Justice League/Power Rangers #1

By Tom Taylor, Stephen Byrne, Deron Bennett

It is a great time to be a comic fan. Phenomenal work is being put out every week from our favorite publishers, and this week we get a gem in the form of Justice League/Power Rangers #1, co-published by DC and BOOM! Studios. The cross-comic cooperation has all the promise to bring all of our nerdy dreams to life. These are the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers that we’re talking about here (Trini, Zack, Billy, Jason, Kimberly and Tommy) and everyone had their favorite ranger they identified with. There are many fans out there who have pondered how the Red Ranger would size up next to Batman or how powerful Lord Zedd really is compared to The Joker, and now we will all have those fantasies realizes in this mini-series.

The issue really takes off at a spring, and leaves little to no time for the readers to catch their breath before the story takes off. In the first pages of the book, writer Tom Taylor shows the future (36 hours from now to be exact) where Angel Grove, the home of the Power Rangers is destroyed and decimated. This really shows the readers the destruction the Power Rangers are facing and allows the readers to already have investment in what happens to our heroes. We get to see the first intermingling of our heroes from DC and BOOM! and it hits home what is it at stake for the Power Rangers.  This page is so impactful with little to no dialogue from our characters, and it is thanks to the art from Byrne and letters from Bennett. The colors smolder off the page with deep reds and purple that gives everything a burning feel and the page perspective really shows the vastness that now replaces their former home.

The book continues to keep the action coming full force as we enter present day and Alpha is missing. As the rangers search for Alpha things get out of hand.   The events around where Alpha is and what happened lead our heroes the Power Rangers to encounter some well-known DC heroes like Batman, Superman, and more. Taylor has this book paced perfectly, where there is enough action to keep you turning the page, but with enough exposition and explanation to keep you informed. Probably the best part of this book is the encounter between the Power Rangers and Batman. Due to some misunderstanding the Rangers decide to take on Batman and how the DC heroes react to the Power Rangers’ Dinozords and enhanced abilities is exactly the type of writing and story you could hope for.

This first issue also produced a wide array of highly sought after variant covers. In total, there were six variant covers each showing a different ranger with a complimentary DC hero. (This reviewer made sure she got the Batman and Pink Ranger cover by Dan Hipp for herself.) The original cover from Karl Kerschl is a gorgeous split page featuring both sets of heroes in adjacent positions. Which harkens back to other famous super hero team ups of the past.

This book is a bucket of fun to read with the intermingling of Batman and the Power Rangers and the non-stop action throughout. Fans of both hero franchise can find something to love in this mini-series. Batman and other DC hero fans will appreciate the levity a title like this can bring and Power Ranger fans are going to enjoy seeing their heroes in new settings like Gotham City. Overall, this book was a fun walk down memory lane and was a good read with beautiful artwork. Some may overlook this title for the novelty of it, but they would be mistaken because this first issue proves that a this is going to be a substantial comic filled with great art and childhood dreams coming true.