“Yesterday’s” Comic> Saban Powerhouse: Simple Simon Says

Is the Weather Witch back?

Saban Powerhouse #2

FINAL ISSUE

Acclaim Comics (1997)

Apparently Slott got confused when it comes to which Power Rangers series he was adapting. Ernie is long gone and Divatox uses one of Lord Zedd’s old tricks instead of her usual hiring monsters routine. She has Justin’s new voice command controller stolen. Justin had created it so they could call their vehicles and Zords by vocal command…although the Rangers have done that since the old Mighty Morphin days. Porto has it turned into a monster that can control the other Rangers due to having the microphone already inserted into their helmets, except for Tommy and Justin…at least I think it’s Tommy and Justin. The colorist doesn’t seem to know who has what color, which is the only thing that ruins this story. Geez, even I keep the colors straight during the Ranger parody strips.

There are these two characters on Samurai Pizza Cats, a mother and son, that always make some lame joke when the Pizza Cats use their cannon to shoot themselves around Little Tokyo. So as part of his plan to make all the ice cream in town (except for his) give everyone super ice cream headaches, Big Cheese orders the two kidnapped, thinking the Cats can’t use their cannon without the joke makers. Somehow this works, although it should be the other way around, shouldn’t it? I know logic avoids this show but that just seems weird. And the comic can’t decide if it’s a comic or a TV episode, but it’s still in keeping with the show.

Sadly, so is Masked Rider. After two comics that avoided the silly sitcom issues that plagued Saban’s adaptation, we get a story where a new neighbor thinks Ferbus is just some guy who dresses funny and is from another country. Basically he’s nuts, but Dex is forced to let Ferbus go to a gala in the hopes the nutball will donate to the community club. I don’t know what that is, but Dregon sees an opportunity to use one of his lesser robots against Leewood while Dex is distracted. Super Gold makes it’s second comic appearance (sadly Super Blue won’t as this is the last Saban’s Masked Rider comic story I know of) and somehow Dex saves the day and keeps Ferbus’ identity a secret from every rich person at this party in the suburbs. This story makes no sense, so sadly a good fit for the show. We were doing so well, comic adaptations.

Finally it’s Beetleborgs Metallix, and I’m going to have to give the shortest explanation I can for this one. Oh wait, the intro does that for me!

In this tale, the kids are attending a comic convention with Art Fortunes, creator of the Beetleborgs comics and their new Metallix armor. On display is a comic that Art’s evil brother Les drew behind his brother’s back, containing some of his best monster designs and Nukus (the new villain) wants it. The Beetleborgs stop the monster and the comic’s owner gives it to Art, thinking he should have a copy of his own comic, in exchange for an original art piece. Because that’s something a comic collector would do, right? Eh, it was a good enough story.

Sadly this issue is a letdown. The Power Rangers story doesn’t know what show it is and the colorist can’t keep the colors straight. The Pizza Cats story should have stuck to the ice cream headache plot alone. Masked Rider’s adventure was too close to the show, something the previous issue and the Marvel special avoided. The Beetleborgs story is the only decent one in the bunch. I wouldn’t recommend this issue. Stay tuned this afternoon, however, for the Power Rangers Turbo/Beetleborgs Metallix review.

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