I’m back with more reviews this week! Some of my favorite comics came out and I decided to write about them on this here blog thing. Comics like Power Rangers and Superman!

Comic Book of the Week goes to Void Rivals #10 for some reveals that were legitimately surprising and interesting, tying this series to the Energon Universe at long last.

Meanwhile, I keep buying graphic novels and then just adding them to my pile of GNs to read. I really need to read some of them and talk about them in this space. I should be making recommendations of random graphic novels I enjoy! That would definitely be a better use of my time.

Comic Reviews: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #121, Superman #15 and Void Rivals #10.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #121
Writer: Melissa Flores
Artist: Hendry Prasetya
Colorist: Matt Herms
Letterer: Ed Dukeshire

This story is wild.

The pressure of everything happening is finally getting to Billy. He wanders around in a bit of a daze, unable to sleep, while others go about their business of trying to save the day. He’s having visions of Grace Sterling, so at least he’s got someone to talk with. He eventually confronts Kiya to ask why she wanted to destroy the eggs, and she tells him about the Shattering. Billy decides that he must make the hard decision and go through with her plan, and he recruits Kiya and Coinless Trini to make it happen!

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

Man, I have no idea where this story is going, and this issue once again threw everything for a loop. Didn’t we spend the previous issue getting to know the Solar Rangers for their big involvement? And now we’re totally cut off from that as Billy makes some drastic moves. Fortunately, Billy has always been a main character in this series, and this story in general, so he definitely works as the character in this moment. But it is a little jarring. Two issues ago we had the big moment where everybody gets White Ranger powers! And they’re still in those costumes, but nothing has come of that yet. Same with the Solar Rangers. Instead, we get an introspective issue with Billy as he throws a monkey wrench into everything! It’s a solid read with a good character focus, but it does add to the madness of this seemingly never-ending story (though yes, we know the concrete ending is coming soon).

Also, while I’m nitpicking, this issue could stand to have more character name-drops. There are so many characters in play now, and there’s a new artist for this issue, so it’s not like I can rely on familiarity. Tommy shows up for a single scene and is wearing a shirt that is both white and green. I thought it was Matthew, and the artist mistakenly drew him with long hair. And the Grace hallucination is colored entirely red, including her hair, making it look black. And she looks young. I thought Billy was hallucinating Trini, who is the Red Omega Ranger. Had to wait until the final scene before it was clear that the hallucination was Grace (a previous Red Ranger). But yeah, that’s just me nitpicking.

Anyway, so the issue is good. I like this sort of drastic leap forward. I love Billy breaking a little bit bad and I hope it works out for him. This definitely sets up the idea that he’s no longer a Ranger once Zeo begins. That would be an interesting way to stretch into that story. This issue is fully of character work for Billy, plenty of appearances by the various characters, and some great art. I still love the look of the White Rangers.

I just wish there was a character index of some kind…

TL;DR: Darkest Hour is completed off the rails at this point, yet it’s still an entertaining read. This issue is focused entirely on Billy and the next big off-the-rails twist to the story. Who knows what will happen next!

Superman #15
Writer: Joshua Williamson
Artist: Rafa Sandoval
Colorist: Alejandro Sanchez
Letterer: Ariana Maher

The House of Brainiac comes crashing down in this big finale issue! Also, both Action Comics and Superman came out this week with chapters of this story, but I’m only reviewing this one.

Superman, Lex Luther, Lobo and the Super-Family all team up to take down the House of Brainiac and it’s a wallop of a fight and an issue! Do the good guys triumph over evil? That’s a good question! You’ll have to see for yourself. Is Superman forever changed? I’m gonna say nah. House of Brainiac ends here!

Comic Rating: 7/10 – Good.

I’ll be honest up front: House of Brainiac did lose me for a little bit. I think it got too big and too wild, without much deeper payoff. Like, I read every issue, and I’m still not entirely sure what Brianiac was trying to do or what he was “missing” from his life as they harped on several times. He built his Queen Brainiac, but that feels more like something just set up for Absolute Power than something organic to this Superman story. So as an event, I don’t think House of Brainiac is all that great. But as a single issue, this is still an entertaining comic. The heroes fight the bad guys with plenty of twists and big moments. Good triumphs over evil. Evil continues to linger. Characters move forward. It’s all good overall.

Though I am very disappointed that Williamson killed off all those Czarnians he brought back. When was the last time Lobo did anything interesting? I thought revealing that Brainiac had a bottled city of Czarnia was a brilliant idea and I think it should have been the bigger story! Shame.

TL;DR: The event got a little too big and unwieldy in general, but this finale issue is full of entertaining superhero action and excitement.

Void Rivals #10
Writer: Robert Kirkman
Artist: Lorenzo Di Felici
Colorist: Patricio Delpeche
Letterer: Rus Wooton

Hot damn, people! This issue really kicks Void Rivals up a notch! Also, I once again make a plea for comics to have character indexes at the start of each issue. Is that really too much to ask? Just so that I can put names to characters!

Springer the Autobot continues his fight and banter with Proximus, and he wins! Then he rushes Darak and Solila into his base to get her some help and it’s revealed that the gems in their foreheads are “Energon Ports”! And they have ancient Cybertronian connections. Some ancient Transformer named Zerta Trion may have founded the ring world, and is also now reaching out to Solila in her weakened state in a ghostlike form to send her on a destiny quest.

Meanwhile, Solila’s people send a whole army after them.

Comic Rating: 9/10 – Great.

This issue was really cool as it finally connected Void Rivals to the Transformers in a legitimately interesting way. And it worked even better because it took parts of this story we already knew — the forehead gems — and revealed them to be the answer all along. I really enjoyed that reveal, and how simple it now seems in hindsight. Plus all this stuff with Zerta Trion is good lore mystery, so I dug that. All of it is revealed rather nicely and now I’m even more invested in Darak and Solila and their weird trek. I knew they’d link to the rest of the Energon Universe eventually, even though Void Rivals couldn’t be more different from the G.I.Joe stuff currently going on. But this issue really sold me on the connections and got me legitimately excited.

The issue itself is also really fun.

Springer is a total gas in this issue. He’s just so bluntly funny as he fights Proximus and then helps our heroes. Him and Darak have a great banter and I would love for this to be a trio going forward. It’s still weird to have these characters interact with Transformers, considering they have their own world and lore, but it works with Springer. He’s just plain fun. They’re all fun! Kirkman has built a fun little comic — no surprise — and I legitimately enjoy each issue. And now that the lore and the quest are kicking in, it’s even more fun!

TL;DR: This issue is a total hoot as the Transformers are brought even deeper into this series, and a lot of lore is teased all at once.

The comics I review in my Hench-Sized reviews are just the usual comics I grab from Comixology any given week, along with a few impulse buys I might try on a whim. So if there are any comics or series you’d like me to review each week, let me know in the comments.

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