Writer: Mat Groom

Artist: Moisés Hidalgo

Cover Artists:

• Main Cover: InHyuk Lee
• Legacy Variant Cover: Eleonora Carlini
• FOC Reveal Cover: Helena Masellis
• Incentive Cover: InHyuk Lee
• Incentive Cover: Eleonora Carlini
• Incentive Cover: Goñi Montes
• FOC Reveal Incentive Cover: Helena Masellis
• Unlockable Cover: Goñi Montes

At the remains of the Command Center, the Rangers survey the damage, and it does not look good. However, down in the Power Chamber, things look much better! Most of the systems survived the blast, including the one that connects the Power Coins to the Morphin Grid. However, without the Command Center to provide shielding and cloaking for the Power Chamber, it is extremely vulnerable. In other words, it would not take much to permanently sever their connection to the Grid. Fortunately, the Command Center was not one-of-a-kind. In fact, it was a standard model Eltarian Outpost. Realizing that this means there must be more outposts on other planets, the Rangers decide to head off world to find another one. This won’t be easy though, as they do still need transport, and a darn good, time-flexible, cover story for their families.

Speaking of families, Rocky gets a call from his mom, and returns home. Apparently, all the recent events in Angel Grove have caused her company to consider shutting down the local branch office, so she has to fly down to Dallas to save her job, and needs to Rocky to watch his 4 siblings while she’s gone. Rocky can’t come up with a valid cover story on the spot, but is temporarily saved when his sister barges in with news that something is happening to the moon. While the art seems to indicate that it has been eclipsed, the moon has apparently disappeared!

The next day, at what is left of Promethea, repairs are proceeding, but Grace is more worried about the missing moon. However, it appears that the moon has just been cloaked, which explains why the Earth hasn’t been effected by the lack of the moon’s gravitational pull. The whole moon thing is put on the back burner when Tommy & Billy arrive in whatever room houses Zordon’s temporary tube. Explaining their situation to Grace, they first ask for Promethea, and their Green Ranger, to protect the Power Chamber while they are gone. Billy also asks for 10,000 megawatts of power, and an Eltarian Ship, since, during his recent stint with Promethea, he created a backdoor into their system, and is aware that they have one. In fact, the least damaged one they could find has just been restored. Begrudgingly, due to the Eltarians and Zedd still being active, and since the Green Ranger’s powers still rely on their connection to the Morphin Grid, Grace gives them what they need.

Later, as the Rangers prepare to depart, Rocky teleports in and tells them he can’t go. This is actually a relief for the rest of the team, as they were thinking that at least 1 Ranger should stay back to help protect their “home.” Soon, the Alpha and the Rangers depart. But before the glow of the ship’s thrusters can fade away in the distance, Rocky is attacked by some weird, killer robots. After a quick morph, Rocky takes out a few, but is soon overwhelmed. Fortunately, Matt shows up just in time to help him dispatch the rest of the bots. But one of the damaged bots is still active, and sending video to the base of King Aradon, where a servant bot informs him that, with Zordon’s Fortress vulnerable, and Lord Zedd in retreat, now would be the perfect time to claim the Earth for the Automaton Dominion.

Meanwhile, in space, Alpha has found an abandoned Eltarian Outpost on Aegus V that will fit their needs perfectly. The only down side it that the planet is covered with water, meaning that the outpost is far beneath the surface of the ocean.

Story – 4 out of 5: For those that may not know, before he became a big time comic writer, Mat Groom and his buddy Michael started the Ranger Danger podcast, in which they watch and review every episode of Power Rangers. While still doing the podcast, he has also worked with Kyle Higgins on Rise of Ultraman for Marvel Comics, Tales of the Dark Multiverse: Teen Titans – The Judas Contract for DC Comics, Supermassive for Image Comics (which he also worked on with Ryan Parrott), and his first solo written work, Self/Made, also for Image Comics. So, believe me when I say that he has the knowledge, and pedigree, to take over Mighty Morphin from Ryan Parrott. And he really doesn’t skip a beat here, picking up from the end of Eltarian War and moving forward with the story. However, I can’t help but get a Zeo vibe from this issue. The story begins in the remains of the Command Center, the Rangers are worried now about the Power Chamber under the Command Center, and there is a new villain introduced with what you might call a machine empire of sorts.

I enjoyed the fact that, despite only having 1 short action scene, the story kept moving, and didn’t spend too much time on any one scene. Also, having Rocky morph mid-flip, while still holding his morpher out like normal, was pretty cool, and not something they did with the MMPR team on the show. My only problem is with the plan to get a new Command Center. Tommy’s reaction to Alpha finding an abandoned outpost makes it sound like the Rangers were willing to fight to claim one for themselves. They wouldn’t have just tried to steal one from the Eltarians, would they?

Art – 3 out of 5: While I’ll miss seeing Marco Renna drawing the MMPR team, Moisés Hidalgo is not a bad replacement. Granted, Adam looks like a girl at the beginning of the issue, and Billy’s hair really grew since last month, but I’m going to chalk those up to artistic license, and still getting into a rhythm for drawing these characters. The robots looked like a nice hybrid of something you’d see on the show, mixed with something they could only do in the comics. Seriously, look at their heads! They look like they were copied from an existing monster! Great stuff!

Overall – 4 out of 5: A strong first outing for the new creative team. I am excited to see where they take us next!