The 12 Best 'Power Rangers' Villains In Morphin' History (2024)

The Green Ranger

First Appearance: “Green With Evil, Part 1: Out of Control”

Special Powers: Strength, energy blasts, dragonzord

Memorable Line: “To the fall of Zordon and the destruction of the Power Rangers!”

Power Rangers, meet your match. Rita Repulsa’s most successful scheme was that of creating the Green Ranger. Seeing potential in transfer student Tommy Oliver after a martial arts tournament, Rita enchants him with one of her spells and grants him the Dragon Power Coin, turning him into the Green Ranger.

The Green Ranger is superior to your standard issue Power Ranger in every way. Not only is he stronger, he also has the ability to attack with energy blasts from his hands. Apart from having a sword and dagger, his Dragon Flute calls forth the Dragonzord, which has the capabilities to go toe-to-toe with the Megazord and only requires one ranger to pilot it. Even that is optional. The Dragonzord is fully operational remotely, too.

As for fashion sense, that gold chest shield and triangle motif on the Green Ranger’s boots and gloves makes him stylin’ and profilin’ in a way that only the best villains can pull off.

Over the Green Ranger introductory five episode arc he bests all five Power Rangers, puts Zordon out of commission, destroys the Command Center, and downloads a virus to Alpha 5. Later, with the help of Goldar and Scorpina, he disposes of the Megazord by dropping it into Earth’s core. Outside of the suit, as Tommy Oliver, you break the Pink Ranger Kimberly Ann Hart’s heart.

The Green Ranger is eventually freed from Rita’s spell. With his agency back, Tommy decides to join the team, eventually becoming the White Ranger, to atone for his past transgressions.

Rita Repulsa

First Appearance: “Day of the Dumpster”

Special Powers: Sorcery, magic wand

Memorable Line: “Aaaah! After 10,000 years I’m free! It’s time to conquer Earth!”

The Power Rangers’ first formidable foe, Rita is nothing short of remarkable. After escaping from a space dumpster she has been entombed in for millennia, Rita gets right back on that world domination horse and doesn’t look back. With the aid of her underlings, Rita produces near weekly raids on the planet, keeping her old nemesis Zordon and his high school wards on their toes, sending wave after wave of Putties and monsters for them to dispose of - sometimes while stuck in detention.

Not one to get in the trenches herself, Rita delegates. And who can blame her? She has no shortage of minions on hand so why not put them to good use? She lends her sorcery skills out to her monsters liberally, regularly giving them trinkets and devices to enhance their powers, or tossing her magic wand at them so they grow the size of skyscrapers.

Furthermore, Rita is portrayed perfectly by Japanese actor Machiko Soga. Combined with the voice of Barbra Goodson, they create one of the most memorable kids television villains of all time.

Ivan Ooze

First Appearance: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie

Special Powers: Durability, ooze manipulation

Memorable Line: “I feel big again.”

Imprisoned for 6,000 years in an underground egg, released at the hands of Rita and Zedd, Ivan Ooze seeks to take control of the world with his army of oozemen. He uses his powers to breach the Rangers’ Command Center and proceeds to demolish it, all the while severely weakening Alpha 5 and fatally injuring Zordon. This renders the Power Rangers unable to morph or call upon their Zords.

Where Ooze gets real villain points is after rendering the Power Rangers useless, he zips off to the moon to trap Rita and Zedd in a snowglobe. Ivan then puts the parents of Angel’s Grove to work digging up parts of his Ecto-Morphicons (Ooze’s version of the Rangers’ Zords). When their work is completed, he dismisses the parents by telling them to march off a cliff like lemmings.

Of course, Ivan Ooze is eventually bested when the Rangers fire up the new Ninja Falcon-Megazord and take the fight to outer space. And even then, it’s only with the aid of a passing comet that Ooze finally meets his doom. Ivan Ooze may not have gotten a lot of screen time, but the time he gets he fills with villainy.

Lord Zedd

First Appearance: “The Mutiny”

Special Powers: Immortality, super strength, lightning creation and manipulation

Memorable Line: “I am Lord Zedd, emperor of all I see. You have failed to complete the mission assigned to you. I will now resume command. Prepare the palace for my return.”

The self-proclaimed Emperor of Evil, Lord Zedd’s actions more than back that up. Disgusted by Rita Repulsa’s inability to wipe out a quintet of teenagers and claim Earth for the Evil Space Aliens, he shrinks her down and imprisons her in a new space dumpster, and launches her off into space. Zedd continues to clean house. Finster’s monster molds are no longer needed and he is relegated to some backroom in the palace. Goldar, knowing he’s bested, grovels at his new master’s feet. Zedd isn’t afraid to let his underlings know his feelings, which is more often than not disappointed.

Zedd wastes no time leaving his mark on the series. Right out of the gate, he lays waste to the Dinozords. Next on Zedd’s to-do list is draining the Green Ranger, the strongest member of the team, of his powers. And after the introduction of the morphinomenal Thunderzords that replace the Dinozords, Zedd enters the Zord arms race with Serpentera, whose sheer size and power dwarfs its contemporaries.

Zedd’s biggest blindspot is putting strength above all else. When he soups up the Putties with his own patented design, he dooms them from the start by placing their Achilles heel smack dab on their chest and denoting it with a circled “Z” - basically, a target for any teenage martial arts fanatics to lay a bicycle kick into. The same fate befalls Serpentera. Even Zedd falls victim to burn out, as he is forced into his Centennial Energy Recharge mid-conquest, leaving the door open for Rita to return and get her revenge by putting a love spell on him.

First Appearance: “Rangers Gone Psycho”

Special Powers: Faster, smarter, and stronger than the Power Rangers. But evil.

Memorable Line: “We’re the Psycho Rangers.” “We’re faster than you.” “Smarter than you.” Stronger than you.” “But we’re evil!”

There have been doppelgänger Rangers before, but never quite this evil. Created by Astronema, the Psycho Rangers each have a fighting style that is unbeatable by their goodie two shoes counterparts, the Space Rangers.

Like so many of the Power Rangers' villains, if their higher ups would just let the Psycho Rangers work, they could defeat their counterparts and move on with plans for domination. Unfortunately, Astronema keeps calling them away right as they are about to deliver the killing blow. Eventually, their obsession with defeating the Space Rangers gets the best of the Psychos, and they start working individually rather than as a team. This leads to the demise of Psycho Pink and Psycho Blue. With those two gone, the rest of the Psycho dominoes fall as well.

First Appearance: “Day of the Dino”

Special Powers: Laser vision, monster creation

Memorable Line: “What ever gave you the idea that you could get away with betraying me?”

When scientist Anton Mercer is tinkering around with dinosaur DNA, all hell breaks loose and he accidentally transforms himself into the dinosaur-humanoid, Mesogog. Following this thread to its logical, natural progression, his next step is to rule the planet and turn humans into dinosaurs, of course.

What makes Mesogog so interesting is that Anton Mercer’s mind is still in his body. Both are aware of the other and neither seems particularly pleased to be living in the same shared space with the other. Mercer doesn’t like his counterpart’s actions and Mesogog doesn’t like being held back by Mercer’s conscience. When Mesogog is finally freed from the burden of his human half, he becomes more sad*stic and unstable. With his arrogance and narcissism unchecked, it ultimately leads to his extinction.

Part of what makes Mesogog so great is how the tenor in the room changes when he’s on screen. He doesn’t shout his lines like so many of the villains. He chooses his words wisely, methodically, and nearly in a whisper.

In short, Mesogog is a ruthless villain with personality to spare. Quite possibly because he has two of them.