The Original Pink Power Ranger Became Stronger Than Even Hardcore Fans Realize

The Power Rangers are almost always led by a dude in red spandex. There are exceptions but they are few and far between, and one of the wildest outliers is buried in a six-issue comic from 2016. Written by Brenden Fletcher, Kelly Thompson, and Tini Howard, BOOM! Studios' "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Pink" follows Kimberly Ann Hart, the original Pink Power Ranger, as she becomes one of the strongest characters in the franchise's long history. "Pink" isn't canonical to the television series, technically speaking, but its implications are too cool to ignore.

"Pink" picks up where "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" Season 3 leaves off, with Kimberly joining the Pan Global Games Gymnastics Competition. Since this is a "Power Rangers" story, bad guys show up and cause problems. That's all well and good and normal. What isn't any of those things is how Kimberly somehow pulls a "Thor: Love and Thunder" and imbues a new team of Power Rangers with magic so that she can lead them into battle.

Power Rangers Crash Course time: Zordon's chosen heroes get their power from the Sword of Light, an ancient weapon that bears six brightly colored gems — one for each Ranger. In literally every other situation, it's a one-to-one sort of deal, and yet Kimberly somehow made it a one-to-five. Somehow, through her, the Pink Gem is powering five heroes. But wait, it's more complicated than that. Standard practice dictates that a Ranger returns their powers to the sword when they're finished being one. In "MMPR," Kimberly (Amy Jo Johnson) gives her gift directly to her successor. According to "Pink," this left her with some latent abilities, which Zordon amplified by bestowing her the whole sword.

Setting aside the fact that Kimberly is a god among Power Rangers, she's also working with some mad leadership skills. In "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Pink," she fashions a team — the All-New Power Rangers — of new and former members like it's nothing. She enlists Zack Taylor, the original Black Power Ranger, and Trini Kwan, the original Yellow Power Ranger, both of whom wholly gave up their powers after saying goodbye to the force. She also enlists Britt and Serge, two characters made from whole cloth for "Pink." Within the confines of six issues, they all become battle-ready. Technically, it's within the confines of four issues because the first entry focuses more on Kimberly and the last issue serves mostly as an epilogue to tie things back into the wider canon.

After wielding all that astounding power and all that authority, Kimberly retires again. She returns the Sword of Light and sends the infamous "Dear John" letter — albeit with a new perspective. Zack and Trini semi-retire again, too, and Britt and Serge vanish into comic obscurity. Why did BOOM! Studios insist on working adjacent to the canon of the television series? Who knows. Maybe it was because the company felt that comics would generally sell better if they featured characters currently important on screen, or maybe they knew that allowing this new version of Kimberly to run loose in the canon would render every other living Ranger useless. When is Amy Jo Johnson writing her own version of the Power Rangers comics, again?