Review – Saban’s Power Rangers: The Psycho Path

Review – Saban’s Power Rangers: The Psycho Path

Writen by: Paul Allor, Trey Moore

Illustrated by: Giuseppe Cafaro, French Carlomagno

Colored by: Marcelo Costa

Lettered by: Ed Dukeshire

Cover by: Diego Galindo

Release Date: October 15 2019

Introduction

Boom! Studios has built quite a reputation, in recent years, for faithfully heralding the Power Rangers franchise into modernity. They have been able to find success with new stories and uniting the old stories. The decades-old fan base has been relatively reinvigorated as a result of their push to make quality comics that respect the property. The fandom has, for years, argued that animation or other mediums could serve Power Rangers in a great way, especially as many beloved Rangers age into their 40s. Longtime comics readers are familiar with the reputation for licensed books, Longtime Power Rangers fans may also remember that the franchise doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to good books. BOOM! has accepted that challenge with enthusiasm and risen to the occasion though. 

For those who are unfamiliar, the Psycho Rangers are evil Power Rangers doppelgängers. These villains were introduced to American audiences in Power Rangers in Space, the de facto sixth season of the television series. While the initial craze for Power Rangers had wound down since the launch of the feature film, In Space was still early in the decades-long franchise. The Psycho Rangers are the longest running group of evil Rangers. They have long captured the imagination of the fandom and, thanks to Paul Allor and Trey Moore, the fandom finally has an opportunity to learn more. 

As a kid, I had many Power Rangers comics. In the 90s, Power Rangers comics were licensed books, they never felt like they mattered. From the start of The Psycho Path, you understand the writer gets Power Rangers. Throughout the book there are references to locales, characters, and world events. These moments are satisfying morsels to a hardcore Power Rangers fan.

After an intriguing glimpse at an unfamiliar character, the book launches right into the action. From that opening fight, as the Psychos hunt for a lost Astronema, the book doesn’t provide lulls. Even the quiet moments provide depth for easily-discountable characters or tension for the story.

Story

The plot itself is relatively predictable as you get through the first quarter or so. It would have been nice to get some proper Astronema at some point, but that would have raised too many issues when you get into the core idea of what makes someone a Power Ranger. It’s not nothing for a writer to be able to make you feel and hope for a team of one note villains. On top of that, you’re able to appreciate Karone’s motives towards them. It was refreshing, as well, to not see a Power Rangers story devolve into a giant robot fight that ended with a crazy explosion. 

The writer doesn’t hold your hand through the book. They do drop you in a lived-in universe in motion. It might be hard to hand this to a new Power Ranger fan and hope they appreciate it. The connections between Karone & Astronema, as well as Karone & Andros, are explained in the text, but you may miss out on some little things. For instance, if you’re also not aware that Karone was a Power Ranger herself, in Lost Galaxy. While the book may stand alone, it certainly is written for a hardcore fan base. 

The real gem of the writing in the collection, however, is the epilogue/prologue by Trey Moore. I was surprised, as the story ended, to find a handful of pages left, that truly tied everything together for me. Those pages polished the new character for me, and elevated the book just a bit higher. Whether it was the respect for the Sentai roots, adding immeasurable depth to the universe, or locking in the double entendre title for the book… it was just the little bit of what I was missing. 

Art

The art in the book as a whole is solid. The action is pretty easy to follow, the page layouts are smooth. It feels like the artists uses a fun variety of perspectives and angles. The artist used colors really well, just like in the source material. They lean into the cliche of folks’ clothes coordinating to their team color. The costumes of our Rangers are striking and the details are spot on for those of us paying attention. 

They gave us a good balance of in and out of armor shots, to remind us of the characters behind the masks. The fan in me might have preferred a bigger deal made of the morphing sequences. A good old fashioned stand off scene wouldn’t have hurt either. 

My biggest complaints, if I had to have some, would be the relatively bland backgrounds in a lot of pages and the lack of detail in some of the likenesses. However, as a fan of the property they hit the iconic notes enough that I was able to recognize who I saw. Thankfully the action in the foreground was usually enough to distract me from any lacking backgrounds too. 

Overall, this book was an excellent read. I’m so glad to have read the Psycho Path. Psycho Green, especially with his back story, is such a welcome introduction to the fandom. Where the Psycho Rangers are left really has me interested in visiting their journey again sometime. It’s strange, to finish this book and not really care about what happened to the characters I’m much more familiar with, in the Space Rangers, but instead find myself really invested in these once generic evil Rangers.

If you enjoyed our Review of Saban’s Power Rangers: The Psycho Path then leave a comment or leave your own rating below.

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