sorry if I sound insane every time I bring up Night Mode but it. legit makes me insane. this wasn't "Lauren's suit before switching to Prime Red" or even "Jayden/Mr. Shiba uses it now because this is what Samurai Red looks like in this universe" NO ONE USED IT EVER. WHAT WERE YOU SUPPOSED TO BE
LAST TIME ON POWER RANGERS PRIME - Lauren's on the run from fascist Eltarians, but luckily she has some new friends. Rita is also here, and made a new friend. Everyone's having such a great time, maybe they should all meet up somewhere!
It's Power Rangers Prime #3!
= Heartwarming! Mark is One Of The Good Ones
= Yeah, if you're wondering how the Triceratops coin will come into play this issue.......it doesn't. Honestly they don't even make it to this lab, so the whole question of what Rangers existed in this world or how much the Eltarians know about Rangers is still heavily under wraps. Which on the one hand is fine because they clearly want to draw out the mystery of it all, but at the same time it makes the worldbuilding feel half-baked, because we still have no real identity for this world beyond MAYBE "the Samurai were Earth's main defenders." And like.....I wouldn't be questioning it if they didn't want to brag about showing off all aspects of the franchise. The Return pulled off no other Rangers existing because it didn't try to advertise itself as anything but MMPR. Prime WANTS to be more than MMPR, but will barely commit to it.
= you're not a class traitor, right Valentina? .......Valentina?
= thank god some toxic yuri to balance out the heterosexuality constantly creeping just out of the shadows. I know I should be mad the only female/female relationship happening right now is antagonistic but right now it's just nice to see two girls in one scene
= Hi, RJ Jungle Fury. "Command Your Center" is funny I'll admit but this should have been a giant pizza place
= bye, RJ Jungle Fury. No guys I really don't think he's going to morph. Or show up again
= Girls talking in two separate scenes in one issue? Can it be true?
= But seriously as I said, at least it's nice to get hints of Valentina's life beyond being Ryan's girlfriend. Hopefully that sticks
= As I said in my notes, another 2016 element being adapted is Rita having her body infused with the Morphin Grid. I don't.....really remember it being relevant outside of her being unable to give up her body to Dark Specter, but here it's being used to explain her using the Morphin Grid. fair enough, I suppose
= Also confirmation that this is Kaitlin, which definitely means the other guy is JB. I still don't.....really care kdjfdk but at least we know for sure now
= And as I said, Ryan's dialogue box is green. Which could mean nothing. But I'm wary.
= Do you ever think about how for all the ~lore~ Boom gave a backstory to we never got Ninjor making the Power Coins. At least we get a close second, Rita making Prime powers out of a tooth and a......rock?
= Obviously how the Prime suits look is nothing new; we've known for months at this point. Honestly the surprise was more that we got the Prime suits before we got Lauren's updated Samurai look. Which I have.....no idea how or when that'll come into play. Because again. Prime wants to be more than MMPR, but won't commit. And I can say that because Lauren's literally getting a not-MMPR-yet-MMPR suit lmao
= Something I will note as a marked improvement over Darkest Hour is there's more emphasis on a team dynamic here, with everyone having more varied personalities and thoughts and opinions on certain situations and bouncing off each other more. By the end of the MMPR series certain characters felt interchangeable in their dialogue and actions, which isn't as much of the case here. I'm still not really emotionally invested in the characters yet, but at least there's a possibility that it could change in the future.
= That being said the Rita/Bulk dynamic is very boring as it only amounts to "Rita forces exposition from him while he acts scared and confused" so I hope we can move on from it soon. Speaking of which Rita mentions being infused with the Morphin Grid as a child, which is another element adapted from the 2016 series.
= The solicits talk about a Ranger exhibit but that really...isn't accurate to the issue. The Triceratops coin isn't shown outside of the previews, and we don't see other morphers or anything. Obviously they're withholding information for the ~mystery~ of it all but sometimes it comes off more like unfinished worldbuilding and it's a little frustrating.
= And yes, the RJ cameo amounted to nothing lol
= Valentina gets hints of a personality and home life outside of her boyfriend so that's good.
= But speaking of which Ryan has green dialogue boxes, which could mean nothing, but ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
= Also Lauren's coin compared to Orion's. So yeah, I do think he's meant to be a raptor. I'll talk about this more if/when it's confirmed because if that's the case, it's a very disappointing choice to me. You couldn't have chosen....literally anything else lol
