Issue #3 of Godzilla vs. the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers picks up right where Issue #2 left off and brings us non-stop, pulse-pounding, mech-and-kaiju action! So let's make like this issue does and jump right into it!
The Megazord finds itself surrounded by the combined might of Gigan, Rhinoblaster, and Eye Guy. Billy tries to get in touch with Zordon, but cannot make contact with the Command Center across dimensions. The Megazord faces its foes head on, but despite the mech's best efforts, it slowly but surely becomes overwhelmed by the three monsters. As the Rangers fight for their lives down below, Rita tries to once again take control of Tommy's mind, but the Green Ranger's willpower proves to be too strong for her this time. When Tommy tells her that the Rangers will stop her with or without him, Rita merely taunts him with her true intentions: Once this world has been conquered and the Power Rangers are destroyed, Rita intends to betray the Xiliens, assume command of their monsters, then unleash them and her own monsters across the multiverse, conquering every world in existence.
Being beaten down by their united foes, the Rangers use the Megazord's cranial laser to force them back. As the Zord fights off the relentless beasts, an atomic blast fires out of Angel Grove Harbor, blasting Gigan away. Godzilla rises up, still wounded and leaking radiation from his previous fight. Unfortunately for the Rangers, Godzilla goes after everyone in sight, attacking the Megazord, Rhinoblaster, Eye Guy, and Gigan alike. However, Godzilla's injury catches up with him, and he starts getting overpowered by the three monsters. Realizing there's no way to communicate with the reptile, the Rangers do the next best thing to convince him of their similar goals: Summoning the Megazord's Power Sword, they bring the weapon to full power and unleash its blast at Godzilla, allowing him to absorb it and heal his wound, bringing him back to full strength. With a flick of his tail, Godzilla sends Rhinoblaster towards the Megazord, which destroys the rhinoceros monster with the Power Sword. Turning to face their two remaining foes, the Megazord and Godzilla unleash their cranial laser and atomic breath; the former sends Gigan fleeing into space while the latter destroys Eye Guy.
Infuriated, Rita confronts the Controller of Planet X and demands more monsters. The Xilien leader taunts the witch that "[he] thought [her] own monsters were up to the challenge," while also informing her that Gigan was the most obedient of their monsters, noting that any others they have won't be as compliant. Rita doesn't care if the monsters are obedient as long as they cause chaos and don't give the Rangers and Godzilla time to recuperate. Using her magic wand, she makes Scorpina grow to giant size in order to corral the Xiliens' monsters and keep them focused on the heroes. Down below, with the three monsters defeated, Godzilla turns his attention to the Megazord, watching the mech carefully, considering his next move. Before anything can happen, however, they are both knocked off their feet by a massive insect flying past. Looking up, Godzilla and the Megazord find themselves faced with Scorpina, Megaguirus, Kamacuras, and Kumonga.
As stated at the start of this review, this issue is jam-packed with action. In fact, the whole issue is almost one big fight scene. Now, admittedly, this may turn some people off, especially those who like seeing crossovers involve more than just punching. However, one of the main heroes that is crossing over in this story is a voiceless kaiju and the only 'human' characters on the Toho side are the Xiliens, who have gotten plenty of time to shine in the previous two issues. Besides, after being promised a mega-monster-melee with this issue, it'd be disappointing to see it ended too early, or to have it happen in the background as character work was happening in the foreground.
And what a mega-monster-melee it is! The issue doesn't skimp out on the fight against Gigan, Eye Guy, and Rhinoblaster in any way, and it is a long, glorious sequence. Each villainous monster gets plenty of time to act as a serious threat and show off their sinister powers, with Eye Guy even showing off a new ability and using hovering eye balls as attack drones. As has been done with Rita and the Controller in previous issues, this one takes the opportunity to showcase the difference between the two types of monsters, with Eye Guy and Rhinoblaster making puns and bantering throughout the fight, whereas Gigan obviously can't even speak and is far more animalistic in nature (a contrast that even Eye Guy and Rhinoblaster themselves comment on in what I find to be the best joke of the issue). Surprisingly, this issue ends with essentially the same cliffhanger as the last issue did, with our heroes faced with a group of enemies comprised of monsters from both franchises. Though at least this time we've crossed the threshold of the heroes coming to an understanding and joining forces (presumably), so at least that much is different.
Aside from the fight, not much else is accomplished in this issue story-wise. The Rangers and Godzilla seem to come to some sort of understanding after the Rangers use the Megazord's Power Sword to recharge and heal Godzilla, which is a far smarter way to unite them instead of making some cheesy attempt at communication between the two in some fashion. But just as the heroes begin to come together, we start to see cracks forming between the two villains, with Rita outright declaring her intention to betray the Xiliens once Godzilla and the Rangers have been defeated, with the Controller of Planet X ominously warning her that the Xiliens are no mere pushovers for her to boss around. While a villainous double cross from either or both parties was clearly inevitable, it'll be a shame to see it happen as it's been so fun seeing the two of them interact. Rita says that once she's gotten rid of the Xiliens, she'll unite their monsters with her own and form an unstoppable army capable of enslaving the entire multiverse. This results in a rather fanservice-y but still awesome two page spread of said monster army marching over the defeated remains of the Zords, featuring a line up of creatures from various Godzilla films as well as the first season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Sadly, Rodan and Anguirus are among the monsters imagined, suggesting that there are no plans for them to actually appear in the comic properly. On the flip side of that coin, Mothra is oddly absent, so perhaps she might still show up at some point. Similarly, Pudgy Pig and Pumpkin Rapper, two of the most iconic monsters from Power Rangers' first season (and the show as a whole) are also noticeably missing.
Sadly, more time is spent on Rita trying to take control of Tommy's mind once again, which the Green Ranger manages to resist through sheer willpower. While Rita gets a great line in the scene ("You're insane!" "What else is new?"), at this point it just feels like a lame reason to keep the Dragonzord out of the action for no real reason. I don't know why Cullen Bunn is still trying to keep the Dragonzord out of the fight at this point - Maybe he feels like Godzilla and two Zords would make things too Power Rangers centric? - but in the meanwhile he's just giving Tommy absolutely nothing to do and his inclusion is feeling like a waste. To be fair, there are still two issues left, so hopefully Tommy escapes and calls the Dragonzord out relatively soon. Perhaps this won't be such a problem once the series has finished and you can read all five issues in one sitting, but at least for now it just feels like blatant stalling.
The art by Freddie Williams II looks as good as it has in the previous issues, with Rhinoblaster and Eye Guy looking quite nice in his style, although Andrew Dalhouse has a slight mess up with the coloring of Eye Guy's main eye - It should be red with a black pupil, not white with a red pupil. A minor issue, I suppose, but an issue nonetheless (it's especially odd considering that Dalhouse colored the eye correctly on the main cover). On a similar note, I don't like that Dalhouse has made all of the Megazord's energy weapons blue. The lightning energy from the Power Sword should be red and the cranial laser should be a multicolored rainbow blast. Some people might not care about this, admittedly, but it'd just add a bit of variety to all the energy weapons flying around (on top of just being more accurate), especially since Godzilla's atomic breath is already blue. Scorpina's giant form - the first time it's been used in a comic book - looks particularly nasty in Williams' style, appropriately so, and she looks great. Thankfully, Williams has learned his lesson from the previous issues, and I am happy to report that there is not a single of those distracting close ups featuring one of the Rangers' eyes behind their helmet's visor. It was a nice idea, but ultimately, it just didn't work. One particularly nice little touch concerning the Xiliens can be seen near the end of the issue, when Rita demands more monsters from the Controller; while before now all we'd seen of the Xilien Mothership was just generic spaceship interiors, here we see the familiar circular control console with a globe of the Earth sticking out of the top, just as the aliens used in Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965).
The issue's main cover, by Williams and Dalhouse, is a great one, featuring Godzilla and the Megazord facing an army of monsters comprised of Kamacuras, Goldar, Megaguirus, Eye Guy, Rhinoblaster, Gigan, and Kumonga. While not entirely accurate (it simply combines both groups of monsters from this issue and swaps out Scorpina with Goldar for some reason), it looks awesome otherwise (in case you couldn't tell, I'm a sucker for monster group shots). The second cover, a two-page cover drawn by Alex Sanchez and colored by Matt Herms, is very visually striking but full of oddities. It features the Megazord and the Dragonzord (who doesn't appear in this issue) standing in outer space, surrounded by the Xilien ships in orbit around Earth and Rita's Lunar Palace, suggesting a journey into the stars that never happens. Megaguirus and Gigan (who resembles a cross between the Showa and Final Wars incarnations) have their heads above the Zords as if they were the main threats for the issue, with Godzilla (looking like the GMK suit) is seen charging his atomic breath as the main backdrop of the image. Near the bottom of the picture, Kumonga and Kamacuras can be seen in the background, while in the foreground we see Eye Guy and... Pirantis Head. This is the biggest oddity on the cover, as not only is the monstrous piranha a creation of Lord Zedd's from Season 2 (while the comic is set during Season 1), but he doesn't even appear in the issue. Admittedly, as Pirantis Head possesses the ability to control machines, he'd be a great character to have in a comic with Mechagodzilla or Jet Jaguar, but I digress. The third cover, again by Williams and Dalhouse, is okay. It's an odd angle of the Megazord fighting Godzilla, seemingly on the Command Center's view screen, with a window of Rita looking on in evil glee. The final cover, by Emilio Lopez, is a serviceable one, but nothing too special, featuring the Megazord using its Power Sword to block Godzilla's atomic ray. There's a nice little touch of a damaged Ferris wheel in the background, but otherwise there's nothing too eye-catching about it, and on top of that Lopez has colored Godzilla's atomic blast yellow for some reason. Ultimately, the winner is Williams and Dalhouse's default cover of Godzilla and the Megazord staring down an army of monsters, though honorable mention goes to Sanchez and Herms'. It may promise an outer space outing that never happens and throw in a Season 2 monster for no real reason, but it's a great-looking cover nonetheless.
Issue #3 of Godzilla vs. the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers brings us some top notch kaiju action, and it's great seeing the monsters of MMPR joining in on the fun and interacting with Toho's beasts. While it'll be exciting to see Godzilla and the Rangers go up against the gang of bug monsters, as well as anticipate the arrival of a certain three-headed monster, with as much fighting as we got this time around, here's hoping we get a bit more plot next time and that Bunn will finally rescue Tommy from the sidelines. |
