'THE TEENAGERS WITH ATTITUDE MEET THE HEROES IN A HALF SHELL FOR THE FIRST TIME!
'The Power Rangers arrive in New York City to find their missing teammate Tommy Oliver – AKA The Mighty Morphin Green Ranger – but soon discover he’s joined forces with the villainous Shredder and the Foot Clan! But the Rangers must also deal with another unexpected (fr)enemy – the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! Can these heroes find a way to work together to defeat the bad guys and save the world from total destruction?!
'Written by Ryan Parrott (Power Rangers: Necessary Evil) and illustrated by Simone di Meo (Power Rangers: Beyond The Grid), the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers fight – and maybe team up with – the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the first time ever.'
Boom! Studios have done a fantastic job at breathing new and exciting life into the Power Rangers franchise with their works on the comics, introducing new characters to the lore more than twenty five years since Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was on television. One of the writers on the Power Rangers comics is Ryan Parrott, who's currently relaunching the books with two new, exciting series, and here fans get to see him tackle another beloved children's martial arts franchise, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles opens with the Rangers fighting Rita's latest monster in downtown Angel Grove. During the fight we learn that Tommy, the Green Ranger, has taken a leave of absence, and the Rangers have no idea where he is. On the other side of the country, in New York City the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are battling a number of Foot Clan ninja's. However, one of these ninja's manages to get the upper hand over Raphael, and make their escape.
We soon learn that this new ninja is, in fact, Tommy, who has travelled to the city to infiltrate the Foot Clan to help a childhood friend who's become mixed up with the criminal organisation. In order to prove himself to the Foot's leadership, Tommy must infiltrate a secret research lab and steal some tech. He's able to make it inside the building, but finds the Turtles waiting for him. When he's forced to morph in order to take them on the Power Rangers are able to detect this, and teleport to New York to assist him.
After a brief fight between the two teams they quickly realise that they're on the same side and join forces, however, Tommy has already fled the scene, returning to the Foot Clan with the stolen tech. Coming face to face with the leader of the Foot, Shredder, Tommy discovers that Shredder knew of his real identity the whole time, and is captured. Using tech from his allies in Dimension X, Shredder severs Tommy's connection to the Morphin Grid, and takes on the Green Ranger powers for himself.
With Tommy missing, Shredder now a Ranger, and Rita Repulsa seemingly allied with him, the Rangers and the Turtles must work together to stop these powerful foes, rescue their friend, and save the city.
I'm going to be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect from this book when it was first announced. This isn't the first time that these two franchises have met, with an episode of Power Rangers In Space featuring the turtles from the 90's television series Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation. The crossover episode was admittedly, pretty bad, thanks in large parts to in both not making much sense for the two series to suddenly cross-over, but also because of the low effort put into it. I was slightly worried that this series could become another half baked way of putting these two groups into the same space. Luckily, I was wrong.
Parrott has come up with great ways to bring the characters together in this story, and not just the main teams either. Having Tommy travel to New York to help a childhood friend, and having to infiltrate the Foot to do it is a really good idea, and it gives him reason to keep going back on his own, without Ranger back-up. And whilst the two teams do do the almost obligatory fight upon first meeting because they don't know they're all good guys comic cliche, they actually work really well together.
Jason and Leonardo get time to bond over being leaders, and there's a few fun conversations between the two of them comparing sword fighting techniques and their love for martial arts. Michelangelo and Zach both seem to have some dubious food love, and get to have fun coming up with bizarre and downright disgusting pizza toppings together. Billy and Donatello are a perfect pairing as the teams two techies, comparing their inventions, talking science, and getting excited over giant robots. And there's a really good scene where Trini and Raphael discuss some of his emotional issues; though this felt like it was never resolved with another similar scene, which is a shame as I think Trini would have been an amazing friend for the deeply caring Raph. The only Ranger who doesn't really get a Turtle to pair off with is Kimberly, but she has a number of scenes where she and April O'Neil spend time together, and get to discuss guy trouble.
The bad guys even get to team up too, with Rita and her lieutenants getting the chance to fight against Shredder and his forces, before ultimately agreeing to an uneasy alliance to bring down their respective foes.
One of the best things about the book, however, is how Parrott really changes things up, and does stuff that would never happen on the TV screen. Using the same device that broke Tommy's connection to his powers, the other Rangers are similarly affected, which causes issues when one of Rita's monsters arrives in the middle of New York. To solve this issue the Turtles, and April, borrow the morphers and become the Mighty Morphin Ninja Turtles. Similarly, the de-powered Rangers join Casey Jones on a mission to infiltrate the Technodrome, kitted out in ninja gear borrowed from the Turtles.
The designs for both groups are absolutely brilliant, and I love the work that Simone Di Meo does here. The Turtle Rangers are all instantly recognisable as the Power Rangers, but still look like turtles, with some gold elements similar to the Green Ranger thrown in in places like their shells. Speaking of the Green Ranger, the design for Shredder using that powers is amazing, and the way that both iconic designs come together to create something completely new, without losing what makes either character recognisable, is astounding. Even April, who's just another human using the Pink Ranger powers gets a slight redesign, even if it's something as simple as removing the skirt.
Not even the Megazord gets away unscathed from the awesome redesigns, as it gets to merge with a giant version of Metalhead getting to combine with the Megazord to create the Turtle Megazord. I really hope that if Hasbro start doing more comic characters as part of their Lightning Collection of figures we get a set from this book, because the designs on offer here are some of the best Power Ranger designs I've seen in years. And I want them as toys.
I went into this book with pretty low expectations, but hoping for something that would be good, and I got something that was so much better than I was even hoping. I loved reading this book, and I want them to do a sequel. Do it again a season later, using the White Ranger and the Stone Canyon Trio to add something new into the mix, do it with Lord Zedd, or even go pick another team of Rangers all together. Either way, I want Ryan Parrott to do another of these, because this is brilliant.
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