Warning: Spoilers for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #104!On the exterior Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is about young heroes granted powers to fight evil, but when you take a step back you begin to understand that it’s not that simple, and Zordon is not as heroic as he believes. Now the franchise finally acknowledges that all he’s doing is employing teenage soldiers to fight in his endless war.
Zordon as once a great wizard and guardian of the cosmos, and was even a friend of Rita Repulsa’s mother, Lady Fienna. However, that relationship soured when Rita set out on a course of universal conquest. The resulting war lasted for 2,000 years, only ending when Zordon sealed her away on Earth’s moon, but not before she banished him to a time warp. By the time of her release the ancient alien and founder of the Power Rangers had existed for countless centuries and had known only war. He had grown accustomed to seeing himself as a savior and a bastion of good that stood tirelessly against evil at all costs. Zordon’s role in founding and advising the Power Rangers shows how dedicated he is to the side of good.
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The Power Rangers are Child Soldiers
However, fans have long suspected that this ancient space wizard is not as noble as he seems, and that has now been confirmed in Boom! Studios’ Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #104 by Melissa Flores and Simona Di Gianfelice. In the issue Alpha-One has joined Rita Repulsa and flat out admits that his tutelage under Zordon has blinded him to the truth of the man. Even while he clings to black and white notions of good and evil he employs child soldiers to blindly fight a never-ending war.
This is an interesting step back for the franchise, which has often hung its heart on the simplistic notions of villains and heroes. It’s a bit of needed and well-executed moralistic nuance to a franchise that started out as a cheaply produced kids’ show. This issue, in particular, casts new light on Rita’s “evil” motivations while also questioning the intent and execution of Zordon as a force for good.
The giant floating head that leads the Power Rangers truly believes he is doing the right thing, but that ironclad certainty of his own righteousness is blinding him to his true villainy. Zordon’s road to hell is paved not only with good intentions but the bodies of teenagers. When the franchise starts the original Power Rangers are all in high school, which makes them no older than 18, but possibly even younger. At the very least they are barely of an age where they can enlist in the military, at worst they are not even at an age where they can be trusted with a driver’s license. Yet, Zordon takes these children and puts them on the front lines of his war. In a way his impressment of adolescent humans makes sense, as they are too young and inexperienced in the world to grasp the complexities of life, death, and moral grayness. They are then too blinded by the power and filled with a belief that they are heroes to ever question Zordon’s orders or his intentions, which means they never fully understand what they are being asked to do or to die, until it is too late.
Rita is no pillar of justice or goodness, but at least she’s honest about what she is. Zordon, on the other hand, is so enamored with his sense of purpose that no one realizes that the mentor and leader of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is the franchise’s true villain, least of all Zordon himself.
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Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #104 is on sale now from BOOM! Studios.
