Ahh, the second issue of Godzilla vs. the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers! The first issue started the series off strong and gave us some great Ranger-on-kaiju action without neglecting or favoring either franchise. Would Issue #2 continue that momentum? Let's find out.
The Dino Zords answer the Rangers' call and advance on Godzilla, but when the Rangers' scanners reveal that Godzilla is far more powerful than any previous monster they've ever faced, Jason has them go straight into Megazord mode. With the Zords now merged together, the Megazord goes on the attack, with Godzilla retaliating in kind. Down below, Tommy prepares to have the Dragonzord lend some back up, only to suddenly be attacked by Goldar. As Rita's general overpowers and abducts the Green Ranger, the Rangers summon the Megazord's Power Sword to put Godzilla down once and for all. The two giant opponents charge one another, resulting in a double knockout; Godzilla is run through with the Power Sword while the Megazord is severely damaged by an atomic blast. As Goldar brings Tommy aboard the Xilien Mothership, demorphed and separated from his Power Coin, Rita suggests kicking their respective enemies while they're down, and so a squadron of Xilien saucers attack the fallen Godzilla and Megazord. Badly hurt, Godzilla fends off the assault long enough to make his way back to the sea, disappearing beneath the waves.
The Rangers escape their side of the assault by disengaging the Megazord and sending the Dino Zords back to their hiding places, demorphing in the process. Making their way through the city, they find a few survivors who are on their way to a local amusement park, where many others have gathered in refuge. As the Rangers speak with the survivors, they discover that Godzilla was the only thing standing in the way between the Xiliens and their conquest of Earth, and realize they may have made a mistake by wounding the monster. Spotting an Xilien saucer knocked out of the sky by Godzilla when he made his escape, the Rangers board it and find its pilot still alive. Interrogating him, they discover the Xiliens' and Rita's plans for this world and use the saucer to dock with the Xilien Mothership. They morph and storm the bridge, fighting Goldar, Scorpina, and countless Xilien soldiers. In order to get the Rangers out of the ship and keep them from rescuing Tommy, the Controller of Planet X gives the order to release Gigan.
The giant cyborg lands in Angel Grove and immediately begins to attack the amusement park, endangering the gathered survivors. Forced to leave the ship without saving Tommy, the Rangers leap back to action and summon the Dino Zords. Though not back at full power just yet, they're repaired enough for battle, and the five machines attack Gigan. Ultimately though, he proves to be too strong, and so the Rangers form the Megazord. As the Megazord starts to get overwhelmed by Gigan's deadly arsenal, Rita tells Finster to help tip the fight more in the cyborg's favor and he gladly obliges, resurrecting two old monsters he and Rita had previously used against the Rangers. As the Rangers try and come up with a plan, the Megazord suddenly finds itself surrounded by Gigan, Eye Guy, and Rhinoblaster...
This issue takes things just a tad slower than its predecessor, taking some time for the Rangers to do things without their powers and figure out exactly what is going on in this world of monsters they find themselves in. The moment with the survivors they encounter is nice, as it shows a side of monster attacks not very often shown in comics for either franchise, although it is jarringly brief, starting and ending within three panels. That and the dialogue feels a bit off - It's not badly written, necessarily, but the main survivor they speak with talks more like a "Godzilla expert" type character such as Dr. Yamane, Steve Martin in Godzilla 1985, or the MonsterVerse's Dr. Serizawa, referring to Godzilla as "a terrifying force" that "stands between those invaders and total conquest of Earth." I would imagine most regular people on the street would refer to him far less dramatically - something more along the lines of "Godzilla's one hell of a monster, but he's the only thing keeping those aliens from killing us all!" Zack asking if Godzilla is actually a "protector" instead of just, say, a "good guy" feels off for similar reasons. Tommy also has an awkwardly worded line earlier in the issue, to Rita: "You're attacking them? When they're injured? When they're already down and out?" Cutting out the middle section and simply leaving it at "You're attacking them when they're already down and out?" would make the line sound much more natural, although Tommy even being surprised that Rita would do such a thing is still silly in and of itself. Thankfully, the villains manage to avoid any stilted dialogue of their own.
That's not to say that this issue doesn't have its fair share of action, though. There's still plenty daikaiju and Dino Zord carnage to go around. The issue starts off strong right out of the gate with a fierce showdown between the King of the Monsters and the Power Rangers' Megazord. While the Megazord being taken out by yet another of Godzilla's atomic blasts is a little anticlimactic (it's literally the first of Godzilla's rays to even hit the Zord and it's not even his red spiral ray, furthering my concerns of Godzilla being overpowered in this series as I mentioned in my review of the previous issue), having the Power Sword physically plunged into Godzilla's chest (as opposed to its usual lightning bolt slash) is a surprisingly brutal moment that I'm honestly surprised Toho signed off on. The fact that the fight ends in a tie may admittedly be disappointing for some fans who were hoping for more of a definitive winner, but this is a different type of fight in a different type of story. If this was the final fight in the final issue, then a tie would be disappointing, most certainly, but Godzilla and the Rangers going head-to-head clearly isn't the endgame here. Not to mention, we already had a definitive winner last issue when Godzilla defeated the Dragonzord. If it were any other circumstances, it might be disappointing, but I think it works for this particular story.
Another concern arises with this issue, at least for me personally, as someone familiar with Boom! Studios' Mighty Morphin Power Rangers comics in the past. As mentioned previously, Tommy is captured by Goldar and brought to Rita, who threatens to re-enslave his mind and make him her evil Green Ranger once again - To anyone even slightly familiar with the character's history, this is clearly referring to how Tommy started out on the TV show. My concern is that Boom has been known to go a bit overboard with the "Tommy worship" (similar to that characters such as Batman and Wolverine have been known to receive) and focusing on him even when the story would benefit from less of it. The Rangers' crossover with the Justice League was mostly free of it, but their crossover with the Ninja Turtles was unfortunately rather Tommy-centric (with him even doing reconnaissance and being captured by the enemy as he does here), culminating with Shredder even morphing into the Green Ranger himself. I just hope that Rita threatening to turn Tommy evil again doesn't suddenly shift the focus of this Godzilla/Power Rangers crossover into being all about him again. Even as a fan of Power Rangers (and even Mighty Morphin Power Rangers specifically), this can be rather tiring.
Sadly, the main cover of this issue isn't as truthful as I'd hoped it'd be. Miss Namikawa never makes an appearance, not even as an Easter egg cameo, nor does Godzilla ever loom over the badly beaten Rangers while under Rita's control. It's disappointing that Namikawa never shows up, though with three issues left, there's still plenty of time for her to do so, perhaps even helping Tommy escape Rita's clutches. It's also great to see Eye Guy and Rhinoblaster make an appearance here, arriving at the very end in order to aid Gigan against the Megazord. Eye Guy (from Season 1's "I, Eye Guy") is one of the franchise's most iconic monsters, while Rhinoblaster (from the episode "Football Season," also from Season 1) is another of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers' more recognizable creatures. It's nice to see that the series will involve a more thorough mixing of the two franchises beyond just the Rangers themselves and include some of the show's endless array of colorful monsters, and it'll be great to see if any others show up in later issues. Though it does raise the question of just how Finster resurrected them. In order to create monsters, Finster requires clay to sculpt them out of and his Monster-Matic machine to bring the clay to life. In this story, it's clear that he doesn't have either of those with him at the moment. It's not something he can just do.
Freddie Williams II's art, while still nice overall, starts to get a little wonky in this issue. The individual Dino Zords look fine on the first page as they race towards Godzilla, but in later panels they start to look a little loose and 'noodley' (especially the Tyrannosaurus). We spend a great deal of the issue with the Rangers' unmorphed teenage identities, and while they're not necessarily done badly, it's obvious that Williams wasn't too concerned with having them resemble their live action selves, as they don't, not even a little bit. Humorously, they also all have way too much hair on their heads, especially Billy, Kimberly, and Jason, who all look as if their heads are being consumed by hair-colored blobs. Another recurring thing Williams does throughout this issue is give us a glimpse of one of the Rangers' eyes through their helmets' visors. While I get the purpose behind it - allowing the Rangers to emote while morphed, while also reminiscent of seeing Tony Stark's head within the Iron Man suit's head's up display - suddenly seeing an eyeball sticking out of the Rangers' helmets can be rather jarring and even creepy, and I find that it distracts from the moment far more than it adds to the emotion or gravity of the scene. There were two instances of this with Tommy in the first issue, but Williams does this four times in this one, and honestly he kinda needs to stop. I'm not looking forward to this happening in every other panel by Issue #4.
Changing gears to the covers, the default one, once again brought to us by Freddie Williams II and colorist Andrew Dalhouse, looks very nice and exciting. It loses points, though, due to - as I mentioned earlier - completely fabricating the events within the issue, as Miss Namikawa never shows up, nor does Rita successfully mind control Godzilla. Netho Diaz and Valentina Pinto give us a fairly simplistic cover that features the Megazord and Godzilla staring each other down as lightning bolts flow everywhere. The third cover, again by Williams and Dalhouse, features the Dragonzord on the Command Center's view screen while a couple of small video windows feature Godzilla attacking the city and Godzilla fighting the Megazord. The last cover, by Alex Sanchez and Matt Herms, shows us a close up of the Megazord's face, badly damaged, the image of a roaring Godzilla reflected in the Zord's left eye. Ultimately, I'd have to go with Diaz and Pinto's cover because it best represents the contents of the issue - Godzilla and the Megazord do indeed fight. Sanchez and Herms' cover comes second closest, except it features Godzilla victorious over the Megazord, which doesn't happen. Based purely on the artwork itself, though, my favorite is Williams and Dalhouse's default cover. While it doesn't actually happen in the issue, the Xilien Mothership, Rita, Miss Namikawa, and a mind controlled Godzilla all looming over the defeated Rangers does make for a great visual.
Despite some occasional awkward dialogue, some eyebrow-raising artistic choices here and there, and some potentially worrisome plot developments concerning Tommy (which I fully admit may just be me overthinking things), Issue #2 of Godzilla vs. the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers definitely continues the momentum and overall quality of the first issue. I'm greatly looking forward to Issue #3 and seeing the Rangers face off with monsters from both franchises. Will they overcome their foes and save the-- oh, who am I kidding? Of course they will. |