L.L. McKinney Gives Love to Astronema: ‘Power Rangers Unlimited: Heir to Darkness #1’ Review

Writer: L.L. McKinney / Artist: Simone Ragazzoni / Boom! Studios As someone whose knowledge of the Power Rangers is mostly situated from the era of Mighty Morphin’ and that one movie with Ivan Ooze, I’ve always had an appreciation for the franchise and have kept passive tabs on the series throughout the years. Lot of it would come down to seeing the latest advertisement on Disney or wondering why the 2017 movie was so much better than it had any right to be, and looking fondly at the multitude of Power Rangers comics sitting on my local comic book shop’s shelves. This week though, I took a shot on a new number one (as one should always strive to do) largely because 1) L.L. McKinney is fantastic, and 2) it’s a pretty incredible cover.

Power Rangers Unlimited: Heir to Darkness #1 is an origin story for one of the antagonists in Power Rangers in Space, Astronema. The 40-page comic gives us a glimpse into her life before the events of the series. So as someone uninitiated to this slice of the world, I only have a vague notion of the trajectory but as a fan of comics, I am very certain this is a well composed comic. From the first page, Astronema emanates such a wonderful presence, a result of McKinney’s fantastic writing and Ragazzoni’s stellar artwork. When it comes to introductions, it’s hard to beat your villainous protagonist having just stabbed a Red Ranger in the chest and then proceeding to mop up the rest of a team. Even lacking awareness of the deep lore of the series…