Mighty Morphin Power Rangers' Melissa Flores Reveals Darkest Hour Details, Teases Big Returns and New Rangers

The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers franchise is celebrating its 30th Anniversary all year long, and next on the horizon lies the Rangers' most daunting test yet. Later this year writer Melissa Flores, artist Simon Di Gianfelice, colorist Raul Angulo, and letterer Ed Dukeshire will kick off the next epic event in the franchise in a storyline titled Darkest Hour. It will begin in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #111, and the odds certainly seem to be against the Rangers and their allies. ComicBook.com had the chance to speak with Flores about the anticipated event, and she teased several new details about the story and a few surprises along the way, including bringing back fan favorites, new Rangers, and more.

"We're going into an event called The Darkest Hour, and that is what the first 10 issues lead towards this moment called The Darkest Hour," Flores said. "And it is been teased what this is, which is Rita is on this war path to access the grid and bring back Dark Specter. That is her goal. And everything that she has been doing up until this moment has been in anticipation and in pursuit of that goal."

"Until this point, the Rangers have been one step behind this whole time and they're trying their best, but because they don't have all this information, they're not as successful as they could be. And she's just so dang powerful," Flores said.

"So what you're seeing is a bunch of different chess pieces being put on the board in different places, and that is where these Unlimited books have come in, where you see the Drakkon story written by Adam Cesare, where you see the HyperForce Story. These are completely different stories that are out of my main series, but have very specific ties and ramifications for what happens in the main series," Flores said.

This is a 30th-anniversary event that I'm working really hard to hopefully celebrate the franchise in a really fun way, but in a really dark way because Rita is in pursuit of a very dangerous goal and it's going to affect the Morphin Grid and affect the Rangers in a way that hasn't necessarily happened before," Flores said. "And that's what we're doing. We're doing really fun stuff like that, bringing back fan-favorite characters, finding ways to weave them organically into the story, and creating new Rangers or new villains or however we want to do it in a way that feels satisfying but not overwhelming. That's the goal."

Darkest Hour will continue to build in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and Power Rangers Unlimited: Call to Darkness will be one of the big tie-ins to the grand story. You can find the official description for Call to Darkness below.

"AN UNEXPECTED NEW TEAM OF POWER RANGERS ARRIVE! As if the medium-spanning, fan-favorite villain Drakkon wasn't enough of a threat, Mistress Vile has special plans, ones that will bring the Rangers' greatest foe into our world!

But this scheming isn't without consequences for Drakkon, and he'll have to take a page from the book of Zordon if he wants the world of the Coinless to survive. But who would be unhinged enough to join his team? As if they have a choice...

Meanwhile, the HyperForce Rangers must do everything they can-including gathering any available and unexpected allies from every corner of the multiverse as they battle against Mistress Vile and Dark Specter's spreading infection of the Morphin Grid!

Acclaimed Dead Mall and Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance writer Adam Cesare teams up with Mighty Morphin artist Moisés Hidalgo to present the last Rangers anyone would want to be... that fans didn't know they needed! Collects Power Rangers Unlimited: The Coinless #1 and Power Rangers Unlimited: HyperForce #1."

Are you excited for Darkest Hour? Let us know in the comments or as always you can talk all things Power Rangers with me on Twitter @MattAguilarCB!