the entire system gets locked up and becomes completely inoperable to them. Cam does mention that he entirely backed it up before he asks Dustin to retrieve the disc that he gave him which contains said code. However, Waldo realizes that he placed it within his backpack and that he’s lost it.
Up on his spaceship, Lothor is given the disc by the Thunder Rangers. They then ask him about their business, to which he tells them not to rush things. Zurgane then proposes that they can attack our heroes while they’re at Storm Chargers, but Lothor says that a Ranger’s entire power can only be extinguished while they’re in “full Ranger form”. As such, he wants to wait for the right moment before they finally strike. Afterwards, he sends Zurgane away while he plots and schemes with the Thunder Rangers.
Over at Storm Chargers, Dustin is desperately looking for his backpack before he’s met upon by Kelly. She asks him if he has either Blake or Hunter’s cell phone number since she has enough money to assemble a motorbike team and that she wants them to be on it, much to Waldo’s dismay. As much as it bums him out, he still complies before heading out.
Later, he meets up with his teammates and mentions that he still hasn’t found his backpack. Just as he starts to remember that he was also at the dirt track and is about to head over there, the group gets contacted by Cameron who tells them that their sensors have picked up a heat signature over at the quarry and that they better suit up before they head over to check it out. As such, they proceed to morph and arrive there, though they initially don’t find anything suspicious.
Suddenly, they’re met upon by the Thunder Rangers who proceed to attack them. Our heroes try to fight back, but their foes are easily able to rough them up before they eventually head out.
Later, the group returns to Ninja Ops as they ask their Sensei about their opponents. While Dustin is puzzled by the existence of other ninjas despite the fact that Lothor had already attacked every single ninja school, Tori asks their master if their foe had turned those fighters against them. Sensei says that they’re self-driven enough to not be coerced by Lothor into attacking our heroes, to which they want to know why these new adversaries almost devastated them yet didn’t.
Back up on Lothor’s spacecraft, the Thunder Rangers end up crossing paths with Zurgane who demands to know why they didn’t finish the Power Rangers off when they had their chance. However, they refuse to tell him and say that it’s on a “need-to-know basis”. Both sides nearly come to blows against each other before reminding themselves that they’re on the same side.
Later, the Ninja Ops’ sensors detect Zurgane over at the quarry as our heroes wonder why he’s all by himself. Cam then warns them that it could be a trap before they proceed to morph and head out to engage him. A fight breaks out as the trio struggles against the malicious fiend. Just as Zurgane has the group down for the count, Lothor notices this and manages to beam him back onto his spaceship.
However, the Wind Rangers are suddenly approached by the Thunder Rangers who reveal their own Tsunami Cycles before they hop on and attack them. Our heroes try to fight back, but are easily overmatched by their powerful might.
From there, they proceed to summon their own Zords as the Crimson Ranger calls for the Crimson Insectazord while the Navy Ranger mobilizes the Navy Beetle Zord. After the Thunder Rangers head inside their fighting machines, our heroes manage to get Cam to send them their Zords in order to properly continue their fight.
Shane proceeds to attack the Crimson Insectazord with his Hawk Zord’s Flame Attack, but it’s able to withstand the intense heat before striking back and scoring a hit with its own arsenal. Meanwhile, Dustin’s Lion Zord get assaulted by the Navy Beetle Zord, yet he’s able to fend it off with a Tornado Blast. Waldo then tries to pounce onto his foe, but the Navy Ranger uses his Zord’s cloaking device to elude him before attacking Tori by grasping onto her Dolphin Zord and swinging it around before tossing it.
While Sensei tells Cameron to get a new Power Sphere ready for their Rangers, our trio proceeds to bring their Zords together in order to form the Storm Megazord. However, the Thunder Rangers are able to bring their Zords together in order to create their own combiner robot called (and I’m not kidding here) the Thunder Megazord. From there, the two beings clash as the Thunder Rangers’ battle bot manages to get some hard hits in.
Our heroes respond by summoning the Serpent Sword, but despite getting a few hits in, it doesn’t seem to damage the Thunder Megazord before it stops their strikes. With nothing seeming to work, Cameron proceeds to send them Power Sphere 4. Just as out heroes are about to receive it, it gets intercepted by the Thunder Rangers as they use it to give their combiner robot a blade-like weapon. From there, they deliver some critical hits before unleashing one final strike, causing the crippled Storm Megazord to fall over. Despite our heroes being down for the count however, the Thunder Rangers decide that this assault is enough for now.
Over at the nearby racetrack, Blake & Hunter reach Kelly and tell her that our heroes are in need of help as they all head out to do so. And so, Part 1 ends with Lothor delighted at the sight of the badly damaged Storm Megazord as he mentions how it’s “only a matter of time”.
Part 2 begins at Ninja Ops as Cameron’s computer system looks over the crippled Storm Megazord while he’s unable to find the team. Over near the quarry, Hunter, Blake & Kelly discover the trio back in their civilian clothes and looking a little roughed up. Kelly then mentions that she heard about the incident on the radio and that the newscast assumed that it was an alien attack. Blake and Hunter act stunned by this notion before she then says that they have to contact an official organization, to which Tori assures her and she and her friends are fine.
Back on his spaceship, Lothor and company are overseeing this as Zurgane chastises the Thunder Rangers for not delivering the final blow upon the Wind Rangers. He then requests to go down and attack them while they’re in this vulnerable state, but Lothor refuses and reminds him (along with everyone else) that the Power Rangers will only lose their powers if they’re severely struck while in their Ranger forms. After he casually zaps Choobo with a personal laser beam, he then tells everyone to leave him alone and to also not do anything unless he orders them to.
After skipping over a brief scene where our heroes discover that their Wind Morphers have become badly damaged, we then shift over to Ninja Ops where Cam sees the full extent laid upon these inventions. He then explains that their system’s auto-retreat function allowed their reactors to reset the Zords’ Holographic Portals and that he’s engaged their respective self-repair programs. From there, Shane expresses his confusion as to why their foes didn’t finish them off when they had the chance, to which Sensei explains that the opposing Thunder Zords were built from the same technology that created their own Zords. Tori then says that it doesn’t make sense for the Thunder Rangers to work for Lothor, with Shane also mentioning Zurgane’s forced retreat prior to their arrival. Sensei tells them that he detects some dissension with their evil alliance and that they can potentially use it to their advantage at the right time. As Tori says that she wishes that there was something they could do to overcome their feeling of helplessness, Sensei tells them that they must go live their lives for now in order to prevent Lothor from getting suspicious and getting even more powerful as a result. He also mentions that because the Tsunami Cycle disc is within their enemies’ hands, they must be careful with whomever they talk to.
Later at the beach, Tori is met upon by Blake and Hunter who catch her in a somewhat-dazed look, yet the former says that it’s probably been a rough couple of days since the quarry incident. She then thanks them for their help before taking her leave.
Meanwhile at Storm Chargers, Shane notices that Dustin is in deep thought despite also changing a motorbike’s oil, to which Waldo says that he’s still baffled as to why the Thunder Rangers passed on their chance to strike them down. Just then, they spot Blake and Hunter talking to Kelly about the upcoming motocross race. She then tells them that their parents will have to sign their liability release forms, to which Blake mentions that they don’t live with their folks while Hunter says that they’ll return the next day with their filled-out sign-up forms. Dustin then decides to go after them in order to see if they’ll meet him at the track later, but as he follows them towards a dead end, he turns a corner and discovers that they’ve suddenly vanished.
Over on his spacecraft, Lothor is getting his fingernails painted by Mahra before getting approached by Zurgane. He tells his master that he would like to redeem himself for his recent actions by sending in an alien in order to lure our heroes out and smite them while they’re morphed, to which Lothor permits him to proceed with his scheme.
Eventually, a frog-esque creature named Amphibidor appears before sending its Politrons out into the lake in order to entirely consume it.
Over on the beach, Tori and her fellow patrons suddenly find the entire lake to be completely drained before they’re met upon by the monster. It then approaches her as she tries to morph but forgets that her Wind Morpher is getting repaired. As such, she’s forced to dodge its constant attacks.
Just then, Blake rides in on his motorbike and offers to distract the being while she escapes. He then proceeds to charge at it, but Amphibidor leaps over him before blasting him. Eventually (which involves the Cine-Manga’s exclusion of Tori’s attempt to attack the creature, but it defeats her and tries to fire at her, yet Blake rides in the way of its shot), it hops away as Tori discovers that Blake has been hit by some Politrons.
Later, she returns to Ninja Ops as she tells Cameron that a friend of hers is in need of some help. He’s shocked to learn that she’s brought this friend to their base’s location, but she says that this figure was attacked by one of Lothor’s monsters as they head out to investigate. Thankfully, he’s able to pull the Politrons off as he explains that they’re cybernetic leeches that dehydrates a human’s body. After Cam managed to get them off of her friend’s body in time, she says that his name is Blake before Cameron tells her that she can pick up the fully repaired Wind Morphers inside. As she makes her way in, Blake discreetly sees her entering before pretending to be unconscious again.
Over at the racetrack, Dustin tells Shane about how Hunter and Blake suddenly vanished while he went after them. Just as Hunter asks them if they’ve seen Blake, he arrives with Tori before he thanks her for saving him. Afterwards, Hunter reunites with his comrade before they head out.
Following a motorbike race, Hunter returns as he thanks Tori for saving Blake and that they owe her. From there, they mention that they have to return to their parents as they take their leave. As Tori gives her teammates their restored Wind Morphers, Dustin then mentions how the two young guys had previously mentioned to Kelly that they didn’t have parents. Just then, Cameron contacts them and mentions that their monster has returned. From there, they morph into their outfits and head out to engage it.
Amphibidor manages to give them some initial grief before our heroes retaliate. However, he’s able to fire some Politrons onto them which explodes and leaves them weakened. As if things couldn’t get any worse, the trio is then met upon by the Thunder Rangers.
To their surprise however, they actually go after the monster. They use their Thunder Shields to deflect the Politrons back at the creature, transform their Thunder Staffs into Tornado Stars in order to cripple the fiend and then use their Crimson Blaster & Navy Claw to further weaken it. Afterwards, they combine their weapons together and form the Thunder Blaster as they defeat Amphibidor.
Our heroes then ask them why they just saved them, to which the Thunder Rangers mention how they’re now even before they head out. With Lothor observing from his spaceship and irritated by this turn of events, he then summons the Scroll of Empowerment in order to help Amphibidor grow. From there, Cam sends out the team’s fully repaired Zords as our heroes unite them and create the Storm Megazord.
The monster initially attacks with some Politrons, but the Rangers return the favor by summoning the Ram Hammer and smash the being into oblivion.
Our heroes then return to Ninja Ops before they’re met upon by the Thunder Rangers who’ve captured Cam. They then reveal their secret identities as Tori realizes that Blake used her in order to discover their headquarters. Hunter then has him free Cameron since they’ve gotten what they wanted before they teleport. And so, the book ends with Cameron telling the team had his dad (a.k.a. their Sensei) has been kidnapped.
We now close out this massive chapter by taking a look at one more entry from the franchise’s Disney era. Airing from February 14 to November 20, 2004, “Power Rangers Dino Thunder” would combine its originally made footage with that of the Super Sentai season known as “Bakuryū Sentai Abaranger” in order to weave an overarching tale about three high school students who must take the Morphinominal mantle in order to prevent a powerful foe from eradicating the human race and returning the planet to the age of Dinosaurs.
As far as Cine-Mangas go, this would be the only one the show would get. Published on November 1, 2004, “Volume 1: Day Of The Dino” would also be the last Power Rangers periodical released by TokyoPop since they lost their license afterwards. So, how does the company’s final entry within the overall franchise handle its translation of the season’s first two episodes? Let’s get in the Grid once again and find out.
We open upon an island where a mysterious being has sent its sentient goons after a particular figure. Once the man gets outside, it’s revealed to be Tommy Oliver as he soon finds himself surrounded by the opposing beings. After a brief struggle, their fight gets interrupted by the island’s imminent destruction.
Tommy manages to reach a cliff before the explosions force him to dive into the ocean, where he then sees the piece of land sink beneath the waves within a fire demise.
We then shift ahead some years later as he now works at Reefside High School where he’s met upon by Principal Randall, who’s also just starting out here as well. She then asks him why he’s now teaching teenagers despite being a paleontology expert, to which he says that he’s just looking for some “peace and quiet”. Afterwards, she tells him to make his lessons hard for his students, even “painful”, before she takes her leave. Dr. Oliver then arrives at his science class and asks his students for any pre-session questions. One young lady in particular named Cassidy Cornell gets his attention and tells him that she’s both the anchor & field reporter for the school’s TV station. She then tries to interview him, even telling her aloof cameraman named Devin Del Valle to film away, but Tommy tells them to sit down before he asks his students to share what they expect out of their class. Just then, he notices that one of his pupils is missing.
From there, we shift over to the absentee student named Conner McKnight who’s practicing his soccer skills with another student. The young boy tries to warn him about their new principal, but Conner doesn’t take heed of his worried cautions and even looks down on her just because she’s a woman. However, Principal Randall had overheard his sexist comment before she tells him to “go”. She then kicks a soccer ball with enough ferocity to smack the fully padded young man into the goal and yells at him to return to class before she heads out with Conner.
Meanwhile, a young technical genius named Ethan James hooks up his laptop to the school’s sprinkler system as he tells a friend that his new program will make the sprinklers turn on at random moments. Out in the school yard, a young lady guitarist named Kira Ford is entertaining her classmates with her own song called “Freak You Out”. However, she’s then approached by Principal Randall who tells her that she needs written permission in order to perform on school grounds.
As she tells Kira to come with her and Conner, the sprinkler system suddenly turns on as Randall notices Ethan wandering nearby and instantly knows that he’s responsible for this. She then takes all three of them inside before telling them that starting today, they’ve been given a week-long detention sentence. Once school is done for the day, she then comes across Dr. Oliver and tells him that he’ll be running detention today. He tries to say that he was actually going to head to a museum outside of town, but she tells him that he can bring the students with him before leaving him with them and heading out.
Later, Tommy takes Conner, Kira and Ethan to the museum, only to discover that it’s closed. As an alternative, Dr. Oliver tells them to look over the grounds and that if they discover anything that looks old enough, then he’ll cancel their whole detention sentence. While they do that, he’ll look for someone who works there in order to learn about their operating hours. Tommy then checks the front door and learns that the whole building is now owned by a company called Anton Mercer Industries. Once he recognizes said name, he simply utters how it’s “impossible”.
Meanwhile, Conner, Ethan and Kira are in the nearby woods as James briefly mentions an urban legend about a guy who disappeared within a sinkhole, to which his fellow classmates (especially McKnight) don’t take him seriously on. Ethan then asks him what he does in his spare time, to which Conner says that he goes out with girls. Just as James tries to warn them that anything can happen out in the woods, they all suddenly fall through a hole.
Back with Tommy, he discovers that the museum’s Tyrannosaurus Rex statue is missing before he suddenly sees it towering over him and even approaching him. Dr. Oliver manages to spin kick it in the face before he runs for the jeep. After a brief struggle, he turns it on and tries to outrace the now-pursuing creature.
Back with the students, they notice how far they’ve fallen as Conner tries to climb up and get some help, but he doesn’t get far as a piece of the wall breaks off and he falls back down.
Following a brief moment where the T-Rex is able to keep pace with Tommy, we cut back to the teens as they search the caves in order to find another way out. As Kira starts to sing her song, Conner tells her to keep it down and even calls her “Babe” as well. This irritates her as she tells him to be mindful of her actual name.
Meanwhile, Dr. Oliver approaches an overpass as he drives under it, while the Tyrannosaurus Rex hits its head on it and gets knocked out. Tommy then stops to check it out, to which he discovers that the creature actually has robotic components underneath its surface.
Back with the teens, they come across a fully fossilized dinosaur as Conner decides to take it in order to finally be free from detention. As he pulls down on its mouth, it suddenly opens up a secret door as they discover an underground base within it. They then come across an artifact with three colored stones on it as they ultimately decide to each take one before they glow within their hands. Afterwards, Kira tells the guys that she’s not going to find out who lives down here as she and her classmates head out.
Meanwhile, a familiar island rises up out of the ocean as the mysterious being senses the “gems” becoming active. As such, he sends his mutant henchmen out to go get them. Later, the teens find their way out of the cave before hearing an ominous sound. Suddenly, they’re met upon by the devious cronies as they ultimately decide to run away.
After a brief chase, Kira trips and falls over. Just as the goons are about to reach her, she screams in terror before she suddenly unleashes a sonic shriek that knocks them over. Just as she and her classmates are stunned by what she’s just done, they notice her gem glowing before they’re pursued once again. Ultimately, the teens are forced to fight the goons. With Ethan, he soon discovers his special ability to suddenly develop thick dinosaur scales and withstand an opposing strike as he also sees his gem glowing. Over with Conner, his gem glows as he suddenly gains some abnormal agility and swiftness as he notices a pair of fiends that’re jumping towards him moving incredibly slow from his perspective before he kicks them away.
Once they prevail, the teens reunite before they’re met upon by Tommy as they’re able to hide their gems just in time. After they assure him that nothing unordinary happened, Dr. Oliver begins to lead them out of the woods while they’re unsure if they should tell their teacher.
Once they get back to school, they all agree to never tell anyone what they just saw or went through, to which Kira just gives them her gem and says that she wants nothing to do with all of this. Meanwhile, Cassidy tells Devin that she was unable to learn anything about Dr. Oliver’s past. After she mentions how not even Tommy’s Alma Mater of Angel Grove High was able to provide her with any details about him, she soon spots the trio and takes cover with her aloof cameraman before mentioning how weird it is for Conner to be hanging out with two other students that he’s never been around before.
Just then, Kira takes her leave before she’s suddenly swarmed by the familiar henchmen. As Conner and Ethan rush to her aid, Cassidy orders Devin to get his camera out and record this. With a flash, Ford gets kidnapped as Del Valle reveals to Cornell that he was unable to film any part of the incident in time.
Later, Conner and Ethan drive off to find some help as they decide to go visit Dr. Oliver. Despite discovering that their teacher lives far outside of town, they ultimately reach the house and discover that the front door is unlocked.
They head inside before McKnight pulls down the jaw of a Tyrannosaurus Rex model as it also opens up a hidden door that they enter and discover that it’s the same underground chamber they were previously in. Not only that, but they’re then approached by Tommy himself. And so, Part 1 ends with an unconscious Kira lying within the secret base as the mysterious figure stands tall over her.
Part 2 begins with the young boys informing Dr. Oliver that Kira’s been taken by a group of “weird-looking dinosaur things”. Tommy realizes them as Tyrannodrones as he mentions that he created them before he then says that they have to find out what those goons want with Ford. Conner then takes his gem out as he says that it may have played a part in all of this.
Meanwhile, Kira wakes up before she hears a devious voice telling her to hand over “the gems”. The being then suddenly approaches her and demands to know where he can find the Dino Gems. She tells him that she handed hers over to Conner and Ethan before asking to be released, only for him to swiftly disappear and for her to then be met upon by a devious-looking woman.
Back with McKnight and James, they tell Dr. Oliver that they weren’t expecting the gems to bestow them with superpowers and that some prehistoric henchmen were interested in them. Conner then tells him to “come clean” about having a base underneath his house, to which Tommy wants them to stay out of this and that he’ll personally rescue Kira. McKnight then uses his newfound swiftness to prevent him from leaving as Dr. Oliver tells him that his Dino Gem’s power is bonding with him, to which Conner tells his teacher that he better explain right now before his parents pick up on it and ask him themselves.
Back with Kira, she learns that the opposing woman is named Elsa before she tries to take her leave. However, Elsa refuses as a scuffle breaks out with Ford besting her. She tries to head out again but is then confronted by another group of Tyrannodrones that’re led by a vicious being named Zeltrax. Fortunately, Kira uses her sonic shriek in order to knock them over before dashing past them. Elsa then orders her comrades to get Ford as a hallway chase ensues.
Kira then comes across a glowing green ball of energy as she touches it and escapes in time.
Meanwhile, Tommy embarks with Conner and Ethan on their rescue mission. During their drive, Dr. Oliver explains that his Tyrannodrones had their programs modified from what they were originally supposed to do. He then tells them how a few years ago, he did some research on how to properly combine dinosaur DNA with technology. He also had a lab partner named Dr. Anton Mercer who disappeared shortly before their lab was attacked and their research was supposedly destroyed. When Conner asks him if his lab partner is back, Tommy says that he now goes by a new name: Mesogog. With the group now aware of who’s looking to gain the Dino Gems for himself, they refocus their efforts on rescuing Kira. Suddenly, she teleports in and lands on the jeep’s hood. After she briefly explains how she was in one place before immediately winding up here, Dr. Oliver realizes that she used an Inviso-Portal. Just then, they’re confronted by Zeltrax and a group of Tyrannodrones. Zeltrax then orders our main group to come peacefully with them or else, to which Tommy confidently says “No”.
From there, a fight breaks out as Dr. Oliver quickly learns that Mesogog has made some improvements to his Tyrannodrones. From there, he soon finds himself against both the mutated goons and Zeltrax himself. Meanwhile, Kira manages to physically fend off some opposing Tyrannodrones before subduing them with her sonic shriek. As for Ethan and Conner, they also manage to deal with the opposing Tyrannodrones while also mixing in their newfound abilities.
After Tommy manages to fend off Zeltrax, his students regroup with him before their foe tells them that this war is only getting started as he and his monstrous henchmen retreat. From there, Dr. Oliver offers to drive the teens back to town before he promises to explain everything after school tomorrow.
Back at their island base, Mesogog gets informed that Dr. Tommy Oliver is back. Zeltrax informs him that their aerial assault craft is all set, to which Mesogog then says that once the Bio-Zords unleash their initial strike, Zeltrax will be able to launch his aerial strike. Essentially, Mesogog wants the Reefside citizens to assume that Lothor has returned and be completely unaware “until it’s too late”.
We then shift to the next day at Reefside High where Kira is entering her science class before she’s met upon by Cassidy and gets forcibly interviewed about the strange happenings that have just occurred. Ford tells her that she has no clue what she’s talking about and that she’s perfectly fine. Afterwards, she distracts Cornell by mentioning a supposed pastiness to her face in order to reach her desk. Afterwards, Dr. Oliver enters and is about to begin his lesson.
Suddenly, the whole school gets rocked by a major tremor before the skies get darkened by a series of thunderstorms. Up within the clouds, Zeltrax informs his master that the Bio-Zords are rampaging through the city.
Back at Reedside High, Devin comes in and learns from Cassidy about the sky suddenly getting dark. Afterwards, he tells her that he just heard a report about mechanical dinosaurs stomping through town. Tommy overhears them and prevents them from leaving, but Principal Randall comes in on the school speakers and informs all students to report to the main entrance for an immediate dismissal. During the announcement, Cassidy and Devin manage to slip out. As with Dr. Oliver, he tells our main trio to come with him in order to deal with the Bio-Zords.
Once they arrive at his underground base, Tommy explains to the group that the Bio-Zords are fusion-powered replicants that use dinosaur DNA for their neural functions and that he helped build them. Even though he wants the teens to deal with this, he assures them that they won’t be doing this entirely by themselves. He then mentions how ever since he’s discovered the Dino Gems, he’s been waiting to unveil certain devices as his presents the group with Dino Morphers that will help them become Power Rangers. The trio is rightfully stunned by this revelation as Dr. Oliver explains that their Dino Gems come from the same asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs and that once he discovered those gems, he hid them away from evil eyes after recognizing their potential power. He then tells the trio that their Dino Gems have both chosen and bonded with them in order to give them their unique powers. Ethan then asks him why Mesogog & his cronies are still after the Dino Gems if he and his comrades are already bonded with them, to which Tommy tells them that they’ll only lose their powers if they’re rubbed out. While the group is hesitant to take up this newfound duty, Dr. Oliver tells them that their Dino Gems wouldn’t have bonded to them if it didn’t also sense something inside of them that can handle its power. From there, the group proceeds to take their Dino Morphers before Tommy tells them to say “Dino Thunder, Power Up” in order to properly morph. He then tells the group that even though they come from different backgrounds and that it won’t be easy, they’ll have to believe in each other in order to work together.
From there, Dr. Oliver drives the teens to the middle of Reefside where the Bio-Zords are causing some chaos. Just then, Zeltrax shows up and tells them that they have to defeat him in order to reach the Zords. As such, the trio proceeds to morph for the first time.
Dr. Oliver then instructs them to call upon their weapons from their belts, which they proceed to go so. Afterwards, Zeltrax brings in a group of Tyrannodrones as a massive fight breaks out. Through the use of their unique weapons and skills, they’re ultimately able to defeat the mutant henchmen.
Ethan then confronts Zeltrax, but the fiend ties him up within an energy-based bond and flings him over to a gate before blasting him & his teammates with some eye lasers. With his team down, Tommy tells them to combine their weapons. They proceed to do so as they form the Z-Rex Blaster and deliver a powerful shot onto their enemy. However, Zeltrax retreats into his aerial warship and fires some lasers down towards the group.
Dr. Oliver then tells the Rangers that in order to properly fight him, they’ll have to tame the Bio-Zords by using their Dino Morphers to communicate their thoughts into the mechanical beings. Ethan goes first as he gets the Tricera Zord under his control. Next up, Kira gets the Ptero Zord to follow her commands. However, both of them get attacked by the Tyranno Zord. As such, Conner manages to get the massive being onto his side.
Tommy then tells them that they’ll now have to bring their Zords together. From there, the Rangers hop into their Bio-Zords and unite them in order to form the Thundersaurus Megazord.
However, Zeltrax responds by firing his warship’s lasers at them before wrapping some tendrils around the combiner robot and zapping it as well.
Fortunately, the Thundersaurus Megazord uses one of the tendrils to swing onto the top of the warship before using its Dino Drill to strike the spacecraft’s core. Zeltrax is then forced to retreat as the whole spaceship blows up while the Rangers celebrate their first victory.
Later, Mesogog berates both Zeltrax and Elsa for not knowing that Dr. Tommy Oliver would create his own Power Rangers. He then punishes them with a psychic assault before telling them that he won’t tolerate failure. And so, the comic ends with our heroes’ Dino Morphers being turned into special bracelets as Tommy tells them to keep them at all times since it’ll access their morphers in a pinch. Not only that, but it’ll also allow them to communicate with him and each other. He then tells his team that while Mesogog will be bugging them for a while and that their lives have taken this dramatic turn, there’s nothing that they won’t accomplish as long as they work together as a team.
Overall, this was a fascinating collection that ranged from an ambitious attempt at a multi-issue storyline (which was tragically cut down before it could take off) to digest-sized, self-contained ventures that took various teams upon different adventures upon the drawn and photographed pages. With Image’s lone issue of Power Rangers Zeo, the creative team definitely has the same kind of ambition that John Heebink had with MMPR Saga. Namely, they had intended to tell a grand and overarching story across several issues instead of telling done-in-one tales that the other Hamilton & Marvel entries decided to go with and could’ve easily been translated from regular filler episodes. While we’ll forever have this lone issue, it’s easy for the fans to use their imagination and think up what could’ve been had the company been able to hold onto its license. After all, within a similar vein to Marvel’s MMPR Ninja Rangers #3, we have a major villain gaining access to something that used to belong to our heroes and can potentially make some devastating noise with it. Yet for one reason or another, it’ll never be followed up on. Both had the means to make our featured foe become uniquely terrifying for the Rangers & the world and could’ve made for potential standout stories within the franchise’s vast number of media. Not to mention, it had a few other dangling issues ranging from Billy’s inner desire to become a Power Ranger again to Katherine’s ambiguous resentfulness towards Tommy & Justine’s newfound partnership for the play. As for the single issue that we have, it pretty decent for what it is. The pacing of events is fine for what’s presented with nothing feeling completely out of sorts since they’re shown within a reasonable reading rate. The characterization is decent, yet the whole bit with Katherine becoming jealous of Tommy due to another young woman pining over him as a result of him landing a part within a play felt very shallow, especially due to this particular set of comics being suddenly canceled. If this had been allowed to become a series, then maybe it could’ve been fleshed out and had a chance to become nicely handled for what it’s worth. As it stands though, it’s somewhat unclear if her forgiveness is true or just temporary since both possibilities has them needing to get over it in order for them to prevail against the Cogs. After all, her apology comes while they’re in their full costumes and we’re not able to read her facial expressions while she has her helmet on. Finally, the artwork is something of a mixed bag. In lots of areas, it’s actually well-handled since Todd Nauck seems to be making a genuine effort to not fall into the same influential trappings of Rob Liefeld’s extremely awkward 1990s style. However, the male Rangers tend to be overly muscled when they need to be somewhat slim in order to properly execute their martial arts in battle. There are also a few moments where a couple of body poses seem awkward, like Tanya’s pitching stance as she’s throwing a ball. Thankfully, it’s not a rampant issue for me. Finally, there’s a detail that I noticed where every once in a while, a scene with multiple characters is occurring and a speech bubble is pointing at the wrong person, thus making it semi-confusing. In the end though, all of my complaints aren’t overly egregious and it’s still worth checking out despite its eternally incomplete status. While Boom Studios would go on to give this iteration of the team a modern lease on life within their series, this entry still captures their advancing struggle within a singular piece as something to look back on. As far as the Turbo Rangers’ crossover venture with Beetleborgs Metallix goes, it’s some decent stuff, especially since I’m writing this from a perspective where I’m more familiar with Power Rangers than with Beetleborgs. As a semi-outsider to that team, the three heroic kids were well-presented for what they are. Out of this youthful trio, Jo seems to be the only one who has a character arc where she’s nervous about an upcoming academic event that she’s earned the right to participate in despite being beyond her own years with her own intellect. Her arc is slightly more prominent here than Justin’s, since his fear of being out of place alongside his slightly older comrades isn’t brought up until their conversation and seems more like something that would be addressed within the mainline show. While that conversation is actually very nice, it does have an artistic error at the end where Adam and Justin had suddenly swapped places, though Jo still talks like nothing weird like that had happened. The narrative is perfectly fine for the most part and has some degree of silliness in terms of how the villains create the featured monster, though how it ultimately lures both superhero teams together in order to make them fight each other wasn’t as properly utilized as it could’ve been. Because it seems that the Turbo Rangers and the Bettleborgs exist on different Earths from each other (even though they had heard of each other as fictitious characters), maybe the Changelings could’ve lured them out by committing an attention-grabbing crime before drawing them into the pocket dimension. While the artwork is decent for children (even though Tanya’s face looked weird in her initial showing and there’s also a bunch of gradient backgrounds throughout), the pacing does suffer a bit due to the misplacement of certain word balloons. I mainly noticed this in three spots, starting off with the Turbo Rangers’ morphing sequence. With the exception of Tommy, everyone else is uttering each other’s specific morphing proclamation. For those who’re familiar with this season, it can be a bit distracting. There are also the parts when Adam & Andrew initially fight each other and the big one where Katherine, Tanya & Jo are about to join forces and take on some Changeling monsters. When reading the dialogue within those panels, it ultimately comes off as weird and awkward once you realize it. Other than that, it’s not egregiously awful and is still enjoyable for what it is. Both the Turbo Rangers and the Beetleborgs were nicely presented within this entry that’s still worth checking out for a light experience. With “Into The Fire”, we have our first notable life lesson from this batch of comics. It comes in the form of Justin’s character arc where a past fire-based incident has stricken him with fear and he has to find enough courage within himself in order to confront & overcome this extreme anxiety and effectively save Angel Grove from an incinerated fate. It’s a good message to send to children, since everyone has to deal with their own unique fears and insecurities throughout their lives. As for the execution, I felt like the process could’ve been reworked a little bit in order for the ultimate payoff to feel a bit more satisfying. Maybe Stewart could’ve gotten himself separated from the group and he had to work on his inner strength combined with Katherine’s advice in order to overcome his fear. As it is though, it’s decently handled for what it is and serves its narrative just fine, though it could’ve been a little bit better. As for the present elements, the pacing moves at a somewhat speedy clip, though it’s able to present its key details in a reasonable fashion. Once again, Divatox decides to outsource her conquering efforts to someone who’s able to help her in some fashion. The villains that end up becoming the main threat for this tale were basic, yet decently served the narrative’s main helpful purpose. In terms of the action scenes, they’re energetic enough and nice to look at. Despite not standing out in an outright fashion, they’re enjoyable enough to help get the job done. Finally, the artwork has something of an exaggerated realness to its design. It provides enough detail to make its story nicely presentable within this format and it’s backed by a color palette that helps the events of this tale stand out as much as it can. As such, this entry is suitable for its target audience and does the job within a reasonable fashion, even if the narrative could’ve had another pass in order to help it make a slightly better impact. As for “Simple Simon Says”, the narrative has a pretty effective monster given the technical advancement that Justin had intended for both himself and his teammates getting used against most of them. For a monster fight that doesn’t require a Megazord to get brought out, it does a good job in presenting a bunch of vehicles and weapons within the team’s vast arsenal. However, it’s severely crippled by a severe disconnect between writer and artists. Once Simple Simon begins to enact his plan, there’s a major artistic flub that continues to persist throughout the majority of the story. It’s clear that Tommy and Justin were able to avoid the monster’s mind-controlling scheme, but the artists keep forgetting that Adam is supposed to be brainwashed and not Oliver. While it does consistently remember that the lady Rangers are trapped within Simple Simon’s control, it does have a moment where Adam & Kat’s Turbo Cruisers are initially shown at the beginning of the initial chase. In a final piece of incompetence, there’s a moment where the fully freed Turbo Rangers attack Simple Simon with their weapons. While Tommy correctly strikes with his sword, Katherine and Tanya have swapped their weapons with each other, with Justin and Adam also following suit. Other than all of that, the rest of the artwork for the scenes that actually show competence is pretty nice. Even though the simple story is pretty fun, the artistic errors were severe enough to make this the weakest entry from Acclaim Books’ run with the franchise. Though all three has some form of presentational faults, I feel like “Into The Fire” has fewer flaws in order to make it the best of the bunch. Ultimately, these three books perfectly summarize the season that they represent in that there’s some decent things to like, but a various series of oversights ultimately weigh it down to make it less that what it could’ve been. As far as the Cine-Mangas go, they all do a respectful job at adapting the early season episodes into comic form. While it mainly translates these small-screen chapters onto the printed page, I did notice a few oddities that popped up during the adaptation phase. In “Prelude To A Storm”, the way we’re introduced to our trio of protagonists is slightly out of order. As I showed within the regular screenshots, Tori was presented first before Shane and Dustin. It made sense there since she was the one who had her own vehicle and could help transport her friends to where they needed to go. However, Shane and Dustin were shown first in the Cine-Manga before Tori is allowed to show up. As for “There’s No ‘I’ In Team”, there’s a brief moment when the Zords are arriving at our heroes. Because I watched the episode while following along with the Cine-Manga, I noticed that the book swapped a few lines amongst the trio, thus having them say each other’s line within a single panel. Other than that, all four Cine-Mangas do a decent job at adapting the early ventures of their respectable seasons as they give readers who’re either familiar or unfamiliar with either entry a good-enough idea as to what kind of foundation they’re laying down and what will be built upon for its later episodes. The presentation is very comprehensible, and they professionally show their screenshots within some well-placed panels, combined with the proper action words to represent its in-episode sound effects. While hardcore fans will most likely scoop them up for their collections, it would still provide some enjoyment for casual readers and fans while also presenting a basic idea about what each season is initially like. All-in-all, this collection of comics represented a time when the franchise’s initial wave of popularity was subsiding, and it started going through some changes in order to stay relevant within a reasonably sized audience. Each one represented a unique moment & feeling in time for the overall series and is worth checking out the I.P.’s experimental time upon the printed page.
Despite all of the harrowing ordeals, twists and turns that have been covered over three massive parts, we’re not quite done yet. Come back next time as we conclude this trip back into the franchise’s pre-Boom Studios comics past where the series says goodbye to the House of Mouse and heads into the early 2010s in order to present a few more new heroes. Not to mention, our familiar Teenagers With Attitude will be making one last return in order to provide us with a few bonus tales from their original era. Until then, may your connection to the Grid stay strong.
Power Rangers (created by Haim Saban & Shuki Levy) is owned by Hasbro.
