At Random

Faces of Evil
The Many Villains of Power Rangers Part 1

Power Rangers is a series that should be familiar with just about everyone growing up during the nineties. Many kids fell in love with the colorful costumes and the slick karate moves. Each child had a favorite Ranger that they wanted to be for halloween. Well I never quite liked the Rangers. In fact, the only time I was a fan of a ranger, was when he/she was under the villains spell fighting against his comrades. The truth is I always gravitated toward the villains of the show, which Power Rangers had plenty of. There have been a fair amount of silly, demented, and even downright terrifying baddies whose presence only made the series that much more enjoyable. After all, what is a hero without a villain? Considering I have seen a fair share of the Power Ranger seasons (more than a sane person should anyway), I thought I would share my personal thoughts on these wicked menaces. Everything I say here should be taken with a grain of salt as I in no way suggest that you begin taking this show (even its villains)seriously. This is simply me giving my appreciation to a show that bestowed upon me many fond memories.

Mighty Morphing Power Rangers

Rita Repulsa – The first series baddie was Rita. With a wicked head of hair, a cone bra, and a voice that could shatter glass, Rita was memorable for all the wrong reasons. Every week she would attempt the same plan of sending a monster to Angel Grove and every week the Power Rangers would defeat it, usually resulting in Rita suffering a headache. In fact, her constant failures lead to the introduction of the next villain….





Lord Zedd – Whoa! Did this guy look scary. Was this really a villain meant for a kid’s show? His brain and muscles are showing! Zedd started out as a serious threat, banishing Rita, banging up the Rangers, and coming close several times to conquering the world. Then the inevitable happened; mothers everywhere complained that he was too scary and demanded he be toned down and that is exactly what Fox did. Fox went so far as to have him Marry Rita of all people, reducing him to a grumpy husband. Poor Zedd really deserved better.




Ivan Ooze – For their first movie, the Rangers needed a larger than life threat and Ivan was just that. Wickedly clever and immensely powerful, he destroyed the Rangers home, stole their powers, and took control of their city; all in the span of a few hours. He even handed Rita and Zedd their backsides just to show who the true “Master of Disaster” was.








Power Rangers Zeo

Master Vile – This multi-headed freakshow is the father of Rita and slightly less useless. Vile was under the impression that Zedd was the reason for Rita’s constant failures, so he insisted that he would capture the Earth for his little girl. Well at least Zedd lasted longer than a couple of months. This guy showed promise in the beginning, challenging the Rangers head on but quickly retreated when he couldn’t get the job done.



The Machine Empire – Led by the Royal House of Gadgetry, these bots quickly took over Zedd’s living space and brought the fight to the Rangers. Sadly, they never lived up to their potential. As machines, you would think they could just rebuild their fallen soldiers stronger than before, but I guess they were too busy bickering with Rita and Zedd to think of that.




Power Rangers Turbo

Maligore – What powers did this guy have besides being giant? I don’t know why anyone would go out of their way to free him considering how weak he turned out to be.





Divatox – As her name would suggest, this empress of evil was a full on diva. She wanted the spotlight on her at all times. Divatox didn’t even really care about the rangers so much as she just wanted to conquer the Earth to prove she could. It was a bit strange that a diva acted as the leader of space pirates but Power Rangers never made much sense to begin with( thinking about it now, not too many shows from that era did).





Power Rangers in Space

The United Alliance of Evil – With the final season to the original series, the writers decided to throw together every villain featured so far (with the exception of those who appeared in the movies)and give them a common goal of destroying the rangers. Strangely, this group did not play a huge role as the main villains of the season, rather two new arch fiends were introduced as the true leaders behind the previous villains, challenging the Rangers themselves in a bid to conquer not just the Earth but the Universe itself.


Dark Specter – Wait….havent we seen this beast before? He looks just like Maligore. Even Divatox notices the similarities. The only difference is that this guy can talk. For a being that is supposed to be the “Monarch of Evil”, he really didn’t do much besides bark out orders. Heck, he didn’t even fight the Rangers. Why was everyone so afraid of him? When I first saw him I remember thinking, “Don’t take that from him Zedd! Use your staff and blast this chump back to whatever sad part of the universe spawned him! Where is your dignity?” At least when he bit the dust, his second in command was a more than suitable replacement.

Astronema – Wow, was this gal evil. In her first appearance she did more than any villain that preceded her. She actually took down the Rangers and would have finished them if it weren’t for her lousy no good brother and his little dog too (OK, I made up the part about the dog). Still, she wasn’t even afraid to fight the Rangers. Astronema had a personality that was a mix between a serial killer and a child. She couldn’t decide if she wanted to kill the Rangers or play with them. Her crowning achievement would have to be using the United Alliance of Evil to nearly conquer the Universe, defeating several of the past seasons Rangers in the process. I have to give the writers credit for creating a serious villain that was actually able to best the Rangers on more than one occasion.