POWER RANGERS UNLIMITED: COUNTDOWN TO RUIN #1 [REVIEW]

It’s here! the back story you have been waiting for! This Unlimited One-shot expands on the story filling in the gaps for us to better understand Andros’ motivation in POWER RANGERS.

STARTING OFF WITH TRAUMA

This story goes hard and rips the spandex right off with Zhane’s “DEATH” and a huge single-page panel. Followed by a sharp flashback to Karone’s abduction which leads to POWER RANGERS UNLIMITED: Heir to Darkness #1. But we are focusing on Andros and Zhane’s history.

A Story of Family and Duty

Zhane and Andros are taken in but the team of rangers who rescued them. They themselves became a family, already having the team’s couple acting like dual moms to everyone. Most of the time these red narration bubbles from Andros with a few panels with dialogue mixed in.

Andros sounded jealous that Zhane was a better fit and that he kept brooding over the loss of his sister. Eventually, the boys went to the Planetary Defense Academy and upon graduation, Zhane was given his own Morpher by his surrogate family to join their ranks. Zhane offers the other Morpher to Andros but he refuses, knowing that if he becomes a ranger his duty to find his sister takes a back seat to the needs of the many.

The two-part ways while Zhane saves the universe and Andros goes searching for answers. Finally, Zhane breaks ranks and tracks down his adopted brother telling him that the rangers received a distress call about a monster snatching children. They proceed to find Darkonda and start to battle him. Andros gets poisoned and has to hear the fact that Karone is gone, taken down but Astronema.

After a quick recovery, Zhane gives him the chance to Morph again, and this time he seizes the opportunity. Andros finally realizes that his family is more than blood. The next few panels show their exploits as rangers. That all changed the day they faced Dark Specter when he came to KO-35 killing off his team and Zhane took one for his best friend.

Trying to save Zhane he puts him in suspension so he can heal in a hidden compartment on the Megaship. All of this leads to tie in with Power Rangers #17 with him stranded without his ship and vowing to save not only Karone but Zhane too.

Thoughts from THE GRID

To be honest this issue was good. But not to the caliber that I’ve come to expect from these tie-in one-shots. The narration makes sense as it sets up where Andros’ mindset is in the main line comics. But it gets to be way overbearing at some points. I like the fact that even as a child he felt like an outsider and how it played off the first several episodes of IN SPACE with Andros’ demeanor.

I’m usually not one for continuity gripes as I realize this doesn’t follow the TV show exactly but Zhane’s Morpher is flat-out wrong. It’s an Astro Morpher in the pages, not the proper Digimorpher. Secondly, WHY is this the third UNLIMITED story yet all 3 of them are #1’s?

We did finally get some clarity too as I mentioned in my previous preview about the next UNLIMITED one-shot featuring the Death Ranger. That he used the Gold Omega Morpher, making him a Gold Ranger! Seriously, the art from the previews made him look tarnished and putrid. If that’s what they were going for, but I admire the bread crumbs being dropped there.

At the end of the day, this did exactly what it was supposed to do. Set up EMO Andros for the main line series and gives us more back story to weave into the lore.

Unlimited Covers

Both Goni Montes and Keyla Valerios’ covers come in full art variants that you can find at your LCS.

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Power Rangers UNLIMITED #1 COUNTDOWN TO RUIN COMING SOON!