Justice League/Power Rangers

If you want to talk about weird team ups of 2017 in comic books, it’s tough to come across any weirder than Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and the Justice League. It takes a lot of exposition, but the crossover with both teams is entertaining enough in that the writers find a good balance between both properties. The Power Rangers at Boom Studios are now dramatic enough in their own series to work alongside the Justice League, while the Justice League are considered somewhat bright enough to work alongside the Power Rangers. This could be a good platform to mock the Power Rangers and give the Justice League considerable credibility, but thankfully both teams manage to take the piss out of one another quite often.

When the Black Ranger first meets Batman, he immediately assumes he’s a villain because in his world superheroes usually smile. Meanwhile when monsters begin wreaking havoc along the world, the League calls all of their teammates, ordering them to meet beside the giant dinosaur robots, prompting Beast Man to proclaim “I did not expect him to say that.” In either case, despite both teams seeming just stunned by each other, at the end of the day they provide considerable threats to each other when they first meet. Not just that, but both sets of villains are also considerably menacing, as Zedd is a ruthless war monger with a god complex, while Brainiac is a ruthless being with an insatiable hunger to consume. When the rangers are explained by Zordon that Alpha 5 has gone missing, they go searching for him.

After splitting up, Zack the Black Ranger finds Alpha and brings him back to the command center only to discover that Zedd has sent a fake Alpha 5 that is packed with a massive bomb inside. When Alpha explodes, Zedd invades prompting a massive battle, but a guilt ridden Zack grabs Zedd teleporting him out of the command center. Sadly their teleportation capabilities are damaged and they’re both zapped in to another dimension. Said dimension is the DC universe, and Zack finds himself confronted with the Dark Knight, who is the first to meet him and assumes he’s has ill intent. Zack, who is often led by his anger and short fuse, doesn’t take kindly to his assumptions and goes toe to toe with Batman. Like most crossovers, both teams assume the worst in the other and we get to watch some interesting fights including Black Ranger battling Batman, the Red Ranger taking on Flash, and Wonder Woman crossing paths with Superman.

But they recognize the real threats ahead when Zedd manages to display amazing power and confronts Brainiac, who vainly attempted to collect him for his gallery. Working together, Brainiac teams with Zedd to take over the Power Rangers world, and examine their reality. The writers twist a lot of the conventions, allowing the Zords to be a valid threat to the League, as well as revealing a tough cliffhanger when Brainiac takes it upon himself to implant a virus in the Zords and use them as his own weapons. So far “Justice League/Power Rangers” is the right balance of fun, action packed, and dramatic paying tribute to both fandoms and giving just about everyone their spotlight. The Power Rangers is definitely one of the oddest fandoms to crossover with DC, but it’s surely one of the more entertaining.