Power Rangers Unlimited: Heir to Darkness #1

Power Rangers Unlimited: Heir to Darkness #1

BOOM! Studios 2021

Written by L.L. McKinney

Illustrated by Simone Ragazzoni

Coloured by Igor Monti with Sabrina Del Gorsso

Lettered by Ed Dukeshire

Astronema is one of the most popular Power Rangers villains ever and her true origin is revealed for the first time in a one-shot directly connected to the events of Mighty Morphin and Power Rangers! Before she became a Power Ranger, a young girl named Karone was kidnapped by bounty hunters and brainwashed into the assassin known as Astronema by two of the greatest threats in the galaxy -- Dark Specter and Ecliptor. But what is Dark Spector's true plan... and what does it mean for the new Mighty Morphin & Power Rangers teams?

I’m not ashamed to admit I have no idea who Astronema is and as far as I can tell this is my first exposure to her. What I can say at this stage is that I am highly intrigued by her according to what we see here. What L.L. does is she creates this interest and intrigue factor surrounding her so that the reader sees something isn’t quite right and yet not privy to the whole story it keeps engaged in what might be. It is smart, intelligent writing that captures the imagination beautifully.

I am enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented extremely well. The then and now of seeing her past as it relates to her present is handled exceptionally well. The way that we see the character development is fascinating as it’s littered with deception, mistrust and pitting children against each other and it creates some very unique individuals. The pacing that we see is fantastic and as it takes us through the pages revealing the characters, the story and the impact it all has is marvellous!

I like how we see this being structured and how the layers within the story have come into play throughout the issue. I like that some are finite and others are longer reaching which helps with the readers’ engagement and interest factor. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow is delightful to see.

The interiors here are gorgeous. The linework that we see with the varying weights and techniques that are being utilised to bring us level of quality detail work is astonishing. Whether it’s the clothes they wear or the foliage we see to the state of her bedroom what we get is some high quality visuals that help flesh out the characterisation even more. The utilisation of backgrounds throughout not only enhance the moments they also bring us depth perception, a sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is divine. It almost has this ethereal quality to or even close to pastels that belie the true nature of the story. Still how we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is beautifully rendered.

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What impresses me the most about this is the fact that the schmaltz is taken out of it and it’s now a serious story in this franchise. I hated the cheese factor in the original show and I couldn’t watch more than one partial episode but this, this makes me think that the franchise has some real chops to it. Finally kids of all ages can sink their teeth into a Power Rangers story even if it does focus on a much more interesting villain.