In this week’s Wednesday Comics column, we get a brand-new Mighty Morphin Power Rangers series, a raucous finale from FML, a brutal vision of the end times from Only the Savage Are Left, and more. Plus, The Prog Report!
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #1
Writer: Marguerite Bennett
Artist: Andrew Lee Griffith
Colorist: Joshua Jensen
Letterer: Ed Dukeshire
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Review by Tim Rooney
This is, by my estimation, the third official story about the original Power Rangers reuniting years later as adults. There was the live action 30th anniversary special (which admittedly was not the “original” five but was still a mix of the Mighty Morphin’ Cast) and shortly after that, The Return comic series by Pink Ranger Amy Jo Johnson (whose first issue I reviewed for The Beat). Unfortunately, this third go around lacks the heart of prior tellings, making for the weakest take so far.
Marguerite Bennett’s script throws readers right into action with no opportunity to catch up with our heroes with only the briefest mention of where they are now. This is an onslaught of action scenes with no time spent on the characters or relationships. The issue is so thin on character or setup that it felt more like a preview than the real start of a new series. To that end there’s only room to grow. Bennet has worked on Power Rangers before, in a delightful arc uniting multiple eras of the series, so I won’t write off where this might go in a few issues.
The art by Andrew Lee Griffith is serviceable but unremarkable and sparse. This is an action heavy issue but the fights are weightless as characters float in blank space and empty streets. On the other hand, Griffith nails the reveal of the Zords in an impressive double page spread that sells their scale and power. These pages with our beloved giant robots are a treat. Joshua Jensen’s colors add some depth to the imagery and he makes sure the multicolored Rangers always pop off the page. Ed Dukeshire does solid work on the lettering, keeping clear who is speaking with all of the off-panel dialogue and caption boxes.
I’m a lifelong fan of this franchise and have enjoyed most of the BOOM! era, and fully believe a committed dramatic take on these original teenagers as adults is rich with thematic potential. This premiere doesn’t touch on much of it, though. Hopefully the long game will play out but until I’ve had a chance to see more of where this leads it’s hard to recommend after this first issue.
FML #8
Writer: Kelly Sue DeConnick
Artist: David Lopez
Colors: Cris Peter
Letters: Clayton Cowles
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Review by Gianni Palumbo
Kelly Sue DeConnick is one of my favorite comic book writers of all time. When FML was first announced, it had been a few years since her last comic book work. I had no idea what to expect with the cover of the first issue giving a “YA Fantasy” vibe, but with DeConnick reteaming with her Captain Marvel collaborator David Lopez on an original story, I was pumped to check it out regardless. The first issue was nothing like what I expected, and it blew me away. So did the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and now the eighth. DeConnick’s writing is as sharp as ever and David Lopez shows why he is absolutely one of the best artists in the biz. Can you tell I love this comic? I’d go as far as saying it’s my favorite DeConnick comic and one of my all time personal favorites.
FML is Kelly Sue DeConnick’s most personal work to date. Back in December 2024, right before the second issue released, I was lucky enough to interview Kelly Sue on my podcast, one of my earliest creator interviews. She explained how it is her most personal work to date—a semiautobiographical family drama/coming of age comic exploring her fears of the modern world and parenting.
“Why am I so attached to it?” You might ask? It’s also a brilliant coming of age story about teens and young adults discovering themselves and navigating the terrifying and tumultuous world we live in right now. The genius of the comic is one of the ways it chooses to explore that with one of our protagonists, Riley, literally turning into a giant monster at the end of the first issue. Instead of everyone freaking out, they all just treat him as “Riley”. He’s just growing up and going through a phase. It’s a literal metaphor done so well that even the reader forgets he’s changed. While I’m about 5 or 6 years older than Riley, I’m close enough where I can relate to pretty much everything he goes through. This entire series has been incredibly rewarding for me.
The other brilliant thing about this comic isn’t even the comic itself, but the community that Kelly Sue, David Lopez, and co. cultivated throughout the course of this first arc. In every issue, there’s loads of backmatter featuring different fun games, prompts, essays, lists, and more from the creative team and readers. There is also an FML community Discord server (that I am a member of) where readers can come together and discuss each new issue, share their creative endeavors, talk about other interests and just hang out in general. FML truly is more than a comic.
So how is the “finale” issue itself? It’s great! All of the chaos and buildup from the previous few issues are tied up in a satisfying way. It’s bombastic, funny, and super heartwarming. I honestly can’t ask for anything more. And, it’s not over! In the afterward, DeConnick states that this is just the end of arc 1 and that arc 2 is planned and will be drawn once again by the great David Lopez and written by her husband Matt Fraction (heard of that guy?). So yeah, I’m very excited for the future of FML. I love this world, these characters, this community, and these creators. I think what this series has done is honestly quite beautiful and I’ll be there for whatever they decide to cook up next!
Only the Savage Are Left #1
Writer: Zack Kaplan
Artist: Stefano Raffaele
Colors: Thiago Rocha
Letters: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Review by Clyde Hall
In the world left after modern civilization’s collapse, do good guys finish last? Or get finished first and become extinct? And if it’s the second option, is that survival of the savage fittest working against them? Or self-extinction by choices they’re forced to make? Choices that personal survival teeters on and which no ‘good guy’ could conscience. That’s one foundation block for the premiere issue of Only the Savage Are Left.
Another block, true to its post-apocalyptic setting, is the obligatory modern civilization obituary, the hows and the whys leading to imminent demise. Writer Zack Kaplan succeeds with both these elements in compelling ways. Not an easy task given the glut of world-, or at the least humanity-, ending speculative fiction abounding.
Main characters Oaklynn and Ryder are young protagonists who’ve picked a bad time for their coming of age. That’s due to a virus, phage, plague, infection, or some such and left nonspecific. But it’s bad. And it’s relatable. In a world where ‘COVID Kids’ are expanding the sizes of kindergarten classes this year, we can relate to the chaos Kaplan unleashes.
Only his pandemic variety is less all-or-nothing than The Walking Dead. In the aftermath of outbreak, contamination, disinformation, and cures, we’re left with ravening, mindless monsters. Others are monstrous in appearance with varying capacities for speech and reason. Some are ‘touched’, scarred and yet seemingly recovered or cured. And then there are the uninfected altogether. True to life, the collapse involving all these factors as well as societies and governments across the globe is conducted with everyone glued to their smartphone screens while the Royal Rumble between reason and panic knocks down the auditorium of cards we all live in.
Oaklynn and Ryder are Kaplan’s other underpinning portions of storyline, and we get snapshots of their relationship before the world caught fire, their initial plunge into a growing inferno, and their reunion after being separated when the firefighters and scientists ran out of water. Or just ran. Ryder and his mother found shelter, Oaklynn and her father apparently relied more on remaining mobile.
Both these young people have survived by very different methodologies, and those paths get them twisted up in short order. Not unlike Rick Grimes’ groups having differences with others who’ve established communities amidst the wreckage but with rules or practices deemed too self-serving. Or morally wrong.
Ryder’s been and remains a ‘good person’, Oaklynn has had to compromise her status as such in order to live. And perhaps even before the plague. The setup for their dynamic as the story continues is strong.
The rawness factor behind the art of Stefano Raffaele lends the storyline its punches and lands them in just the right places. The opening scene of an infected stock clerk taking breaktime in the middle of a grocery store aisle gets your attention and holds it. Visually, Raffaele never allows your attention to slip.
This is mainly through styling tension into every panel. Even the sedate ones. The surroundings, before-times everyday life to controlled infection prevention outposts, may be calm. But the characters aren’t, and the reader feels every taught, plucked nerve. Then the action sequences kick in, and Raffaele shows us where all that tension flows from.
Chronologically, the narrative jumps backwards and forwards throughout the issue. It was at times confusing on the first read, much more sensical on the second. Some sections set before the phage and after are easily distinguished. Others in different times of the virus’ spread were harder pinning down.
The first issue of Only the Savage Are Left is a post-apocalyptical carnival ride that occasionally slows only to climb higher and bank sharper in each section. If you have post-apocalypse fatigue, that may not be enough for holding your undivided attention. But these creatives have given their version a new lease on life-after-society flatlining. And they’ve done it using an impressively rendered canvas, one done in a medium of blood mist and burning cities, that’s worth your consideration.
The Prog Report
- 2000AD #2483: I really boxed myself in this week, by promising I would not discuss the new Judge Dredd strip (after only discussing Dredd in the previous two columns), which sucks, because I LOVED the first chapter of the new Dredd story, which is by writer Ken Niemand, artist Dan Cornwell, colorist Chris Blythe, and letterer Annie Parkhouse. I’m sure I’ll return to talk about it as it proceeds. Instead, I’d like to talk this week about the other three strips. For me, 2000AD is in the midst of its strongest stretch of the year, and the reason is the art is not only strong, but idiosyncratic and interesting. In Brink by writer Dan Abnett, artist INJ Culbard, and letterer Simon Bowland, Culbard is doing outstanding work. On the surface, the book is hard sci-fi cartooning, but Culbard is doing so much more than that, incorporating touches of mystery and noir work as a complex multi-thread arc of intrigue continues building toward something fascinating and ominous. And Culbard is the most straight-forward artist of the three. In Silver by writer Mike Carroll, artist Joe Currie, and letterer Simon Bowland again, Currie seemlessly delivers some of the most interesting design work in comics…in a strip that also is liable to break into gruesome-but-brightly-colored horror visuals on any given page turn. And while Currie’s style is singular, with its loose and bubbly aesthetic, it’s not even the most out there in the current anthology lineup. That designation belongs to D’Israeli, who is drawing Helium: Red October, with a script by Ian Eddington and letters by Annie Parkhouse. Helium is striking both in its crisp linework and monochromatic use of color, and, in my opinion, it cements this current stretch of issues as the most interesting 2000AD has been all year. This week’s cover (above) is by Cliff Robinson with colors by Dylan Teague. As always, you can pick up a digital copy of The Prog here. And it is also now available weekly in US comic shops! —Zack Quaintance
Column edited by Zack Quaintance.
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