'Til We Meet Again, Rangers: A Retrospective

Given the general thought that Power Rangers is merely just for kids, it's the reason why I'm not as upfront about being a fan of the franchise as I am with other things geeky. Allow me to tell the history of my relationship with the show.

Like most fans, I was there at the start with Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. I loved the show. The characters, the fights, and especially the megazords. Tommy was definitely my favorite, especially when he was the White Ranger. As the years went on, I continued to watch as the show transitioned from Zeo and then to Turbo. While I don't remember too clearly since I was young, I remember feeling a little bored once pretty much the whole cast had been replaced halfway through Turbo. The only things that got me through the rest of that season were the Phantom Rangers and the Rescue Zords. Looking back at that season now, you can tell there were problems going on behind the scenes. I kept watching, and when the finale came with the destruction of the zords, Power Chamber, and Turbo powers, it got me pumped for the next season, Power Rangers in Space. As many fans would say, that series really gave the franchise new life with its darker and more mature storylines, especially with the character arc of main villain Astronema, who was revealed to be the long lost sister of Andros, the Red Space Ranger, along with great villains like Darkonda and the Psycho Rangers. Even the new Turbo Rangers who I didn't like from the previous season I liked them much better with their new powers. When that season came to an end with "Countdown to Destruction", I thought the series was totally over. All the villains were either dead or purged of their evil because of Zordon's sacrifice, and the Rangers saved the whole universe. While it was intended to be the finale, it ended up saving the series.

I didn't realize another Power Rangers series was coming until I saw the toys for "Lost Galaxy". Before that season started, I remember thinking that the Space Rangers were getting new powers. Imagine my surprise when it turned out they were totally new characters. However, there were still elements from the past series in there. Bulk and Professor Phenomenous were there (to little degree however), and the Galaxy Rangers resided in the Astro Megaship from the previous season and had Alpha 6 helping them. Those elements kept me around, but I ended up caring for the new characters as well. As that season ended, I thought "Okay, it's done. I can move on." But then I learned about "Lightspeed Rescue" coming. I tuned in and once again found new characters. I held in there for awhile, but eventually I stopped watching and fell out of the series for years.

Jump to 2005 and I find out that the original Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers series was being shown on Toon Disney's Jetix block, and I started watching those again for nostalgia. As it would turn out, all the previous series by that point were airing on that channel. And while I was originally only watching for the older seasons I watched as a kid, I was eventually sucked into watching the rest. Thanks to those reruns I was able to rewatch the old ones I loved and catch up between Lightspeed Rescue and Dino Thunder and jump into SPD in the middle of that season, and I ended getting new favorites seasons and characters. I continued to watch after that. I enjoyed Mystic Force, hated Operation Overdrive with a passion, got renewed hope in the franchise with Jungle Fury, and loved the darkness and originality of RPM. By that point, it was announced that RPM would be the final season produced, and after the finale, I thought the series ended on a good note.

A year later, imagine my excitement when it was later announced that Saban had bought back the Power Rangers rights from Disney and would be producing "Samurai", their first new season since Wild Force. As I watched "Samurai", I was a little conflicted. While the storyline and characters were interesting, the acting was very poor, which made it hard to really enjoy it compared to all the past seasons. I just chalked that up to the fact that it was Saban's first season since Wild Force.

That brings us to Megaforce. With this season, Saban decided to forgo all the progress and maturity the franchise has gone through in the past twenty years in favor of trying to nostalgia trap older fans, resulting in uninteresting characters all around, plot points that make absolutely no sense, and essentially an insult to the older fans. The series began with a similar premise to the original series: an ancient guardian recruits five teenagers with attitude to defend the Earth from alien attackers. While I applaud them for that kind of throwback, apparently that's all the thought that was put into it. Then again, the theme songs for Samurai and Megaforce were only remixes of the original theme, which probably shows how much they're out of ideas. Aside from the little stupid things, let me just list out what's wrong with this season's characters and plot points:

1. If the Armada was such a big threat to the universe, where the hell have they been the whole time? I mean, sure, you had alien villains who operated on their own like Scorpius and Lothor, but were they a part of the United Alliance of Evil from the Zordon era (MMPR-In Space)? Besides that, they're just not memorable or complex as other villains. Frax from Time Force was a human whose mind was planted in a robot, Mesogog from Dino Thunder was the Hyde to Anton Mercer's Jekyll, Emperor Grumm from SPD talked to a voice inside his head that would later turn out to be his master, Omni, and Jarrod from Jungle Fury was possessed by the evil spirit of Dai Shi. The villains of Megaforce are pretty much evil just for the sake of being evil. At least in Samurai, we had tragic back-stories for Dekker and Daiyu. For the most part, I couldn't even remember the names of villains in Megaforce because they were so generic.
2. None of the Rangers are interesting or have any real character growth, not to mention had the worst dialogue. Troy is just a generic leader with a "never give up" attitude and nothing else. Noah's the stereotypical nerd. Jake is the jock that is also the main source of comic relief. Gia's the hot blonde and that's it. And Emma, I guess you could call her the hippie of the group. But hell, the way they all kept talking about how much they love the Earth, this team would probably be better known as Power Rangers Hippie Force. When it came to their Samurai predecessors, at least those Rangers had some interesting personalities and backgrounds, even if they were hidden behind some wooden acting. Back to the Megaforce though, in pretty much every battle, they always had to say some kind of annoying line. I'm pretty sure no other Ranger team did that before; just shutting up and fighting has always been the norm. It's almost like they thought they couldn't keep kids' attention unless people were talking, like the fights weren't exciting enough to. And I thought the overuse of explosions during battles in Operation Overdrive was bad. I mean, even when they morphed into past Rangers, I kept thinking to myself "You aren't worthy to wear that suit!" or "You're insulting so-and-so's legacy!" For a season that relied on nostalgia, I couldn't even enjoy seeing the old suits because of who was in them.
3. Considering Gosei was Zordon's student, like the Armada, where has he been this whole time? And from that, exactly how was he able to draw energy from past Rangers into the keys? Not only that, but how was he able to get the SPD and RPM powers when chronologically, those powers exist in the future and in a parallel dimension, respectively.

But honestly, I could have forgiven all that, if it wasn't for the "bait-and-switch" tactic they used to promote this season. While the Megaforce Rangers could morph into Legendary Rangers from the past seasons, they also said that actual former actors who played Rangers before would make appearances throughout the season. We saw guest appearances from Jayden of "Samurai" and Casey of "Jungle Fury"...and that was it. Hell, we were even teased by an RPM Ranger appearance when the Megaforce traveled to Corinth to stop a rampaging zord (because the RPM Rangers were busy apparently). Then later on, Mia and Antonio from "Samurai" make an appearance with their band, but that was only stock footage from their own series. So that makes three episodes with appearances from former Rangers, and only two were new footage.

Even that I could have forgiven, because throughout all of Megaforce, they were building up to the big finale which would involve every Power Ranger ever in a climactic battle to save the Earth. It seems like Ranger fan's dream, right? It was that moment that kept me going through the whole season. Through all the stupid moments, the bad acting, and the shit that made no sense, I thought it would have all been worth it for the Legendary Battle. Well guess what: SABAN EVEN FOUND A WAY TO FUCK THAT UP!
Let me break down the episode. It picks up from the previous one and the people of the city are trying to help each other after another Armada attack. Only this time, they receive help from past Rangers, who only have at best 20 second cameos. This includes Tommy, TJ, and Cassie from the Zordon era, Leo from Lost Galaxy, and Carter and Dana from Lightspeed Rescue. They all probably bring the best acting I've seen from Power Rangers since RPM, thought it feels like such a waste when they're barely there.. Later on, after the Megaforce kills the Emperor, another huge army of X-Borgs show up from out of nowhere and for no reason. That's when all the past teams show up to help. Out of all those, only the ones I mention before take off their helmets and greet the Megaforce. Also, Damon and Karone from Lost Galaxy and Mike and Emily from Samurai are actually there, but don't say anything at all. Must have been an easy pay day for them; "Stand there. Look pretty. Say nothing. Get paid. Go home." So then the Megaforce morphs up again and all the Rangers charge at the X-Borgs for one final epic battle to save the Earth! The result: A POORLY EDITED TWO MINUTE FIGHT THAT MAINLY FOCUSES ON THE MEGAFORCE AND THEIR STUPID ONE-LINERS RATHER THAN SHOWCASING ALL THE PAST RANGERS. I mean, we never even see Tommy fight! All we hear are his trademark yells. I'm sorry, but for every anniversary special or team-up, all the Rangers were given some time to shine. I don't care that in this case there were around a hundred Rangers, this was the 20th anniversary! You know an anniversary special is bad when Tommy can't save it.
I also need to bring up the fact that while it is nice to see old Rangers, it doesn't make sense why they're there. Gosei didn't call them, so what brought them there? Why did the Lost Galaxy come all the way to Mirinoi just to help, SPD from the future, or the RPM team from Corinth? Is there a Power Ranger Phone Tree we don't know about? And why do they decide to show up now? Again, if the Armada was this big of a threat, why weren't the old Rangers around the whole time they were attacking Earth and help end the threat quicker? I mean, sure, there were continuity issues like this in the "Forever Red" 10th Anniversary episode, but at least that episode took the time to introduce the threat and show the Red Rangers gathering to fight it. There's also the fact that Robo Knight, who died a few episodes earlier, shows up with no explanation. He even has a brief conversation with Troy, and like the robot and wooden actor they are, there's no emotion. It doesn't go exactly like this but it's basically, "Hey, I thought you were dead." "Nope.". After a whole season of plot points that make no sense, I just couldn't take anymore! JUST EXPLAIN!

So after they defeat the final X-Borg army and the past Rangers teleport back to whence they came, the last moment of the episode is just the Megaforce going home, and that's it. There's no sense of finality here like past season finales. There's no goodbye to Gosei and Tensou or giving up their powers to return to their normal lives, it's just "Let's go home." You know what I take that as? It's basically Saban saying "we don't really care anymore."

I know a lot of you are thinking "What do you expect? It's a kid's show." No. Even through the ridiculous moments that still happened, as far as Power Rangers has come and the mature themes its taken, that argument is invalid, because the show grew as well as its fans. I mean, characters have actually died in this franchise, and I'm talking actual human characters. In Wild Force, when Cole was a baby, his parents were murdered by their best friend, who would later become the main villain of the season, Master Org. In RPM, Scott's brother was killed when his jet was shot down when Venjix was taking over the planet. And in Mystic Force, the corpses of Leanbow and Daggeron were thrown straight at the Mystic Rangers. Corpses! On what's supposed to be a kid's show! There's plenty more examples of death that happened in Power Ranger history too.

Besides, when you think about it, the best kids programming are the ones that older audiences can enjoy as well. Why do you think Batman: The Animated Series, Green Lantern, Young Justice, and The Spectacular Spider-Man were so popular? Because they were made in a way so that anyone can enjoy them. Goddamn, even Animaniacs had so many raunchy jokes. Finger Prince, anyone? Even modern cartoons like Adventure Time and Regular Show can appeal to older viewers. When you dumb down your shows just to appeal to younger audiences, you ostracize everyone else. That's the reason current Marvel animated shows like Ultimate Spider-Man and Avengers Assemble aren't as beloved as their predecessors.

It's sad really. After every bad season, I gave the franchise a chance to win me back, and they usually did. But now, given the mediocrity of Samurai and Megaforce, and a huge F-U to fans with the latter's finale when the whole season had so much potential, it's making me wish the franchise just ended with RPM. Disney may have wanted to bring the series to an end, but at least they actually put effort into going out with a bang. When it was announced Saban got the rights back, they said in a "read between the lines" kind of way that Disney's seasons sucked and that they would do as good a job with the franchise as they did with Mighty Morphin' to Wild Force, and a lot of fans prefer those seasons to Disney's. While the Disney era from Ninja Storm to RPM may have had their problems, they were still a lot more epic than what Saban has come out with over the last four years. Hell, I once considered Operation Overdrive the worst season of the series, but now I feel like I owe it an apology after what was done in Megaforce. I'm just going to say it: You did it Saban. You finally killed Power Rangers. I may have just fallen out during Lightspeed Rescue, but I came back, I caught up, and kept watching, but Megaforce finally killed the series for me. I'm not even giving Dino Charge a chance next year. I don't even care that it's a dinosaur based team again. Though if by some chance they're able to pull off a major team-up with the Mighty Morphin' and Dino Thunder teams and give them proper respect, I would probably at least tune in to that. I won't be holding my breath though.

At least this isn't like "How I Met Your Mother" when the finale made me hate the series as a whole. Between Mighty Morphin' and RPM, I still have fond memories from this franchise. Right now, I'm even in the process of collecting every season between them on DVD, currently up to "in Space."

But maybe there's a way the Rangers can bring me back. In 2016, a new Power Rangers film is set to be released. Not a lot of details are known, but it appears that the movie will still be set in continuity with the series while also acting as a reboot. It seems like it would be something along the lines of "X-Men: Days of Future Past" and the Mortal Kombat game of 2011. When you think about it though, if Saban is intentionally making bad seasons that would lead to the franchise's cancellation after Dino Charge, it would make sense for them to close shop on the TV series and make a fresh start through film. Honestly though, I think this would be a good chance to show that Power Rangers can be taken seriously. Look what the Star Trek reboot did. It took a cheesy series and made it something epic. I had this idea awhile back that Power Rangers could do this in a film trilogy. The first one would be mostly based on "Day of the Dumpster", the second would be a mix of "Green With Evil" and "Island of Illusion", and the finale would be a mix of "The Green Candle" and "Doomsday", but unlike the original series, it would feature Tommy's death and Rita and her gang being sealed back into the dumpster. Fun fact: before anyone knew Power Rangers would become a phenomenon, the "Doomsday" two-parter was originally going to be the series finale and feature Rita's defeat. If the new film can pull off something like I'm hoping for, maybe they'll be able to bring me into the theater.

For now though, I say goodbye to Power Rangers. Will I come back? At this point, it seems unlikely. But if they're able to do something big to bring back not just me, but other fans also jilted after Megaforce...well, I guess time will tell.

If you need me, I'll be getting the bad taste out of my mouth with highly superior fanmade version.

Comics Review: "Superman: Doomed" - Super Fuster Cluck (SPOILERS)

While I am familiar with well known moments from Superman's comic book history like "The Death of Superman" and Geoff Johns' 2008 "Brainiac" storyline, it wasn't until the New 52 began that I decided to add a Superman title to my pulllist. Instead of the main "Superman" title, I decided to go with "Action Comics", which began with Grant Morrison telling a new version of Superman's early days. Eventually, "Action" jumped to the present and found a steady new writer in Greg Pak. Since some Superman "events" were happening the main book and written by Scott Lobdell, I missed things like "H'El on Earth" and "Psi-War", though from what I've heard, they weren't that good. But then the "Doomed" event was announced, and with "Action Comics" involved, it looks like I was along for the ride for my first Superman event.

Let me start by saying that this event had a lot of build-up across almost the whole Superman line: Action Comics, Superman, Superman/Wonder Woman, and to less extant, Batman/Superman and Supergirl. For the most part with events, you can follow along but not have to worry about doing research. This is one of those cases where you pretty much needed to be following along the whole time. Since I was only reading "Action", I was somewhat lost when the actual event started in certain areas. The main Doomsday build-up was happening in "Superman/Wonder Woman" while "Superman" dealt with a storyline involving Lois Lane developing psi-powers and the citizens of Smallville inflicted by a disease putting them in comas. In addition, Cyborg Superman, who plays a part in the event later, was appearing in "Supergirl", but I wasn't covering that, and if it wasn't for the Cyborg Superman one-shot from DC's Villains Month, I wouldn't have known that it was Zor-El, Supergirl's father and Superman's uncle, experimented on by Brainiac and acting as a herald to find worlds to collect. The point is, there's a lot going on, and if you were only reading just one of these books, you won't get a full grasp of the event.

But I think that is only half the problem with this event. The main premise of "Doomed" wasn't going to be a rehash of "Death of Superman" for the New 52, but after Part One of the event depicts Superman defeating Doomsday, he is infected by a virus that causes him to actually transform into a Doomsday creature, being triggered by stress or anger, similar to Bruce Banner turning into Hulk. Now when the event began with that premise, I thought it was pretty good. We would see Superman dealing with something he couldn't control and his friends would have to find a way to save him. There's even a really good issue of "Superman/Wonder Woman" where she finds him in his Doomsday state and its causing him to vent his frustrations about her and their relationship.

If that was going to be the main focus of the event, maybe I would feel differently about this event. But once Brainiac attacks Earth again, using the psi-powered Lois we find out is under his control to lead his forces, and is also behind the comas in Smallville as the beginning of collecting all the minds of everyone on Earth, it just goes all over the place. I believe there's some attempt to explain that Brainiac was somehow responsible for infecting Superman with the Doomsday virus, but I didn't really understand it. Honestly, it feels like there were two very different stories occurring in the event that were poorly connected. If it wasn't for the personal moments between the characters throughout this events, I don't think I would have made it through.

The best way to describe the ending of this event is "Deus Ex Machina". Eventually, Superman confronts Brainiac, who reveals his plan to collect psionic energy of people across the universe to rewrite it to his own whim, particularly to revive his wife and son. Let me explain why I have a hard time following that. I know comic book science can be totally out there, but I have never heard of the idea of people's consciousnesses or minds could actually manipulate reality. Even the anime "Code Geass" worked with the idea that all people's consciousnesses were part of a system that makes up God, but even that idea didn't deal with changing things as drastically as Brainiac wanted here. Besides that, the way people have seen Brainiac is that she's this emotionless being who does things on an intellectual or preservationist level. I know the New 52 can makes changes to characters as they want, but don't try to make me feel emotion for someone like Brainiac. Lex Luthor, sure, make him a member of the Justice League and give him a sad story about his sister, but I really don't think Brainiac can be done that way either.
To defeat Brainiac, Lois uses her own powers to transfer his psionic energy into Superman, which creates what I'd like to call a "SuperDoomBrain" creature. If anyone has a better name, I'd like to hear it, cause I honestly feel dumb typing and referring to him as that, and I hope whoever came up with that idea did. Superman then uses that energy to free the minds Brainiac had collected, which apparently burns out that power but also the Doomsday virus, reverting Superman to his normal state. Like I said, "Deus Ex Machina." It just seems like a quick resolution to the whole event, which lasted way longer than it should have in my opinion.

Now the finale of this event was supposed to be out at the end of August but ended up delayed to the end of September. Usually when that happens, it's due to an art delay, but upon reading it, I think it was to tie-in more with the "Futures End" Five Years Later event DC has all its titles involved in that month. The final moments of the finale have Superman forcing Brainiac's ship into a black hole, trapping them both. They are separated, and Brainac ends up in a place where he views visions of the classic DC universe before "Flashpoint" occurred. A week later in the "Futures End" weekly series, we find Brainiac, apparently unheard of since "Doomed", with a new giant robotic body and residing on what he calls the "Blood Moon". In addition to that, in these connecting "Futures End" covers, a wave of energy is coming from Brainiac's hand, and if you look closely, you can see DC characters in their classic depictions.

Obviously, this is all building up to DC's "Blood Moon" event occurring next April. I have my own thoughts on what could happen there, but that would get us off topic. I'll just say that when I saw the last page of Brainiac looking at the old DC universe, I was a little frustrated that this event once again threw in another plotpoint we have to go elsewhere to find out what's happening.

Since this event actually ended in September, you're probably wondering why it took so long to get a review up. Well, I had to wait for Action Comics #35, which acted as an aftermath issue, to find out what happened to Superman and everyone else. There were also aftermath issues in "Superman/Wonder Woman" and "Supergirl", but as I feel they aren't necessary, I didn't read them. So apparently the aftermath of the event has the same problem as the build-up, where you can't get the whole story from the main portion, and need bookends to prop it up. So eventually, Superman finds his way home after two months and the issue deals with him exploring how the worlds has fared since Brainiac's defeat, and through a convoluted plan that would take awhile to explain, he realizes that even with the damaged caused through his battles, he still serves as an inspiration to the people of Earth.
The one drawback of this issue though is that Lois, who had discovered Clark was Superman in the main story, has forgotten his identity due to the loss of her psi-powers. In my opinion, that's a loss of a potentially good story. Apparently DC wants to keep pushing the Superman/Wonder Woman relationship, but would it have really hurt to have Lois know the secret? We all know that Superman and Wonder Woman's relationship will end at some point, DC even said so, so why not make it interesting and have a sort of love triangle? Sure Clark has more in common with Diana, but everyone's so familiar with his relationship with Lois. It could have left the door open for Lois and Clark to reignite things. But I guess DC wants to see how long they can keep the powerhouse couple afloat.

So to wrap things up, I wouldn't say it's a bad event. I mean, I gave it a fair shot and tried my best to like it and it did do some interesting things. The personal moments between characters got me through it though some plotpoints were confusing and probably played out too long. Maybe if I had been reading the other books involved, it would have been clearer and I may have enjoyed it more. I'm really just glad it's over and that "Action Comics" can get back to its own thing for awhile.

I usually give number scores for these comic reviews, one for story and one for recommendation, but I honestly can't really place numbers on this event. I'll just say that if you want to give it a try, go for it. I heard the trade collection will include the prelude and aftermath issues along with the main story, so you'd be lucky there.