#Comic Arc: Beyond the Grid

[augment-techs]

T.J.: Work on your emotional control.

Andros: Get hit by a car.

[kimberlyannharts]

Out of curiosity, what are your favorite issues/eras of the entire Boom PR canon? Is there a point where you feel it stopped being good or as enjoyable? Are there any main characters you feel were done especially right or wrong?

Strictly speaking in terms of the books canon to the 2016 main ongoing -

(putting this under a read more as it got long, oops)

My favorite era was Shattered Grid and its lead-up; so basically the entire Kyle Higgins run of MMPR and Ryan's GGPR up through #12. I also really liked Beyond the Grid and the final two issues of Mighty Morphin. Side series-wise I love Ranger Slayer, Drakkon New Dawn, Power Rangers Universe, and The Coinless is my favorite of the Unlimited books.

Necessary Evil had its flaws but it was still enjoyable (MMPR side at least; the GGPR side was very bad in how they dropped what made GGPR so good in favor of stretching out the modern Omega Rangers' origins for five issues too many), but the Mighty Morphin/Power Rangers split was when things started going downhill, because that was when the books started ramping up this idea of Expanding Lore and Making The Next Big OC at the expense of the show characters' development; something that MMPR Necessary Evil was starting, but it wasn't quite as pronounced as MM/PR was. There were high points of the books after MM/PR (again, Mighty Morphin #21 and 22 are fantastic, and the Omegas are probably at their most tolerable in their side of Charge to 100) but they never fully recovered the consistent quality of Kyle's run.

As for the characters (only looking at the main MMPRs from the show), Tommy was probably the most obvious development and consistently well-written; any flaws in his writing came from how the books were intentionally ignoring any good points he was making to make other characters (the Omegas, M-tt) look better, and we unfortunately never got a deep dive into his backstory or even just his family life. Kim was similarly consistent and VERY well-explored, probably even better than Tommy with how important her parents' divorce was integral to her arcs, and any weirdness with her character came from half-assed M-tt plots that fortunately never really stuck.

Jason and Trini were fine; I'm trying not to let my annoyance with the Omegas and clear author favoritism cloud my judgment, but if you already loved them, you'd probably be happy with how much they ended up getting. Rocky came through with decent development at the very end.

Billy it's hard to say. Obviously he was great and recognizably Billy in the early days and I personally did not like his descent into "the lone genius who's so isolated from the team, doing shady shit that messes everything up." But it's.......unfortunately become a very consistent path for him in the modern franchise; even in the SHOW. So it's hard to call it bad writing when it. is just who Billy is now.

The worst were probably Aisha, Zack, and Adam; Aisha they obviously had no clear vision for because she was practically a different character under every author and Adam was literally nobody. But I think in terms of character writing Zack fared the worst. He went from a leader at heart who steps up when needed, who offers levity through his charisma but the first to get serious when the situation calls for it - to "my role is to be funny" who jokes about a situation being too serious for jokes and his leadership arc and capabilities end up being given Trini (to the point where TRINI is called the leader of the Coinless on occasion when the whole point to the og Coinless arc was that ZACK was.) Not to say he didn't get serious arcs at all after NE, but it's overall such a downgrade when the early days of the comics practically had him as a main character on the same level as Tommy.

[garrettsthings]

An Exchange I Want to Happen in Beyond the Grid

The Other Rangers: *Getting on Heckyl’s case for being a villain before.*

Heckyl: Let’s play a game. Raise your hand if you were not under a spell or other kind of posession that either made you evil or made you do evil things for the sake of... oh... let’s say revenge?

Everyone but Future!Kim and Mike: *raise their hands*

Future!Kim and Mike: *look sheepish*

Heckyl: Very good. Now. Keep your hand in the air if you are not related to someone who is or was evil. *As Andros opens his mouth to whine* Regardless of whether or not it was their fault.

Cam and Andros: *Awkwardly lower their hands while Andros pouts*

Tanya: *looking around in disbelief* ...Seriously?

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: West Coast Avengers #30: NONE SO BLIND...

March, 1988

THE COMPOSITE AVENGER!

OH MY GOD THIS GUY IS SO GOOFY LOOKING!

So, the East Coast Avengers are dealing with the Super-Adaptoid over in their book (although disappointingly he doesn’t copy the powers of the current team) and the West Coast Avengers are going to deal with some guy that composites their attributes?

I’m down for that! I think every superhero team should have to deal with someone that’s just the whole team in one dude.

I sure hope this cover isn’t a lie!

This issue also seems like its a fill-in.

Instead of Steve Englehart who has been the writer since West Coast Avengers vol 2 started, we have Al Milgrom as the writer. Al Milgrom has been the artist on the book so its plausible that Steve Englehart needed more time to script the follow-up to the Phantom Rider subplot so Al Milgrom stepped up to write a done-in-one.

So I don’t know if it will be all that relevant but

Last times on West Coast Avengers: the West Coast Avengers just finished up an arc about a Zodiac organization made of astrology obsessed robots. The leader Scorpio stupidly teleported Zodiac and the Avengers to another universe where the constellations were different so the robots stopped working. Then Moon Knight harassed a man who likes to dress as a bull until he, the bull man, died in a plane crash. It was all part of the same arc, trust me.

This time: horrifying babies.

Al Milgrom, please learn to draw babies if you’re going to confront me with two horrifying cherubs on page 2 of a book.

Also: is it laundry day for Wanda and Vision? Why are they wearing their uniforms around the house? I know Vision has a TV sitcom dad sweater. I’ve seen him wear it!

Anyway, nightmare babies aside. Uncle Wonder Man reads Tommy and Billy the story of the Blind Man and the Elephant.

You probably know it. Or are vaguely aware of it.

Some blind wise men feel up an elephant and give their own, narrow interpretations of what kind of beast it is based on what they touch. One touches the tail, and thinks an elephant is ropelike, another touches the tusk and thinks its spear-esque.

And at the end they can’t agree on what an elephant is because they only bothered to touch one thing. The moral being “there are none so blind as those who will not see.”

The story is lost on Billy and Tommy who passed right the fuck out during this minute long story.  And Vision says that the more complicated theme of the story was probably beyond their baby brains anyway.

(How old are they at this point? Comic book time makes that complicated.)

But Simon says that mostly he just wants the two kids to get used to him being around as their uncle.

Aww!

He’s pretty busy with his movie career and superhero work but he wants to be able to visit this part of the family as often as he can.

Simon Wonder Man Williams gets in his Quinjet to fly back from New Jersey to L.A. but finds weird green bug robots smashing into the cockpit despite whatever defensive grid the Quinjet apparently has.

The robots shred his stylish red jacket but he manages to smash them and radio the West Coast Avengers to report the situation.

Wonder Man: “Attention Whackos! This is Wonder Man. Am being attacked by robots of unknown origin. Activating signal beacon. They’re strong li’l suckers, but I should be able to handle ‘em. There’s only a few... uh-oh! ... hundred!”

The transmission cuts off there so back at the West Coast Avengers Compound, the team assembles, gets into another Quinjet and flies off to help their teammate!

Meanwhile, Wonder Man finds himself held captive above a spaceship hovering over the Midwest.

A shadowy figure on a monitor with a tentacle mouth introduces himself as one of the Sligs -- an up and coming new warrior race who want to prove their mettle.

And like many other comic book antagonists, instead of just getting down to what they want to do (cutting a swath of conquest through the galaxy or annihilating the Fantastic Four) the Sligs decided they’re going to beat the shit out of the Avengers first to prove that they’re cooler than the Kree and Skrulls.

Also, and to be fair, they want to conquer Earth so they’ll have to tangle with the Avengers one way or another. Might as well take advantage of a surprise strike to test, analyze, and defeat the team.

But, yeah, mostly they just want to rub the Kree and Skrulls’ faces in it that the Sligs, an alien race from a- oh actually they first appeared in a Fantastic Four issue. So they weren’t invented just for this. That makes them slightly less laughable.

According to Marvel wiki, they appear in this, in Fantastic Four 209, and in Maximum Security: Dangerous Planet. So they’re laughable again.

Anyway.

Things are already not going great for the Sligs as a technician warns the leader that Wonder Man is straining their engines by fighting so hard against the stasis beams.

The leader dismisses it as no concern and is more focused on the rest of the West Coast Avengers arriving to rescue Wonder Man.

Embarrassingly, the Slig ship just blasts the Quinjet into another dimension.

Their ability to do that kind of renders the rest of their plan to best the West Coast Avengers kinda pointless though, right? Like, the Sligs could get rid of the West Coast Avengers like that. Just leave them stranded.

But no.

And granted, that would make a boring issue.

Instead, the Sligs reunite Wonder Man and the West Coast Avengers in this different dimension so they can throw a big, beefy green robot called the Examiner at them.

And by at them I mean at Wonder Man.

The rest of the team is frozen in stasis so the Examiner can test what Wonder Man can do.

And with each fight, the Examiner will adapt and improve.

As Wonder Man realizes, this kind of screws over the rest of the team, if the Examiner adapts to fighting Wonder Man and then goes against his less powerful teammates.

Wonder Man decides the thing to do is to totally wreck the Examiner in their fight so it can’t use Wonder Man tier strength against the rest of the team.

And he does. He totally wrecks the Examiner in one panel.

Unfortunately, the Slig leader tells the technician to reassemble the Examiner and compensate for the damage he received.

So Wonder Man is placed in stasis and Tigra is freed, leaving her to face an upgraded Examiner.

The Examiner warns Tigra that his shielding is now nigh impenetrable. Nice of him to give her the heads up.

But what Tigra realizes is that she’s still faster.

She climbs up the Examiner and then jumps off when he tries to smash her. So instead, he smashes in his own chest plates.

And now that the chassis is breached, Tigra jumps back up and goes ham on his wiring and such.

Tigra: “He may have been ready for Wondy’s strength, but that didn’t prepare him for my savagery! And so scratch -- literally -- one Examiner!”

The Sligs use this new angry cat battle data to make an even better Examiner and then swap out Tigra for Mockingbird to test the new guy.

Mockingbird quickly joins her battle staves to make a battle ten-foot-pole so she can pole vault from the Examiner.

The Examiner says Mockingbird is agile (and wonders if that's just a Earth lady thing, because the Examiner is down to stereotype) but that he’s a lot faster after battling Tigra.

So since Mockingbird can’t outpunch this giant lad and can’t outrace him, she takes a page from Captain America that “a clever, skillful pro can beat any opponent!”

Basically, she lures the Examiner to the edge of the floating land chunk they’re fighting on and trips him so he falls off.

Dropping men off cliffs is becoming her signature move.

Also, I think the Examiner obliterated one of those floating planetoids with his face.

The Slig leader is starting to see that the Avengers live up to the stories told about them. But hell if he’s going to stop now. He has the technician re-assemble the Examiner with strength to challenge Wonder Man, speed to rival Tigra, and ... uh... I guess being smart enough not to get tripped off a cliff.

Hawkeye is sent to face the Examiner next.

And he’s been spending some of his stasis time thinking about how these one-on-one fights have been robbing the Avengers’ of the advantage of teamwork.

With that on his mind, he tosses down a high voltage arrow and loudly declares that he doesn’t need it.

The Examiner: “Beware, Avenger, my power is approaching levels it has never before attained! No amount of strength, speed, skill or savagery can best me now!”

Hawkeye decides to test this with some high impact explosive arrows.

They make the Examiner stumble back a step but he compensates before he can, I dunno, stumble off the floating land chunk like an idiot again.

Hawkeye tries a net arrow next, which the Examiner tears apart like no thing. Then he has to use some putty arrows to slow the guy down so he can put some distance between them.

And at a safe distance, Hawkeye uses some concentrated nitric acid arrows, which he just so happened to have with him (Hawkeye’s quiver is as good as Batman’s utility belt and you can take that to the bat-bank).

It seems like the chassis is still quite durable but the acid seeps into the Examiner’s joints and he falls quite to pieces.

Boss Slig immediately commands that the Examiner be buffed and re-assembled. The technician tries to warn the boss that this exercise is starting to draw so much power that its becoming dangerous.

The boss just yells RE-ASSEMBLE! so the technician does.

Iron Man is up next.

Hm. Despite being the second strongest dude on the team, Iron Man now has to deal with an enemy that’s been buffed by fighting over half the team. If Iron Man had gone first, he’d probably have wrecked the Examiner as quickly as Wonder Man did. Now, he has a challenge.

Also, the Examiner can fly. Adapted that from the Wonder Man fight and has had it all along. Could have come in use when he was tripped off the edge of the land but hey, hindsight is something something.

Repulsors and the uni-beam both fail to do much to the Examiner. And the Examiner’s counter-attack spikes Iron Man out of the air.

But Iron Man lands near the arrow that Hawkeye dropped and he suddenly realizes Hawkeye’s strategy.

The Examiner boasts that it has grown too powerful for the arrows to threaten. But Iron Man uses the high voltage arrow to recharge his armor and then uses the power to magnetize the Examiner’s chassis.

Sure, Iron Man couldn’t destroy the Examiner, the guy can’t continue the fight with his limbs magnetized to his torso.

Slig boss: “Astounding! Each of these warriors seems to be holding some ability or weapon back so we are faced with a new challenge each time. Compensate!”

Slig technician: “Am attempting compliance! Tapping into stardrive engines now!”

The Examiner is demagnetized and made immune to that tactic. And Dr Pym is unfrozen to face a the Examiner that is now immune to the strengths of Wonder Man, Tigra, Mockingbird, Hawkeye, and Iron Man. That’s... uh... a hurdle.

Dr Pym does his Dr Pym Particles thing and unshrinks some tools.

But a buzzsaw breaks against the Examiner and just gets Dr Pym WHAP’d in response. A flamethrower also proves useless.

The Examiner draws near and Dr Pym says “I get the picture! I know when I’m beaten. But I warn you, don’t touch me!”

This just makes the Examiner want to touch him more though.

Which Hank was counting on, that sneaky Hank.

With the Examiner presumably savoring an Avenger showing fear at last, Hank is able to tap the robot on its chest.

Dr Pym: “You saw my ability to enlarge shrunken inanimate objects -- well, you just have to ask yourself... ‘how did those objects get shrunken in the first place?’”

And then he smashes the teeny Examiner with a hammer.

Good job, Hank!

I like how fed up the technician is getting. The boss is sunk costing hard at this point.

So the Examiner is buffed and reassembled and put up against Moon Knight.

And Moon Knight is thinking, oh shit, I’m screwed. He’s a badass normal dude with some extra selves he doesn’t want to talk to and such powerful tools as... an axe and also a boomerang.

Against a dude that is now buffed up enough to sweep the West Coast Avengers as a team.

Speaking of selves he doesn’t want to talk to, Steven Grant and Jake Lockley both yell that Marc is screwed if he fights that thing.

But another voice pipes up in his head, Khonshu, GOD OF THE MOON.

Moon Knight: “Khonshu?! You speak to me again. But it may be for the last time, unless you can somehow help me beat this creature!”

Khonshu: “You do not need my help, o Knight of the Moon, you need but look around you!”

Moon Knight: “This dimension... I hadn’t realize... it’s full of moons!”

Khonshu: “Indeed! Untold thousands of them. And we draw our power from the Moon! Now be the Moon Knight -- be the Fist of Khonshu as you never have before!”

AND THEN MOON KNIGHT GOES HAM AND TEARS APART THE EXAMINER WITH HIS BARE HANDS

HOLY SHIT

The Slig boss is stunned and shaken and other words. But the technician is now 1001% done.

Slig technician: “Oh, shut up! The power drain has frozen out our safety back-up circuits! Stardrive overheating -- this thing is gonna blow!”

The West Coast Avengers and their Quinjets are snapped back to Earth because the Slig ship can’t maintain the dimension shift.

Wonder Man: “I warned you guys you couldn’t beat my buddies!”

Slig boss: “Be not so smug, Wonder Man! Even now we are transmitting all our test results back to our home base -- with all that data about your race, we will surely find a way to conquer y--”

And then the Slig ship explodes.

Countless light years away, presumably on the Slig homeworld, they receive the data and the report that the expedition to Earth has been destroyed.

Another Slig technician: “Our computers have correlated and interpreted the data -- This, then, is a projection of what the warrior-race called the Avengers look like!”

YOU HAVE PULLED A FAST ONE ON ME AGAIN, A COVER TO A COMIC BOOK!

Ahem.

So. The Slig computers, assuming that the Avengers are one uniform race and not a bunch of different peeps with different abilities, conflates them all into one COMPOSITE AVENGER.

And the Supreme Slig is so freaked out by the mighty Avenger warrior-race that he orders that all Slig fleets must avoid going anywhere near Earth.

It’s nice when things work out.

I’m not sure how Wonder Man in the last panel knows that this is the picture that the Sligs would get. Yeah, it ties into the story he read at the start of the issue but how does he know that this episode of his life would bookend so satisfyingly?

He is so pleased with himself though.

So!

This was definitely a fill-in. Meant to spin the wheels a bit. And its a fun story! Not substantive by any means. Most of the issue is a bunch of fights. There’s not really much in the way of character beats. But its fun to see the Avengers all out-fight or out-wit a dude that’s growing to counter them!

The Examiner is kind of a boring opponent. Doesn’t really have the spectacle of the Super-Adaptoid looking like a mishmash of his opponents and using their powers against them. But he works for this issue as someone for the Avengers to style on.

I’m annoyed that the West Coast Avengers don’t fight a guy that’s a mashup of their powers and aesthetics. That could have been fun.

But I’m not disappointed with the issue we got. And the way the Composite Avenger was actually used was a cute enough take on an old tale.

Plus, the issue had Moon Knight empowered by THOUSANDS OF MOOOOOONS and going ham. I can’t hate that.

Good job, Al Milgrom.

You wrote a hell of a fun story.

Follow @essential-avengers​ for this post again months or years later, whenever I catch up. Like and reblog if you liked this issue and think other people will like it. Or reblog it to add comments or reactions. I love to hear what people think about these comics.

[dakt37]

Avengers Assemble - Feral Outlaw Stony

So I've been expanding on this concept I doodled before Christmas, where Steve goes with Tony into the no-tech dimension at the end of season 3. Probably a lot of stuff isn't canon-compliant (beyond the obvious change that is), but "It's an AU so I do what I want" rules apply. Anyway. 

The tl;dr is: The two of them spend a little time puttering around the weird no-tech dimension, and then get absorbed into Battleworld. They become explorers, helping people out and falling in love along the way.

(Once again, I feel like someone must have had this idea already, but I’ve never looked.)

Cut for excessive rambling.

~~~

Not all the areas we see in the show are present in Battleworld when Steve and Tony first arrive, so the boys spend most of their time traveling around, mapping the place out as it expands. A lot of my ideas rely on them still having little-to-no access to modern conveniences. Obviously someplace modern has to show up for them to get their hands on a pickup truck and a motorcycle, but I’m picturing a post-apocalyptic junkyard that’s been picked clean of anything obviously useful. They get the vehicles working by sheer force of “I’m Tony-fucking-Stark.” But like that fully functional NYC area is way too convenient, so it’s not around yet. (tbh I’m not even sure if it’s an alternate NYC or theirs, in which case it wouldn’t show up until the other Avengers do anyway) 

They get the low-down on the "Battleworld" concept by eavesdropping on one of Beyonder's* welcome speeches. They realize that they are uniquely off the grid, because Beyonder didn't know they were in the no-tech dimension when he added it to Battleworld. They decide it's advantageous to maintain this secret status, but they're still Avengers™️ so they can't NOT help out wherever they can. But they don’t stick around any one place for long. Basically, they become vagrant vigilantes in addition to surveyors. They get a lot of their “stuff” (clothes, tools, toiletries, etc) as payment for odd jobs, or gifts from grateful locals they rescue. They get some food from populated areas as well, but also rely on foraging and hunting while on the lam. They have definitely eaten dinosaur at some point.

(*He doesn't get the nickname "Beyonder" until the other Avengers show up. In this AU Steve and Tony refer to him as "The Entity" or "Suspenders." You can probably guess who tends to use which.)

On top of the survival story, it's also a getting-together story. Steve and Tony flirt and pine and bicker and flirt some more, until a squabble turns into a confession and they finally start kissing. There’s plenty of time for “it’s cold in this wasteland and we only have one blanket, oh no,” but they’re firmly established as romantically involved by the time the other Avengers show up and they have the final showdown with Beyonder.

Anyway a lot of the AU notes I've been making are about the functional side of their Big Camping Adventure. So here's a bunch of lists about vehicles, gadgets, and navigation.

~

Vehicle stuff:

If Tony is riding passenger on the motorcycle, he can clip his repulsor boots into special footrests that reroute the energy and give the bike a speed boost. 

The bike has a tow cable. Steve can harpoon things using a spring-action firing mechanism, including cliff faces to help him scale steep terrain. The cable can also be uncoiled manually, like when Tony takes flight while holding the end so he and Steve can clothesline hostiles. 

Steve can stick his shield several places on the bike depending on what’s convenient. On the front as a windscreen/battering ram, on one side for easy grabbing, and even on Tony’s backpack so Tony can snuggle in properly while riding passenger and keep both their backs protected.

They probably don’t even need a ramp to get the bike into the bed of the pickup. Steve just picks it up and puts it there.

The evolution of Marsha (the truck) into a full Hulkbuster-style mech takes a long time. For the majority of their time in Battleworld, it’s just a truck with an ever-increasing number of weird add-ons.

Marsha can function as a tiny camper home. The cargo bed liner is a false bottom, which can be pulled up and rearranged to form a cover/roof. Underneath the liner, the actual truck bed is about a foot deeper, with most of that storage space taken up by a mattress and bedding. 

Tony can pull a cable out of Marsha’s steering column and plug it directly into his arc reactor. This unlocks extra features and weapons. He generally has things balanced so that Marsha drawing power doesn't affect him any more than his armor drawing power would. But on rare and desperate occasions, he can overclock and hurt himself. Steve of course hates when he does this.

Turnabout is fair play though: at least once, something else damaged the arc reactor, so Tony plugged into Marsha to draw power from the battery for his electromagnet while he repaired the arc.

Gasoline can be difficult to procure, so both vehicles are hybrids. Tony just keeps adding new power conversion elements as they go along, based on what they can find. 

~

F in chat for Tony’s armor:

Tony dismantles the armor he’d been wearing when they first went into the no-tech dimension.

Obviously he keeps skeletal versions of the repulsor boots and gloves in-tact enough to function. 

He also keeps most of the helmet, for when he’s riding with Steve on the motorcycle. Mostly because Steve insisted. It's gutted of tech though, so if the faceplate stays as part of the design, the eyes are just holes (like in the classic comics).

The rest of the pieces are kept in a large packing trunk.

Tony repurposes some parts into useful gadgets for himself and Cap, plus the odd toy for other Avengers (like Widow’s new stinger gauntlets) because he’s optimistic like that.

Electronics use precious metals like gold and copper, so Tony scrapes some out to pay for things in certain areas of Battleworld, like the cowboy town or the pirate area. He might also barter with other general bits like wires and screws, but he avoids parting with any actual full tech.

~

Plug-n-play Gadgets

Since the power draw for Tony's electromagnet is actually fairly minimal, Tony makes use of the arc reactor as a charging station, mostly when he sleeps. It's not like there's a corner store they can drop by to get a pack of batteries. Things he charges include (but are not limited to):

Flashlight for Steve. The bulbs for it came from the eyes in the Iron Man helmet. Note: Tony doesn't need a flashlight himself because he can turn up his arc brightness apparently, lmao.

Camp stove. Steve questioned Tony building one for a hot second because hello we can build campfires to cook over? But then it’s raining and they're in a cave and Tony is like, "if you fill this space with smoke I will divorce you before we're even married." And Steve is like "camp stove wow yes okay." Also they had camp stoves in WW2 so honestly it was simply a Himbo Moment to disregard the virtues of one in the first place. 

Walkie talkies. I know they had Avengers comms but I like the aesthetic of walkie talkies more. Maybe the comms relied on satellites that they obviously don't have anymore or something.

~

Navigation:

Speaking of a lack of satellites, the GPS in Tony’s armor is rendered useless. Steve is real smug about it and pulls out his old-fashioned compass. But Battleworld also doesn’t have proper poles, so it just spins wildly for a few seconds and then points at Tony’s electromagnet. Not to be deterred, Steve declares, “Well, you’re never lost if you can find Polaris.” They look up and realize that the night sky, despite having stars and a moon, is not at all arranged the way it is on Earth. 

Tony takes this as a Challenge. He builds a sextant, then spends the next several nights in a row muttering math under his breath as he painstakingly creates a hand-drawn star chart. This, combined with landmarks, becomes the primary way they orient themselves as they roam around Battleworld.

Many nights, Steve and Tony lie in the bed of the pickup together and make up constellations named after other Avengers and friends. Steve makes a copy of Tony’s star chart and sketches artistic renditions of the constellations on top. To close this post with an interesting visual, here’s an example of what Tony’s star map might look like vs what Steve’s would more resemble:

[punkrockbuttrfly]

So I got tagged by @electrick-indigo to answer some questions about the fanfics I write

How many works do you have on AO3? 68. Most of those are things I write during Fictober challenges, so I’ll need to write something before October this year so I can have it be a nice number for a while

What’s your total AO3 word count? 152,901

What fandoms have you written for? Doctor Who, Classic, New and Big Finish (including Gallifrey and Bernice Summerfield), Kingdom Hearts, Power Rangers (show and comics), Star Wars, Metal Gear, Red Dwarf, The Mechanisms, Among Us, Undertale, and Untitled Goose Game. Most of those fandoms I’ve only written one or two fics for, most of them are Doctor Who related and also that one anonymous fic we don’t talk about but if you’ve read it you Know

What are your top 5 fics by kudos? Somehow Untitled Goose God is my most popular (for Untitled Goose Game, obvs) despite it being probably my shortest piece written in like 20 minutes inspired by a piece of friend art. After that is Revelation of the Laundry (New Who), The Standards of Trust (Star Wars, probably ongoing assuming I ever finish it), Time and Space to Study (New Who) and finally The Sevateem’s New War Cry (Gallifrey).

Do you respond to comments, why or why not? I try to, because I thrive on validation and am desperate for people to prop up my considerable ego. I like it when people tell me what they enjoyed about my story, and also half the time inspire an even better idea that I can write later. I’m really nothing without an audience to crib jokes from.

What is the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending? Honestly I can think of a few but the one that I’m going to promote is actually my most recent fic, Who commands, a Toy obeys (Doctor Who, The Mechanisms) where the Twelfth Doctor meets the Mechs’ own Toy Soldier and ends up having yet another emotional crisis, as 12 tends to do a lot.

Do you write crossovers? If so, what’s the craziest one you’ve written? Well I did just talk about my Doctor Who/Mechanisms crossover, but I’ve also written a couple more. I wrote a Gallifrey/Red Dwarf one and a Power Rangers Time Force/Doctor Who one and that’s the extent of my crossovers, though I’m not opposed to writing more.

Have you ever received hate on a fic? Not really. I’ve had a few people comment to say they disliked an integral part of the story and then say nothing else, but I don’t think that qualifies as hate. Though tbh if they did I’d just laugh, like, how do you not have anything better to do? I know my writing isn’t good, that’s why I’m writing fanfic for fun to get better at it so that eventually I might be able to be good at writing.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Not so far, though I’m not opposed to the concept. I just wouldn’t really know where to start.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? No, and I doubt I will, although again if it did happen I’d just laugh. Like, of all the wonderful creators you could be stealing from, you picked me? Surely you must have better taste.

Have you ever co-written a fic before? Not yet. I’d like to, mostly because in theory it will get me to stop procrastinating and do a thing, and also I’d love to develop a concept with someone else with a different perspective and ideas. In theory I’m meant to be planning a co-written fic with someone, buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut spoons are in very short supply and it’s sort of not gotten off the ground yet (sorry!)

What’s your all-time favourite ship? I don’t do favourites really, and half of my “favourite” ships are canon anyway and I haven’t written much or anything for that ship. Based on the shipfics I have written probably my most prolific one is either Narvin/Leela or Liv Chenka/Helen Sinclair (which is now definitely not canon as of Stranded).

What’s a WIP you want to finish but don’t think you ever will? Considering that The Standards of Trust (linked above) is supposed to be a series of stories across Ahsoka’s life but I’m taken a huge amount of time to watch The Clone Wars already and also I refuse to watch her solo spinoff series because of bullshit casting decisions, I don’t think I’ll ever “finish” it.

What are your writing strengths? I have absolutely no idea. Why do you people read my writing? This isn’t even self-deprecating, I genuinely want to know what y’all like about my writing because I have no idea.

What are your writing weaknesses? Second verse, same as the first. But also my spoons deficit and tendency to procrastinate hard, but that’s hardly exclusive to me, that’s something most writers struggle with.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic? Never done it, probably won’t do it in any substantial capacity. I’ve tried learning languages before and I’m spectacularly bad at it, so I’ll most likely never have the proficiency to do it well enough to confidently publish something like that.

What was the first fandom you wrote for? Doctor Who. Also Gallifrey. The Macqueen Master battled Narvin. The Resurrection of Fear was the first fanfic I ever wrote after not having applied myself to writing fiction for a very long time beyond a couple of drabbles as a teenager, so it’s not very good, but hopefully it can serve as a demonstration of progression.

What’s your favourite fic you’ve written? Beyond the Stars, the followup to the Beyond the Grid arc of the Boom Studios Power Rangers comics that I wanted so much that I decided to write it myself, enough that hopefully soon I’ll get back to actually writing it, but this is one WIP I am determined to finish. By the end it’s going to be novel-length, and while it’s based on a non-original IP, it’s meant to be standalone enough that hopefully anyone can read it without needing context. Besides, do you need more context than “gay superhero found family space opera”?

Tagging @being-of-rain, @alison-is-a-lesbian, and @floptopus

[charaznablescanontoyota]

shattered grid/beyond the grid are probably my favorite arcs of the power rangers comics because of course they are. they’re the ones where the power rangers meet a bunch of alternate ranger teams from other dimensions and then a handful of random rangers from all different timelines and dimensions get stuck on the outskirts of space together

[tokupedia]

Front cover of the Deluxe Edition of the Beyond the Grid comic story arc.

[professorgartblog]

Organic & Geometric Shapes: tension/competition/ integration

All two dimensional shapes break down into two basic categories: Organic (or curvilinear) and Geometric (or rectilinear) Organic shapes are typically asymmetrical shapes with an irregular boundary, often flowing or curving, thus they are often also referred to as curvilinear shapes. However, the boundaries or edges can also be jagged or prickly, showing one of various possible influences from the natural world. Examples of organic shapes include the shapes of plants, rocks and animals. Aside from obvious organic forms, designers  often create abstract and unique organic shapes and patterns which may reference nature, but do not precisely resemble any actual natural object or being.

Examples of Organic Shapes in Art & Design:

John Everett Millais, Ophelia, 1851. 

Salvador Dali ‘Metamorphosis of Narcissus’

Salvatore Dali ‘Burning Giraffes and Telephones’

Joan Miro, ‘Carnival of Harlequin’

Georgia O'Keeffe

Peter Max, psychedelic art.

Ryan McGinness

Emilio Pucci print

Arcimbolo

Steve Ditko, Dr. Strange Comic book 1960s

Examples of ORGANIC ABSTRACTIONS:

Geometric (or Rectilinear Shapes) are mechanical shapes characterized by their ability to be mapped or grid-ed mathematically. Thus they have straight lines, definable angles and arcs, and can be represented by points and equations. Beyond squares, circles and triangles, designers build new and provocative geometric forms by combining and expanding existing shapes into new directions. Examples of geometric shapes in art & design:

Piet Mondrian

Frank Stella's 'Harran II', 1967

Blinky Palermo

Movie poster, Boris Bilinsky, 1927

Dado panel, first half of 15th century; Mamluk Egypt Polychrome marble mosaic

Star Wars video game 1980.

Contemporary 8-bit/vaporwave digital art.

EXAMPLES OF GEOMETRIC ABSTRACTIONS:

THE SHAPE ASSIGNMENT:

So our assignment is to render a 9″ X 12″ 2D image where you create visual tension, transformation and/or integration between organic and geometric shapes. This could be expressed 'figuratively,' meaning with recognizable objects and settings (like a werewolf wrestling a geometric robot) or through abstract compositions of shapes, tones and colors. 

THIS ASSIGNMENT IS ON BRISTOL IN FULL COLORED INK, OR FULL COLORED DIGITAL OR PHOTO.

Student examples:

[augment-techs]

Terona: I love weirdos.

Joel: I love people who have walls covered with manga pages and anime posters.

Tyler: I love people who wear weird things like “cringe” merch, stuffed animal bags, cloaks, capes, etc.

Conner: I love people with mullets or shaved heads.

Syd: I love people who complete their looks with fishnets and colored contacts.

Mia: I love people who have half finished cosplays in their closets.

Orion: I love people who write and read fanfiction.

Riley: I love people who make fan art, whether it’s “sellable” or not.

Andrea: I love furries and therians. I love witches and pagans.

Tanya: I love people who have way too many stuffed animals and toys strewn about.

Karone: I love people who have little space in their rooms and homes because they’re full of bookshelves for their figures, manga, books, comics, toys, etc.

Mike: I love people who experiment with unconventional makeup.

Grace: I love the people on the outskirts. The weirdos. The freaks. The undesirables. Because in them I don’t just see myself, I see joy.

TJ: The reality that life can be lived authentically in countless ways.

Kimberly: I love punks, lolitas (the Japanese alt scene), scene queens, emos, bimbos, femmes, butches, studs, drag performers, etc.

Andros: I see that we cannot be doomed to conformity or homogeny.

Cameron: We are vibrant, we are beautiful.

Heckyl: We are worth saving.

Ari: Life is good.

Remi: Life is fun.

[kimberlyannharts]

THE PRIME INFO ROUND-UP:

Honestly there was not a ton. Got there maybe 15 minutes late, so if there was anything up front I missed it. Notes I took are as follows-

Described it as "the toys are out of the box" - ie. they don't have to worry about continuity, don't have to worry about canon, not limited to mighty morphin, or even existing characters.

- Lauren's background has changed a little bit - it sounds like this is going to be an all-new word based on the existing properties, even more so than the previous round of comics. (Hopefully the end of "see episode here!" things)

- You will see characters from the entire zeitgeist of power rangers, but also characters built to live in this all new word

- Characters from Aquitar, other places in the universe - was a little hard to hear but it sounded like they said "unexpected" places?

Overall there was a lot of talk about Massiveverse, some about the comic run in general. A fun fact that idk of was public knowledge before, Drakkon started off as the idea of an evil White Ranger. Kyle worked from that concept and where he started with Tommy and it eventually became the stinky man we know today.

Ryan mentioned M/tt at one point and I almost blacked out from rage. </3

OKAY LET'S CHECK THIS OUT

So the vibe of what I'm getting is this will ultimately be its own thing, not really continuing off the 2016 MMPR series? Like at best maybe they'll be like "this is a new universe made from Billy's actions" but who knows how much they'll actually like. tie the storylines together. At this point I feel they would just say it's building off Darkest Hour's events if it was; the series has been over for nearly a month so it's not like Billy fucking up the Grid and it making a new universe would be spoilers (in fact, it would actually HELP the finale a bit if we finally got more context at what just fucking happened).

While I know everyone's excited about the possibilities of using elements and Rangers across the franchise, I can't help but compare it to Beyond the Grid's premise and fandom reaction. It was the same situation, where people were excited about working with characters and plots outside of MMPR, but fast-forward to now and it's overall one of the least liked arcs of the 2016 series. (Disregard my own personal opinion of it.) I think if they're not careful, this whole "we can do whatever we want!!! fuck canon!!!!" idea could easily devolve into canon characters ending up more like OCs with canon characters' names and faces rather than an exploration of the canon character (see: the discourse over whether or not BtG Cam was Cam or Cyber-Cam.) But we'll just have to see.

(PLEASE be mindful of who you start shipping, Melissa)

[aion-rsa]

The Long Journey of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Comic Series

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Warning, this interview contains spoilers for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #50 and the final issue of Go Go Power Rangers.

All of the Power Rangers comics that have been published in the last few years were leading to issue #50 of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. All the plot lines and characters came together for a triumphant and climatic showdown that not only provided a lot of action but also closed off some character arcs while also setting some things up for the future.

We talked with writer Ryan Parrott about this gigantic issue and needles to say, this chat features NOTHING but spoilers both for MMPR and the last issue of Go Go Power Rangers. Our discussion includes adding conflict between the Rangers (which the show did little of), bringing back the Solar Rangers, Jason v. Tommy, how being an Omega Ranger is like going to college, and much more!

This is the first part of our interview Ryan covering issue 50. The next part coming soon will look to the future and what fans can expect going forward in the universe of Power Rangers comics.

DEN OF GEEK: Before we get to MMPR #50, we’ve got to talk about (the recently concluded) Go Go Power Rangers for a hot second. You and Sina Grace both helped fill in a gap that was perhaps the most glaring in the original series, giving Jason, Trini, and Zack a proper sendoff. Talk about finally making that happen.

RYAN PARROTT: Oh, I mean, that was kind of the whole point from the beginning. I felt like having met Austin and Walter, and talking to them about what that was like, and I always felt, “Yeah, we should probably try and use the comic books to find a way to make that all make narrative sense,” as opposed to all the crazy background noise that was going on. So, we were talking about the idea of the Omega Rangers very early on during Shattered Grid. Kyle Higgins and I had talked about it from the very beginning.

So, it was finally nice to be able to give them that and then give them a sendoff, but also know that it’s not the end of their story. It’s like, “Yeah, we’ll end their story in the continuity of the show, and do that properly but also know that this isn’t the end and we can give them more adventures and hopefully build out those characters in ways that I think people wanted, as opposed to the way it was cut short when we were a kid. And we’re just like, “Why are they all just silhouettes? Why is no one on screen?

Why is Jason holding a guitar over his face? That never gets old. And so, on going off of that, one of the defining parts of the original series, especially by season two once the show got popular, was that the Rangers almost completely lacked conflict with one another. Unless they were under a spell 95% of the time they were buddy buds. How did you go about adding all of this conflict between them in Go Go and MMPR, especially between Jason and Tommy?

With MMPR, it was easy because I knew when we brought in the Stone Canyon trio I remember we were talking about “that must’ve been really hard.” Like the idea that you’re going to step in when these other people have been doing this for a really long time, they saved the world countless times already. And it’s like, “You got to live up to those shoes. Oh, and by the way, you have to take on a villain that’s twice as hard as Rita.” I always thought, “There’s got to be some natural growing pains there.” Right? So, I love that we were able to start to hint at that, and that that’s what gave us Necessary Evil. It’s going to be about the old guard and the new guard and how those two will mesh together.

And then, we were dealing with Go Go, I always saw it as, when we were trying to figure out what that series was, I’d say, “Well, that story is about Tommy who needs to learn how to stay and Jason who needs to learn to leave.” That’s why we started it where we did with the idea of Tommy losing the green power coin and losing his powers and running off to the cabin, which made no sense in the original. A lot of cabins in California. But he just runs off, and there was a lot of him leaving all the time. So he goes from a character in the first two seasons of Power Rangers, somebody who leaves all the time, to someone who stays longer than almost anyone, which I thought was an interesting choice. So it was about doing that.

It was about giving (Jason and Tommy) cross-purposes. The idea that Jason has to learn that there are bigger responsibilities in being a Power Ranger and that there’s a larger universe outside of earth. And so, I thought, if you have those two characters who are both dealing with diametrically opposed philosophies and feelings, it automatically created a lot of tension. And so, I always knew that I was going to basically build to those two conversations, the one in, I think MMPR 45, where there’s the Omega Ranger and Tommy comes out and he says, “Hey, man, I don’t know what I’m doing here.” And then, the other one in (Go Go) 32 where it’s basically him saying, “Stay.” And I always wanted to have it be in the same location and have it be basically two sides of the same conversation.

I really loved what you did with Jason, especially with his dad. Was adding his dad in there a further way of making him want to stay but ultimately helping him realize he has to go? Thank you. I really wanted to bring the dad thing back in because I felt like we dropped it. I know friends and family who when you talk to them and they’re in their normal life but they have all these personal problems that no one ever hears about. My mother has multiple sclerosis, so she’s always told me, “I don’t ever want what I have to keep you from being who you are going to be. I don’t want my sickness to stop you from achieving your dreams.”

And I thought there was something really interesting about having his dad, who is such a hard ass on him all the time, to be the one who actually, in a gruff way, says that very thing to him, saying, in a bad way, but, “Don’t let my sickness be an excuse for you not to be the thing you’re supposed to be,” which is probably the closest thing to an, “I love you,” you’re ever going to get from that character.

Did you worry that adding so much conflict between the characters would push the comic further from the events of the show? Because, after all, it feels like if you try to put them side by side, in the comic, they get mad at each other, but then in the show everybody’s buddy buddy and it’s fine.

The way that I looked at it was, the shows were 22 minutes and they’re short, and they didn’t show a lot of the stuff that’s going on. So, in the same way that in the early issues of Go Go we were filling in the gaps, I thought, “Well, there’s an opportunity to fill in the gaps here, too.” I felt like maybe the Power Rangers when we see them and they’re fighting villains, yeah they’re pretending everything’s fine. But then they take the helmet’s off 20 minutes later and it’s like, “You could have come back a little faster with that jump kick,”

So, that’s the way I rationalized in my head. When they’re a unit and they’re fighting, they’re keeping it real and they’re a unified front. But there’s always the background turmoil and stuff like that. And I just felt like if you were writing that show today, you would have more inner conflict. If anybody’s watching any CW show, that’s all of that.

I know when we talked over a year ago before Necessary Evil had even come out, I had asked you, “Is Beyond The Grid going to affect the story arc?” You said, “A lot,” I didn’t think it would take quite this long to get to that point, but in issue 50 you bring in Ari and Remy from Beyond the Grid. It was great to see them. Was it always your plan to bring them in at the end, and have we seen the last of them?

When we started breaking Necessary Evil, I was like, “Okay, I want to find a way to bring in all the arcs from Mighty Morphin zero and Go Go one all the way forward. There was a version at one point when we did the climax and I thought, “Well, I know I want the Solar Rangers to come in but how much do we want to bring them in?” There was a version where there was a much larger sequence, but ultimately, I felt there was so much going on that last issue, it just felt like, “Let’s just bring in the characters that we know. Let’s bring them in, in a way that, hopefully… We save their universe so they can come in and start to save ours.”

But I mean, the best thing about it was we created the Anointed and the Empowered, and they had this main line to the Morphin Grid. And I was trying to figure out like how we were going to defeat them. And I remember talking to Dafna (Pleban) my editor, and she said, “Well, in Beyond the Grid, they have the Solarix and it does suck up Morphin energy.” I went, “Wait a minute, you created a MacGuffin in another book that I can use for this so I don’t have to create a new one?” And she’s said, “Yeah.” I’m like, “We’re using that.” It was one of those things where I’d created this thing and I didn’t quite know how to solve it. I had other options, but I thought, “Oh, this actually works. It’s so much more seamless, and I don’t have to create anything new.”

So, yes, I always wanted to bring them in, and in the cleanest way possible so we can tie everything together at 50 and then hopefully use that as a way to springboard the next story. And could we see more of them in the future? Never say never.

Obviously, the editor plays a big role in the writing process for a comic like this. How much of the story is you versus the editor versus even the people who own the brands?

Everything starts with a conversation. For instance, when we first started figuring out Go Go I said, “That story was about what it was like for me in high school and when I had to go to another high school that my friends didn’t get to go to.” And I use that as the basis for (the Matt story.)

When the Omega Rangers came in that was about college. It was that thing where you step out into a larger world because when you’re a 17 or 18, that’s the first time you have real responsibility and real choices in your life. Up to that point, most people are just about what job you have and what your friends are doing or what person you’re dating. And this one was more like, “Oh, man, I have to figure out college. What am I going to do with the rest of my life?” And so, it’s that moment. Right

And then I love that moment when you go from high school to college where it’s all of a sudden you’re the small fish in a small pond. And you get to college and it’s all these new people and new experiences, and it’s overwhelming and you don’t know what you’re doing. And that’s how I saw the Omega Rangers.

What I liked about it was when we go into these things we always talk about them in regards to what are we saying with these characters at this time in their life. That’s where the conversation starts. And then, out of that, that’s when we start to create.

“Okay, wouldn’t that be interesting if we… Are there any unanswered questions from the show that we always wanted to address? Are there any characters you always wanted to use?” They start to come in and it basically becomes an organic process of you start with emotion and theme and you dig into that. THen you find how those characters can reflect that and then it folds out accordingly. But it’s never a straight line. That’s the fun thing about having people like Dafna and (editor) Matt Levine and all the other writers and all the people that matter, is that you start to find common ideas and themes and things that you like. “Oh, we all like this. We all feel this, so let’s go down that way.”

Stay tuned for part two of our interview with Ryan Parrott and some big teases for what’s coming next for the Power Rangers comics!

The post The Long Journey of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Comic Series appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Comics – Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2Z7Mpeq

[sterling-silvers]

Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers #38 – Beyond the Grid

Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers #38 – Beyond the Grid

10 out of 10

Here we are at the penultimate issue of this arc; and once again, it did not disappoint. I can vehemently say that this had the most Power Rangers-esque moment so far in the arc and not only did I tear up again (first time was for Heckyl in issue #35) they actually rolled down my cheeks this time. I did not expect the comic to bring this kind of emotional weight at the umpteenth hour of the arc.

As we start, Ari – the sole Solar Ranger – finds herself within the confines of her subconscious chained by the Praetor. It is here we learn nigh all there is to know about the Praetor; his origins, his motivations, and mentality. As he offers Ari a chance to help him, to become allies, in dealing with this dying universe he also weaves a version of the truth. The Praetor is actually a MORPHIN’ MASTER; the first beings thought to discover and harness the power of the Morphin’ Grid. He is of the same species that are RESPONSIBLE for there even being Power Rangers.

To put this into perspective, I have to reference back to the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: Shattered Grid issue as there were beings known as the Emissaries, who Zordon answers to, that came to help Tommy and the rest of the Rangers defeat Lord Drakkon – who himself had obtained a Heart of the Master. 

The Emissaries merely represent the Morphin Masters. Which means that not only did Drakkon literally obtain the apex of what the Morphin Grid could offer but now, a verbatim being of said apex is trying to destroy this universe. But why?

Through further exposition, it is learned that a great evil was able to learn of the Grid as well and compressed its energy into Zeo Crystals; the crystal had enough power destroy entire planets. After the Masters were able to best the evil they attempted to hide the crystal only to discover the Shattered Star – an entire planet of Zeo Crystals. Fearing the destructive potential of this planet falling into the wrong hands, it was solemnly decided that this universe would be severed from the Morphin’ Grid – ensuring the planet’s safe destruction but at the cost of the universe’s as well. The Praetor volunteered to stay with this universe; to die with it, together – all for the greater good. The Solarix would serve as the blade, absorbing enough Grid energy to eventually sever the universe completely from the Grid.

As Ari wakes up from her wound, she sees that the Rangers have stopped fighting and Mike comes clean about taking the Solarix and why he did it. As he repents, Ari relates to the team what she has just heard and witnessed from the Praetor (who looks very much like Char Aznable during the flashback); however, she tells the WHOLE truth. The Praetor didn’t come alone to the universe – he brought his OWN Power Rangers. They came to protect and quell the gradual destruction while the rest of the Masters found a way to safely restore the universe to the Grid sans the threat of Shattered Star. However, due to the Praetor’s psychic powers he slowly descended into madness because of the ugliness that fear and survival brings out of living beings; he soon concluded, that they were not worthy of saving or of the sacrifice he had made.  

Soon enough, he destroyed all but one of his Power Rangers as they believed that it was not too late to save this universe – it wasn’t too late to fight or lose hope. The seventh, the Purple Solar Ranger, fled, Solarix in tow, and ultimately it would find its place with Ari.

With all revealed, Cam theorizes that the energy that Solarix is able to store for severance can also be used to connect the team back their own universe. While they acknowledge that doing so will allow the Shattered Star to come into contact with evil, they can’t deny that the opposite is true as well – that it can be used for good; not unlike the Zeo Rangers of past. When the question of how to fully charge Solarix comes up, Ari provides the answer; she breaks it into seven shards – one for each Ranger.

It’s here we get the best Ranger moment so far; its simply, perfect. As the Rangers place the shards into their respective morphers, they let go of the complexes and fears that have been plaguing them and with that – they SOLARIZE! 

Please, take a moment to appreciate this page - it’s truly a spectacle to behold.

The Praetor, who has been watching them, is mortified by what has transpired; even more shaken as he learns that the Rangers are assembling their forms to the Shattered Star. If they were to reconnect the Void to the Morphin Grid, it would mean that his sacrifice, his killings, his descent into madness would have been all for not – instead a savior, he’d be a slaughterer. He rises from his throne and goes to get his blade – he will secure his legacy with his own hands.

As the Rangers attempt to establish a semblance of a strategy for the Praetor’s inevitable attack, they are instantly attacked, inevitably. After some quick banter, the Solarized Rangers begin their counter-assault; all fairs well, until Ari is separated from the group and falls face-to-face with the Praetor himself.

This issue is the best one so far and definitely has the best moment so far; highly doubt it’s going to be topped but, I hope I’m proven wrong. The callbacks, the connective tissue, the outstanding additions to the lore of Power Rangers that this issue gifts to the reader crafts itself into a 10 out of 10. I. CAN. NOT. WAIT. to see how this arc concludes!!!!

[twatd]

Guided by Voices

Sliding in just ahead of the next issue like a fedora-grabbing Indiana Jones, here’s the second of our two essays on issue #38, looking at the two big monologues that dominate the issue.

Tim: When the first issue of this arc came out, my commentary noted the return of Persephone’s narration, and how its changing role in the series impacted the way we perceived her actions and motivations. Now, as we approach the end of this penultimate arc, her narration is one half of a pair of monologues that (almost) bookend issue #38. At the beginning, we have Ananke’s drunken ramblings to Robert Graves. At the close of the issue, we have Persephone’s cryptic remarks and her descent in darkness as she seemingly vanishes from existence.

These two speeches do more than frame the story in this issue though. The way the comic presents them, and the way we are encouraged to engage with them, speaks volumes about the two characters we’re dealing with. And, as we draw closer to the end of The Wicked + The Divine, I think they are not only guiding how we are supposed to interpret these characters, but the series as a whole.

Let’s start with Ananke and Graves. I won’t be diving so much into the content of her tipsy tirade or how it connects with Graves’ treatise on The White Goddess – Alex has already got your back there – but how the information is delivered. The page is a classic six-panel grid, and each panel replicates the same ‘shot’, with Ananke sat in Graves’ home in Devonshire. The lighting is soft, almost replicating Minerva’s candlelit shrine, and heavy shadows lurk just beyond our subject.

While the ‘shot’ may be static from panel to panel, the subject certainly isn’t. Ananke leans back and forward as she lectures Graves, aided by a rapidly-draining bottle of whiskey. The poses are immaculately chosen to remind us of a certain kind of drunken rant – the airy gesticulation in panel two, the circling glass in panel four, the accusatory point in panel five. We can almost hear the slurring slip into Ananke’s normally clipped tones, even though the text and lettering do nothing so brazen as to indicate that. Even when she’s three sheets to the wind, Ananke is still Ananke.

Most importantly, while there is continuity between the panels in terms of composition and colouring, the speech is broken up. We are dipping in and out of the conversation, catching snatches rather than the full thing. This is crucial.

Firstly, this is as close as we may get to Ananke performing a classic villainous monologue, and having a couple of pages where she simply explains who she is and what she’s doing would feel like an anti-climax after such an elegantly constructed mystery. This gives us a glimpse of an important moment in her long life without acting as a ‘spoiler’.

Secondly, we are placed in the same boat as Graves. While we are approaching the information from a very different perspective, both he and (currently) we don’t have the full story. Graves may be wilfully misinterpreting aspects or simply not have fully understood everything Ananke said, but we know that The White Goddess only makes up part of how she operates. Similarly, for all the glimpses we have been given, we don’t have the complete picture yet (though that doesn’t stop many of us putting together our own theories).

That fractured approach steers how we approach these pages. We know we’re being given important snippets of information, and so we start to pick them apart and look for clues. We piece together what we’re given with what we know, and what we intuit. The page is an intellectual exercise, not an emotional one. At least, not until that final panel, when Ananke asks Graves to leave a light on, reminding us that Ananke’s fear of oblivion has not gone away. It’s a humanising moment at the end of a speech that encourages analysis.

Let’s compare this approach with Laura’s narration at the end. As soon as we join her this issue, her narration is present, and in the first sentence, we’re quickly but subtly reminded that her commentary isn’t simply her internal monologue, but being given to an audience: “He’s weeping, as you’d expect.” More reminders slip in as the issue goes on, telling us that we’re listening to Laura describe all these events after the fact: “I couldn’t say it aloud yet, but I knew.” “I’m not sure I can explain. But I’ll try.” Like Ananke, Laura is talking to someone, but unlike Ananke, we don’t know who, and we don’t know why.

While the narration begins as soon as Laura shows up, it’s on page 19 that it becomes the focus, far more so than anything that’s happening on-panel. Laura is by herself, removing any distracting dialogue to complicate the flow of the text. More notably, the narration is separated out into its own panels, with Team WicDiv doing its standard trick of using black panels to eke out some bonus real estate within the comic. That extra space tells us to sit up and pay attention. This is clearly important.

Like Ananke’s monologue, there’s a wealth of ambiguous language here, wrapped up in metaphor and symbolism. Godhood is a “liferaft of bodies” on a river that carries you forward. Laura talks about giving up, the prize they are working towards, and that she knows what she is not – but these terms are never clarified, and there’s multiple interpretations we could apply.

Unlike Ananke’s speech, though, we get the complete thing. This isn’t a puzzle that’s meant to be put together, and the way that it’s presented, spread out over four pages, is the opposite of Graves’ information overload. The comic returns to a standard six-panel grid for this sequence, mirroring Ananke's earlier pages, but the layout is used very differently.

The way the narration is distributed over the pages, even the different font of Laura’s internal monologue, all of it is designed to slow us down, to make us consider each moment. While the imagery that Laura’s words conjure is open to interpretation, it is all relatively straightforward, compared to Ananke’s secret language of trees and divine poetry. It’s a view into someone’s head, not a discussion between two academics.

That, ultimately, is the difference between Ananke and Laura – the key distinction in how they approach the world, how we should approach them, and how we should engage with the series.

Ananke is a schemer, seeing the world as a set of pieces to be shuffled around in the service of her aims. Emotions are weaknesses that she can prey on and exploit in others, and she does not allow herself the luxury of having them if she can help it.

Laura engages with the world through her emotions – the joy of music, the rage of revenge, the hollow despair of grief. In the end, this is Laura’s story, and as tempting as it might be to try to solve the puzzle that the plot presents us with, it is the emotional journey that matters, and that will ultimately hold the key to understanding everything.

Like what we do, and want to help us make more of it? Visit patreon.com/timplusalex and pledge to gain access to exclusive blogs, ebooks, mixtapes and more.

[garrettsthings]

Seasons of Power Rangers I Would Like to see get the Boom! Studios Treatment

As some of my followers can probably attest, I have been really enjoying the Boom! Studios Power Rangers comics. Not only have they been using characters I have loved since childhood to tell surprisingly dark and mature stories (not that kind of mature. Don’t be gross), but they’ve been able to do things that the budgetary constraints of the shows would never allow them to do like have more individual zord fights, have monsters that don’t look like guys in suits, and even have new rangers.

However, if I had one nitpick it would be that this comic, like all things Power Rangers (no one expected the 2017 movie to be about Jungle Fury, did they?), focuses very heavily on the MMPR seasons. I know Shattered Grid has other seasons involved and that Beyond the Grid is going to have Rangers from a variety of different seasons, but I still think it would be nice if other shows got dedicated standalone comic series. With that sentiment in mind, here is my list of seasons I would like to see Boom! Studios turn into comic series in no particular order (after the first two).

And yes, I know that the consequences of Shattered Grid will likely make most or all of these impossible. This is just me engaging in some wishful thinking.

Lightspeed Rescue: This season is what I mentally refer to as “the best season of Power Rangers that nobody likes”. In fact, I think this series is more fitting for the Boom! treatment than even MMPR is. It was arguably the most grounded Power Rangers season with the Rangers being adults (they were adults in Lost Galaxy, but they also had cool sci-fi jobs) who were government funded and rescued people from natural disasters (that were admittedly caused by demons. I said most grounded, not very grounded). Not to mention Captain Mitchell and Ms. Fairweather were probably one of my favorite supporting casts ever and the comic would have the opportunity to add to them with the Lightspeed Rescue support staff (this show was basically Go-Busters before Go-Busters). And finally, the comic would be able to do things the show couldn’t and use Ryan a lot more.

Lost Galaxy: While I do very much want this to happen, I think I would actually be very surprised if it didn’t. With Terra Venture being teased in the Boom! comic already (and it probably being their base in Beyond the Grid), the large amount of screentime Karone has been getting in the comic recently, and the presence of the Magna Defender on the Beyond the Grid team, I’m getting the impression that the writers really want to tell more stories about Lost Galaxy. And I really want them to. Lost Galaxy has a lot of cool mythology behind it that was kind of just glanced over in the show that the comic would be able to explore in greater detail like the Lights of Orion and the Rangers’ elemental powers.

Turbo: Okay hear me out!! I read a quote once in anticipation of Voltron Legendary Defender that said that the purpose of a reboot is to retell the original story as you remember it from your childhood, not necessarily how it actually was. With that in mind, I have a lot of fond memories of Turbo that I think could be really compelling with a fresh coat of paint. I could tell you that I would like to see Justin be made into a more compelling character by exploring how he is basically a child soldier, or that I would like to see the Blue Senturion expanded on, or that I would like to see more of the high-speed zord battles that thrilled me as a kid. I could tell you any of those things and I would be telling the truth each time. But what I really want to see redone is Divatox. I always thought she was a cool idea but the show frequently made her into a joke. But just like Rita was given an upgrade in the comic, I would like to see Divatox get one to. The picture in my head is something like the new Magica from DuckTales. A character who still has her funny and silly roots but is also downright intimidating. Even terrifying when she wants to be.

Operation Overdrive: My reasoning for this one is pretty similar to Lightspeed Rescue. This was another show that had a lot of unique ideas that I think are worth exploring in comic form. Even if you ignore the treasure hunting and exotic locales, I think Operation Overdrive might have had the most non-sentai weapons and upgrades of any season, which kind of makes it perfect for an expansion into the comic universe.

Wild Force: Just like Lost Galaxy, this show had a lot of mythology behind it that I think deserves expansion. Stuff like the Animarium, the Orgs, and even things that the show took for granted like the bond each ranger had with his or her zord are things practically begging for story arcs in the Boom! comic. I was never a big fan of Wild Force, but I always thought that it had enormous potential that the comic could possibly bring out. Also I just want more Taylor. Taylor’s awesome.

Obviously there are other series I would love to see get the same love and affection Boom! has been raining down on MMPR, but these five are all I have the energy to talk about right now. What series would you like to see be made into comics? Sound off in replies or reblogs!

[siphen0]

BOOM! Studios and Hasbro announced today a new chapter of POWER RANGERS: BEYOND THE GRID, a bold new storyline spinning out of the pages of the hit comic book event Power Rangers: Shattered Grid, and the return of SABAN’S GO GO POWER RANGERS, both in October 2018.

POWER RANGERS: BEYOND THE GRID continues in the pages of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #32, as the new series creative team of award-winning writer Marguerite Bennett (Animosity) and artist Simone di Meo (Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor) introduce an all-star team of Rangers unlike any other.  Drawn together from across time and space to combat a never-before-seen evil, these Rangers will need to prove to themselves and each other that they have what it takes not just to survive in a dangerous new environment, but to defeat the oncoming onslaught of an unfamiliar, terrifying new villain.

This issue features a main cover by Jamal Campbell (Green Arrow), along with variant covers by Jordan Gibson (America) and Linda Lithén (Need Credit).

Then, Saban’s Go Go Power Rangers, chronicling the early days of the original five teenagers with attitude, returns in October with issue #13 from series writer Ryan Parrott and new series artist Eleonora Carlini (Batgirl). After coming face-to-face with the Ranger Slayer, the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers are still trying to make sense of the incredible encounter and settling back into their normal teen lives.  Little do they know that Rita Repulsa is setting into motion a plan to retrieve an artifact that might be the key to besting Zordon and the Rangers once and for all.

This issue features a main cover by Dan Mora (Klaus), along with variant covers by Miguel Mercado (Over The Garden Wall), Audrey Mok (Archie) and Natacha Bustos (Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur).

“The new team of Power Rangers is just the first surprise of POWER RANGERS: BEYOND THE GRID …and it’s not the biggest one, as Marguerite and Simone are crafting the kind of Power Rangers story you’ve never seen before,” said Dafna Pleban, Senior Editor, BOOM! Studios. “And just because Shattered Grid is over, it doesn’t make anything easier for the original Power Rangers, as Ryan and Eleonara will reveal a critical piece of Power Rangers lore in their new story arc.”

”The events of Shattered Grid took full advantage of the comic book medium to tell an epic Power Rangers story of unparalleled scale and scope,” says Brian Casentini, SVP of Power Rangers Franchise Development & Production. “And with that, has come an incredible, unique opportunity for Hasbro, Boom Studios and the fantastic team of Marguerite Bennett and Simone Di Meo to continue to explore and deepen our mythology and bring entirely new worlds to life.  The upcoming stories in both Beyond the Grid and Ryan’s forthcoming arc in Go Go will continue to deliver the amazing storytelling our audience has come to appreciate from Power Rangers comics.”

Print copies of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Saban’s Go Go Power Rangers are available sale in local comic book shops (use comicshoplocator.com to find the one nearest you), or at the BOOM! Studios webstore. Digital copies can be purchased from content providers like comiXology, iBooks, Google Play, and the BOOM! Studios app.

Currently, Power Rangers is celebrating 25 continuous years on the air, making it one of the longest running kids’ live-action series in television history with nearly 900 episodes aired to date. Created by Haim Saban and launched in 1993 with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the franchise celebrates its milestone anniversary year with the 25th season, “Power Rangers Super Ninja Steel” currently airing on Saturdays at 12 p.m. (ET/PT) on Nickelodeon in the U.S.

For continuing news on POWER RANGERS: BEYOND THE GRID and more from BOOM! Studios, stay tuned to boom-studios.com and follow @boomstudios on Twitter.

For more on Saban’s Power Rangers, please visit www.powerrangers.com and follow Power Rangers on rangernation.com, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

POWER RANGERS: BEYOND THE GRID Reveals A Hidden Enemy in October 2018 BOOM! Studios and Hasbro announced today a new chapter of POWER RANGERS: BEYOND THE GRID, a bold new storyline spinning out of the pages of the hit comic book event…