Paul Allor

Paul Allor’s Power Rangers: The Psycho Path features art by Guiseppe Cafaro, colors by Marcelo Costa, and letters by Ed Dukeshire. The story picks up some time after the events of Power Rangers in Space and Power Rangers Lost Galaxy, with the Green Psycho Ranger escaping from the Moon where the 1969 Power Rangers buried him during the events of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers no. 20. He gathers the other Psycho Rangers and seeks out Astronema, who continues working to reform from the life she led while under Ecliptor’s brainwashing in the service of Dark Specter. She sought to find her identity as Karone and even joined the Galaxy Rangers at one point, though this story picks up after she gave up being the Pink Galaxy Ranger. She once again lives as Karone on KO-35, the planet she and Andros, the Red Space Ranger, originally called home. Though Astronema did not create Psycho Green, he considers Karone and he siblings as they were both once in the service of Dark Specter. Karone, meanwhile, has learned that she and Astronema are merely two facets of the same person. She was not necessarily the result of Ecliptor’s brainwashing, but just a part of Karone. That blending allows her to negotiate a different path. While Psycho Green wants to rebuild Dark Specter’s empire, Karone/Astronema works to help the other Psycho Rangers discover identities separate from blunt killing machines in service to another.

Allor’s graphic novel works much like Brenden Fletcher’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Pink or Kyle Higgins’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Soul of the Dragon, in that it offers an epilogue for fan-favorite characters, but with writing fitting the more mature tone of Boom! Studios’ Mighty Morphin Power Rangers comics. Those who watched Power Rangers in Space or Power Rangers Lost Galaxy between 1998-2000 will find this a fitting extension of those storylines, particularly as it continues both series’ habit of complicating the black-and-white morality of earlier Power Rangers seasons. For that alone, Allor’s work is particularly fitting as the fourth Power Rangers graphic novel (following the two previously mentioned and Ryan Parrott & Lucas Werneck’s Power Rangers: Aftershock). As a bonus, this volume reprints “Psychotic” from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers no. 20, written by Trey Moore with art by French Carlomagno, introducing Trek, the Green Supersonic Ranger who betrayed his team to become Psycho Green.… (more)

If you’re a fan of the board game, Clue, you’ll enjoy this graphic novel based on the game. The familiar characters are all there, with a modern twist. For instance, the cook/maid, Mrs. White, has become Senator White, who made a fortune as the CEO of a maid service. The additional characters Dr. Orchid, Detective Ochre, Detective Amarillo, and the butler, Upton, round out the diverse cast. Mr. Boddy (who “enjoys leaving weapons in random rooms”) has invited guests to dinner at his mansion. It’s a dark, stormy night, and the guests are stranded when the bridge washes out. Soon the deaths begin. The butler, Upton, does his best to narrate the story, but the comic’s creators keep putting him in his place. The creators have done a nice job with creating a back story that links all of the characters and makes use of the familiar rooms in the mansion.… (more)