Posted in: Comics | Tagged: boom studios, Mighty Morphin

Mighty Morphin #1 Features Not One But Two First Appearances

Things are looking rather promising for Boom Studios' relaunch of their Power Rangers comics in November. First, Boom saw big jumps in orders on the Ranger Slayer Special and Drakkon: New Dawn limited series earlier this year. Then thanks to the surprise first appearance of the new Green Ranger, which we naturally gave you advance warning of, the final issue of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers came in at 53% above the previous issue.

But early word is that both first issues of the Boom Power Rangers relaunch came in even higher at initial orders. The relaunch, for the uninitiated, sees not one, but two Power Rangers ongoing series and marks the first time that Boom will publish twin series that take place at the same time with two unique teams. Mighty Morphin will feature the classic Mighty Morphin Power Rangers team including fan-favourite Tommy Oliver as the White Ranger and the aforementioned new Green Ranger. In fact, Mighty Morphin #1, which FOCs this coming Monday, has initial orders almost 200% higher than Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #55 at well over 50,000 copies.

Power Rangers, on the other hand, will star the Omega Rangers – made up of the original Red Ranger Jason, original Yellow Ranger Trini, and original Black Ranger Zack – and the former villain Lord Drakkon, the super-popular Tommy Oliver from an alternate universe.

Both series are written by Ryan Parrott with artists Marco Renna on Mighty Morphin and Francesco Mortarino on Power Rangers. Two series, two teams, two Tommys. It's a bit akin to what Jonathan Hickman did with House of X and Powers of X, except without a dozen extraneous series spinning out of it.

As retailers prepare to finalize their orders for Mighty Morphin #1 tonight, there are some that are understandably sceptical if a relaunch will bring in new Power Rangers fans or revitalize lapsed ones, including elder statesman and thought leader Phil Boyle, owner of Coliseum of Comics, who noted as much in his influential pre-FOC post to fellow retailers yesterday.

What's more, it'd be understandable for retailers and fans to assume that the series is actually called Power Rangers will be the more important of the two titles. Or are just distracted trying to figure out how many copies of Donny Cates and Geoff Shaw's Crossover to order. The initial orders reflect a Power Rangers bias. That however may be a mistake. After all, as mentioned earlier, the original Mighty Morphin team is in the Mighty Morphin series along with the original Tommy… and the mysterious new Green Ranger.

But the real reason, retailers, fans, and speculators alike should take a second look at Mighty Morphin before locking their orders today is that there is not just one, but two, first appearances in this issue. The two new characters, Zophram and Zartus, appear to have some connection to the Rangers' mentor Zordon. What their true natures are and what their connections to the Power Rangers are…remains to be seen.

And as I understand it, two other characters are changed significantly during the course of the issue, resulting in additional key appearances in this first issue. And since that makes for a jam-packed first issue, Parrott and Boom are saving the reveal of the identity of the new Green Ranger for another issue it seems.

I suppose tomorrow will tell whether retailers factor in this information so they can meet demand, or if this will be another rapid sellout and second printing for Boom. Frankly, I rather think they enjoy being under-estimated. Mighty Morphin #1 FOCs today, Monday, October 12th.

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