- Written by Tom Taylor
- Pencils & Inks by Stephen Byrne & Eduardo Nunez
- Cover by Stephen Byrne, Karl Kerschl, Serge Lapointe & Eduardo Nunez
Two of comics greatest teams team up for the very first time! Something terrible has happened in Angel Grove! When the Command Center is breached and the teleporters are damaged, Zack is flung into another universe, where he’s mistaken for a villain by a mysterious masked vigilante. Can the other Power Rangers get to their friend in time to save him from Batman? Co-published with BOOM! Studios.
‘Justice League/Power Rangers’ #1 is available at Comixology now!
Let’s be honest the concept of mashing up ‘Justice League’ and ‘Mighty Morphin Power Rangers’ sounds wrong. But then so does ‘Green Lantern Corps’ crossed with ‘Planet of the Apes’ and that’s coming soon…
If you read my reviews then you know that I’m a big ‘MMPR’ fan so with some trepidation I was looking forward to reading this issue. ‘Justice League/Power Rangers’ first issue feels closer to the first round of ‘Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ crossover rather than its more recent animated series mashup.
Given the pulling power of the ‘Justice League’ characters this issue actually puts the story on more of a ‘Power Rangers’ slant. The story opens in the ‘MMPR’ universe with the rangers facing off against Lord Zedd. Fans of ‘MMPR’ may find it a little odd to see Tommy in his Green Ranger costume as it was the arrival of Zedd which triggered his change to White Ranger in the TV series.
Most likely this was done to acclimatise DC Comics fans to the world of the BOOM! Studios franchise. If so: it works. There’s enough time to be introduced to the ‘MMPR’ world before Zack is transported off to the DC Universe.
As with many of these crossover event series there’s not a huge amount of action. There’s a dropping off point of intrigue and a jump back in time to explain how we got to where we were. It’s a little sloppy for the storytelling but given the uncertainty this concept would work it makes sense to play it safe to begin with.
The most unbelievable aspect of this issue is that Batman would be outsmarted by a lone Power Ranger and need to call for help. It’s not a huge problem as the story needed a way to introduce other members of the League but it could be the beginning of some character compromising in order to fit the story.
The artwork is pretty cool. There is some interesting rendering which makes the series look almost 3D at times. Almost as if there was some rotoscoping done. It’s not outstanding but it’s definitely got a different aesthetic to box the individual series in the mash-up.
The ‘Power Rangers’ characters are recognisable and the ‘Justice League’ appearances are fitting with their current Rebirth appearance. The locales in the Angel Grove section reflect their comic and TV series counterparts. We see very little of the DC Universe in this issue so it remains to be seen what locations will be important going forwards.
Verdict
‘Justice League/Power Rangers’ is an interesting debut albeit a little derivative. It does successfully bring together two franchises which perhaps shouldn’t work together. From here the series needs to take some risks if it wants to be taken seriously.
