‘Power Rangers’ From BOOM! Studios Is the Most-Anticipated Comic of 2016

If you didn’t know, BOOM! acquired the rights to Saban’s Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers last summer and the first issue, the #0 prelude, will arrive on store shelves this month. Judging by how BOOM! handles its licenses and the great care Kyle Higgins has stated he’s approaching the project, you should be keeping Power Rangers on your radar. I can’t speak for everyone at Geekscape, but Power Rangers is the most-anticipated comic of 2016.

Last fall, writer Kyle Higgins (best known for his work on DC’s Nightwing and his original series C.O.W.L. from Image Comics) went on the interview train and spoke to everyone from Comic Book Resources to GQ about his interpretation of the ’90s teenagers with attitudes. Throughout them all he reiterates a lot of the same points: The story will begin after the events of the “Green With Evil” saga which featured Tommy’s turn as Rita’s evil Green Ranger. The “contemporary” story (it takes place in 2015, instead of 1993) will feature themes of trust and the isolation of being an outsider.

It’s difficult for me to really convey to non-Power Rangers fans why a kitschy show stitched from cheap Japanese sci-fi resonates so much. Many can’t get past the rubber suits and Doctor Who special effects, but deep down there is a rich story to be had about friendship and teamwork through the 20-plus years of stories. To the show’s discredit, they’ve regularly failed at telling that story effectively.

Plagued by tight budgets, exhausting schedules, and the burden to sell toys, it’s in the DNA for Power Rangers to be an sloppy, cobbled-together mess. Sometimes it’s been brilliant (Time Force, DinoThunder, RPM), but it’s often been despite itself. Still, the premise at its most bare-bones is forever promising: Five teenagers become superheroes to save the world. To anyone who has read Spider-Man or X-Men or the Harry Potter books, that shouldn’t be strange or a poor story in the slightest.

A comic book, with a wide-open imagination and hardly a budget to consider, is probably the best medium for the show, and I say that with memories of the television show in my head. I love seeing the live-action martial arts and Megazords as much as any Power Ranges fan, but in the interest of a rich and compelling story without the kitschy flavor that has turned off 90% of the first-world audience away from the show, a monthly comic book series is exactly the kind of medium this story needs to stretch.

And it seems Kyle Higgins is aware of that.

In an interview with Comic Book Resources:

[T]o me, the heart and soul of Power Rangers as a concept is a combination of the ordinary made extraordinary, great power and great responsibility, and teamwork. As kids, we all want to feel special — especially when we don’t fit in.

 

As anyone who’s ever been the new person in a group, on a team, or at a high school can attest, it’s often incredibly hard to fit in. It takes time to get to know people, earn their trust, and for them to earn yours. You often overcompensate, make mistakes, and rub people the wrong way. And while a group might look great on paper, there are going to be bumps along the road as everyone learns to work together — just look at any LeBron James basketball team of the last five years. Take that dynamic, add in the clique-drama of high school, the stakes of trying to save the world, and the fact that Tommy spent weeks trying to kill the Power Rangers — while under mind control — and it’s easy to understand how his addition might take some getting used to.

Here is Higgins speaking to the LA Times:

It’s a big serialized story. And one of the benefits that we have that the original show didn’t was, we have a format that really lends itself to serialized storytelling. I’m working with [artist] Hendry Prasetya, who is just fantastic. He can draw anything. So we’re able to do things visually that the show was never really able to do because of the limitations the show had, like using preexisting footage.

 

Thematically and emotionally I’m able to explore things in the writing that the show with the format of the show was never really able to do either. So working within this medium has been a lot of fun, specifically, for Power Rangers. I think it lends itself quite well to it.

 

So while there is a big focus on Tommy, especially in the first arc, everyone kind of has their own story and they all feed into each other’s. I really wanted to make sure I was exploring different storylines for each Ranger.

 

[Y]ou’re looking at a group of individuals who are a part of a team and each one is defined by not only a different color but different kinds of flourishes in their costumes as well. So visually you have this group of individuals that is also a part of a larger whole, and there was just something about that. Even the X-Men, growing up, didn’t feel as much like a unified team as the Power Rangers.