Combo Rangers

Combo Rangers

Author(s) Fabio Yabu
Website http://www.comborangers.com.br/
Launch date 1998
End date 2005
Publisher(s) Editora JBC
Panini Comics
Genre(s) parody, manga, super sentai

Combo Rangers is a series of Webcomics created in 1998 by Japanese-Brazilian author Fábio Yabu. It is clearly based on Super Sentai series (having started off as a parody, then developing more serious storylines, though without losing the comic vein), featuring five main rangers (Red, blue, green, pink and yellow) and an extra, white one. Also, they are led by O Poderoso Combo (The Mighty Combo, whom the Rangers call Tio Combo, or Uncle Combo in English), and fight against several forms of evil. They are self-nominated "the ones who fight in the name of love and justice". Combo Rangers have won the HQ Mix Award three times.[1]

History

The story is set in a fictional city called Cidade City (literally "City City"). The city is located in a fictional universe called "Yabuverso" (literally "Yabuverse"). Initially, Poderoso Combo was the responsible for saving the city and the world from all kind of evil, but his powers were harming his health, so he was forced to retire. Therefore, he has recruited five kids (all of them were about nine years old) to battle against General Monte, who was coming from space. As time passes in the real world, so does the time in the story, meaning that all the characters grew up. In the last season, they were featured as teenagers. Also, beyond being superheroes, they have also to handle with school, home and family, while trying to keep their superheroes lives in secret. They are not the only superheroes, though: they are members of ASH, the Association of Super Heroes (Associação de Super-Heróis) which is home to several other superheroes.

The series was featured on the net until 2003, when it was cancelled. It was also printed as comics in 2000. In 2004, Yabu decided to stop writing the comic, to focus only on his book "Princesas do Mar" (Sea Princesses). The book has been a success and therefore Yabu has released two sequels.

In December 2012, Yabu ran a crowdfunding project on the website Catarse.me to release a new Combo Rangers story as a graphic novel.[2] The funding was successful and the book was released in 2013 in Brazil.[3]

Seasons

On the net

Printed as comics

Characters

Abilities

The Combo Rangers battles are based on hand-to-hand combat. They can also fire shots by the edge of their index fingers, using the "bang bang" gesture (like Yusuke Urameshi firing his Reigan in Yu Yu Hakusho). Later on the series, they earn the ability to fly. Basically, their power works by simply multiplying their human forces many times.

Yabuverso

Yabuverso is the fictional universe where all the stories take place. It means literally "Yabuverse" in English, since it's a word play with the name of the creator, Yabu, and universe. Many names of locations and characters are references to many other fictional characters from other series.

The Yabuverse is very similar to the universe where real humans live, and Earth's counterpart is identical (and also called Earth), except for the existence of superheroes and supervillains. Other notable difference is, for instance, the presence of only four fingers in the human hands, instead of five.

The Earth in the Yabuverse is frequently attacked by aliens, and that's basically what the superheroes are for. Some aliens, though, decided to settle on earth and are even working and raising a family, although that's considered illegal.

Notable planets and locations

Toobaine

Toobaine's name is a reference to a famous Brazilian soft drink called Tubaína. This is the land of Mago Syros and his disciples, the Go Go Riders. Toobaine was accustomed to live in peace, until Syros' daughter Cristal (Crystal) died. From that moment on, Syros self-isolated from the world, and the Go Go Riders had to defend the planet alone, until Syros was brought to social life again by the Combo Rangers.

Yabusei

Another word play using the cartoonist's name, Yabu, and the name of the fictional planet Namekkusei, land to the Namekians of the Dragon Ball Z series. The planet is home to the yabuseijins (which all have identical bodies and faces). Notable yabuseijins include Spectroseven, the warrior of Love, and Japonaro Kido

Kururusei

Land to the kururuseijins and to the villain Kururu. The Kururuseijins are a conqueror race, who had dominated many planets of the Yabuverso. They were defeated by Ken and Tati who were working together with the yabuseijins to defeat the kururuseijins. Kururu slightly remembers the digital monster Impmon, from the Tamers season.

Oreo

Oreo is an extinguished planet, were Deck was born and brought up. As Oreo was extremely advanced on technology, many Oreans managed to escape before the planet was destroyed.

Império Deskarga

It means Flush Empire (although flush is actually written "Descarga" in Portuguese). It is a planetary system formed by 14 planets, which are named DS-1 to DS-14. Each planet plays a different role to the system. DS-1 is the center of operations, DS-2 is responsible for all military operations, and so on. DS-2 is where Agamenon Monte Pereira, also known as General Monte was born.

Biriguisei

Again a word play involving Namekkusei, but this time with the name of Brazilian municipality Birigüi. Biriguisei is only 45 cm wide, but has billions of inhabitants. It was saved from destruction by scientist Hugo Hungria, who fused with the planet to become Homem Planeta.

Cidade City

Cidade means "city" in Portuguese. It is a town located on Earth where most of the events of the story take place. All the rangers live there, and so do most of their enemies. The city is very large, populous, and modern. That's the place where ASH, the Associação de Super-Heróis (Association of Super Heroes) is headquartered.

References

  1. ↑ Universo Mangá
  2. ↑ http://catarse.me/pt/comborangers
  3. ↑ Naranjo, Marcelo. Evento de lançamento de Combo Rangers – Somos Heróis,em São Paulo. http://www.universohq.com/noticias/evento-lancamento-combo-rangers-herois-sao-paulo/ September 10, 2013. Access on October 19, 2013

External links