Boom! Studios 2016
Story by Brenden Fletcher & Kelly Thompson
Written by Tini Howard
Illustrated by Daniele Di Nicuolo
Coloured by Sarah Stern
Lettered by Ed Dukeshire
Kimberly is in charge of a new team of Teenagers with Attitude. With time against them, she's going to have to put all her training to the test if she's to get her new friends out of this alive!
While the kids like to rely upon their costumes and powers what I liked most about this was that it’s really Kim’s training and the kind of person she is that’s really on display here. Sharing what little power she has has made her weaker than she’s used to as a Power Ranger so it’s all that Gymnastics training and kind of girl she is at her core that she has to rely upon to get things done. Yeah while the costume may be a security blanket and bolster the confidence she doesn’t need it to be a hero and that’s coming through in this story.
I like the way Kim Zack and Trini work together as a team and even if they aren’t powered up. They have martial arts skills and that strength of courage to fight for those who can’t. It was nice seeing Trini reference that she’s good with technology but not as good as Billy that’s the confidence and humility that show off who a person is and whom you should strive to be. Confident in yourself and willing to admit you’re not the best and that’s okay.
The way that the story progresses you’d think how can there still more issues after this. That’s where Tini and co. show us hey we’ve got plenty of twists here for you. I like that because while it seems the Rangers usually beat up their enemies rather quickly and make them run for the hills it seems these two have grown as much as the former full time Rangers. This kind of character evolution is great to see even if it’s also in the bad guys.
Of course any time that two bad guys team-up there’s usually a betrayal of some sort as one wants to eliminate the other. In this case Goldar is a blowhard and is more abrasive towards Verto and that isn’t going to sit well.
The artwork here is nice enough and tells the story pretty well. The flow of the book through page layouts with the use of angles and perspective is handled very well. It’s a little cartoon style but with the Rangers that style works. I think it needs more use of backgrounds to help with the overall scope, tone, mood and feel of what’s happening and I think more often than not too few use backgrounds anymore.
Fans of the franchise will enjoy the continuing adventures of the original members and see that even though they’ve graduated onto “normal” lives once a Ranger always a Ranger and friends are family. New readers will like it for the fact that it takes more than powers to be a hero and what matters are your friends and skills, not to mention how you use your mind.