Review: Power Rangers Soul of the Dragon

My first trade paperback(TPB)! Throwing it back to a cartoon I used to watch as a kid. Though I must say, even though I watched it as a kid, I don’t remember much of it. The most recent movie from 2017 is the last piece of Power Rangers material I’ve consumed. Which I’m still salty about that they didn’t continue. 

I got this TPB from a friend of mine as a birthday present. To be honest, of the 3 trade paperback books I own, I’ve received two of them as gifts from my buddy. One being Transformers Primacy and this one, Soul of the Dragon which is what this review is about. A reminder I will be reviewing the following:

• Cover Art

• Story

• Overall Rating 5 star rating system from Comic Geeks App

Cover

When I first saw the cover, I just thought that it was a cool progression of the Power Ranger suits. I figured the guy on the cover was Tommy since the 2 of the 5 suits that were shown were ones that I knew he wore. Now the other three suits pertained to storylines I hadn’t seen and/or read. But they each looked pretty unique, especially the last one which was a black and gold suit.

I thought this was pretty funny and also answered my first question when reading which was if the public knew they were Power Rangers.

Story

Since this was the first Power Rangers comic I’ve read, I really didn’t know what to expect. I was anticipating something similar to the show but this is definitely a level up. It seems as if the show is geared towards children and the comics are teens and up. 

Jumping right in, our lead character Tommy is alerted that something is going on with his son. Upon mentioning that his son, JJ, quit the SPD(Space Patrol Delta) Tommy starts to question if something is really going on. He had just spoken to his son a few days earlier and this wasn’t mentioned to him but we(the reader) see that JJ was jumped by some guys.

This was a great story that featured a special “reason” as to why we got to see Tommy in multiple suits. One thing I really liked about this was I didn’t feel lost while reading it. There were enough context clues to get what is going on if something is referenced that’s not directly in the book. We get to see the variety of suits in action too, so that was a cool feat too. 

The art style was really clean with pages often following a monochromatic color scheme that was nice to see. By “clean” I mean the panels, action and especially fight scenes were all distinguishable. Very smooth coloring and separation of objects to clearly indicate what you’re looking at. 

Here is an example of the action sequences and how the artwork is very clear in what’s being depicted.

Overall 4.5 / 5

For being my first Power Rangers comic, I thought this ticked all the boxes for what I needed in a story. We had great action scenes, beautiful artwork and colors, a concise story and a decent enough plot that holds water. Honestly, I thought it was really clever how they got the different suits in there and has given me Dragon Ball Z vibes where I just want to see all the suits of every ranger now.

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Review: Ms. Marvel Beyond the Limit #1

Our issue today? Ms. Marvel, Beyond the Limit! I picked this up at the same time I got Poison Ivy mainly because of the new Ms. Marvel show on Disney+. Click the link If you want to check out Poison Ivy’s review. A reminder I will be reviewing the following:

• Cover Art

• Story

• Overall Rating 5 star rating system from Comic Geeks App

This was my choice for picking up some women led comics, plus I wanted to get a bit of head start in understanding who Ms. Marvel is before getting into the show. For instance I would have loved if I read a series of Moon Knight before watching the series just so I could get a better understanding beforehand. Now this is a mini series of only 5 issues but I felt that because it’s so short I would be able to get a quick overview of who she is, but that didn’t seem to be the case especially with this first issue, but more on that later. Let’s start with the cover.

Cover So this issue is slightly different than the other ones I have chosen because all the others were on the new issue rack and drew me in with their covers. This issue was in the back of my comic book store in the cardboard file cabinets. Also for some reason the M’s aren’t marked so it took me a couple minutes just to find what box started with Ms. Marvel. As for the actual cover design I’m a big fan. Ms. Marvel is featured front and center but also surrounded with 5 other poses/versions of herself. In some of the poses her limbs are extended so it’s cool to see a bit of her abilities before getting into the book. It doesn’t hurt that the cover is yellow which happens to be one of my favorite colors to use, especially in cover design.

There are panels like this that I don’t understand, did she already do all these things?

Story The comic starts with Kamala visiting her cousin Razia’s place for a little vacation that her parents had suggested. During their little breakfast meal together it’s apparent that Kamala’s cousin is a brilliant physicist. They discuss some a wormhole possibility that could travel to other dimensions and something called the Polchinski Box, which I’m not sure if this is some foreshadowing or not. Bruno is mentioned but we find out that Kamala and Bruno have kissed which led to some awkward consequences. Going back to talking about other dimensions and universes, Kamala mentions that there is some sort of closed system that exists and that’s how she is able to borrow matter from her future self and able to return it to her regular present self. It’s a bit confusing but it seems as thought she is trying to further understand where her powers come from and if other versions of herself exist. Razia tells Kamala to check out the bean in downtown Chicago, which leads us to the image above. While looking up at the bean, we find out that Kamala’s powers were activated by an ancient alient mist and morphed into Captain Marvel.

The story telling seems a bit spotty and skips certain aspects

While gazing at the bean and thinking about her powers, she bumps into some random dude and remembers she had to meet her cousin for lunch. She rushes to the campus, as she arrives she hears a crash and someone yelling, “Noooo.” Kamala finds Razia knocked unconscious but catches a glimpse of someone in a trench coat trying to get into a big wall safe. We finally see her abilities as she extends her arm and apprehends the burglar. As this happens, he drops some type of cube and screams, “What have you done?!” He darts off as Kamala puts the object he was trying to steal back in its spot.

This was pretty cool and I hope we do get to see more versions in this series.

But while Kamala is holding onto the object to place it back in its spot, she sees a bunch of different versions of herself. The object then gets extremely bright but Kamala is able to place it back. This next part is what kind of irked me a bit. Kamala goes and checks on Razia, somehow she is able to determine that Razia will be ok and nothing major happened to her. She then just leaves! She calls 911 and then goes to catch her airplane?? Like what??

Your cousin was just assaulted and then her lab was almost robbed. How do you just leave that? She gets in taxi cab and just sends a text to Razia to let her know she’s headed to the airport and that she had a good time. Kamala arrives home in Jersey City, then the narration mentions everything is ok with Razia? Again, I’m just not sure why all of that was just glossed over. While home, Kamala notices her parents acting a bit out of place as well as she hears a rustle outside of the window. She seriously cannot understand what is going on, her parents are dancing? She even thinks their bodes have been hijacked by aliens. All of sudden Kamala is in different clothing, her parents dancing, petals everywhere and loads of people outside singing and dancing.

She’s not sure what is going on and decides to change into her suit, except her suit is completely different. But before she can even wonder why, she gets knocked to the ground and is on the verge of being trampled by an elephant. Then we get a full page of Loki atop an elephant. Ok, things just started getting interesting.

Loki? Did not expect them to show up!

Overall Rating I give this a 3 out of 5 rating. I’m a little lost in terms of what is going on and maybe that’s the point. But I would have liked just a bit more information at the beginning. I just picked up issue #2 so hopefully we find some things out soon.

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Review: Poison Ivy #1

We are back with another comic book review. This time with something a little bit different, Poison Ivy issue #1. Totally was not ready for this but what a pick up. Click the link If you want to check out last week’s review of Batman: Fortress #1. A reminder I will be reviewing the following:

• Cover Art

• Story

• Overall Rating 5 star rating system from Comic Geeks App

All right so why did I pick this one up? Well for one I had the intention of picking up some women led comics and as I walked into my local comic book shop I saw a whole row taken up by Poison Ivy variant covers, though I think that mainly had to do in part with it being PRIDE month. I took a little walk through the rest of the shop and checked out the comics available then ultimately came back to Poison Ivy’s shelf and picked this issue up.

Cover Little bit of a creepy vibe from this cover but I think that’s what really drew me into it. Up until now, the comics I have been getting are all of superheroes, not villains. To see Poison Ivy front and center with a plate of meat that she is eating made me think Oh, she means business! The tag, “Humanity Had Its Chance” also gave me some thoughts that this could be a look at a villain unleashing all hell on everyone. But it’s nice to see the full character on the issue and then to have her surrounded in a bunch of plants and flowers is a nice touch. As if she were making death look pretty.

This is where we see Poison Ivy use her parasitic mushrooms to just brutally murder these guys. Epic.

Story In the opening pages we get a sense of how ruthless and evil Poison Ivy is along with a bit of overview about her. We learn she is now back in a physical body and that this story is not about revenge but instead about love. Interesting. The setting is Wyoming with two farmer guys driving around in their truck and coming upon a group of dead cows. They are trying to make sense of how it happened and what is covering the cows mutilated bodies. In comes Poison Ivy saying that it’s a class of parasitic mushrooms and gives them a taste. What follows is a couple badass panels showing one of the men enduring a horrific death and transformation into mushrooms.

She then gets back in her truck that she borrowed from a couple, but really she killed them and has their decomposing corpses in the back. All throughout the book we have Poison Ivy narrating what is going on and giving us a bit of background info. For instance we learn of her having a falling out with Harley and things ending over something, not sure what.

For a second I wasn’t sure who this was and then I figured it had to be Harley.

From what I gather, Poison Ivy is just mad at the world/humanity and is determined to destroy everything in her path. We get another notion of this when some dirty old sleaze balls harass her after leaving the bar and end up paying the ultimate price for it. I thought these panels were also really awesome not only because of the action but i really liked the colors used in this spread as well as the last the panel in particular that shows her blowing some type of smoke or dust.

Love this panel because of the purplish/pink evening tones paired with another brutal killing.

Towards the end of the issue we get a better sense of what or why Poison Ivy hates humans so much. Instead she explains that she doesn’t hate humans, but hates humans as a whole collective species. She goes on to say that they are an invasive species and so that’s why she hates them so much. She accuses the humans of using up all the resources on the planet and suggest extinction is the best scenario moving forward because the earth deserves to live and not be destroyed by the human species. As you can see in the image below there is a full page dedicated to an awesome Poison Ivy covered in plants and her hair being magnificent. I’m not sure if that’s like an actual form in which she can take or if it’s how she envisions herself.

Now this part I was a little confused at, not sure if this was something that actually happened or this is something she envisions her body as.

Overall Rating I give this a 4/5. Pretty hyped for this series and hope to learn more about this other form she can take. Had there been a little bit more info on her relationship with Harley ending and her form I would of given this 5 out of 5. Hopefully we learn more in the next issues.

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Review: Batman Fortress #1

I’ve been on a bit of Batman kick lately after watching the movie on HBO Max starring Robert Pattinson plus listening to the Spotify Original Batman Unburied, which just ended last week. If you’re curious about it, check out my review of the first episode. Because of this recent interest in Batman, I was thinking to myself “I should read a Batman comic.”

A reminder I will be reviewing the following:

• Cover Art

• Story

• Overall Rating 5 star rating system from Comic Geeks App

Before heading to my local comic book shop, I also made a stop at my local dispensary to pick up some wax. I always place my order ahead of time and just go pick it up, I went with some live badder called Banana Punch, Ice Box Pie and Miracle Mango wax all from Billo. After the dispensary run I stopped at the comic book shop and took a look at the current Batman runs. There were quite a few but many of them were already deep into their issues released and I wanted to follow along with new series. In comes Batman: Fortress, which came out towards the end of last month (May 24) poses a very important question right on the cover, “Where is Superman?"“

So let’s dive into my first Batman comic.

Cover Here are a few things I like about this cover; one of them being the outline of Batman paired with some of the headlines indicates to me that we are going to have a lot of dark and crazy shit going on. “Where is Superman?” we see on the main monitor above Batman’s head, what does it mean? Is he dead? What’s going on? All of these questions made me itching to find out more. Not to mention, I feel like Superman always just shows up and cleans house. So the thought that he is currently missing and Batman has to handle this city-wide power outage himself was another reason why I ultimately chose this issue. Though because I picked up this issue a week after it came out, I was unable to get a view and any of the variant covers. Next time though.

The opening spread shows the burglars inside of Wayne Manor.

Story Our story starts with pure darkness, Gotham is experiencing a total blackout. The stage? Wayne Manor, some dim-witted criminals think they can take advantage of this blackout and rob Wayne Manor. Phew, are they in for a surprise, me too. As these idiots make their way into what they think is an empty mansion, they get their asses handed to them by Bruce Wayne and his butler, Mr. Alfred Pennyworth. Yes, we get to see Alfred whip out some of his former British Special Forces skills and take out one of the would be burglars. The panel at the end actually makes me crack up! The dude is just laying there with his arm like backwards LMAO what?! Go Alfred!

I busted out laughing when I saw the guy that Alfred beat up is all mangled on the ground.

After whooping some ass, Alfred lets Bruce know that the blackout seems to be far worse than what they think. Thinking it was just Gotham, we get a shocked Bruce and then cut to the next page. Detective Gordon is trying to get the Batsignal working unsuccessfully but then they manage to get it on with the help of a few police squad car batteries. Which seemed to piss one of the other detectives but Gordon doesn’t care. He needs the Batsignal on so he can get some help to the people of Gotham. But right as they get it lit, Gordon is told that Arkham Asylum has had a mass breakout, the Joker has escaped.

We get back to Wayne Manor/Batcave with Bruce and Alfred discussing the current blackout event. After seeing multiple cities across the globe experiencing the same blackouts, they come to the conclusion that it must be some sort of attack on the earth. Bruce tells Alfred to alert other members of the league to assemble at HQ and in the meantime, he is wondering where the hell is Superman?

Batman! BAM! We see Bruce suited up as the Batman and talking to Gordon. Gordon is letting him know the severity of the situation. They’re able to use landlines but power and radio comms have all been knocked out. Also the new electronic locks for Arkham seem to be useless since the backup generator took too long to turn on and a lot of the city’s worst criminals escaped before the generators came back on. Batman lets Gordon know of making some modifications for their radios to get some lines of communication going.

Now the next part has been the topic of discussion in the comic community. See the spread in question below.

This has cause some controversy because apparently Batman must deal with all looters to help Best Buy make its profit margins.

For the next couple pages, Batman goes on a fighting spree and starts beating the shit out of everyone. As he is doing all of this, we are told that Batman doesn’t have time for looters in the sense that many of the places being looted all have insurance and they are at the bottom of his priority list. Instead he puts on the mask to stop the BIG FISH “the predators that lurk in the dark waters, feasting on the innocent, the defenseless… the ones who get off on the misery and suffering of others.” Which is a very important line in this entire stretch. It’s not that he doesn’t care for looters, there are just far more important things going on. All while this inner dialogue is going on, Batman stops Penguin from strangling a woman and Joker from taking over a school bus and a bunch of criminals in a dark alley.

It’s these sick bastards that Batman is after, his priority is not looters.

Cut back to the Batcave and Batman fills Alfred in on a very “crimey” night in Gotham and then asks if he has found anything out from the scans he was running. There seems to be some type of “warship” over the Indian Ocean, we don’t know what though. Batman still has no clue where Superman is but the league is waiting for him at headquarters.

Peep the “I survived the blackout” tshirt that Batman got Alfred.

Overall Rating As far as my first Batman comic, I think this was a good choice. I enjoyed the storyline so far, there was a lot of action, a couple funny parts and a big sense of mystery still. Excited for the next issue. I gave this a 4/5 on Comic Geeks.

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Review: RAIN

Today I’m doing a review on my first indie comic on Coffee, Cannabis and Comics; Rain, a 5 issue run by Joe Hill, David M. Booher, Zoe Thorogood, & Chris O’Halloran + Syzygy Publishing. When I first went to my local comic book shop, I wanted to make sure I picked up at least 2 unfamiliar comics. What I meant was I didn’t want to get the traditional superhero comics and instead try something from an independent publishing company.

I was looking all over the shop for Saga, an indie comic my buddies Ben and Cassie highly recommended, I finally found it but right next to it was Rain. The cover caught my eye, the art and the treatment of the title; particularly the R and A since they were both filled in.

As a reminder I will be basing my review on the following:

• Cover Art

• Story

• Overall Rating 5 star rating system from Comic Geeks App

It was interesting how the covers made so much more sense after I read the issue. I felt that they were creative in how much of the story they were giving away as well as how to show it in a minimalist style.

Cover Issue #1 This cover is by the artist of the book as well, Zoe Thorogood and it’s the one that drew me in. I figured it was a love story but what was really interesting was the beam going through their hearts. Zoe Thorogood also created the covers for issues 2-5 which I picked up over the next couple weeks.

Cover Issue #2 Some noticeable changes on here from the first cover, one person is gone and the same color garment is now covered in blood and the remaining person is crying.

Cover Issue #3 The third cover felt the most heartbreaking to me because of the child as the main focus with a beat up, crappy old umbrella, with the reoccurring beam coming through.

Cover Issue #4 This one felt slightly different from the previous three as it was more blues and greens as opposed to the warmth of the oranges and reds. Also we see the person holding a letter and a rope covered in spikes, interesting.

Cover Issue #5 Now the fifth cover was the last issue of the run but also the one that deviated the most from the white negative space of previous issues. But having it covered in red I think was a great idea and still follows the layout from the previous issues.

Check out the covers of RAIN issues 1-5 below.

Rain Issue 1 Cover

Cover art for the comic Rain issue 1

Rain Issue 2 Cover

Cover art for the comic Rain issue 2

Rain Issue 3 Cover

Cover art for the comic Rain issue 3

Rain Issue 4 Cover

Cover art for the comic Rain issue 4

Rain Issue 5 Cover

Cover art for the comic Rain issue 5

Story As I previously stated, I wanted to pick up some indie titles and man what a series to start with. I honestly had no idea what this story would be about going into it. I saw the cover, flipped through to one page that showed a bunch of people dying with what looked like ice rain of some sort. I thought it was pretty crazy but was really drawn in by the art as well as the colors from that particular spread.

Issue 1 We start off in the story with Honeysuckle waiting for her girlfriend Yolanda, to arrive at her place in Denver from Boulder, they were moving in together(it was pretty funny to open this up and see Boulder/Denver since I live in the area). We learn a bit of background story that coming out to their parents were two different stories, one family very accepting, the other not. Luckily Yolanda’s parents were very welcoming to Honeysuckle and said they would be her second family if needed.

Now during this time while we get backstory, Honeysuckle is talking about how the first day of the rain caught everyone off guard… It was foreshadowing that I thought we would learn about later.

Spoiler alert, do not continue if you want to pick up the issues.

The spread right before we see everyone stabbed to death with some weird crystalized rain…

But what happened was as we are moving through the story and Honeysuckle is talking about the rain in past tense, we see it actually happen. It was a TOTAL different approach that I was not expecting. So as we build up and learn about Honeysuckle and Yolanda’s relationship and get sucked in only to have our hearts ripped out when we find out that Honeysuckle is in fact retelling the event. You’re left turning the pages to see Honeysuckle go from yelling, “Yolanda!” to seeing Yolanda get stabbed by the rain and then the next page all black black with a simple message from Honeysuckle as the narrator, “Like I said, when the rain fell, most everyone was caught outside in it.” Cut to the last page of Yolanda dead.

Honestly I should have for seen this happening for how the story was building up the relationship; I just didn’t think it would happen so early in the story.

PHEW! What a wild ride in just the first issue!

I highly recommend picking this up as the rest of the story continues to draw you in and hit you with twists like no other. With Yolanda and her mother gone and no way to let Yolanda’s dad know about what happened, Honeysuckle sets on trek to Denver, Colorado from Boulder to deliver the news. But along this apocalyptic journey we learn more about the current events, could someone actually be responsible for making the sky rain down glass??

One of the beginning spreads of issue #1 in which we get a first instance of weird weather…

Overall Rating I give this a 4/5. The cover designs were great and I really like the art style; I think what I liked about it is that it is different from the other comics I am currently reading. The actual story, I liked it. A lot. I was gasping turning the pages so much that my wife looked at me and asked, “Are you ok over there?”

The only thing that keeps me from giving it a 5 out of 5 is because of how abrupt it ended and left me wanting to know more. There was so much jam packed at the end that it felt a bit rushed. I’m still OK with the ending but just think they could have continued it.

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