Interview: Amy Jo Johnson talks Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Return

From the small screen to the big screen, the Power Rangers have found success wherever they go. The colorful heroes are no strangers to the world of comics; however, Amy Jo Johnson – the original Pink Ranger – recently made a return to the franchise alongside co-writer with for a spinoff miniseries MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS: THE RETURN, the final issue of which goes on sale today.

The series explores the idea of what would happen if the original Ranger team had stayed together after the defeat of Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd. The four-part series was surprising, emotional, and jam-packed with tons of action, and the Big Comic Page were fortunate enough to have a chance to chat with Amy Jo to celebrate the epic conclusion of her first series and unpack what’s next for the Rangers.

**** SPOILER WARNING – WE HIGHLY RECOMMEND READING MIGHTY MORPHIN’ POWER RANGERS: THE RETURN ISSUE FOUR (AVAILABLE NOW) BEFORE READING ANY FURTHER. ****

Big Comic Page: We heard that you had a different idea for this series. Can you speak to how different that initial vision was compared where the series ended up?

Amy Jo Johnson: I have a 15-year-old daughter, and I had this idea to make a TV show that she’d like. She loved Supergirl. We used to love watching that, and I liked Dark Angel back in the day. I had this idea of what if Tommy and Kimberly had a child named Olivia Hart?

In my imagination, it was about Olivia on this journey and finding out her roots and where she’s from. Kimberly was this lady living in the mountains and, she (Olivia) went and found her – it was a whole other story. Oliva’s heart was already in wanting to help people, so she was a 9-1-1 dispatcher, but she didn’t have the guts to actually be out on the field. Then through this journey of discovering who she was, she becomes more of a superhero.

It was dystopian and dark but that didn’t happen.

Once we realized it wasn’t going to happen, we started thinking about it as a comic book, and then knowing that the 30th Anniversary was coming up, we started incorporating the other characters. And this whole story I had dreamt up first really morphed into something else and changed, and it really became about what if the original Rangers had stayed together, where would they be now? What is that story and how does that look? And that’s how it evolved.

BCP: This final issue is more like the end of a chapter than a definitive ending to the series. How soon can fans expect to see you return to The Return?

AJJ: Hopefully sooner than later. Matt and I have been dreaming that up as well. We’ll see. We have all kinds of ideas but nothing’s green lit yet.

Fans will have to wait for the continuation of The Return, but they can look forward to Amy Jo and Matt’s upcoming project, which is an all-original comic book series not related to Power Rangers or any other preexisting IP.

BCP: That really is different! With all that’s going on in this story, was there anything that got cut out that you would have wanted to see put back in the final product?

AJJ: No. I think we got it all in there. The first draft it wasn’t as jam-packed as this, but once we started working with editor Dafna Pleban and artist Nico Leon, we were still honing the story and laying it out for each issue just realizing how to make it propulsive and really driving and moving forward. We brought up some of the things we’re saving for later, and in doing that, made so much more room for even more stuff to happen. It’s the exact same story; it’s just fuller by the time we landed.

BCP: A lot happens during the course of the four issues. What is the likelihood we could see spin-off stories featuring characters such as Jason’s Rogue Red Ranger?

AJJ: I think there’s room for a couple different spinoffs to tell you the truth. So much happens within those 22 years of where everybody landed and where everybody was when The Return begins. Even Selina’s story with Bulk and Skull; Olivia and Kimberly’s story; and definitely Jason’s story with what caused him to become this rogue red ranger and not morphing down. I think room for all kinds of offshoot stories to explore.

BCP: If you could pick one side story, which would you be the most excited to explore?

AJJ: I’m really interested in Selina’s story. I love all the stories, but Selina’s upbringing really intrigues me.

BCP: You and Matt created a new character Selina and her yellow costume is really cool. How much input did you have in creating the final design of Selina’s costume?

AJJ: We sent lots of reference images when Dan Mora was designing everything. We sent in Rita stuff and Lord Zedd stuff, and he just blew us away with what he incorporated by putting it all together. If you notice, you see a lot of Lord Zedd within the suit and it’s pretty cool. Even the piping in her suit is very Lord Zedd-esque, but you can really see her parents within the suit. Of course, it was Dan Mora putting together all the idea in this really cool way.

ABOVE: Variant cover for issue four by Kevin Eastman, available exclusively through AmyJoJohnson.com, the only cover to feature Selina in her yellow ranger uniform.

BCP: Kimberly is a bad ass in this series. Were you concerned about balancing the tone of the series?

AJJ: What’s interesting is Kimberly’s arc and story all the way to the end when she hands being the Pink Ranger fully to Olivia and knowing now that she needs to step down because she did cross a line and she did do something Power Rangers don’t normally do. And she did want to take revenge but that’s not what power rangers do. I really love that part of the story when Olivia says, “Mom, what are you doing?” And Tommy stopping the situation from wanting revenge and revealing the story that he’s the one that helped saved Selina, and he didn’t do that just so that they could kill her later on. I love all those twists and turns for Kimberly, and I love how at the end she steps away and she know that she has to let this go now.

BCP: At this point in the series, what did it feel like to “conclude” Kimberly’s story?

AJJ: Is it a conclusion? Maybe she’ll take on another role without being the actual pink ranger. There are missing people now like Zordon and Alpha. There are other roles to be had. Me and Matt wanted to make sure that at the end, Jason and Zack didn’t step away as well. I didn’t want the story to be that you reach a certain age and now you’re not relevant anymore. I didn’t want that at all. That is not the message. People can evolve, change, and grow and switch careers and do different things, but it’s not about your time being up.

BCP: Was the idea to bring Tommy back spawned from Jason David Frank’s passing?

AJJ: So that was already in the story from the very, very beginning. Both me and Matt found it very interesting to have Tommy come back and be the same age he was when he got trapped in the morphing grid. And how interesting is that with his relationship with Kimberly and how will that age difference unfold in future episodes. And so, when Jason passed away if anything I think it just made it more emotional and we really wanted to make sure that when he did return there was an emotional impact with it.

It was already loaded anyway no matter what. It was actually really cathartic in a lot of ways to sort of bring that character back. Because I know that everybody misses him. I know we all miss him so much. He was just so vibrant within the Power Rangers community. I go to a lot of comic cons, and I just see how much we all miss him. And so, as a love letter anyway to the franchise, I really felt like in a cathartic way it could be really healing and fun for everybody involved when reading it to have him return is just like oh if only. If only we could do that in real life but with the character, we can.

BCP: With “phase one” of The Return completed. What would you say you were most proud of and what would you have wanted to change?

AJJ: First of all, I’m so proud of where we all landed and the collaboration process with artist, Nico Leon and again with Dafna Pleban our editor, and with Boom in general. Between me and Matt what a learning curve to learn how to write and create together. It was really a process, and I think we’re both overwhelmingly happy with the response from everybody. It feels so good to hear that we stuck the landing. That feels so great as a writer. I saw someone say we stuck the landing, and I was like great!

I’m really happy for Matt my boyfriend – I know his dream was always to write comic books, and I think it’s pretty cool that he’s got a whole series under his belt.

I’m a pretty positive person, and I can’t think of anything I would have changed. I sure Matt has an entire list (laughs). There were a few times after the issue came out, and I’m reading through and I’m like oh, wait why did we do that one little part uh. Like in issue three I thought we might have telegraphed too much with Rita and Tommy, but I’ve let it go now. Like did it give too much away in issue three? Did people know what was going to happen in issue four. I don’t know.

BCP: When can we expect to see you and David Yost do a live reading of issue four on Instagram?

Oh my god! He’s such a good friend! How about those wigs and the props?! I know for issue four it’ll be super fun. I was thinking about that yesterday. When would be a good time? Probably by the end of June. We’ve got to finish this up!

Be sure to follow Amy Jo Johnson on Instagram at atothedoublej to be notified of the live reading of issue four. The first three live reads are available now. Check them out, Amy Jo does a pretty convincing Rita voice and David Yost has some fun props and costume changes!