Jul 06, 2020
I'm bout tired of Shattered Grid. Although the story isn't meandering It's just not an exciting comic book. I feel really bad for the segment of the readership that waited for this one in trade. To those few souls waiting on my recommendation, I've failed you. If I had a regular review schedule I could have warned you but since I'm probably one of the most unorganized reviewers ever we're about a year removed from this arc. Thankfully, its almost over.
In this issue, we get the origin of The Praetor and gain more insight into the nature of the Morphin Grid and the Solarix.
There are several problems with the comic that curtailed any enjoyment for me. It's pretty clear that this arc should have probably been 3-4 issues at the most. Bo
om decided to drag things out and it just makes the entire story a slog to read. It's even more aggravating when huge interesting plot points are introduced and then dropped without a satisfying resolution.
The cliffhanger of #37 is immediately resolved with no conflict or fanfare which makes the entire previous issue irrelevant. Being honest the arc is about Ari, The Solar Ranger. All of the other characters are just background noise.
When the other Rangers are given the focus they are so bland and uninteresting that the only fans that will enjoy their appearances will be those that are just excited to see them in another medium. It's a really shallow way to introduce new readers to these characters especially when they don't really get anything to do aside from being sullen in the background.
The comic once again features way too much exposition. We're 5-6 issues into this storyline and still explaining the plot. This is a colossal failure in the writing and editing of this story. I zoned out multiple times while reading because of the large info dumps that never seemed to end. The idea is to make the comic deeper than what it ends up being, but it boils down to another writer being self-indulgent.
Simone Di Meo is once again totally wasted. He's legit one of the top 5 artists working today and he's stuck here drawing static images of characters standing or floating around. It's an absolute waste especially when you see his work on the outstanding TMNT/MMPR crossover that recently ended. It's hard to believe that this is the same artist.
All of the gripes go back to Marguerite Bennett. She's the wrong writer for this book. I've enjoyed Boom Studios's Mighty Morphin Power Rangers since launch but this one has been taxing. I'm not sure who this arc is for but it's antithetical to what I look for in a comic book. Aside from Simone's art, the entire storyline has been a waste of time. I say that knowing that the story isn't over. more
