When it comes to storytelling, it is rare to find a villain that has close, intricate relationships to the protagonists. You will understand why and how unique Lord Drakkon was, giving rise to one of history’s most feared personalities, when we tell you about him.
Drakkon himself had served as a Power Ranger, after all. He had taken on the duties of the Green and White Rangers while he was Tommy Oliver. In the midst of that, “BOOM! Studios” somewhat altered his story. Rita Repulsa, the humanoid sorceress who serves as the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 1 nemesis, played a significant role in Tommy’s metamorphosis, corrupting both his body and soul.
Due to the combined strength of two extremely powerful Rangers, Drakkon was able to seize morphers and use them for his evil goals. He created an army of Rangers out of these morphers, and they were simply there to carry out his orders and create havoc.
Let us discuss Lord Drakkon today. He deserves every bit of a Power Rangers fan’s attention, not just that which he commands.
LORD DRAKKON: His Constant Presence in the Power Rangers Universe
Lord Drakkon is most known for being the main antagonist of “BOOM! Studios'” comic book series “Shattered Grid,” which was published at the time. Tommy Oliver, another nice Ranger from a different universe, is younger than him. Drakkon was the despotic ruler of the dystopian “Angel Grove,” supported in his terrible schemes by an army of Ranger Sentries, officers who shared his level of wickedness.
Drakkon’s and Tommy Oliver’s stories take place prior to the events of the Shattered Grid event. The showdown with Jason Lee Scott, the Red Ranger, was the culmination of Drakkon’s previous reality and the start of his new one. Oliver rushed away rather than confront Zordon, the sage cosmic magician, and the other Rangers Zordon mentored. Oliver was under Rita’s curse until the fight broke it off for him.
He was being pursued by the Rangers as he sought to get away by going from city to city continuously. Rita managed to track him down, and she persuaded Oliver that supporting her cause was the best thing he could do. She told him of the young man full of potential that she saw in Oliver, but as Drakkon who would remain under her wings and learn the tricks of the trade of world domination thereby.
Absolutely sure that Rita was the best option he had to get what he wanted, Oliver sided with Rita. He became Drakkon, further backing Rita as she went about her vile antics of taking over the Earth, one city at a time. Drakkon took Rita’s forces to combat against the last set of Rangers of Zordon. Meanwhile, Zordon was about to make a super-powerful Ranger, nothing like ever before.
Right when Jason was being transferred his powers, Drakkon barged into the Command Centre, halting the process. Drakkon overpowered Jason, infused the powers into himself, destroyed the Command Centre, and got out of there with Jason’s crushed helmet in his hands. The all-new and powerful Drakkon next battled against the Power Rangers and destroyed all of their Zords, defeating them completely. The Earth was now all Rita’s to rule over or not so much because Drakkon had plans. Other, bigger plans.
Not before he got Rita to trust and teach him spells and skills related to thought conditioning, though. Then, Drakkon took absolute advantage of that trust factor, becoming the last problem that Rita would ever see before the Earth was taken over…by Drakkon.
Drakkon did assure Rita that their plans were all aligned, except the part where Rita would rule and Drakkon would watch from the sidelines so she had to be disposed of. Rita’s other loyal servant Finster, the intellectual alien scientist and alchemist too switched sides and became the cyborg Finster 5 with Drakkon’s help in obtaining Alpha 5’s body parts. Alpha 5 was before that, the robotic assistant to the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
Drakkon was now Lord Drakkon, who had powers like no one of his kind. He made use of all the Power Coins from morphers he had damaged, and the combined energy gave rise to Drakkon’s Ranger Sentries’ force. Each Sentry had a specific role. The only missing Coin was Billy’s – the Blue Ranger. Trini – the brave Yellow Ranger – had taken the Coin and concealed it before Drakkon could lay his hands on it.
In parallel, all former Rangers now deprived of their Power Coins teamed up against Drakkon in secret, calling themselves ‘The Coinless’ – a resistant group up against Tommy Oliver a.k.a. Drakkon’s tyranny. Also unbeknownst to Drakkon, someone was already on to him, though. Skull, from the duo ‘Bulk and Skull’, had already managed to intrude upon the Sentries and become one of them – The Tyrannosaurus Sentry.
It was under Drakkon’s reign that Matthew Cook and Billy met their unfortunate deaths. This marked the start of Kimberley Ann Heart’s determined journey to take revenge. Drakkon was quite prepared though, easily overpowering the Pink Ranger as she was, and making her into Ranger Slayer with the help of one of the brainwashing spells Rita had taught him. Under Drakkon, Kim became infamous as the second most powerful Ranger across all Universes – only surpassed by Drakkon himself.
LORD DRAKKON: Stealing the Show in Shattered Grid
The tagline to this event in the comic series is, “No Ranger is safe”, and boy the plot arc DE-LI-VERS gloriously to the essence of that phrase!
In 2018, when BOOM! marked 25 issues of its main line of comics depicting a contemporary take of the ‘Mighty Morphin’ age, Power Rangers was celebrating its 25th anniversary too. Shattered Grid was created as a crossover story, that started as a prologue in Issue 24 of the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers and Issue 8 of ‘Go-Go Power Rangers’.
Issue 25 and Issue 9, respectively, marked the point of alternation of titles and the official beginning of the story event being spoken of. Two comics, namely the Free Comic Book Day 2018 and the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers Annual 2018 have some special stories therein, that stand completed with Issue 1 of ‘Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: Shattered Grid’.
A prequel was only justified to tie up any loose ends of the storyline, so Episodes 19 and 20 of the Power Rangers Hyperforce do the deed. The Shattered Grid episodes ran from March 2018 to August 2018, concluding with the silver jubilee month of the airing of Power Ranger’s original broadcast in 1993.
The prologue ties in as the setting of a few months right after ‘The Black Arc’ book’s first plot where a defeated Drakkon with his destroyed Power Coin existed. In an alternate universe’s reality, Drakkon had been overpowered by a team of Rangers which by the way, included a brave and young version of himself! He was subsequently transferred from his dark parallel future timeline to the Power Rangers realm of the standard comic book chronology.
Promethea’s most secretive “restraint cell” housed Drakkon for an unrecorded period. One day, Saba – an enchanted short sword wielded by Tommy Oliver as the White Ranger – from Drakkon’s reality appeared before him. Aware of Drakkon’s villainous acts of destruction and murder in the past, Saba intended to put an end to Drakkon before he could cause pursue more quests to harm people or property.
Saba ended up dying though, failing at the effort to kill his opponent, the mighty Lord Drakkon. Needless to say, even though he was stripped of a lot of his essence, Drakkon was still a master combatant. Drakkon then took the body of the sabre – now without a head – and made himself a portal to escape captivity.
As is revealed in the main story of which we shall talk a bit later, the escapee Drakkon went and met sage Ninjor – the maker of Power Coins – right after. He convinced Ninjor to lend a hand in fixing and restoring Drakkon’s link to the Morphin Grid. Ninjor had Drakkon face several trials, all of which he passed, without letting Ninjor have a hint of his true intentions.
The main story begins when the Time Force Rangers squad was assigned the task of examining a quite furtive gap in space. The rift risked affecting not only the main timeline but also Dino Charge and RPM’s realities; Wes was aware and he made sure everyone knew the importance of their mission. As they drive closer to the rift, their Megazord was ruined to the point where Katie, Lucas, and Trip all were pulled in.
Jen was asked by Wes to somehow make an escape and go to the past and fix the issue. Right when Jen manages to flee, the Megazord blows up with Lord Drakkon’s giant figure looming over it. This is the point where the prologue intertwines with the mainline of the story. Saba had failed to kill Drakkon, who had escaped Promethea and desired to return to his universe and usurp his powers and authority again. What we also learn is that Tommy and Jason in this reality had no clue that Grace Sterling had in fact, imprisoned Drakkon.
At the Command Centre, everyone decided that the Coinless had to be informed somehow, that Drakkon may have returned. Billy sought Trini’s help to repair and get Black Dragon – a mega-powerful Zord – working again, so they could send the message across to the Coinless.
Billy also wanted to protect the Command Centre while they executed their plan but all preparation is soiled by…guess…who else, but Drakkon himself! Drakkon’s idea of “catching a break” was to literally break into the Command Centre – secretively, of course – and steal the Green Chaos Crystal. The Crystal belonged to Scorpina and could allow one to traverse dimensions, thereby tapping directly into the Morphin Grid. Drakkon headed to find Tommy right after, who was coming back from a date with Kimberley.
Tommy was alone at that point though, and Kim came upon Tommy after Drakkon had already sucked out all of Tommy’s energy. The Crystal was supercharged and although Kim tried to fight Drakkon, he escaped despite even Jen’s arrival on the scene. Tommy passed away in Kimberley’s arms.
Finally, having reached his universe, Drakkon took command of his army again. His first motive was to settle what he deemed was a mere “minor disturbance” – the Hyperforce Rangers who had landed up in this reality by chance after tracking Drakkon’s “energy signature”.
Drakkon then learned of Scorpina trying to capture Serpentera and make it her own. Drakkon made the Hyper Force rangers help him in stopping her, but Serpentera was to be left alone. This plan did not go as planned because of Marv’s “No Killing” policy. Vesper got hold of Sepentera and dumped it into the ocean. Scorpina survived the conflict but Drakkon was a man of no mercy, and he unashamedly ripped Scoprina’s arm off.
In the main reality where Tommy is now dead, Zordon is the one who informs the other Rangers of it. It was a collective decision to return his body to the lane he died in so that the police could find him. A few days later at Tommy’s funeral, the Rangers found out via Alpha that Jen, who was recovering until then, had awoken at the Command Centre. Upon their return, Jen led with the information that Drakkon was attacking each pocket dimension that had emerged from the cracked timeline. Drakkon had messed with the Morphin Grid to assume more power.
Realizing the threat that was imminent after the unfortunate apprehension of almost all Samurai Rangers, Zordon tried to warn the Emissaries Three. They would have to help persuade the Morphin Masters to break the chain of Drakkon’s power source. Zordon’s appeal was dismissed, as the Grid was believed to be impenetrable and immune to Drakkon and his Sentries. Drakkon at this point was trying to manipulate Dr. K to join his cause, failing when Dr.K successfully overturned the effects of the Dragon Cannon.
In the Command center, plans to halt Drakkon were still being made. The Rangers tried to use the Time Force and Black Dragon tech to contact the RPM Rangers as well as Dr. K. To their dismay, they discovered that Drakkon had gone through an evolution, and made cronies of the S.P.D. A-Squad, Koragg, and the Psycho Rangers. Back in Drakkon’s Universe, the Coinless saved Ninjor, but Zach had to die for it. Ninjor told the Coinless of Drakkon’s plans to lay a hand on the Morphin Grid.
The Rangers then decided to recruit Grace Sterling. Through her space colony, they travelled to the Coinless’ world and met the forces of Drakkon. Zordon asked Rita Repulsa for her help and it would have been a successful venture if not for Finster 5’s loyalty to Drakkon.
Finster 5 electrocuted all of the attackers, but himself ended up meeting death in his master’s hand as an “act of mercy”. After another ruthless killing, Drakkon merged more energy from the Morphin into himself and attained his final evolved form. He entered the Morphin Grid, executed the Emissaries Three, and took possession of the Heart of the Master. The multiverse did not exist anymore – it was all Drakkon’s world and everyone was just living in it.
Time for the BIGGEST plot twist of all – Tommy had survived. The assassination attempt was a failure, as Ranger Slayer’s past attack on him had filled him with Chaos Energy. Tommy’s spirit had been pulled by Drakkon into himself. Meeting Drakkon, Tommy scoffed at him just about enough to rile him up and make him let go of some power – just about it to free the Emissaries and himself.
They helped free the Rangers right after, and all of them made a collective work of taking away the Heart of the Master from Drakkon. The world as Drakkon knew it, crumbled around him and he made it an express point that he did not need saving. Drakkon chose to stay in that collapsing world of his. The Emissaries secured the Heart and the Rangers assisted in mending some of the damage inflicted by Drakkon. However, reality as they knew it remained subject to small changes because it was too far gone to be restored to 100% of its original state.
As mentioned earlier, the ‘Go Go Power Rangers’ universe acted as a tie-in story to the event. The Ranger Slayer went to Rita Repulsa, assisting her in getting Gravezord all powered up again. That would have helped get the Chaos Crystal to Lord Drakkon. When the Rangers freed her of Drakkon’s mind control, she revealed all that she knew to Matthew Cook. Following that, she used a Chaos Crystal-powered arrow as a medium to transfer some critical memories to the young Tommy Oliver from that world.
These memories were all about probable future scenarios, and Tommy’s eventual death at the hands of Lord Drakkon. Matthew was now convinced of Kim’s Pink Ranger identity and urged Kim and the others to trust their secret. Their inability to answer causes a forever cold war of sorts, between them. In the present, Ranger Slayer was assigned to a shelter by the Promethea agency and Grace Sterling.
If one was to assess the aftermath per se, not much is known except about the multiverse and timestream being fixed. The extent of it is unclear of course, but what we do know is that time and space have been displaced from Grace’s “space colony”. Resultantly, all Rangers who survived and the crew have been ushered into unfamiliar multiverse terrain. Following the events of this narrative, the ‘Beyond the Grid’ tale begins. It is all about following a confused group of stranded Rangers commanded by Ranger Slayer.
LORD DRAKKON: What Makes Him So Powerful?
The fear of Lord Drakkon mostly arises from the combination of powers that manifests in him. Drakkon was the Green Ranger when he first met Rita Repulsa, and she let him keep those powers. But of course, that was not enough for him, and he sneakily seized the powers of the White Ranger too. Things escalated pretty quickly – the Rangers first had a problem, but now they had a galactic force that was fierce, all-powerful like never before the enemy.
Drakkon picked up manipulation skills and spells from his sorceress mentor Repulsa, and he acquired teleportation and time-travel skills as well. Killing off all his older, “weaker” versions of Tommy Oliver (or so he thought, at least!) gave him prime satisfaction. Needless to say, his joy in carrying out crimes across multiple universes knew no bounds. Drakkon hits way below the belt but does not seem to care about the consequences of his actions as long as his mission of complete control over the world comes true.
The narcissism and superiority complex that Drakkon has, driving him towards more repulsive deeds, is all the result of him KNOWING how powerful he is. Even after being drained of his powers, he recovered quite fast. His psychological control over people never weakened and he got back to THAT kind of warfare right after, causing as much mental damage – if not more than that – as he physically could. Manipulation and slyness gave him allies throughout, and the liberty to use those allies as he wished to. Even Finster and Rita fell for it! In his final form after evolution, Drakkon could control realities and modify universes as per his desire.
A villain is made who he is, partially by his choice of weaponry, especially when they are up against a bunch of people like the Power Rangers. Drakkon takes the Rangers’ source of powers from them – their morphers with Power Coins attached – and he uses it to charge himself. As Green Ranger, he had the Dragon Dagger which he continued to use. The Dagger could project several concurrent blasts of energy. Not just that, Drakkon controlled the Dragonzord – summoned it and all, just with the Dagger.
Drakkon is also known to possess Saba, the enchanted short-sword. The Zords that Lord Drakkon made use of were some of the most powerful of their kind – the Black Dragon and Serpentera.
LORD DRAKKON: Closing In
The Mid-2020s in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers’ comic world saw the return of Lord Drakkon, worse than ever before. The Drakkon effect on the Morphin Grid was so powerful that Omega Rangers too faced his impact, long after he was gone. Previously, in May of the same year, Kyle Higgins – the creator of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers – went on record to say that Lord Drakkon had gotten so popular that at one point, he was supposed to get his own live-action series.
The plan did not go through because of some unforeseen circumstances, but Higgins’ only regret about the series seems to be that failure. The series was supposed to explore the whole tale of the Coinless squad, and their attempts to fight someone like Drakkon while deprived of their powers. It would have also brought to light Drakkon’s partnership with Repulsa and Tommy’s transformation into Drakkon.
Series or not, Drakkon remains etched in fans’ minds and hearts. Evil and hatred this powerful may not be new to the world of comic books, but Power Rangers has a distinct fanbase that reveres Drakkon as THE ultimate force of evil. One may not be rooting for him, but that is the thing – throughout the experience of reading or watching Power Rangers, put yourself in the Rangers’ heads; you will always be bothered by the fact that the lack of acknowledgment is not going to stop him.
He remained powerful even in his defeat, and that says A LOT.