Another week is upon us, and it’s another week of reading comics! Good for us. Some pretty solid comics too, like new Power Rangers and new Avengers.

Comic Book of the Week goes to Void Rivals #4 for another solid, entertaining chapter in this ongoing tale. It’s all pretty simple, but it’s effectively simple.

Meanwhile, I finally beat Baldur’s Gate 3! I beat both a co-op campaign with a friend, and my solo campaign where I was able to do more. And it’s come to a fitting conclusion, and I’ve moved right on to the new Cyberpunk 2077 upgrades and DLC. I had a great time last time I played the game at launch, so here’s hoping for another good time now.

Comic Reviews: Avengers #5, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #112, Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant #2 and Void Rivals #4.

Avengers #5
Writer: Jed MacKay
Artist: Ivan Fiorelli
Colorist: Federico Blee
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit

I really want to stick with this Avengers run and experience the greatness that is Jed MacKay, but this first storyline isn’t really winning me over.

The Avengers continue to face off against the members of the Ashen Combine. This time, we watch Vision take on Meridian Diadem, and we watch Captain Marvel take on Lord Ennui. Neither makes much headway, while the villains taunt them. Meanwhile, Captain America and Black Panther stand around and have a chat with the Impossible City, which is filled with regret at being forced to serve the Combine and watch them kill so many innocent lives. It wants to kill itself. But our heroes go into a big speech about how the Avengers fight to save the innocent.

Comic Rating: 6/10 – Pretty Good.

Just like last issue, and the issue before, this issue is just a general presentation of the Ashen Combine and their various unique powers. Clearly a lot of creativity went into each individual character…but to what end, I ask? Here’s a pile of new, crazy space characters who show up, cause trouble, get the upper hand on the Avengers and then get defeated anyway? It’s just not very interesting. I’m hoping for some kind of twist, some kind of commentary on these types of villains, but that rug hasn’t been pulled out from under us yet. So I’m going to keep waiting and just fall less and less interested. But the artwork is stellar, and the characters are written well, so I’m clinging to that for entertainment. But the new villains and the storyline are quickly losing me.

TL;DR: Several issues deep and we’re still just introducing the new villains, who are creative, but don’t have much depth beyond their funky ideas and very modern names.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #112
Writer: Melissa Flores
Artist: Hendry Prasetya
Colorist: Matt Herms
Letterer: Ed Dukeshire

Darkest Hour is off to the races, and we take a moment for some good character work.

With the destruction of the Master Arch, the Rangers have been tossed around to various places. Zach, Trini, Tommy, Kimberly, Aisha and Matt are in some barren wasteland, split into pairs, and fighting a seemingly endless supply of evil Putties. They all manage to come together in time to fight off the biggest army yet, with the Rangers giving Matt enough of a pep talk to get him to morph and join their fight. But it might not be enough!

Meanwhile, Billy has been shunted into the Morphin Grid by a digital construct of Grace Sterling. She fills him in on what’s going on and points him towards how to defeat Master Vile. When she shunts him back out, she also gifts him with…I think…two…eggs? I dunno.

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

I love an issue of Power Rangers that focuses on the characters first and foremost, and this was one of those issues. It didn’t get as meaty or as deep into character development as I would have liked, but it’s still strong. Personally, I would have liked a whole issue of just Matt and Aisha struggling together on this desolate rock planet, but we’ve got two whole rosters of Rangers to deal with, for the most part. We get some good stuff between all the pairings, Zach and Trini, Tommy and Kim, and then a taste of Matt and Aisha. We get the mostly heroic moment where Matt shrugs off some of the evil influence to help out. And then we get digital Grace giving Billy a nice pep talk.

It all worked for me. This comic has always been at its best when it focuses on the characters and their interpersonal relationships. The big, overarching danger sure is something, of course, but I want this comic to be about the Rangers themselves. Tommy and Kim have got to work through their stuff. Zach and Trini have got to start hooking up. Matt and Aisha have really got to start hooking up. I want this stuff, and this issue solidly delivered. With some excellent artwork to boot.
Dark Specter is evil and all, but keep the focus where it belongs.

TL;DR: The focus is on the characters, right where it should be, but there are a bit too many characters to dig too deeply into any one or two rangers, which is a shame.

Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant #2
Writers: Iman Vellani and Sabir Pirzada
Artists: Carlos Gomez and Adam Gorham
Colorist: Erick Arciniega
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna

This comic is good, but it’s also a little too precious for my tastes.

Kamala is still having bad dreams, but she’s zeroed in on a figure in them that might help: a combination Silver Surfer/Dr. Strange from an old fanfic she wrote/sketched. She enlists Bruno’s help to figure it out and he gets to work building a dream monitoring machine. She heads to school and sees some anti-mutant protestors, but realizes she can’t help the lone anti-protestor without exposing herself. Orchis finds her anyway because they’re tracking the low hum frequency of encrypted comm chatter. Kamala is saved by Iron Man, who takes her to see Emma Frost to get a pep talk on being safe.

Later that night, she heads back into her dreams with Bruno monitoring from the outside. And Orchis managed to tag her with a tiny drone that activates a tracker when she falls asleep.

Comic Rating: 7/10 – Good.

I haven’t really settled into how I feel about this comic yet. On the one hand, it’s a solid Kamala Khan comic, with her personality down pat and her world pretty interesting. On the other hand, I feel like the X-Men are a burden on Kamala’s story and pile on way too much to this comic. It doesn’t help that it still feels a bit skin deep. Like, she’s not bonding with the X-Men. They’re just more superhero supporting characters on the side. She’s gotta check in with Synch, and then she gets an extended field trip to the Hellfire Club just so the comic can mention the Tony Stark/Emma Frost marriage. I have only been skimming the details of that marriage online and it really feels very forced. So it feels even more forced into this second issue of this new Ms. Marvel comic.

I dunno. I’m just not landing with this comic. It seems to be trying to be too much and do too much for it’s own good. When all I want is a solid, engaging Ms. Marvel comic, I apparently need to have some X-Men crowding out all the room to breath. Couple that with Orchis, who I’ve never really cared about, and there’s just a lot going on. Orchis keeps “sending” pretty boring villains for Kamala to punch up, and that’s not very interesting. And then there’s this dream stuff on top of that. And then a new college-lite life, which barely gets any play.

There’s just a lot going on, and none of it is fire.

TL;DR: I feel that this comic is stretching itself too thin (pun intended) when the core of a really enjoyable Kamala Khan comic is right there under our noses.

Void Rivals #4
Writer: Robert Kirkman
Artist: Lorenzo De Felici
Colorist: Matheus Lopes
Letterer: Rus Wooton

The first issue of the new Transformers series comes out next week! But first, more Void Rivals.

Solila has betrayed Darak and she takes him to her home planet, turning him over to Premier Zalilak in full view of a whole bunch of people. Darak is thrown in prison, and when the premier questions Solila, he throws her in prison too at the mere idea that she saw his face. She quickly deduces that her world’s leader already knows about their similarities. Darak laughs at her misfortune. And sure enough, Premier Zalilak heads down to a secret chamber to contact Minister Dulin from the rival planet, to inform him that his son, Darak, is prisoner. Dulin tells Zalilak to do what he will, that his son was lost to him long ago.

Meanwhile, the Skuxxoid heads to Cybertron to try to sell the Quintesson to a Decepticon, but he’s not having it. Things aren’t so great on Cybertron.

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

Void Rivals is ultimately pretty simple. Two characters from warring factions come together and become, if not friends, then rivals (as the comic addresses), and they try to work together against their warring factions. But there’s something else going on with said warring factions, which we get a taste of here. But the writing, the characters and the strong artwork make it all a really entertaining read. It’s entertaining in its simplicity. It’s a master of his craft, Kirkman, telling a nice, fun little story that is clearly building to something bigger. That’s storytelling 101.

It’s connection to some larger Transformers universe is still very tangential. Skuxxoid remains an entertaining dude, but our first look at Cybertron is pretty jarring. I really liked how the first issue handled the Transformers appearance, but this one wasn’t as strong or as mysterious. But that’s fine. We’ll see how things work out in Transformers #1 next week. I’m very excited!

TL;DR: The specific story of Void Rivals continues in its own entertaining way, while teasing more Transformers and the larger universe.

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.

—————————-