I was right, these guys were the Emissaries. It's yet to be seen if 3 of them fall to the dark side and become the Empyreals, but it's a non-zero possibility. And one way or another we need to see what became of the other 3, since they NEVER showed up before.
Also, I have to wonder if the Dairanger suits were actually THEIRS or if there's still another team in the future that uses them properly. All the other suits were from some future team. And these New Power suits weren't really treated as all that special when they showed up on Super Megaforce (mind you there's...several good reasons for that...one being they had "never been seen before on this planet"...which is NOT TRUE ANYMORE).
Which brings us to the biggest reveal, and probably the one most people will have a problem with...The Morphin Master's homeworld is actually Earth in the FAR past. This...is consistent with what Hasbro ALWAYS does, giving GREAT COSMIC IMPORTANCE to things that...don't really need it. But, it does give us a reason why aliens are ALWAYS attacking Earth, since it's flooded with "positive" Morphin Energy and is the only gateway into the Morphin Grid, which Dark Specter NEEDS in order to destroy it. But, yeah, this is Optimus is the Thirteenth or Twilight is a Alicorn all over again.
We'll have to wait and see how the fandom reacts to this. Overall... I hate to say it but this mini was a little weak. I didn't really care for this style of art in this particular context., the color is a little too heavy on "chalky" tones and the linework is not really detailed enough to really make all the costumes stand out. And the characters never really got a chance to show us their personalities. Which...might have been on purpose, given that they were going to become the Emissaries, and they've always been mostly personality-less blobs of mystery. Finally getting a origin for the Phantom Ranger is nice after all these years and some of the art with Dark Specter taking over Phantom was actually kind of cool. I don't even really mind the "Earth is SUPER SPECIAL" reveal, myself. Still, I wish the Emissaries could have gotten fleshed out just a little bit more so it's more "tragic" when they eventually lose themselves in their new roles.
