As my college roommate used to say, “It’s always darkest before it turns pitch black.” The Rangers are about to discover the truth of that sentiment. Your Major Spoilers review of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #111 from BOOM! Studios awaits!

MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS #111

Writer: Melissa Flores
Artist: Simona di Gianfelice
Colorist: Raul Angulo/Jose Enrique Fernandez
Letterer: Ed Dukeshire
Editor: Allyson Gronowitz
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: August 23, 2023

Previously in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Mistress Vile has won, or so it seems, with control of the Grid and Dark Specter’s infections spreading through the universe! As if an epic battle between Vile and the Vessel wasn’t enough, the separated and stranded Rangers receive help from the last team they’d expect, but it may not be the help they were hoping for…

MURDER, MOST FOUL

The last issue ended with Mistress Vile summoning Dark Specter and Grace Sterling lying in a heap, seemingly dead at the hands of Matt, her own Green Ranger. This issue opens with a flashback to Matt’s training at the Promethea facility, reminding us that she was once one of Zordon’s Rangers, and the hopes she had to do better for Matt. In the present, the Mighty Morphin team tries to get him to explain himself, but he refuses, causing the Blue Ranger to attack. On planet Safehaven, Lord Zedd (now the Grid-powered Z Ranger) invades with the intent of stopping his ex-wife in her tracks, but the Omega Rangers that protect the planet mistake his arrival for an attack. Mistress Vile’s allies (Death Ranger, Dane, Alpha-1, and the mind-controlled Wild Force Rangers) arrive just in time to snipe both sides of the conflict. That’s when Zedd realizes that he’s in the wrong place.

And Rita, back on Earth, manages to summon Dark Specter into a waiting body… Zordon.

APPROPRIATELY UNNERVING

I am not the first person to opine that the endless escalation of adventure stories can be exhausting, but this issue overcomes that problem for me. Even after Shattered Grid, even after Lord Drakkon’s resurgence, this issue feels like the Rangers’ darkest hour. Zordon is gone, their most powerful member is corrupted, Rita has won, and their most powerful foes are all returning in force. The art of Simona di Gianfelice is once again up to the task of creating a sense of impending doom, from the caverns in the Bermuda Triangle to the battlefields of another world. Combined with a well-crafted script, it makes for a comic that raises the narrative stakes and ends on one of the darkest moments since the Red Space Ranger was forced to kill Zordon to save the galaxy back in 1998.

BOTTOM LINE: THEIR DARKEST HOUR HAS COME

If you’ve been following the series, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #111 is the pulling together of half a dozen plot points dating all the way back to the beginning of the BOOM! Studios Power Rangers era, combining exciting art with a truly horrifying series of events, and even the arrival of another team of Power Rangers doesn’t seem to be enough to escape the doom that has arrived, earning 4 out of 5 stars overall. Fans of good comic storytelling should check this out, even if they’re not Ranger fans.

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