Perhaps the most important thing to come out of this year's 25th anniversary celebration of the Power Rangers franchise was the major comic book event "Shattered Grid." It featured a villain exclusive to the comics and brought together every single Ranger team, from Mighty Morphin' to RPM to Ninja Steel to Hyperforce (from the RPG show on Twitch). It covered every facet of the Power Rangers mythos and even bore an influence upon the 25th Anniversary episode of Power Rangers Super Ninja Steel. It's garnered hype from fans young and old and will likely be remembered for a long time to come. But, how does it fare against the other major stories of the franchise?
Power Rangers has had its share of memorable stories and events throughout it's history. From the original Green Ranger saga to the plight of the Space Rangers against the Psycho Rangers to the Time Force Rangers returning to defeat Mut-Orgs to Casey doing everything he could to save Jared from Dai-Shi's malice. And there's many more in-between. It's easy to pick out memorable episodes and fights from the series but even more important are the stories around such events and how they affected Power Rangers moving forward.
In terms of scope and legacy it may be impossible for the TV series to match what's been done here. While the Legendary Battle did feature every single Power Ranger to date, it didn't span across the multiverse as "Shattered Grid" did. And, to be frank, the Legendary Battle itself was more of a finishing move compared to all-out war that we saw in "Shattered Grid," and was hardly spearheaded by the Megaforce team at all. The only other major Ranger team, then, would be the one that came together in the recent "Dimensions in Danger," the 25th anniversary special.
However, there's one major stipulation with that episode: it's basically a carbon copy of "Shattered Grid." A villain named Lord Drayvon (not Lord Drakkon) is gathering weapons to shatter the multiversal boundaries and wants to take over all of existence. To defeat him, our current Ranger team joins forces with a member of the Time Force team (Wes instead of Jen) and have to work with several other key figures in Ranger lore. Along the way they have to defeat an evil Tommy (this time it's a robot instead of an alternate universe version) and fight an army of evil Power Rangers (this is the same in both, basically). Then through a miracle Tommy is able to land the decisive blow in the battle and save the day (again, the same in both).
So we can rule out what happens in "Dimensions in Danger" because it's just a highlight reel/ slightly altered telling of the events of the comic book.
"Shattered Grid" can easily be seen as a front-runner for the greatest Power Rangers story ever based on that merit alone. It entirely influenced the direction of the TV show's anniversary and therefore had a major impact on Power Rangers moving forward. Not only that, but it successfully incorporated each Ranger team and stuck true to their characters. But "Shattered Grid" does more than that. While it does explore the major battle against Lord Drakkon, it also goes in-depth with several of the Rangers that are in the forefront, like the original Mighty Morphin' team and Lauren Shiba and the aforementioned Jen.
Plus, it has arguably the most iconic Power Rangers villain of the modern age. When one thinks of iconic Power Rangers villains, it's easy to just think of Rita, Zedd, Astronema, and the Psycho Rangers. Maybe Ransik, Krumm, and Xandred. But Drakkon? Drakkon got his own little hype video before the release of the comic, starring the man the myth the legend Jason David Frank. Drakkon was cold and all-too human for all the wrong reasons. He's the epitome of an evil Power Ranger, someone that's all about the power and wants nothing to do with the team. He stands completely at odds with the lessons that each Ranger team must learn on their path to furthering the Ranger legacy.
All that said, though, there are some glaring issues with this story. Things resolve in a bit of a confusing manner and the emotional weight of some scenes just doesn't feel as powerful as it may. The major opening event of the series, where Tommy apparently dies, never felt like a gut-punch to me. What really hit me was the death of the Time Force team and not just because they're my favorite team but because an entire team of Rangers got wiped out. After Tommy we never seen more Rangers go down. The stakes are always there, but there was nothing after that to keep us in check, to keep the fear in place.
The Rangers all come together a bit too easily, too. While it wouldn't be any surprise to this Mighty Morphin' team that other Rangers exist in other universes (since they'd all visited an alternate universe to fight Drakkon before) we got very seldom moments of other Rangers just getting to interact for more than a page or two at a time, total. While it does feel as if all of the other teams are paying their respects to the original five, it sometimes comes off a bit simple. Some of the best moments of a Power Rangers crossover are those moments where the teams get to interact; that's why "Reinforcements from the Future" and "To the Tenth Power" are so incredible.
But all that said the story is still incredible, and we're blessed to get something this large in the first place. Ranking it against other Power Rangers stories is quite difficult because of its size and length. While there are obviously major stories that run for several episodes in Power Rangers, they're never of this scope. They're never involving so many Rangers at once. The longest crossover would probably be the one in Lost Galaxy where the In Space Rangers stick around for two or three episodes to fight against the Psycho Rangers alongside the main team.
And that is a solid story. It's the official hand-off of the torch from the Zordon-era into the new era that would last through Wild Force. It sees a Ranger die and it sees a new and old team work together to defeat an old threat. If we include the episode where Karone becomes the replacement Pink Ranger then you've also got a redemption arc in there, one building since the days of In Space.
But what other powerful Ranger stories are there? Well, there's the two-arc span of "Reinforcements from the Future," which is the perfect crossover two-parter as every Ranger gets good screen time and they're all true to their character. There's Casey's closing arc in Jungle Fury where he is denied the role of Master but instead of grovel and complain about it, he decides that he'll have to go it alone to defeat Dai-Shi and save Jared, and there's an epic struggle between two grizzled characters there. There's SPD's underdog story of B-Squad fighting A-Squad and having to hold down the fort against the forces of Krumm, which shows the rise of a team of ragtag cops finally rise up to become heroes. And many others.
Each of these great stories gets at the heart of what it means to be a Ranger, and in terms of character development and growth, "Shattered Grid" really cannot compete. However, it's narrative that ultimately determines this. Each of those stories has a solid, strong narrative, but each one of those elements is taken and used in "Shattered Grid." There's the struggle against ultimate evil in the face of defeat, there's the incredible unity that every Ranger shares, and there's even an underdog story thrown in at the end with the final struggle of Tommy and Drakkon.
"Shattered Grid" feels like the be-all-end-all Power Rangers story. There are many more tales to come and maybe one day something will surpass this epic but for now this is the best that it can get. Fans of all kinds can come to this an enjoy it, there's something for everyone. People who maybe weren't as into other teams got to see what they were capable of and could maybe get intrigued on what these teams were. It was a creative idea turn into an epic story, one that perfectly captures what it means to be a Power Ranger, and not a single story could be more fitting for the 25th anniversary of the series.
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