SDCC 2015: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Coming Back Through BOOM! Studios

Michael Moccio ’16 / Emertainment Monthly Editor-in-Chief

Go, go, Power Rangers! This iconic team was announced prior to San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) as coming back thanks to BOOM! Studios in a new ongoing series. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers were last seen in 1995 as the series came to a close, ushering in Power Rangers Zeo and the continuation of the franchise. Characters like Jason, Zack, Trini, Billy, Kimberly, and Tommy are near and dear to several generations of kids, so we wanted to sit down with someone involved with the project to learn more about it. Emertainment sat down with Mary Rafferty, the Vice President of Global Consumer Products, to talk about the new series with BOOM! Studios.

“The comic books won’t deviate from what everyone loves,” Rafferty assured us in talking about staying true to the source material. “We’ll get more in depth with the different characters. We’re [Saban] actually very involved from start to end.”

Now, the announcement that there would be a series set within the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers timeline isn’t very specific, since the show ran for three seasons and covered a lot of ground. “We’re going to start off at the beginning,” Rafferty revealed. “But it’s not going to be based on each episode. They won’t necessarily travel along the same trajectory that the television series did; we may take them into different adventures.”

As for how this book came along, it seems fortuitious that this new comic book series is launched amidst the Power Rangers fan film and the release of the reboot movie. Rafferty revealed, however, that the movie wasn’t the cause for the new series. “Through discussions with BOOM!, we decided this was really just the best times. It works out well that it’s just before our movie, but the comics are going to stand alone and get deep into the characters that were introduced in the show.”

“BOOM! came to us,” Raffert said, elaborating on how this project came to be. “They came to me over a year ago at Comic Con. They convinced me that they had the passion to really deliver what our fans are looking for in a comic book series. They were able to convey how many people just at BOOM! really wanted to work on this project. Then also show how well it would support Power Rangers and how well they understood the brand and those characters and how important these characters and stories are to generations of kids right now.”

“We looked at a lot of different companies,” Rafferty confessed. “But BOOM! Studios really came with a passion and really great ideas of how they could take Mighty Morphin Power Rangers to the comic book genre. We really wanted to deliver some really great compelling stories for our fans and they were the best partner for it.”

We were, of course, still curious about what the quality of these books would be. After all, it’s a franchise that’s steeped in history, not unlike the intellectual properties of the Big Two. ““The best part is that BOOM! really delivered on what I had hoped for. It’s really interesting when you know characters and series so well, and then when you see people on the outside bring in a depth of understanding that even our executive producer was wowed and impressed with, it’s great! They understand our characters and really great stories behind them.”

BOOM! and Saban are hoping this book reaches the young adult audience that grew up with the franchise. We don’t have any concerns that once BOOM! gets out there and the word gets out there that we’ll get a huge following with our comic books. The reason why we’re starting out with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is because the major following of comics is young adults. Our show is targeted towards a much younger audience and we’re looking to see how we can explore this new series of Power Rangers after Mighty Morphin. We wanted to start with Mighty Morphin because that’s what young adults grew up with.”