Astronema, the main villain for Power Rangers in Space is easily one of the most popular villains/heroes in the entire Power Rangers franchise. First introduced as the heir to the big bad, Dark Spectre, viewers learnt that she was actually the long lost sister of Red Ranger Andros, saw her try to go good, watched as she was reprogrammed into a villain, and even saw her to go on to become a Ranger in Power Rangers Lost Galaxy. Her journey was one of the more complex and varied the franchise has ever done. Yet despite that, there's still a lot about her that we don't know.
This is something that Power Rangers Unlimited: Heir To Darkness aims to put right by delving into the character's past, and showing a little of what happened to her after she was kidnapped as a child, but before she becomes the 'Princess of Evil'.
One of the biggest revelations in the book is that Karone wasn't the only child kidnapped by Dark Spectre's forces, and that there appears to have been others who went through the same experience. We see three other children like this in this book, children who were also taught that their families were killed by the Power Rangers, who were moulded into weapons by the forces of evil. These children seem to be the apprentices of each of Dark Spectre's generals, and we learn that Karone was raised by Ecliptor, something that was mentioned in the show but we never got the details of.
In this comic we get to see some of the relationship between these two, and what makes them so special. Despite being a fierce warrior, a girl with strength and abilities that would put most to shame, Karone struggles to go that extra mile and be the best that she can. After learning that this is because she doesn't feel a connection to the family that she lost, the one the villains are trying to exploit to turn her into a weapon, Ecliptor actually shows her some kindness. This does a lot for the relationship we see in the show, one that was already clearly a father/daughter dynamic.
I think that this relationship is something a lot of fans will be coming to this book hoping to see more of, and writer L.L. McKinney certainly delivers on this. We get to see the care that Ecliptor has for Karone, and how he values her as a person rather than just a potential weapon; something that Darkonda clearly doesn't feel towards his own apprentice.
Despite this relationship with Ecliptor, Karone is manipulated towards the side of the villains, and the book is as much about her earning her title of Astronema and becoming Dark Spetre's heir as anything else; and as such she has to do some pretty nasty things over the course of the book; including killing a team of Power Rangers. The fact that Hasbro keep including older Sentai teams as other teams of Rangers that are out in the universe is really cool, and something that I hope they continue to do in the future.
The art, provided by Simone Ragazzoni, looks spectacular throughout, and gives the book a look and feel that's unique to itself, yet definitely feels like its part of the ever expanding Power Rangers comics universe. The redesigns for the characters are great, and it was fun seeing what Karone and Ecliptor looked like in years past.
It's a shame that this was just a single issue story, and not a mini-series or its own graphic novel, but that being said, the issue ends with Astronema and Ecliptor heading off for the planet Onyx, the same place the Omega Rangers are heading in their next issue. I'm sure this means we're going to get these two groups meeting up and interacting, and after reading this issue I'm even more excited for that than I already was.
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