[This review covers both volumes of Beyond The Grid, Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers Volumes 9 and 10]
After Shattered Grid, it was hard to know where Power Rangers was going to go. With the Grid (kinda) repaired, and everything (also kinda) back to normal, what is there to worry about? So instead of focusing on Earth, we follow a ragtag group of Rangers who escaped into the Morphin' Grid aboard the Promethea, and their adventures....Beyond The Grid!
Which is a good idea in theory. In practise, it's a little wishywashy. I think the main problem is that the characters that are thrown together are all from disparate Ranger teams, most of which I personally have never seen before. While I could appreciate using Shattered Grid to bring everyone together, shifting the focus away from the main Mighty Morphin' team for these guys and girls feels like a misstep, and it's not as much fun when you don't really know who everyone is or why they are the way they are.
Thankfully the rest of the plot's pretty solid. The idea of a dimension separated from the (supposedly all-encompassing) Morphin' Grid is explored well, and the new characters and villains thrown at the team feel fleshed out and complete by the end of the story. Writer Marguerite Bennett has some interesting musings on the nature of Morphin' Energy and what makes a Ranger that ring true for a Power Ranger story, but it's still quite difficult to reconcile when you're not very well acquainted with the main team.
Oh, and the art's fantastic; Simone Di Meo pencils all but one of the nine issue arc, and it's beautiful from top to bottom. The sweeping vistas of space, the personal moments aboard the Promethea, and the Ranger battles are all wonderful to behold.
Beyond The Grid was a good experiment, but I feel it would have worked better as a separate story, rather than taking over the main MMPR series. It's worth reading, and you'll probably get more out of it if your Ranger knowledge extends beyond the original few series, but otherwise a lot of the emotional beats don't land the way they should.