Shattered Grid Finale Interview: BOOM! Studios and Hasbro

The end of Power Rangers: SHATTERED GRID has arrived.

The highly anticipated conclusion of the ultimate Power Rangers crossover event, Power Rangers: SHATTERED GRID, hits stores today with Power Rangers: Shattered Grid Finale.

Power Rangers NOW had a chance to catch up with the team at BOOM! Studios and Hasbro to learn some behind-the-scenes details about all the action inside this monumental finish.

Check out our full interview below with Kyle Higgins (Writer, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers), Ryan Parrott (Writer, Saban’s Go Go Power Rangers), Marguerite Bennett (Writer, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers), Dafna Pleban (Editor, BOOM! Studios), and Melissa Flores (Hasbro).

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*Spoilers for Power Rangers: Shattered Grid Finale below this point.*

We’ve reached the end! What were your favorite moments from the entire Power Rangers: SHATTERED GRID story arc?

Dafna Pleban: Zack and Zack having a heart to heart.

Kyle Higgins: I think of it more in terms of issue by issue. I tried to build each issue to have at least one thing that really excited me so when we did press, I would have something I was really jazzed up for! We worked hard to make sure there was no filler, and everything was satisfying. But, my favorite moment was probably the cavalry arriving in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #29 with the double page spread by [Artists] Daniele Di Nicuolo and Walter Baiamonte that was incredibly hopeful, optimistic, and set the stage for the third act of the event.

Marguerite Bennett: The meteor shower. A multi-colored meteor shower – just realizing what it means was so wonderful.

Dafna Pleban: I like how you both chose a page with no dialogue!

Melissa Flores: It’s really hard, but for me, Kimberly getting the Dragon Dagger. I thought it was absolutely beautiful and the way it all came together was such a moment to honor her relationship with Tommy.

Ryan Parrott: Selfishly? Probably behind the scenes when Kyle and I figured out how to connect the Ranger Slayer’s arrow between the books, and to bring those stories full circles.

At the end of the finale, the Emissaries say “Things will be put back the way they were before”. Does this mean before Tommy was killed, or before the Grid was shattered?

Kyle Higgins: I don’t think it’s safe to say that at all. Just because you put something back together doesn’t mean that everything will stay the same. The metaphor that the Yellow Emissary used is the best way to describe it: existence and everything was broken. It’s like a pane of glass . You can put those pieces back together, but everything won’t fit, or things will fall through the cracks. In order to fully understand what that means, you’ll have to keep reading. There are a lot of possibilities on the table. Power Rangers: Beyond The Grid will deal with a plethora of Rangers who were imprisoned by Lord Drakkon as well as new and old characters who went on the rescue mission.

Melissa Flores: We want to avoid the expectation that none of this mattered, or that there’s some cosmic reset that puts everything back the way it was. There absolutely will be consequences based on the sacrifices made in this book. But it’s an avenue for a whole new era of storytelling and the journey is going to be amazing.

Dafna Pleban: That’s one thing I love about working with Hasbro. Hasbro was very open to having consequences as part of the aftermath of SHATTERED GRID. We’re going to break things, and it’s going to be fun.

Marguerite Bennett: With Hasbro, I love the level of encouragement that we’re allowed to play with.

As the finale comes to a close, Tommy offers to help Lord Drakkon “not be alone” even after everything he’s done. Can you talk about Tommy’s surprising actions in this scene?

Kyle Higgins: I think that Tommy and Lord Drakkon’s paths diverged in such a polar opposite way. But from an understandable point, Tommy was afforded opportunities that Lord Drakkon never was. That’s not to excuse all the things Lord Drakkon’s done. I think the point of this finale, above anything else, is that moment between the two Tommy’s in the center of the Heart when they’re both powerless. And Tommy articulates to Lord Drakkon that friends are not his weakness, but his strength, and they’re what Lord Drakkon’s never let into his heart. So I thought it would be an incredible disservice for Tommy to turn his back here. But you can only help those who want help, and in that moment, I think you see Daniele absolutely nailed that it breaks Tommy’s heart just as much as it breaks all of ours.

Dafna Pleban: What I love about this moment is how much it emotionally pays off Tommy from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Issue #0 where he’s on his guard around the other Rangers, and he thinks he has to do this alone. And in this scene, we see he learns what it means to be a part of a team, and accept help, and to see him extend this hard earned lesson to a person that hasn’t shown they deserve it – that’s the definition of Power Rangers. To have that emotional moment is the best part of comics.

In this finale, we’re introduced to the Heart Of The Master, described as one of the most powerful objects in Power Rangers lore. Can you talk about creating this?

Kyle Higgins: It really stems from needing a physical manifestation that allows Lord Drakkon to take control of existence. Once he got inside the Morphin Grid, we needed a way to visually show how he was able to take over everything. From there, we needed to find a way for the Rangers to actively pursue undoing it. I knew I wanted to tie it the Morphin Master themselves, and it just built from there.

Dafna Pleban: I think it’s one of those things where the stakes are so high, but there’s only so many characters you can start to bring in, or so many characters you can start to kill before it feels emotionally empty. What I think is really cool about the Emissary and Morphin Master setup is the idea that the Morphin Master has this object that can reshape reality. It’s really pure, really understandable, but also bigger than anything we’ve seen before. We’ve been dealing with Rangers and Zords, but it’s the Morphin Grid that’s been the biggest thing on the horizon. We know it’s a thing that the Emissaries speak for the Masters, but I think that moment when you see Lord Drakkon pull that Heart from the petrified Master – it’s incredibly effective because it feels so surprising.

Kyle Higgins: And from the beginning, I was very adamant about wanting to use Free Comic Book Day as part of the story. I wanted it to be something that played to part of the larger narrative.

Melissa Flores: From a brand perspective, we’ve routinely challenged these writers to expand the mythology and build the world. With the Free Comic Book Day issue, Kyle really did that. The Morphin Masters were only mentioned once in the TV series, so there was a really big opportunity to dig deep into those characters and understand them. So I think the way Kyle’s been able to structure them and inform the larger narrative is fascinating and I think it makes for a really great addition to our lore in a way that feels epic in scope.

Can you talk about the decision to use Power Rangers Hyperforce in a very prominent way during the battle scene? You had a plethora of seasons to pick from!

Kyle Higgins: I really loved the characters and I fell in love with the show when I did it. I felt like Power Rangers Hyperforce was quite additive to SHATTERED GRID, and I coordinated with Hyper RPG and Hasbro to put together the setup for the episodes I did. That included some of the larger pieces for things like Serpentera, which I knew I wanted to bring back in SHATTERED GRID. So the Hyperforce Rangers were quite significant in that we have these two incredible stories in different formats, and I felt continuing their story felt natural even thought it’s a different medium. They had already been properly introduced to the event, and it felt natural to continue their development. Plus, I wanted to see [Artists] Daniele Di Nicuolo and Dan Mora put together a new Megazord.

Will the actions in this finale have repercussions on Saban’s Go Go Power Rangers comic book series?

Dafna Pleban: Definitely.

This finale does a terrific job of sowing together all the comics we’ve read thus far, including the Free Comic Book Day issue. With a story of this magnitude, were there any challenges in weaving together this many stories?

Kyle Higgins: There are challenges. I think how close Ryan [Parrott] and I are, and Dafna [Pleban] and the editorial team, and the people at Hasbro is what excited us so much about this event. It’s a very small group, so coordinating across all the groups was actually pretty easy – or much easier than traditional crossovers I’ve been a part of in the past where your’e coordinating across half a dozen groups. It makes execution and continuity really tight and tough to do. The stuff that Ryan & I did would not be possible in a much wider book, but because this group is so tightly knit, it made the event what it is.