On November 23rd 1996, Power Rangers Zeo wrapped up it’s final major arc for the season in ‘Good As Gold’, an episode that saw the Machine Empire finally vanquished by Lord Zedd, Rita Repulsa, and their merry band of minions. As they left the Empire in ruins, Zedd proclaimed he ‘was back’
Aside from a small comically themed cameo in Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie, Zedd and Rita were not the principle antagonists of the following season, Power Rangers Turbo. Indeed, their cameo in the Turbo movie implied Zedd had given up altogether on his attempts to conquer the Earth
‘Good As Gold’ also saw Bulk and Skull, the show’s band of bunglers, head off to Paris to join a rival detective agency, taking on a mystery assignment.
When they returned in Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie, there was no mention of this mission. They were back in the States with the former Detective Stone, and all three of them were now working again for the Angel Grove Police Department.
Fans were left mystified, continuity in Power Rangers wasn’t always the strongest, but this was more noticeable than previous misfires. Entire events had been set up for pay-offs that never came, and for a time fans pondered what truly happened between the events of Zeo and the Turbo movie.
On March 14th 1998, a message posted to the #alt-mmpr IRC channel by one Derik Smith claimed that such a transistion between the eras did exist, and that it had been shot and filmed rather cheaply as a means of promoting the Turbo movie, using toys and stand-in voice over talent. This took the form of an episodic short film, split into five parts, and aired ‘exclusively’ in Australia.
This mini-series was christened ‘Scorpion Rain’ by those who had claimed to have seen it.
The story centred on Lord Zedd threatening the earth with his Zord Serpenterra, now fiercer and more powerful.
In the ensuing battle, the Zeo Zord fleet is destroyed save for Super Zeo Zord V, which Tommy and Katherine use to combat Serpenterra, before boarding the Zord and planting bombs that ultimately cripple Zedd’s war machine, dealing the galactic conqueror such a crippling blow that he calls off further attacks on the Rangers’ home world.
In reality, this was an elaborate practical joke being played on the fandom by Smith, along with atu Sharp (aka Jovette), and Amit Bhaumik. Other participants in the hoax included Joe Rovang, Jarod “Static-Pulse” Burton, and Chris “Cmdr Crayfish” Funaro.
Amit Bhaumik would eventually work on the official Power Rangers television series for real, and was eventually given the position of script editor for the tenth season Power Rangers Wild Force, Amit would go on to write several team-up episodes for the season, culminating in the anniversary story ‘Forever Red’.
It is here that the Scorpion Rain hoax was taken to another level, as Forever Red was written to serve as a spiritual sequel to it, again involving Serpenterra, and tying up the final loose ends of Zeo by seeing off both it and the Machine Empire.
While fans would engage in highly volatile debates over the place of Scorpion Rain in both Power Rangers fanon and canon, the question of what actually happened between Zeo and Turbo officially still occupies fan’s minds today.
Coming in 2023, in time for Power Rangers 30th anniversary, Scorpion Rain will enter the fray again....not as a mini-series, not as a imaginary prequel to an official story, but as a fully illustrated ten page comic strip story.
Written by Zarius and illustrated by Xavier Rojo, Scorpion Rain: The Comic Strip is a unique tale loosely based off of the original story that hopes to answer fans burning questions over what exactly happened between Zeo and the Turbo movie
“Scorpion Rain has been at the forefront of my mind since I first learned about it years ago in the fandom. In the past I have seen many fans try to tell their own take on the tale in many fan-edits and fanfiction, but nobody has really taken a stab at turning it into a comic.
Due to how little it is known of it, my version of Scorpion Rain isn’t 100% true to the story, there are still elements of the original I’ve left intact (like the final act), but I’ve added a lot more meat to the few scraps of bone we were given to chew on.
There are easter eggs and cameos that set things up for Turbo and tie up a few extra loose ends. And the two pages we devote to Bulk and Skull are certainly all mine.
Scorpion Rain, I feel, is a story that definitely deserves a place in the ongoing PR tapestry, and shouldn’t be thought of as a crude joke or a frequently contested point.
This was born out of a desire for closure in the Power Rangers community, to give Zeo more of a deserving send-off rather than what it actually got.
My artist Xavier Rojo is a precision talent who many times over has over-delivered for me, and I know he will score a home run with this endeavour. If you enjoyed his work on my Spider-Man comic strips, you’re sure to like this.
A lot of thought and heart went into the hoax all those years ago, I just hope I match the Power they possessed with this take
You know what time it is guys!”
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