Power Rangers Unlimited: Hyperforce #1 - A Tale Of Swings And Misses

RECAP

Celebrate the Rangers' 30th Anniversary as prolific Power Rangers storyteller Melissa Flores and acclaimed writer, media personality and voice of the HyperForce Pink Ranger in the HyperForce RPG, Meghan Camarena (Radiant Pink), bring the fan-favorite HyperForce Rangers from the screen to the page-for their first dedicated full-length story since their morphinominal first season!

Mistress Vile, formerly known as Rita Repulsa, and Dark Specter have invaded the Morphin Grid, but it will take far more than just the Mighty Morphin and Omega Rangers to stop them!

As the dark contagion spreads and puts the Rangers in their most vulnerable state yet, the HyperForce Rangers will have to scour the multiverse for as many unexpected allies as they can, while they're pushed to their limits...

CREATIVE TEAM & COMIC INFO

Author: Melissa Flores, Meghan Camarena
Artist: Federico Sabbatini
Colorists: Bryan Valenza
Letterer: Ed Dukeshire
Cover Artist: Keyla Valerio
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Genre: Action, Sci-Fi
Published Date: 07/19/2023

REVIEW

Inspired by the tv show of a similar name, Power Rangers Unlimited: Hyperforce #1 tells a multiversal story of the Hyperforce Power Rangers trying to correct the damage they've done with the timeline. As someone who has not watched the series and only read a handful of the Power Rangers comics, I was excited to read this issue to see how they continue to tell the story (especially given that Flores was also a co-creator and director for the show). By the end of the issue, I enjoyed the idea that the story was trying to tell but ultimately felt like there were a lot of storytelling issues that didn't work well for this comic.

Cover Art

The main cover is drawn and colored Keyla Valerio (Rise of Dracula, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers). The cover features the five main Hyperforce Power Rangers in various stances and positions while inside what appears to be some sort of encasement of the Morphin Grid. The colors utilize a flat palette that works really well and gives a sense of realism with the lighting and style. What's curious about this cover is that the main focus has been the Pink and Yellow Ranger, but they seem secondary to the Red Ranger, who was not in the issue as much as the former. Either way, this is a fantastic main cover.

Variant Cover B is a foil cover drawn and colored by Goni Montes (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Clive Barker's Next Testament), which highlights the classic Green Ranger from the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers team. It's a medium shot of the ranger's chest where the face is not shown, with the ranger holding the Sword of Darkness, and the red jewel in it has a silhouette of the main Power Ranger team. It also shows the classic Dragon Dagger that the ranger was known to have that controlled his Dragonzord as well. This cover is my favorite one of all of these not only for its nostalgic factor but the work is also just beautiful, from its colors to its composition.

Variant Cover D, entitled “1:25 Incentive Lee,” is drawn by In-Hyuk Lee (Mighty Morphin, The Immortal Hulk). This cover shows the Pink Hyperforcce Ranger and the robot assistant, Alpha 55, standing on top of a small rocky mount while lightning is crashing around them.

Story & Writing

The story starts with Chloe, the Pink Hyperforce Ranger, telling two soldiers/guards what has happened as a way to tell the readers the background story for the issue. Essentially, she and the Rangers tried to stop the villainous group "The Alliance" from resetting the timeline. In the process, she finds out her long-lost father is the leader of the group, and as a result, they failed in stopping them. Since then, she's been working with her father when a former teammate of hers, Jack the Yellow Ranger, and Alpha 55 appear and knock her out, taking her back to their former base. From there, they discover that the team disbanded after the multiversal timeline destruction, and Jack convinces Chloe to help him get the team back together, in exchange for leaving her alone if she decides to leave the team and stay with her father. In the process of regrouping, the team works out their past issues, rediscovers what they meant to each other as a family, and makes the decision on how to move forward together, with a surprise ending of a mysterious kind of group arriving in the story.

This issue is written by Meissa Flores (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, The Dead Lucky) and Meghan Camarena (Radiant Pink, Radiant Black). Overall, the story itself is a good idea. In this day and age of superhero stories, the multiversal storyline seems to be the thing that everyone is writing about, and this story isn't exactly unique with the notion of the timeline being destroyed by the villains and the heroes trying to correct their mistakes. But in telling the story, there are some glaring pacing issues and holes that make it hard to follow the story, and ends up being more distracting by the end.

For example, in the opening pages where Jack and Chloe are fighting each other, they both went from being in full masks with Jack saying "Did you just come here to die?" to then suddenly both of them having their helmets off and Jack immediately saying "You're still in there, Chloe." Nowhere did it make clear why all of a sudden they stopped fighting and had that sudden change of heart, not allowing that moment to transition properly. Another example is when Jack, Chloe, and Vesper are saving Eddie from a particular time period (refrained from this review to prevent spoilers). In the process, all four of them are running out together. But for some reason, Jack tells Chloe and Vesper to move forward while he grabs Eddie, even though Eddie is directly behind them. And these are just a few from this issue. Whether these gaps are due to writing oversight or editorial control, they are definitely something that is hard to gloss over. And even though the issue itself is 42 pages, it does cram in a lot of events and a story that feels rushed, not letting the story breathe and develop in a way that's natural and allows the reader to breathe with it.

That said, the writing does have some fun. The Power Rangers as a property has always leaned into the cheesiness, and the writers definitely took advantage of the idea of where people would want to go, both geographically and in time, if they could choose to be anywhere. And I absolutely loved those moments. And they definitely write in some serious, dramatic, and comedic moments that give it a good balance with those storytelling elements. So for those who do not mind some of the issues with the story writing and you're a diehard fan of the Power Rangers property, you'll probably enjoy this issue on some level.

Artwork

The artwork for this issue was done by artist Federico Sabbatini (Moon Knight, The Dead Lucky), colors by Bryan Valenza (Ghost Rider, Witchblade), and letterer Ed Dukeshire (Irredeemable, Incorruptible). The art and illustration itself are fair and decent in this issue. The composition and styles are done very well to help tell the story in a limited amount of pages, and the action was drawn to draw in the readers. The art did, however, contribute to some of the pacing issues that are problematic. For example, the scene where Vesper and Eddie finally meet up was intended to highlight the frustration and tension between them only to be released with a lovers kiss and embrace as a humorous moment. However, the art shows them going straight from the tension to the breaking point, not allowing the humor to really set in. It would have been beneficial for the story to add one panel where the two rangers are paused glaring at each other with no words to really punch in that laugh but ultimately it ended up falling flat. And there were a good number of moments that were drawn like this where the panel jumps from one moment to another with such a huge leap that there was not enough room for the reader to fill in to know what just happened between point A and point F.

The artwork also utilizes the Ben-Day dots in some of the panels. While this has been used in many comics in a variety of ways, it was overused in this issue to the point that it made it distracting. It was hard to understand the reason why it was used in some cases and made it even more difficult to see what was going on in that panel in other instances.

The colors and lettering in this issue are fantastic. The use of their colors was really bright and majestic, and the lighting really gave some of the scenes a realistic depth. The best panel/page in the issue is the morphing scene where all five Rangers morph. This moment is always the highlight of any Power Ranger medium, but the artists on this issue really nailed this page where fans could easily want a larger, poster-size version of that page. This is the first time I've seen this scene in a comic, and I absolutely loved it. I probably spent the most time reading and looking at this page because of my fascination with it as well as its beauty.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The idea behind the story is a good idea, but there were a lot more misses than hits with its execution. If one can look over some of the storytelling gaps and pacing problems the issue had, fans will still ultimately enjoy the story as well as enjoy some of its peak moments, but overall this one could have used more work before being printed.