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There are real medieval Power Rangers vibes coming from DC's new superhero team Children of the Round Table

Tom Taylor and Daniele DiNicuolo's C.O.R.T.: Children of the Round Table brings a familiar sense of friendship and color evocative of Power Rangers

An image of Bengal's variant for C.O.R.T. #3 from DC Comics
Image credit: DC Comics

I'm a '90s baby, so Power Rangers has a special place in my heart. I am pretty sure every shot of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers movie from 1995 is burned into me on a cellular level. Like if you were to do a biopsy on my skin cells and look at them under a microscope, you would just see the same purple goo that Ivan Ooze emerges out of. But I digress. 

Because I was forged in the Power Rangers mines of the '90s, I think that every generation of kids should have a piece of media centered around a group of pals with color-coordinated powers and/or weapons, fighting against the forces of evil that threaten the world. While my generation had Power Rangers, this current generation is lucky enough to have Tom Taylor and Daniele DiNicuolo's C.O.R.T.: Children of the Round Table. 

The premise of Children of the Round Table is as follows: a group of kids in Los Angeles on an outdoor adventure come across a mysterious boulder with a sword sticking out of it. When one of the pals goes to grab the sword from the stone, it splits into 7 different weapons, each a different color. Each weapon then bonds with an individual kid, and the story goes on from there. It's a story that, to me, struck me as a fusion of classic fantasy stories with the color-coordinated action and friendship of Power Rangers. 

Mattia De Iulis' variant cover for C.O.R.T. #2
Image credit: DC Comics

When I interviewed Tom Taylor about C.O.R.T., I told him that his and DiNicuolo's comic gave me "fantasy Power Rangers" vibes.

"That's a really good take which I hadn't actually thought of, and I've written Justice League/Power Rangers. But you’re absolutely right, they are a team," says Taylor. "And so when you’re writing something that you really do want to be for everybody, like we want adults to read this book and love it, but we really want this book to be accessible for everybody. We want this to be the book that every massive comics fan goes, ‘I will get something for my niece and my nephew or my kid or my friend’s kids.’ I want this to be their gateway into the greatest storytelling medium on the planet with C.O.R.T." 

I've read the first two issues of C.O.R.T., and my favorite part from what I've read thus far is how the kids communicate with their weapons. The weapons themselves have their own personalities, and seeing these ancient objects interface with kids in the 21st century is an utter delight. Because ultimately, as much as I do love Power Rangers (and was super disappointed to discover that being a teenager didn't involve skydiving with your best buds), it's different seeing a bunch of grade school kids working together to fight evil. In this sense, I really wish I had had C.O.R.T. when I was a kid, as the basic storytelling DNA that it and Power Rangers share would have been more accessible to me because I would've been the same age as the characters in C.O.R.T.

Currently, C.O.R.T. is set to be a 6-issue miniseries, but Taylor said that if the fan reception for the book is enthusiastic enough, he and DiNicuolo have future plans for the characters in C.O.R.T. Seeing how Power Rangers lore has expanded, particularly in the comics from BOOM! Studios, I would love to see C.O.R.T. get the same treatment from DC and make the same impact that Power Rangers did for me when I was young on kids today. 

C.O.R.T.: Children of the Round Table #1 will be released on September 10. 


Get ready for what's next with our guide to upcoming comics, how to buy comics at a comic shop, and our guide to Free Comic Book Day 2025.  

 

Jules Chin Greene

Jules Chin Greene: Jules Chin Greene is a journalist and Jack Kirby enthusiast. He has written about comics, video games, movies, and television for sites such as Nerdist, AIPT, and Multiverse of Color.

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