Go Go Power Rangers #16 Swaps Powers Between The Core Team With Great Results

Jason and Trini have been stranded on the planet Breel for a bit, tracking Rita as she plots her next move. At long last, Zordon has locked onto their signal and sends the other Power Rangers to help. They quickly succumb to the same issue that Jason and Trini did in that all their powers are flipped. This allows them to see the world through another set of eyes and works out surprisingly well.

This swap is interesting on multiple fronts as it questions the role of each Power Ranger. Trini is the Red Ranger and by default, becomes the leader of the bunch, dictating the strategy to the team and riding by the seat of her pants. Billy is the Black Ranger and jumps at the chance to wield a mighty weapon like the Power Axe. I love his reaction to this adventure as he loves the fact he’s on an alien world.
Artist Eleonora Carlini gives us a glimpse of the characters behind the colorful helmets, adding a layer of humanity to the otherwise stoic uniforms. You can see the looks of intensity on their faces as they leap into action. Think about this for a second. They’re stranded on a foreign planet, up against an army of aliens they’ve never seen before, with Rita waiting in the distance, and they’re jumping into the fray without a moment’s hesitation. If anyone had any doubts that the Power Rangers were super heroes, look no further than this book.

The action reaches a climax with the construction of the Power Blaster in what is hands down my favorite sequence in Go Go Power Rangers #16. Carlini turns in some tremendous work here, showing both the human faces and the helmets of each character as they join in to create this powerful weapon. Letterer Ed Dukeshire brings some added intensity with some big, bold text for each weapon’s name as it’s called out. It’s hard to hold in your excitement with this page.
There’s a great juxtaposition between the colorful costumes of the Power Rangers and the dark, sinister nature of Rita. While she was played as a joke for much of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers TV show, she is most definitely a villain here. Colorist Raul Angulo uses these deadly red shades to show Rita’s magic as she unleashes an attack.

We get a nice background into Rita’s past and this particular mission which fleshes out details for a number of aspects of the series. There’s a great scene towards the end that shows how she interacts with her henchmen and keeps them on their toes. With how she treats them, you have to wonder why they stick around. We’re given a rare glimpse into this bizarre relationship.

With Mighty Morphin Power Rangers moving away from the original team, Go Go Power Rangers is filling that void. Rita’s big plan was to pick up the Green Power Coin, so we’ll probably see Tommy show up here soon. I welcome that as writer Ryan Parrott has done some great character work so far and I’m eager to see how he handles the emotional drama between Kimberly, Tommy, and Matt. That will be worth the price of admission alone, not to mention how the whole Green Ranger thing will play out.
Go Go Power Rangers #16 from Boom! Studios is currently available at your local comic shop and digitally through ComiXology and Amazon Kindle.