By Brandon T. McClure
With Godzilla vs. The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers having been such a successful, if underwhelming, crossover event, a sequel was inevitable. Now Boom! Studios and IDW Publishing have teamed up once again for the aptly named Godzilla vs. The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers II. But does this crossover offer more than the surface level thrills of the first volume? In some ways, the same problems still persist, but this is a more ambitious entry and offers more thrills, however slight they might be.
Like the first volume, Godzilla vs. The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers II opens in medias res (starting in the middle of the action for those who don’t know) with an action sequence. Readers are introduced to a parallel reality version of the White Ranger who finds himself fighting Rita’s monsters in the Godzilla universe the last volume was set in. It’s revealed that, shortly after the events of the last volume, Rita teamed up with Astronema to steal parallel universe versions of the Power Rangers and amass their powers to take over the multiverse. Turns out, this White Ranger, who we never learn the identity of, though most likely a version of Tommy, has a piece of the Multiversal Focus and has been using it to find a way to stop Rita. Of course, Godzilla gets in the way, and the King of the Monsters and the White Ranger end up in the “prime timeline” where they team up with the “prime” Power Rangers.
Cullen Bunn returns to pen the story, but this time he’s joined by Baldemar Rivas on art, replacing Freddie Williams III who drew the first volume. Rivas brings a new energy to the book that feels far more cartoonish than the first volume, which isn’t meant to be a bad thing. More cartoonish art works better for a crossover event of this magnitude. The action and movement doesn’t feel as stiff or static. There’s a fluidity to the art this time around that helps the comic feel more fun to look at. However, Rivas is not the same detail oriented artist as Freddie Williams III, and that hinders what should be the biggest strength of the comic. The cool new and original designs that Rivas created for the book, such as the Kaiju Rangers, don’t get any moments to show off.
The Kaiju Rangers is a good indicator that Bunn is taking more swings this time around and attempts to create a more ambitious story than the first volume. He and Rivas use the two properties in unique ways that justifies this crossover. It happens very late in the story, but the Power Rangers need to amass more power, so Zordon, with the help of the Shobijin (Mothra twins), creates new power coins for the Rangers based on various Kaiju allies. These Kaiju Rangers are very cool, and the designs are great. There’s even Zords that go along with them. They are, by far, the best part of this story. That said, the story never slows down to get a good enough look at these cool new designs, and the action scenes are so stylized that you lose the detail entirely. It would have been nice to get just one good splash page with them.
The biggest problem with the first volume persists with this one. The characterizations are just not there. Constructive criticism, but Cullen Bunn is not a good Power Rangers writer. Every line of dialogue becomes very generic and could be spoken by any one of them. He loses the identities of the rangers in ways that previous Power Rangers writers, Kyle Higgins, Ryan Parott, Melissa Flores (currently writing Power Rangers Prime), and even Tom Taylor (shout out to Justice League vs. Power Rangers) never did. He doesn’t have a grasp on them as individual characters and only cares about them as generic heroes. The only exceptions are Rita and the White Ranger. Since the White Ranger spends most of the story explaining the experience, it’s pretty easy to differentiate when he’s talking, especially when he’s vaguely foreshadowing Tommy’s future. In Rita’s case, she’s so over the top that it would be difficult to get her characterization wrong. Even if it’s a cartoonishly over the top version, it’s at least in line with the TV show. On a personal note: Rita’s monsters are BEYOND annoying.
The other villains of the book are also non-entities. Astronema and her Psycho Rangers are devoid of personality to the point where you wonder why they’re even there in the first place. It’s a shame too, because the Psycho Rangers are using the powers of Godzilla enemies which is a very cool use of both properties. Like the Kaiju rangers, there isn’t a good look at them, however. But the biggest issue is that there are so many other Rita monsters taking up space, that the Psycho Rangers end up being blank slates that don’t offer the story much outside of a concept. Take out Rita and her monsters, and give the Psycho Rangers personalities, and they could (should) have been the main villains of Godzilla vs. The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers II. With both them and the Power Rangers powered by Kaiju, it could have created a fun and unique take on the classic monster brawls of the Godzilla franchise.
Like the first book, Godzilla vs. The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers II is not without some positives. There are some very fun and cool surprises along the way for Godzilla fans, like the aforementioned Kaiju Rangers and their Zords. Fan favorite Godzilla character Jet Jaguar is a prominent character as well as his creator Goro Ibuki. Jet becomes little more than a plot device to move the story from one parallel world to the next, but he gets so little attention in the media, that he’s a welcome addition. While they go by very fast, seeing more parallel worlds, including a few familiar ones, is also cool. There’s also a moment where Godzilla merges with the DragonZord, that personifies some of the cool ideas that should have littered the original book. It’s something that can only happen in a comic like this and it’s nice to see Bunn take the opportunity finally. It would have been nice if the story was able to linger on any of these though, or utilized at least one flashy splash page.
For a crossover, that feels like it should be a slam dunk of a story, there’s precious little to latch on to. The Power Rangers aren’t interesting, the villains aren’t interesting, and the book moves so fast you’ll likely forget about it in a week or so. But there’s more ambition in Godzilla vs. The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers II than there was in the first volume, and because of that, there’s more fun to be had. This story just cannot sustain itself on concept alone and if there is a third crossover event, then Cullen Bunn needs to let the story breathe and work on his characters.
Godzilla vs. The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers II and Godzilla vs. The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers are available now on Amazon or your local book and comic book store.