The five issue comic book miniseries, “Godzilla vs The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers,” was announced in December 2021 and released this year on various dates from March 23 to Sept. 27, with a Trade Paperback compiling all five issues was released on November 8th.
The miniseries is a collaboration between Boom Studios Hasbro, Toho and IDW Publishing. It is a crossover between Godzilla — a sea monster created by radiation exposure in 1954 — and the Power Rangers, a group of multi-ethnic superheroes who fight giant robots and monsters with elemental powers, who first appeared in 1993. The comic was written by Cullen Bunn and drawn by Freddie E. Williams II, with colors by Andrew Dalhouse and letters by Johanna Nattalie. This is the second collaboration between the Power Rangers and an IDW property, the first one being 2019’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
The story begins when Tommy Oliver, the Green Ranger tries to defeat Rita Ripulsa, the series’ main villain. Rita uses a gem to transport her and her underlings to another dimension, with Tommy failing to stop them. There, they encounter Godzilla and the Xiliens.
At this point, the other rangers realize that Tommy is missing and Zordon, their mentor, transports them to his location. Seeing Godzilla’s great power, Rita wants to exploit him to conquer the world. Then, the other Power Rangers show up to summon the Megazord, their giant robot, to defeat Godzilla. In the chaos, Tommy is captured and Rita plans to make him evil.
As the series progresses, more monsters are summoned to stop the rangers. However, Godzilla starts fighting against them. Eventually, the Xiliens summon King Gihidorah, an uncontrollable dragon. At this point, Tommy escapes and the rangers combine his Dragonzord with the Megazord to create the Mega Dragonzord. Together, the Mega Dragonzord and Godzilla defeat King Gihidorah and Rita. Then, the Rangers teleport away. Meanwhile, Rita is trapped between dimensions, annoyed at the number of Power Rangers and Godzilla incarnations.
This series consists mostly of fight scenes involving the Zords, Godzilla, and one or more kaiju. These battles are massive, with giant energy beams that fill the page. For instance, at one point, King Gidorah uses his gravity beams on the Megazord and Godzilla in a panel that takes up over half of the page. The feeling of reading all of these battles in quick succession feels a lot like watching children playing with action figures, something which one of the variant covers seems to reference.
In order to promote the series, IDW Publishing released two videos to their Youtube channel. One of them uses words and artwork from the series to explain the series’ plot and concept. The other video featured Bunn and Williams talking about how they created the series. During the video, Williams said that he remembered watching Godzilla movies while he was sick, and how his state enhanced the danger. He was particularly impressed by the story’s scale, while Bunn mentioned that he is a huge Godzilla fan with merchandise all over his office and had watched the premiere of Power Rangers. Williams liked the story because of how obvious the crossover was.
The story’s art is also good, contrasting the bright colors of the Power Rangers with the darker and more subdued colors of the Godzilla kaiju. This is particularly noticeable when the Megazord appears in the same shot as a kaiju, as the bulky and colorful Megazord stands out against the darker, scaly and more realistically-colored Godzilla. This contrast can also be seen when the Godzilla monsters appear with a Power Rangers monster due to the contrasting demands of a tv series and a movie.
The Power Rangers monsters are mostly one-shot monsters used for the TV show and have a more gimmicky appearance and specialized powers compared to their Godzilla counterparts. To demonstrate, the two Power Rangers monsters chosen for this crossover are a creature with many eyes who can absorb the intelligence of people and a football-themed rhinoceros, respectively. In this way, the monster designers can adapt to whatever circumstance the script writers call for with a monster that fits the character’s problems. By comparison, the Godzilla monsters have relatively more generic powers that can fit their recurring roles in the franchise. In this way, the writers of this series only occasionally need to create new monsters, and several installments of the franchise (such as Godzilla Final Wars) are dedicated to fighting preexisting monsters.
In conclusion, Godzilla vs Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is an action packed story that integrates and contrasts the franchises’ key elements. If you are looking for character development, contemplative conversations or realism, do not buy this trade paperback. If anyone is looking to recapture the feeling of being a kid watching monster battles on TV, this is the book for you. With just how epic this book was, I hope that both brands have many different crossovers in the future.
Bailey Kanthatham is an Entertainment Staff Writer. He can be reached at bkanthat@uci.edu.