Once Tommy had a taste of being giant-sized he never really got over it.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #3
Marvel (January, 1996)
COLORIST: Mike Worley EDITOR: Mariano Nicieza “I’d Like To Be Under The Sea” PLOT: Scott Lobdell SCRIPT: Barry Dutter PENCILER: Rurik Tyler INKER: Mike Halbleib LETTER: Ul Higgins “Most Valuable Slayer!” WRITER: Barry Dutter PENCILER: Bart Schmitz INKER: Phil Sheehy LETTERER: Lorina Mapa
You know they’re getting lazy when they reuse a show’s monster, in this case Pirantis-Head. He’s after a fish that was hit by radioactivity because, and I swear this is answer, there are no fish in space. What? Also, the pool at the aquarium is big enough to hold a giant Pirantis-Head and the NinjaMegaFalconZord. The personal conflict goes to Aiesha, who is afraid to go into the water because her totem animal is the bear and bears can’t swim. By the way, I looked that up and that’s false. Maybe if they decided Aiesha didn’t know HOW to swim and I don’t remember seeing her swim so that would have worked, it would have made more sense. This is just a terrible story, but the art is fairly decent for 90s Marvel.
The second story does that backwards. The story is fairly decent (although the writer seemed to have forgotten he was writing a kids comic based on Power Rangers with the word “die” thrown around like an adult comic) but the art is the worst 90s Marvel could throw at it. And they once again drawn the Ninja MegaZord as the Shogun MegaZord. Who was keeping track of the model sheets? At least we actually see a MegaZord use their sword on the monster. A girl named Kelly wants to play softball with the boys but they won’t let her play because she’s a girl. Even Bulk & Skull are sexist in this one. However, she sees the girl Rangers as equals with the boy Rangers during a fight with the flying Battalor. So she (I guess because it’s not shown) convinces the boys we don’t see watching the battle to let her play and she’s rather good. The story has flaws but it’s the art (especially poor Tommy, who looks nothing like Jason Frank) is what really kills this story.
The Marvel run may be some of the worst Power Rangers comics I’ve seen and this issue is proof as to why. This is insulting to kids and I’m betting the reason it ended as soon as it did was due to kids not wanting to read this. When even the most off of the Hamilton Comics, a really small publishing company, is more accurate and more fun than one of the two biggest comic companies at the time (and still today), you’ve failed badly. That’s 1990s Marvel in a nutshell, though.
BW Media Spotlight 
Did Scott Lobdell even know anything about bears? One of the things bears can do is, gasp, SWIM, which they do to cool themselves off when they’re hot! I haven’t even read that story and already I smell contrivance…
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It’s Scott Lobdell so I’m guessing no.
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Lemme guess, his writing quality leaves a lot to be desired (the first thing I’ve heard about him was this)?
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Well, we’re talking about the guy who turned Starfire into a swinger with the memory of a goldfish, so…yeah. He has his good moments now and then, and the comic’s format did hold back good ideas (what is it with some kids comics by big publishers that they end up with two half-length stories when you can tell they need more?) but most of his stories that I’ve read never did much for me.
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