Posted in: Boom, Comics | Tagged: boom studios, MMPR, power rangers, printing

Power Rangers Local Comic Shop Day Foils Sell Out Before On Sale

Published Thu, 12 Nov 2020 10:20:04 -0600

As we informed you last week, Boom Studios highly anticipated twin series relaunch of their Power Rangers franchise is off to a big start. The combined orders for Mighty Morphin #1 and Power Rangers #1 are over 170,000 copies, eclipsing the record-setting original launch back in 2016 when Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #1 outsold every comic published by Marvel in its debut month. As we also brought to your attention last week, Mighty Morphin #1 by Ryan Parrott and Marco Renna sold out at on-sale and Boom FOC'd two second printing covers earlier this week.

Not to be outdone, we also let you know that Power Rangers #1 by Ryan Parrott and Francesco Mortarino sold out at on-sale as well. As we predicted, Boom is offering two second printing covers for Power Rangers #1 which will FOC next Monday. And it's a good thing, because we've also learned that both foil covers of Mighty Morphin #1 and Power Rangers #1 offered for Local Comic Shop Day have already sold out ahead of release. We can now show you that the first Power Rangers #1 second printing is another character design cover by Once & Future artist Dan Mora, this one featuring ultra big bad The Empyreal, and the second is the other half of the connecting cover image by red hot cover artist Justine Frany that completes the image offered for Mighty Morphin #1's second print connecting Justine Frany cover.

Retailers and fans alike are likely to continue playing catch up with these twin series. Traditionally, in superhero comics there's a lead series and a second banana, which sells a fraction of the main series – think Batman and Detective Comics or Amazing Spider-Man and…well, anything else Spider-Man in a given month. What Boom is trying to do is publish two series of their most popular franchise and make them equally important. Will retailers and fans buy into the premise? Probably not, but if so, how long will it take everyone to catch up with the demand?

Speaking of Mighty Morphin, issue #2 FOCs on Monday as well, and raises the stakes for the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers team still on Earth after their former teammates, now the Omega Rangers, helped Lord Drakkon escape in a desperate attempt to stop the impending threat of The Empyreal. God help me, the previous sentence actually makes sense to me. The issue features the first appearances of not one, not two, not three, but four new variations of the evil foot soldiers – The Putties. The Putties are a mainstay of the Power Rangers franchise, but rarely a true threat to the heroes. Rather they serve as the faceless foot soldiers for the Rangers to beat up on before the true threat arrives just like the Chitauri in Marvel's Avengers. Well, it seems as though Rangers architect Ryan Parrott aims to change that by introducing four new more deadly, specialized versions of the Putties with the last one being super-charged in a way that reminds me of the popular "Venomized" idea over at Marvel. Will they stick around? Only time will tell, but it certainly wouldn't be the first time Boom has introduced new elements (see Lord Drakkon, Ranger Slayer, Solar Rangers, and so on) into the Power Rangers pantheon that end up making their way into other media.

And the Rangers franchise is certainly heating up in other media as well with the announcement of a new Power Rangers film coming from Hasbro's subsidiary Entertainment One and director Jonathan Entwistle. What are the chances that screenwriter, and comic book scribe (including on Boom's Angel series), Bryan Edward Hill taps new elements from the comic series for the film?

If that happens, these early issues of the Power Rangers relaunch will certainly be a less expensive investment than early and key issues of the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers series. Mighty Morphin #2 FOCs on Monday, November 16th, alongside Power Rangers #1 second printing.