COMIC BOOK REVIEW - Drakkon: New Dawn
Now that I’m taking a year out of my medical training, it means I have a lot more time to focus on my reviews and it means hopefully, you guys will get a lot more comic book reviews coming soon! I thought it was time to return to Boom Studios and I had a couple of the specials waiting to be read. In my opinion, I think that Boom Studios has done a phenomenal job of making a children’s show relevant to an more grown up audience!
‘Drakkon - New Dawn’ is a special which sees the Ranger Slayer, an alternate Kimberly Hart, who was under the service of Lord Drakkon, return to her world which is now in ruins. Kimberly has broken out of the mind control and realizes that she was essentially working for a despot. Upon returning to her world she initially goes to the base of the rebel army, who known as ‘The Coinless’, who are led by her old friends, Zack and Trini. Despite a rocky reunion, the group attempt to make amends. Unfortunately they’re disrupted by the ghost of Rita Repulsa who has a ghost army at her disposal. The enemy of an enemy is a friend and Kimberly and the Coinless must go to Scorpina who is leading Drakkon’s army. The two groups make an uneasy alliance to fight off this new threat to their world and in doing so, Kimberly realizes that she may be able to unite the two groups and create a new society over which she reluctantly leads. Under her new rule, Kimberly begins to undo a lot of evil that Drakkon did, and one day finds a mysterious character encased in an unbreakable armour. It turns out that this prisoner was none other than Jason, the Red Ranger. Once freed, he believes that the Power Coins should be returned to him and the rest of the original Rangers. Whilst he and Kimberly argue about ideology, a new threat appears on the horizon. This threat is in the form of Eclipta, an alien who acts as the scout leader for a villain named Dark Spectre. Can the Rangers, the Coinless and Scorpina come together to save their world? And do the Power Rangers really need their powers to be heroes?
Boom Studios very rarely misses with their novels and New Dawn? It’s absolutely no different. The storyline was excellent. Despite knowing so many of these characters, seeing alternate versions of them still coming together was fantastic. The character development was also interesting, because you have characters like Scorpina who have always been bad guys, who you then see interacting and teaming up with good guys like Trini. At the same time, the inclusion of Jason is great because he’s someone that even in the TV show was always seen as the moral figurehead of the Rangers, and some of the decisions he makes are questionable. I think as an alternate world, I’d be fairly interested in seeing how these characters deal with future threats so I do hope Boom Studios return to this dimension!
The artwork was a real mix. Some of the issues were great and I thought the artwork was vibrant and crisp, but there were a few issues where I just wasn’t feeling it. Some of the character expressions were a little off to me. The covers, however, done by the extremely talented Dan Mora were phenomenal as usual. He’s very talented and quickly becoming one of my favourites. Overall, this was a really good spin-off novel and I want to see some of these characters interacting with those in the main continuity!
Favourite Panel:
This moment is the culmination of everything that the Ranger Slayer has tried to achieve on her Earth!
Favourite Character:
Lots of good characters, including Trini and even Scorpion, but Ranger Slayer Kimberley absolutely steals this novel. Great character!
Rating:
Story Arc: 15/20
Character Development: 17/20
Artwork: 13/20
Enjoyability: 13.5/20
Re-readability: 13.5/20
Overall: 72/100
Level: Intermediate