COMIC BOOK REVIEW - Power Rangers: Sins Of The Future
Man, my rota is punishing these days. It’s probably why I’ve not been able to read any comic books for a while. But rejoice, because I finally had a relaxing day at work which has given me the time to read a novel. I thought that it was time that I returned to Boom Studios. However, I reckoned that perhaps I should give a chance to one of the one-shot Power Ranger novels to see how they’re doing. All of the Power Rangers stories I had read so far focused on the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers and I desperately wanted to see how Boom Studios would handle one of the other series, so here we are.
’Sins of the Future’ is set around the ‘Time Force Power Rangers’ era. Focusing on Jen Scotts, the Pink Time Force Ranger, it sees her living a double life between the future and the past. The story is set after the Time Force Rangers have defeated Ransik and now only Wes, the Red Ranger, remains in his own time, in the past, whilst the rest of the team travelled back to the future. Jen is trying to manage her relationship with Wes in the past, but when her commanding officer at Time Force tells her that her actions may invariably cause unforeseen effects in the future. When Jen goes back to tell Wes that they have to end their relationship, they are both attacked by a mysterious Black Time Force Ranger. To find out what’s happened, Jen returns to the future only to find that everything has changed and none of her friends recognize her anymore. Time Force sees her as a murderer and criminal. On the run, she is rescued by none other than her old nemesis Nadira. This Nadira is from another timeline and she helps Jen uncover the truth behind the Black Time Ranger’s identity. She’s Cyra, the sister of Alex, Jen’s original fiancé. Convincing Cyra that she’s not the murderer that the future believes her to be, the two of them along with Nadira team up to discover the source of all these changes to the future. Can these three driven women band together and discover the truth? And will they be able to undo the damage already caused?
Just as expected Boom Studios did an excellent job of bridging the gap between the show, clearly designed for children, and creating a lore that is just as easily enjoyed by adults. Personally, I never watched Time Force, it was probably one of the only Power Rangers series that I didn’t watch as a kid, but reading this novel made me want to go and check it out. In terms of character development, there was a lot when it came to Jen, however, I felt that other members of the team were left out a little bit and potentially could have been focused on more. Jen as the leader was the obvious choice, but I’d have liked to see what the other Rangers were up to now. I hope that Boom Studios continues to create these stories based on the other Power Rangers teams, as the general nature of the novels mean that all of those that grew up watching these shows can now enjoy them with a little more grown-up substance!
The artwork was something that I thought was done really well in this novel. The style was distinct and the character profiles were drawn excellently. Even the panels with all the Black Time Force Ranger scenes had this eerie effect to them which I liked. The only negative about the artwork is that there were no covers, as this was a single novel. But perhaps some variants would have been nice! Overall, a good novel and I’d like to see more of these!
Favourite Panel:
Will all people from the future think we’re cringey here in the present?
Favourite Character:
Jen Scotts. I always thought she was a bit annoying in the TV series, but here she’s badass and self-driven. A real hero.
Rating:
Story Arc: ★★★½
Character Development: ★★★★
Artwork: ★★★½
Enjoyability: ★★★½
Re-readability: ★★★
Level: Intermediate