I was reading old comics a while back, and I stumbled across an old Ninja Rangers comic from the mid-90s. Even to someone as unfamiliar with Power Rangers as I am, Ninja Rangers is pretty lame.
But I was pretty intrigued by this page:
Maybe intrigued is the wrong word. I was fairly confused, as well. Lord Zedd specifically says he's looking for 'warriors' to make into his own personal elites, his answer to Zordon's Power Rangers; which he searches the entire world for. Of the candidates he chooses, only two of them seem capable in a fight. Even then, Nelida and Farai are, respectively, a member of a Colombian street gang and a buff bully. To average humans, they might present a moderate threat, but they don't seem particularly fit to be warriors for an evil magic warlord with world-conquering aspirations. The other three aren't much more than, like... moderately unpleasant or amoral people. Stanford Winner in particular doesn't seem to offer anything other than kind of being a dick. The Japanese looter being named Osamu Tezuka also struck me as a truly bizarre easter egg.
So I was already pretty unimpressed, but still hopeful in a way. I'm a sucker for evil versions of heroic characters. Your Shadow the Hedgehogs, your Nemesis Primes, your Guyver IIIs. I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised when my already-missed-expectations were missed again. The 'perfect' Dark Rangers appear as the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers with black circles in the middle of their chests. Like with Nemesis Prime in The Last Knight, they couldn't even give us a good 'good guy turned bad' design.
For all my complaining, I really shouldn't be. The comic was technically sound in terms of construction, clearly just an adequately made tie-in for an already-derided show. I probably shouldn't have had my expectations high enough to be that disappointed in the first place.
So instead, I tried my hand at redesigning this team!
My main goal was different body types and a more distinct character for each. Each of them should have a clear personality, and a sense of evil to them, however small. I also skewed each of them to be a bit younger and roughly in the same age group as Power Rangers usually are. 'Teens with attitude' and all that. Stanford has some more contemporary stylish sunglasses, and though Nelida was originally going to have hair more like her original comic appearance, I instead gave her a balayage blonde style. I think my favorite would have to be Marie-Claire, I really like the nefarious yet adorable expression I gave her. The designs of the suits are based on the second, much more successful incarnation of the Dark Ranger concept in comics, from the 2016 Mighty Morphin Power Rangers comic series. Those suits are really unique and visually impressive, looking like a cracked shell of armor over a black suit. Each of these suits is supposed to be "cracked" in a different way, like how Farai's is the most cracked with most of his upper chest bare, or how Nelida's has a bare chest but has the least cracked suit of the five. I added white fingers and soles to further draw comparisons to the good Rangers, who wear gloves and boots. With the darker colors and the almost alien suits, it's much more striking look than the Rangers with a black circle on their chest.
I also made a version with their helmets up, if you're interested.
I had a lot of fun with redesigning these characters, and I'm proud of how they turned out. I hope that you like them too! What do you think of the originals? How do you feel about my versions? Be sure to let me know down below! I always love hearing from you.
I really like this iteration of the dark rangers. The concept has so much potential to them, and I think the boom comics run were a good showing of what they could be. The Psycho Rangers would count as sort of dark rangers too, wouldn’t they?
I do think the blue and black are too close in color though, and it’s hard to differentiate them. Still, I really like them!
It has a lot of promise, and the BOOM! comics were indeed great proof of that!
I only know so much about Power Rangers, so I can't really say. But from what I'm seeing of them, I suppose so.
Ah, good point. I wanted blue to be very dark and even dull, as opposed to a brighter, saturated blue you'd usually see. But I'm glad you were honest, it could stand a little improvement! Thanks so much, dude!
"Power Rangers comics" here, another input to my long, loooong back log of things to catch up...
The idea of cracks in their armor is pretty dope and with the helmets on is even more understandable, sick work! (btw, please consider the option of uploading the "alternative version" as a new post or to post a link to twitter, newgrounds rescale really bad all the other images :( )
The BOOM! comics are honestly pretty good! There's a lot of cool stuff in there, and they don't rely on nostalgia and fanservice.
I'm glad you like the designs, I had a really fun time making them!
Ah, my bad. I feel a little unsure about making the alternate version a separate post, since I think it's the same thing with minor differences. But if you'd like to see a full-resolution version of that second version on my twitter: heartist_the.
Thanks so much, dude!
nice work, you outdid yourself!
Thank you so much, I’m glad you think so!
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