Two new Power Rangers Megaforce adventures in a single graphic novel! In the first adventure called "Panic in the Parade", a garbage monster attacks the city. Meanwhile, Emma is having some trust issues. In the second adventure called "Game On", Vrak infiltrates a video game convention to look for a man who can control his new monster. So are these new adventures good? Here's a review about it.
Before talking about the plot of the stories, let's first talk about some technical stuff. In the book's cover, we see Vrak in his earth armor but in two adventures that he is in this comic, we never see him equip the said armor. Just like the Power Rangers Super Samurai graphic novels, they have a page dedicated in introducing the Rangers as well as the villains. What's interesting is that Robo Knight is also introduced but we never see him in action in the comic. Another thing that interests me is a major spoiler related to Vrak, which kinda bothered me for a bit.
As for the art, it's quite good. The action scenes look really great and the Rangers are well represented in comic book form, both in their civilian and morphed appearances... even though I have some minor nitpicks with the skin tone on some of the Rangers. For the Megazord stuff, the artist did a great job in recreating the Megazord formation sequence in comic book form. The way he used the lines made the Zords and the Megazord pop out. For the giant battle stuff, my only complain about it is that it's too quick that I didn't notice it happen.
As for the villains, what I like about it is that the artist decided not to limit himself with the movements of the original monster suits; instead he gave them some appropriate facial expressions depending on the situation. Vrak looks more like a humanoid alien who can display a wide range of emotion. If there is one problem I have with it is that there are times that the artist went a bit over the top when it comes to Vrak's facial expressions that there are times that it looked a bit goofy.
Now for the monsters, I just love that the team who made this comic book used their imaginations to create their own set of monsters outside of Warstar's monster design scheme, which is insects. I mean, they can just Google the Goseiger Warstar monsters that didn't appear in Megaforce and just use it in the comic, but nope, they actually use their heads to think outside of the box and create some new monsters. Another thing that I like about these new monsters is how they were introduced. In the first adventure, Vrak used some disc that attracts garbage, creating the monster and on the second adventure, it's a robot controlled by a human being who is related to the Rangers.
The dialogue for the comic is simple, which makes sense since the target audience is kids. Even if the dialogue is quite simple, they were able to give us some great morals, especially the first adventure in one scene featuring Emma and Vrak and some nice humor as well. The dialogue captured some of the personality of the Rangers and the villains. Some because there are times that some of the characters sounded a bit out of character.
And now for the plot, the first adventure is focused on Emma and how she easily trusts people. To make matters worse, she ends up meeting Vrak who is in disguise just wants to talk about humans and why they should be spared and Emma must convince Vrak within a span of ten minutes. Little did she know, Creepox is now attacking the town parade and her friends are stopping him.
Vrak's plan to stall Emma for 10 minutes for his monster to achieve its full power is something I expect him to do. What's more is that Emma trusted the guy and thinks that she can convince him to cancel the impeding war. As for how she tried to convince Vrak about why humanity should be spared, it's too direct and if I were in Vrak's position, I will not be convinced since it sounds like it is something a child will say and not a Ranger, especially with Emma's final attempt to convince Vrak.
Even if that's the case, it tied well with Emma's dilemma in this adventure, her easily trusting people. But at the end, it is her trust with Vrak's words that saved them from the monster's growing power. For an alien invader, it makes sense why he doesn't want to destroy the world, he only wants to conquer it. I already talked about the giant battle and how fast it was in this adventure, so I guess it's time to talk about the second one.
The second adventure is more fun compared to the first one simply because it's focus on my favorite character in the series, Mr. Burley. The reason why I like this guy is his fascination with the unknown and how clueless he is that his students have a sideline of saving the world as the Power Rangers. And when Noah and Jake decide to invite Mr. Burley in a gaming convention, things become more interesting because aside from aliens and the unknown, Mr. Burley is quite a gamer that he defeated everyone in the place in some video game!
This is when I noticed something, this adventure kinda ignores the Rangers for most part and features more character development to Mr. Burley. To make it more interesting, Vrak used this opportunity to find someone who can pilot his new robot, and since this adventure is focused on Mr. Burley, I think you have an idea on who ends up piloting it. What I like about it is that professor is not aware that he is fighting the Rangers, he only thinks that he is playing some new video game and the Rangers are the bad guys!
The fight scenes in this part are really intense and one of those rare times that the Rangers used their Zords just to stop a monster in its regular form. It's a really interesting battle since for starters, this kind of battle doesn't happen in Power Rangers and it also shows us how creative this comic can be. Thanks to Noah, they were able to figure out that the one controlling the robot is no other than Mr. Burley. The way they convince him that they are the good guys is quite creative. As always, it ends with a giant fight but the way it easily ended is better executed in this one compared to the first adventure and I am okay with it.
If I will compare it to the first Power Rangers graphic novel produced by Papercutz, the team improved quite a lot when it comes to storytelling. My problem with the first graphic novel is that they used a common amnesia plot to introduce us to the world of Power Rangers Samurai even though they already did it with the introduction pages. In the case of this graphic novel, after they are done with the opening introductions, they proceed with the story and let the readers absorb what's happening and not fill the comic with too much exposition dialogue. Overall, I enjoyed reading the graphic novel and I can't wait for the next edition.
Special thanks to Papercutz for the pictures. Power Rangers Megaforce #3 is now available.
