Lord Drakkon himself
Welcome back to Strange Times & Places, where I must apologize for my sudden two week absence – my computer unexpectedly broke down on me. Today, we’re going to be doing a little mash-up with Tokusatsu Gesundheit as we look at the alternate world portrayed in Boom! Studios Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers #9-16 and 2017 Annual!
How’s It Different?
It’s a For Want of a Nail story, in which Tommy Oliver – the legendary Green Ranger – chose to continue working for Rita Repulsa after the Power Rangers free him from her mind control. With arguably their most powerful ranger and most skilled fighter staying on the side of the Evil Space Aliens, things go…poorly.
What’s The Story?
The Black Dragon
Rather than talk too much about actual story (which is a fairly standard “main universe heroes show up in dystopian alternate and tip the scales” a la A Better World Part 1 & 2, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, Injustice: Gods Among Us, The Wild Wipe Out, and many more), I wanna look at the world it takes place in.
Best of Differences
- Lord Drakkon, as Tommy prefers to be called as the ruler of Earth, has a really nifty design blending both his Green and White Ranger forms. He takes his name from a previous, similarly themed disciple of Rita Repulsa.
- Being a military dictator, Drakkon has upgraded his Dragonzord into an independent robot called The Black Dragon. It acts as his enforcer, able to shrink down to human size or grow to its original, Godzilla-esque Zord scale.
Mastodon Sentries
- Having thoroughly defeated his world’s Rangers (which includes straight up killing the Blue and Red Rangers), he uses their remaining Power Coins to create his armies. He has what appear to be human soldiers acting as mass produced (and therefore weakened) Ranger Sentries – Mammoth foot soldiers, Tyrannosaurus royal guard, Pterodactyl snipers, and Sabretooth Tiger…sentries.
Worst of Differences
- The only thing that really bugs me about this universe is just how complete a victory Drakkon lead Rita’s forces to. Flashbacks show that the five original rangers, the five Alien Rangers, The Phantom Ranger, Ninjor, the Thunderzords, and the Ninja Zords were all on the side of good in the final battle. That’s a force on par with one that, in the original TV show, held back a galaxy-wide invasion by four evil empires working together for the better part of a year. Here, they couldn’t beat Rita on one planet…because she had one Ranger. That’s a bit much.
Like…you’ve got him 12 to 1. Get it together.
Come Back Next Week (I promise) for a new installment of Scripting Errors!
