BOOM! Studios' Dapper Power Rangers Look Like a Uniqlo Catalog
The color-coded superheroes of 1993 are stepping into 2015. Will they also be actual characters or just mannequins?
Popular indie comic publisher BOOM! Studios is hyping up its new Power Rangers series due in January 2016, and Comics Alliance has provided the first look at the Rangers out of their spandex. Updating the 1993 characters into 2015/2016, Angel Grove’s teenagers with attitude look like they’ve just finished an Abercrombie & Fitch shopping spree. And they look great! But will they also be characters, or just mall mannequins for the fall collection?
The following is a result of the combined talents of DC Comics scribe Kyle Higgins (Nightwing) and artist Hendry Prasetya (Power Girl). Honestly? Way to go, guys.
From left to right: Kimberly, Trini, and Jason, the Pink, Yellow, and team leader Red Ranger respectively. (If you couldn’t tell.)
Kimberly, Trini, and Jason in 'Power Rangers' from BOOM! Studios
Here, also L-R, are Zack, Tommy, and Billy, the Black, Green, and Blue Rangers.
Zack, Tommy, and Billy in BOOM! Studios' 'Power Rangers.'
For comparison, this is how they originally looked in the original show.
The original Power Rangers cast.
Stylish as they look, will they maintain the personalities that made them endearing, Saved By the Bell understudies from a generation ago?
It makes sense for Kimberly to look chic since she was the “girly girl” every ‘90s tween TV had in their ranks. But the others? Trini wasn’t a fashionista, but the comic makes her look like everyone I see at the Bedford stop in Brooklyn. Jason, an expert martial artist, skews a little more Twilight than the Superman of Angel Grove’s Justice League. Billy was a genius inventor, but being in 2016 means he had to morph (ha!) into a Silicon Valley prep school bro. Tommy looks like a club douchebag begging for a fight. Only Zack resembles normal. Then again, these are the Power Rangers: How normal should they be?
Of course, stepping into the 21st century means changes had to be made, but we’ll know just how different — or the same — our friends from 1993 have become when Power Rangers from BOOM! Studios hits next year.
Power Rangers #0, which will provide context to the new series and include the exclusive San Diego Comic-Con issues by Mairghread Scott, will be released January 13. Power Rangers #1 will hit shelves in March. As revealed in GQ and Hero Complex, the initial story will be titled “Green Ranger: Year One” and will explain how Tommy, after his turn as Rita Repulsa’s evil puppet, earns the trust of his new teammates — an arc never explored in the iconic TV series.
