Let's Talk About the Shattered Grid Finale in MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS

The finale to the Shattered Grid story recently came out in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Shattered Grid. There was a lot that happened including a direct lead-in to the follow-up story, Beyond the Grid. If you haven’t read the issue yet, this is your spoiler warning.

This issue started off with the Rangers making no progress in taking down Lord Drakkon’s tower. They’re trying to fend off Drakkon’s forces but aren’t getting very far and a lot of the Zords are getting beat. Carter (Lightspeed Red) mentions that some Rangers still have access to Zords, and Jen (Time Force Pink) is able to make plans for a hodgepodge Megazord, and it works! Of course, no one knows what to call it, but it leads to some fun moments such as Zack (Mighty Morphin Black) being told he can name it later and Jason (Mighty Morphin Red) calling it the, “Whatever-We’re-Calling-It Megazord.” The new Megazord helps fight Serpentera while Jason goes to use Noah’s (Mystic Force Blue) Q-Rex to blow up Drakkon’s tower.

Keep in mind that during all this, I’m still going like, “WHAAAAAT!?” at what appears to be a budding romance between Jason and Lauren (Super Samurai Red). It just seems crazy to me that they’re going to introduce this romance that can’t pay off because of timeline and/or multiverse reasons.

After the tower is destroyed, we see what appears to be a giant Drakkon and the sky is cracking, but we’ll come back to that. Cut over to the team we’ve seen for Beyond the Grid (ooh, foreshadowing) rescuing the Rangers that Drakkon had captured.

Then, we end up on a crazy drug trip. It looks like something from the 50s or 60s with an old man and woman in what appears to be a farmhouse, but maybe it’s really just the suburbs, feeding a young man pie. It turns out the young man is Drakkon, the old man is Zordon, the old woman is Rita, and their dog is Cruger. It honestly made me think that Kyle Higgins really wanted Drakkon to live in Smallville. We then find that Drakkon has a red jewel in his chest that will allow him to morph. Meanwhile, Jen and someone else are piloting the Dragonzord and Tigerzord to defend whatever city they’re in (I’m going to call it Drakkontown) from weird energy animal giants. Turns out that Drakkon is like a god in this world as he can now fly along with super strength (once again, thinking Smallville). Oh, and he hears a voice that uses green-text to talk. Zack and Trini are reporters in Drakkontown by the way. Billy is Drakkon’s friend and personal mechanic, Finster is his butler, Lauren and Jason train the Drakkon Academy, and Kim is a waitress. Wow. I just feel bad for Billy and Kim to be honest.

Of course, Drakkon has to keep fighting these giant energy beasts while also dealing with the voice in his head, and that’s when he snaps and goes full freaking cray cray. The voice points to Drakkon’s insecurities since throughout all of the multiverses, Drakkon is the only Tommy Oliver that doesn’t become good. We see text in blue, red, and yellow outlined bubbles and then a fist shattering glass, which admittedly looks pretty cool before it cuts to whatever all the Rangers are doing with each one looking surprised at something. That’s when we get the payoff! We see Tommy walk up to Kimberly, shock her with green static electricity, and that’s when the explanations begin.

Kimberly now remembers Tommy dying, and she’s suddenly morphed as are all the other Rangers. Apparently, when Ranger Slayer went back in time and shot Tommy with that arrow, it embedded part of the Green Chaos Crystal in him which prevented him from dying (and explains Tommy's dying words) but got him to a Nether Space which is outside time, space, and the Morphing Grid. It was there that Tommy met the Emissaries. Yup, they recognize they were arrogant and didn’t think Drakkon would be able to get to them and defeat them which allowed him to take the Heart of a Master which is the gem in Drakkon’s chest now. This new gem allowed Drakkon to destroy all the different dimensions and create this weird Smallville world where he has a mansion for himself and his parents, Zordon and Rita, are on a farm.

Eventually, Drakkon catches on to Tommy’s plan and the inevitable fight happens between Drakkon and the Rangers. The Rangers know they just need to get the Heart of the Master out of him and eventually, Tommy is able to lay hold on it and go to a different realm (or something) where he and Drakkon are unmorphed and they duke it out. The problem is that Drakkon doesn’t have all his powers anymore and Tommy uses this as an opportunity to teach Drakkon that having the other Rangers as his friends made him stronger than Drakkon who never let them into his life. The defeat of Drakkon means the new world is falling apart, but the Emissaries are able to help the Rangers escape the doomed world. Tommy offers Drakkon a second chance, but the offer is turned down.

The Rangers now have an important choice to make. Do they recreate all the different worlds as they once were and forget everything that happened, or do they create a new world? There’s quite a bit of back and forth before Jason reminds everyone why they’re Power Rangers. A tease for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #31 follows, but I won’t talk about that here.

I loved this story! I genuinely hope that someone adapts it for a 10-episode series or something like that. I really enjoyed the characters and the way they evolved the situation. I feel like the comics are exactly what most fans want from a Power Rangers story right now.