"Shattered Grid" | |||
---|---|---|---|
Publisher | Boom! Studios (licensed by Saban Brands and later by Hasbro) | ||
Publication date | February 22 - August 29, 2018 | ||
Genre | Science fiction Superhero | ||
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Main character(s) | Power Rangers (all eras) | ||
Creative team | |||
Writer(s) | Kyle Higgins Ryan Parrott Anthony Burch Caleb Goellner Adam Cesare Becca Barnes Alwyn Dale | ||
Penciller(s) | Jonas Scharf Dan Mora Marcus To Dylan Burnett Patrick Mulholland Hyeonjin Kim Simone Di Meo Daniele Di Nicuolo Diego Galindo | ||
Inker(s) | Simona di Gianfelice | ||
Letterer(s) | Ed Dukeshire | ||
Colorist(s) | Joana LaFuente Raúl Angulo Matt Herms Jeremy Lawson Walter Biamonte Marcelo Costa | ||
Editor(s) | Dafna Pleban Matthew Levine Michael Moccio |
"Shattered Grid" is a 2018 crossover comic book event published by Boom! Studios, in collaboration with Saban Brands. Based on the Power Rangers franchise by Haim Saban, it was mostly written by Kyle Higgins and Ryan Parrott through the ongoing comic series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Saban's Go Go Power Rangers to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the original television series.
In December 2017, Boom! Studios announced "Shattered Grid" as a crossover event between Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Saban'sGo Go Power Rangers, which would feature teams from all eras. [1]
The main story was mostly written by Kyle Higgins through Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, while Ryan Parrott has also written a tie-in story through Saban'sGo Go Power Rangers, featuring Lord Drakkon and the Ranger Slayer as exclusive characters. [2]
In February 2018, an online advertisement promoting the comic was broadcast, featuring Jason David Frank. [3]
In March 2018, a promotional short film titled Power Rangers: Shattered Grid - Dark Prelude was released online, starring Frank in the role of Lord Drakkon. The film was written and directed by Higgins and produced by Locomotion Pictures, RCA Film Productions and Saban Brands. [4]
In an alternate universe, Tommy Oliver refused to join the Power Rangers and remained loyal to Rita Repulsa; taking the name "Lord Drakkon" after a former acolyte of Rita's. Together, they conquered Earth and killed Zordon, Jason Scott, Billy Cranston, among others. Drakkon also stole all the Power Coins from the Rangers—with the exception of Billy Cranston’s—to create his vast armies of upgraded militarized Ranger Sentries. Among these, he stole the White Ranger Power Coin for himself, fusing it together with his existing Green Ranger powers becoming a White Ranger/Green Ranger hybrid with both powers and twice the strength. He also killed Rita to form his own army, including Scorpina, Finster 5, and a brainwashed Kimberly Hart as the Ranger Slayer. To fight this threat, Zack Taylor and Trini Kwan founded "The Coinless", a resistance movement that opposes Drakkon's regime. Additionally, another Tommy from another universe and his fellow Rangers confronted him, destroying his Power Coin in the process. As they returned to their universe, Drakkon was accidentally transported with them. After his arrival, he was taken prisoner by Promethea agents.
After Promethea held Drakkon in a special top-secret containment facility for an unknown amount of time, Saba appears and tries to kill him. However, he accidentally frees Drakkon, who decapitates Saba and takes his headless sword body to escape.
Arriving in the past, the Ranger Slayer joins forces with Rita Repulsa to power the Gravezord, so she can deliver the Chaos Crystal back to Lord Drakkon.
The Time Force Rangers investigate a mysterious rift in the future, but when they get too close, their Time Force Megazord is ravaged and becomes nearly inescapable for Jen Scotts, but they manage to travel to the past. In the present, Jason and Tommy confront Promethea Director Grace Sterling for secretly hiding Lord Drakkon.
Drakkon travels back to the original Rangers' dimension and deceives Ninjor, creator of the Power Coins, into repairing his ranger powers before capturing him in a magic bottle to exploit his knowledge of the Morphin Grid. The Rangers plan their recourse while Billy expresses his desire for Trini's help in making the Black Dragon work again so they can warn the Coinless of Drakkon's return and to fortify the Command Center. Unbeknownst to the Rangers, Drakkon infiltrates the Command Center and steals the Chaos Crystal. Tommy and Kimberly try to find peace during their first date, but she rebuffs him. He starts to leave, only to be attacked by Drakkon for his Ranger energy. Jen joins Kimberly in fighting off Drakkon, but he escapes to his world while Tommy dies in Kimberly's arm. After Zordon confirms his death, the Rangers leave Tommy's body for the police.
Following Tommy's funeral, Jen warns the Rangers that Drakkon's attempt to gain power is causing the Morphin Grid and the timeline to fracture. Zordon contacts the Emissaries to convince the Morphin Masters to remove Drakkon's power, but they rebuke him as they believe that Drakkon and his army are not significant threats to the Morphin Grid. Meanwhile, Drakkon attacks the Samurai Rangers and steals most of their morphers before using Ninjor to transfer their energy to himself and to create a new form of Samurai Sentries to his army, derived from their Blue Ranger. He then goes about murdering all other versions of Tommy, beginning with his Zeo counterpart and creating new Zeo sentries from their Green Ranger.
The Rangers use the Black Dragon and Time Force technology in an effort to contact Dr. K and the RPM Rangers, who have discovered a way to negate the effects of Drakkon's Dragon Cannons. Along the way, they learn that Drakkon has evolved himself and acquired the Psycho Rangers, the S.P.D. A-Squad, and Koragg the Knight Wolf as allies. After the Rangers free Ninjor, he reveals that he is stealing Ranger powers so he can access the Morphin Grid. Meanwhile, Zordon asks Rita for help in stopping Drakkon.
Once they have been gathered, all of the surviving Rangers travel to the Moon using Grace Sterling's space colony to confront Drakkon's forces, encountering newly added White, Silver, and Gold Sentries. Just as Rita suppresses Drakkon's power, Finster 5 electrocutes them, saving Drakkon so he can connect more Ranger energy to himself and evolve into his final form.
In the past, the Rangers freed the alternate Kimberly from Drakkon's mind control, inadvertently revealing her identity to their version of Kimberly's late boyfriend, Matthew Cook. She uses an arrow generated by the Chaos Crystal on young Tommy to give him visions of possible futures, including Drakkon murdering him, before traveling to the present to seek asylum under Promethea.
The Rangers destroy Drakkon's lunar tower, cutting off his Sentries' power and opening a rift. Using his final form, Drakkon enters the Morphin Grid, defeats the Emissaries, and takes possession of the Morphin Masters' Hearts, destroying the multiverse and creating a world where he is a hero. However, he learns too late that the alternate Kimberly overcharged Tommy's past self with the Chaos Crystal's energy, and when he killed present day Tommy, he transferred his spirit into himself. Tommy's spirit removes himself from Drakkon's body and distracts him to weaken his power enough to free himself and the Emissaries as well as rescue the Rangers. Together, they are able to pull the Heart from Drakkon, causing his world to collapse. Despite Tommy's attempt to help him, Drakkon refuses to be saved and stays in his collapsing world. With the Heart of the Master secured, the Emissaries aid the Rangers in using it to repair the damage Drakkon caused, though they say it cannot be completely fixed.
While the multiverse and the timestream were fixed, the exact level of repair is currently unknown. Furthermore, Promethea's space station was removed from the space-time continuum; casting Grace, her crew, and the surviving Rangers into uncharted territory.
In the past, Matthew becomes fully aware of the Rangers' identities and implores Kimberly and the others to entrust their secret to him. When they refuse to answer, friction develops between them. Meanwhile, Rita has a new plan to destroy the Rangers once and for all.
Title | Issue(s) | Writer(s) | Artist(s) | Colorist(s) |
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Mighty Morphin Power Rangers | 24–30 | Kyle Higgins | Jonas Scharf Daniele Di Nicuolo | Joana LaFuente Walter Baiamonte |
Go Go Power Rangers | 8–12 | Ryan Parrott | Dan Mora | Raúl Angulo |
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Free Comic Book Day 2018 Special | One-shot | Kyle Higgins & Ryan Parrott | Diego Galindo | Marcelo Costa |
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers 2018 Annual | Kyle Higgins Anthony Burch Caleb Goellner Adam Cesare Becca Barnes & Alwyn Dale | Marcus To Dylan Burnett Patrick Mulholland Hyeonjin Kim Simone Di Meo | Matt Herms Jeremy Lawson Raúl Angulo Joana LaFuente | |
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Shattered Grid | Kyle Higgins | Daniele Di Nicuolo & Diego Galindo Simona di Gianfelice | Walter Biamonte & Marcelo Costa |
"Shattered Grid" has been generally well received by critics, with most reviews praising it as the rightful event for Power Rangers on its 25th anniversary, [5] as well as being a storyline targeted for an adult audience. [6]
The web series Power Rangers Hyperforce features the "Shattered Grid" event for episodes 19 and 20, with guest stars Kyle Higgins and Jason David Frank. The two-part story takes place between issues #25-26 of the 2016 Mighty Morphin Power Rangers comic series. [7]
The "Shattered Grid" storyline was adapted for the story mode of the 2019 video game Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid . Original "Shattered Grid" writer Kyle Higgins wrote the game's script. [8]
The special short trailer released in March 2018 would lead to talks between Higgins and Saban Brands over the possibility of developing a prestige format live-action series based on Drakkon and the World of the Coinless. However, plans came to nothing upon the purchase of the franchise by Hasbro. [9]
In September 2018, the new Mighty Morphin Power Rangers creative team, writer Marguerite Bennett and artist Simone di Meo, introduced a storyline titled "Beyond the Grid". Ryan Parrott continued to write Go Go Power Rangers. [10]
In February 2019, Parrott and artist Daniele Di Nicuolo were introduced as the creative team for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, starting with issue #40, with a new crossover event titled "Necessary Evil". [11]
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (MMPR) is an American superhero television series that premiered on August 28, 1993, on the Fox Kids programming block. It is the first entry of the Power Rangers franchise, and became a 1990s pop culture phenomenon along with a large line of toys, action figures, and other merchandise. The show adapted stock footage from the Japanese TV series Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger (1992–1993), which was the 16th installment of Toei's Super Sentai franchise. The second and third seasons of the show drew elements and stock footage from Gosei Sentai Dairanger and Ninja Sentai Kakuranger, respectively, though the Zyuranger costumes were still used for the lead cast in these two seasons. Only the mecha and the Kiba Ranger costume from Dairanger were featured in the second season while only the Kakuranger mecha was featured in the third season, though the Kakuranger costumes were later used for the mini-series Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers. The series was produced by MMPR Productions and distributed by Saban Entertainment, while the show's merchandise was produced and distributed by Bandai Entertainment.
Rita Repulsa is a character from the television series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and the principal nemesis of the superhero protagonists in the show's first season. She is portrayed in the first season by Machiko Soga and by Carla Perez in the remaining seasons, while voiced by Barbara Goodson in the series. Soga reprised her role as Rita, now the Mystic Mother, while Susan Brady provided her voice in the TV series Power Rangers Mystic Force. In the films, she is portrayed by Julia Cortez in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, and by Elizabeth Banks in the 2017 reboot film. Rita Repulsa is based on the Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger villain Witch Bandora.
Zachary "Zack" Taylor is a fictional character in the Power Rangers universe, appearing in the television series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. He is the first on-screen Black Ranger of Power Rangers. He would be succeeded as the Black Ranger by Adam Park. A reimagined version of Zack, now Chinese-American, would appear in the 2017 reboot film, played by Canadian actor Ludi Lin.
Dr. Thomas "Tommy" Oliver is a fictional character and the overarching main protagonist of the American live-action television franchise Power Rangers. He is best known as being the original Green Ranger and the first evil Ranger who fought and nearly defeated the original Power Rangers while under the control of Rita Repulsa. He was eventually freed from Rita's spell and aligned himself with the other Power Rangers. He is a main character in the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers TV series, as well as four of its successive incarnations Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers, Power Rangers Zeo, Power Rangers Turbo, and Power Rangers Dino Thunder. He also appeared in the Power Rangers Wild Force episode "Forever Red", the Power Rangers S.P.D. episode "Wormhole", the Power Rangers Super Megaforce episode "Legendary Battle", and in the Power Rangers Super Ninja Steel episode "Dimensions in Danger". He was portrayed by actor Jason David Frank in all of his appearances from the Zordon era until Saban Brands era's seasons of the franchise prior to his death in November 2022, with the exception of the episode "Wormhole", where he appeared only in Ranger form and was voiced by actor Jeffrey Parazzo. He was also infrequently portrayed by actor Michael Gotto in instances where the story required the character during childhood, such as in the series Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers.
Power Rangers Zeo is a television series and the fourth season of the Power Rangers franchise, based on the 19th Super Sentai series Chouriki Sentai Ohranger. It is the continuation of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, which aired in 1996.
Power Rangers Turbo is a television series and the fifth season of the Power Rangers franchise that aired in 1997. The show was prefaced with the franchise's second film, Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie.
Zordon is a fictional character from the Power Rangers franchise who serves as the Rangers' mentor. Zordon first appeared on the first season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and appeared in subsequent seasons until the conclusion of Power Rangers in Space, where he was the titular major supporting character of his saga.
Kimberly Ann Hart is a fictional character in the Power Rangers universe. Played by American actress Amy Jo Johnson during the first three seasons of the show, plus on the two feature films of the franchise, Kimberly has the longest tenure of any female ranger in the series' history, and fourth overall. She is best remembered as the first Pink Ranger (pterodactyl) and first Pink Ninja Ranger from the first entry of the franchise Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Kimberly was the Pink Ranger for nearly three years before she was written off the show as having given up her powers for good to Zordon's new pink ranger Katherine Hillard, to participate at the Pan Global Games in Florida. However, she would briefly return as the Pink Ranger on three occasions. She first returned during the Legendary Battle of Power Rangers Super Megaforce alongside former teammates Zack Taylor, Billy Cranston, Trini Kwan, and Jason Lee Scott. The five of them later fought alongside the Dino Thunder Rangers, Dino Charge Rangers, and the Grid Battleforce Rangers against Goldar Maximus in Power Rangers Beast Morphers. She also returned to fight a robotic version of Rita Repulsa with the other four original rangers and Tommy Oliver in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always. Johnson did not reprise her role for any of these appearances.
Trini Kwan is a fictional character from the Power Rangers franchise, first appearing in the original series as the Yellow Ranger. She was portrayed by Vietnamese-American actress Thuy Trang.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie is a 1995 American superhero film. It stars the ensemble cast of Karan Ashley, Johnny Yong Bosch, Steve Cardenas, Jason David Frank, Amy Jo Johnson, and David Yost alongside the villains cast from the original series and Paul Freeman as Ivan Ooze. Much like the television season that followed the release, it used concepts from the Japanese Super Sentai series Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger, Gosei Sentai Dairanger and Ninja Sentai Kakuranger. It is the first Power Rangers production from Saban Entertainment not to feature any archived footage from Super Sentai. It is the first installment in the Power Rangers film series. The film was released in between the second and third seasons of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, but is incompatible with season three, which provides a different explanation for the Rangers gaining their Ninja Ranger powers and Ninjazords, indicating they are set in different continuities.
Jason Lee Scott is a fictional character in the Power Rangers franchise, played by actor Austin St. John. Jason is known as the first on screen Red Ranger from the first on screen series, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, as well as the leader of the first on screen team of Power Rangers. He later becomes the temporary Gold Ranger in Power Rangers Zeo. He once again becomes the Red Ranger by Power Rangers: Beast Morphers, alongside his original team. A reimagined version of Jason appears in the 2017 reboot film, played by Australian actor Dacre Montgomery.
Billy Cranston is a fictional character in the Power Rangers universe. He is the Blue Ranger (triceratops) in the series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and was portrayed by actor David Yost. Billy is the only original Power Ranger to remain for the entire MMPR series, and is the second longest-serving Ranger overall behind Tommy Oliver. Until his departure, he is considered the brains of the Power Rangers team, creating many gadgets with which to solve problems that not even Zordon foresees, and he even invents the first team's wrist-worn communication devices. A reimagined version of Billy appears in 2017 reboot film, played by actor RJ Cyler.
Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie is a 1997 American superhero film directed by David Winning and Shuki Levy and written by Levy and Shell Danielson. It is the second installment in Power Rangers film series and a standalone sequel to Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie. It was produced by Saban Entertainment and Toei Company, Ltd., and was distributed by 20th Century Fox. The film stars Johnny Yong Bosch, Nakia Burrise, Steve Cardenas, Jason David Frank, Austin St. John, Catherine Sutherland, Jason Narvy, Paul Schrier, Hilary Shepard Turner, Amy Jo Johnson, and Blake Foster.
Power Rangers is a series of various comic books spun off from the Power Rangers television show. Each series was published by a different comic book publisher.
Power Rangers is a comic book franchise published by Boom! Studios, based on the television series of the same name. Initially licensed through Saban Brands in 2015, the rights moved to Hasbro in 2018.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Mega Battle is a beat 'em up video game based on the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers television series, developed by Peruvian studio Bamtang Games. It was first announced in October 2016. It was released on January 17, 2017. The game never received a physical release and is only available via digital download.
Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid is a fighting game developed by San Francisco-based game developer nWay, featuring characters from the Power Rangers franchise. It was released digitally for Nintendo Switch and Xbox One on March 26, 2019, for PlayStation 4 on April 2, 2019, for Microsoft Windows on September 24, 2019, and for Stadia on June 1, 2020. Limited Run Games released a standard physical version on the Switch and PlayStation 4 alongside a more expensive Mega Edition, which included a SteelBook case, 18" X 24" poster, and 5 coins in addition to the game. Pre-orders went up for sale in June 2019 with the game delivered in November 2019. In October 2020, Maximum Games published the "Collector's Edition" which included the character Lauren Shiba, both physically and digitally. A third version the Super Edition containing all previous downloadable content was released digitally in May 2021 and physically in August 2021.
"Necessary Evil" is a 2019–2020 crossover comic book event by Boom! Studios and Hasbro, based on the Power Rangers franchise created by Haim Saban. The event is written by Ryan Parrott and Sina Grace through the ongoing comic book series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Go Go Power Rangers, making it the second crossover event in the Power Rangers comics by Boom! after 2018's "Shattered Grid".
"Unlimited Power" is a 2020–2022 American two-part crossover comic book storyline published by Boom! Studios, based on the Power Rangers franchise by Haim Saban and Hasbro. It is the sequel to "Necessary Evil" and the third crossover event in the Power Rangers comics by Boom!