I may have mentioned this before, but if it weren't for the fact that I amass comics and movies for the purposes of reading and viewing and writing the occasional blog post... I might qualify as a hoarder. I did not look up the technical definition, because I was afraid it might apply.
In addition to $1 (or $1.25) movies, I have been known to acquire comics for $1 or less. I especially like the “less.” And unless they pay me to take them, it doesn't get less than free.*
So I'm a big proponent of Free Comic Book Day, both for the free comics themselves and the promotional sales that often go along with them. The unofficial holiday on the first Saturday in May has been around since 2002, usually falling in line with one of the biggest comic book movie releases of the year.
I always grab as many free comics as I can, to take advantage of the opportunity to find new stories and creators, and see if the Big Two can deliver an issue that need “FILLER” stamped on the cover.
Sometimes, I even read them.
Look, I've never obtained a comic, free or otherwise, without the intention of reading it at some point. Heck, I've even turned down comics I didn't think I would read. But looking through my collection, there are a lot of Free Comic Book Day issues I've never opened.
That's about to change, because as much as I enjoy reading comics and writing about comics, alliterative hashtags take things to another level.
Introducing #FreeComicFriday, a periodic series in which I will get my money's worth from the free comics I've collected over the years. Some I've read before; some I wanted to read at some point; some I didn't remember I had. I'll summarize the story and give my thoughts on the reading experience but also how this worked as a Free Comic Book Day offering: Did it make me want to read more? Did it make me want my money back?
Power Rangers: The Road to Ranger
Slayer
Writer: Ryan Parrott
Illustrators: Dan Mora, Huang Danlan
Colors: Raul Angulo, Eleonora Bruni
Letterer: Ed Dukeshire
Cover: Mora
Released: July 15, 2020***
I don't know why it surprises me that grim n' gritty Power Ranger comics exist, but, yeah, I'm a little surprised.
I only recently checked out some of the Boom! Studios Power Ranger comics on Hoopla and found a more serious, plausible tone that still kept some of the fun and wonder of the original show. Granted, I didn't necessarily appreciate it at the time, but I've long since learned to move on if something doesn't interest me, rather than complain and get angry about it.
If there's one thing I appreciated about the original Power Rangers series, it was the Pink Ranger. Look, I don't want to sound shallow, but I was a teenage boy and Amy Jo Johnson was gorgeous and seemed approachable. It's a pretty simple equation.**** So the presence of the Pink Ranger on the cover, curiosity to see what a Power Rangers comic would be like and that all-important price point made it an easy choice to pick up. There also might have been a thought my daughters would be interested in reading it, but that's not always an easy prediction, and sometimes Dad recommending it is strike one.
This appears to be a compilation of previously published material, with three different titles referenced on the inside cover. There's no clear delineation between them. The artists change but with dialogue bleeding over from one page to the other, I still had trouble figuring out where one ended and the other began.
The issue opens with a recap of a prior story set in an alternate reality where Tommy, the Green Ranger, didn't go good, instead ascending to the title of Lord Drakkon and defeating the other Rangers, who form a resistance known as the Coinless. At some point, they tried to encroach on the Ranger reality we know and were defeated. But like the Age of Apocalypse, Days of Future Past and most DC Earths before it, this world kept right on spinning.
This issue picks up a year later, with Bulk, of Bulk and Skull fame, fleeing some villainous Ranger patrols alongside folks I don't recognize but who I assume more faithful viewers and/or readers would. They're saved by the timely arrival of Kimberly Hart, the Pink Ranger herself.
Bulk gradually becomes a trusted ally of Kimberly's as the story skips ahead a few months. Kimberly and Bulk are defending a field hospital when she finds... a guy named Matthew, who I also don't recognize. I'm going to guess a replacement Ranger? I'm sure I could identify him with ease online, but part of the point of this is reading it as a Free Comic Book Day customer, rather than a person who's been following the story faithfully.
Anyway, whoever Matthew is, he's in pretty bad shape. And missing a hand. In a Power Rangers comic! When I watched the show in the early days, they didn't even look like they were hurting the monsters they fought or getting hurt when their foes actually connected!
Matthew succumbs to his injuries and Kimberly decides to take down Tommy/Drakkon once and for all. Unfortunately, he's a pretty powerful magic user now and subjugates Kimberly's will, declaring she will be his Ranger Slayer. She returns to the rebel camp and goes after Trini, the Yellow Ranger. Kimberly offers to let everyone else go if Trini, who is wielding a pretty un-Power Ranger-looking gun, comes with her. Alternatively, Kim will hunt down her surviving friends and torture and kill them. IN A POWER RANGERS COMIC.
Trini triumphs but can't bring herself to kill her friend. She blows up the hideout real good though, and Kimberly vows to hunt Trini and the other rebels down. That leads into narration in which Kimberly laments the terrible things she did as the Ranger Slayer before being freed from Drakkon's control. Judging from the last page, this prompts her to go full Kate Pryde to prevent some or all of it from happening in the first place. Then it's to be continued in “Power Rangers: Ranger Slayer” #1.
Clearly, I'm out of my element here, but unlike a small child who's wandered in to the middle of a movie, I have some idea of what's happening. Although I don't know the particulars, Parrott gives me enough to understand what's going on and what the stakes are.
I'm not sure if this would have been a satisfying read for folks who were following the Power Rangers comics at the time, especially if most or all of it was recap. But it definitely piques the interest of a casual reader, especially one who is both curious about and a little horrified by actual life-or-death stakes in a Power Rangers story. It does make me curious to see what happens next... but in addition to a maybe-hoarder, I'm also somewhat of a completionist. And since years of serious Power Ranger stories leading up to this are available on Hoopla, I think it will be a while before I follow up on the Ranger Slayer.
But one of these days...
* - I am not sure that sentence is grammatically, or mathematically, correct.
** - Although judging from the
increasingly younger kids I see sporting their merchandise,
I don't
know that they ever really left.
*** - According to the Free Comic Book Day website anyway. That was the year the pandemic started, so who knows?
**** - I still don't think I've done any actual math here.
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