Power Rangers’ Original Pink Ranger Just Achieved a Dark First – Killing a Human

Warning: Spoilers for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Return #2!An unexpected franchise first occurs when one of the Power Rangers claims another person’s life. The team finds themselves destroying monsters all the time on a weekly basis, to the point that monsters are treated with the same disregard as one takes when they swat away a fly or a bug. Destroying the life of a person, though, comes with a different line that the Rangers have never crossed.

That all changes when the original Pink Ranger, Kimberly Hart, ends the life of Rita Repulsa in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Return #2 by Amy Jo Johnson, Matt Hotson, Nico Leon, Dono Sanchez-Almara, and Ed Dukeshire. While it does happen in an alternate universe where the original team never separates, rather than in the official canon, it’s still a first to happen in any form for the franchise.

While trying to purify the Moon Palace of evil energy, the Rangers get in a fight with Rita, and to save the Green Ranger from certain death, Kimberly deals a killing blow.

A Power Ranger Does the Unthinkable By Killing a Supervillain

As said earlier, the Power Rangers don’t kill people, even if they do kill (or, to use the language of the show, “destroy”) monsters all the time. However, killing another person is different from killing a monster. Monsters are rarely ever treated with the same reverence as humans throughout the franchise. This is especially true in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, where it is established that monsters are no more than artificial creations of Finster. However, to end the life of someone with flesh, blood, and a pumping heart just the same as a Ranger carries more gravitas.

That’s why Kimberly’s reaction is so shell-shocked once Rita’s lifeless body hits the ground. This is a Ranger who has decimated many a monster in the past, but this is a human. A metaphorical monster and a wicked witch, sure, but Rita Repulsa is nonetheless a humanoid. A Power Ranger in any iteration of the series has never killed another person before, not even in the comics that constantly redefine what the franchise is all about.

Power Rangers Officially Have a No-Kill Rule, And Kimberly is the First to Break It

This distinction between destroying monsters and killing people is never outright stated in Power Rangers lore, but is implied in this issue through the shock and horror resulting from Rita’s death. It likens Power Rangers to actual superheroes. They may not sport capes and most don’t have powers, but the Power Rangers seem to have rules against killing humans, just like any other hero like Superman does. Unfortunately, that also means that Kimberly is the first of the Power Rangers to break that no-kill rule, which suddenly explains why she wants so desperately to distance herself from her Ranger past.