Power Rangers Villains: Ranking the Top 5

After 10,000 Years, These Power Rangers Villains Are Free! It’s Time to Conquer Earth!

For more than thirty years, the Power Rangers have defended Earth from demons, aliens, robots, demonic alien robots, and space ninjas. Foot soldiers are a dime a dozen, monsters are forgettable, but the villains steal the show.

Power Ranger Villains are the most over-the-top baddies ever to chew the scenery. Many simply chuck a monster and some mooks at the Rangers, then call it a day. Not these five. They enter the battlefield themselves and wreak havoc. So who are the Top 5 Power Ranger Villains? Let’s find out.

Honorable Mention: Lord Drakkon

Series: Power Rangers (Boom! Studios)
Played By: Jason David Frank

Power Rangers was given new life in Boom Studios’ comic adaptation. The series dove deeper into the characters and gave serious consequences to their actions. Of course, a darker universe needs a darker Power Ranger villain.

Lord Drakkon is an alternate version of the Green Ranger, Tommy Oliver. He was freed from Rita Repulsa’s mind control like his counterpart, but chose to join her side. The Green Ranger served as her vanguard and stole the White Ranger powers, combining them into a hybrid form that he named Lord Drakkon, who defeated the Rangers, assassinated Rita, and took control of her empire.

Lord Drakkon discovered the multiverse and learned that he is the only evil incarnation of Tommy. That revelation broke the despot, who began a multiversal war to become a god by stealing Ranger powers. Lord Drakkon ultimately succeeded and created his ideal world, but lost his powers when the main universe’s Tommy defeated him.

Merging the Green and White Ranger powers made Lord Drakkon stronger than most Rangers. He wields swords from both forms and leads an army of pseudo-Rangers equipped with weapons that disrupt Morphers. Lord Drakkon overloaded his powers with eighteen more Ranger forms, giving him god-like powers despite constant pain and lapses in self-control.

#5 Power Ranger Villain: Venjix

Series: Power Rangers: RPM
Voiced By: Andrew Liang

Earth has fought off many Power Rangers villains. It was almost clockwork: a new empire invades, new Rangers rise, fight fight fight until the day is saved. Not this time. This Power Rangers villain won.

Dr. K was a child genius abducted by a mysterious organization called Alphabet Soup. She discovered they’d been lying to her about an allergy to sunlight for years so she would continue making weapons. Dr. K. created a self-replicating, evolving computer virus called Venjix to disable Alphabet’s security, but she was recaptured before she could put up a firewall, leading to Vinjix’s escape.

Venjix crashed the world economy and communications systems, then hacked into defense systems and went full Skynet with armies of robotic soldiers. After three years of genocide, only the domed city Corinth remained. Venjix’s full army was unable to breach the dome, but generals kept finding weak spots to slip through before being destroyed by the Power Rangers.

Venjix was impossible to kill because he could upload his code to new robotic bodies. The Rangers eventually defeated him through their own computer virus and destroyed his final body. None of them noticed that Venjix had uploaded his data to one of the RPM Rangers’ morpher.

Years later, a science experiment unknowingly reawakened that program. Venjix’s data merged with Morphin’ Grid energy and snake DNA to become a living computer virus called Evox. He battled the Beast Morpher Rangers while stealing energy to create a new body. They fatally corrupted his data by infusing human DNA into Evox’s body, delivered via the anti-virus technique of “hit it with a sword.” 

#4 Trakeena

Series: Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy
Played By: Amy Miller, Jennifer Burns

Villains always have the upper hand. They need it because their role is the obstacle that the heroes must overcome. But not every villain starts on top. This Power Rangers villain grew from a spoiled princess into an unstoppable threat.

Trakeena was the daughter of insect-like warlord Scorpius. Her father learned about powerful artifacts protected by the Power Rangers called the Quasar Sabers and the Lights of Orion. She fought the Rangers to steal them, but was much weaker than monsters and foot soldiers. Trakeena refused her father’s orders to enter an “evolution cocoon” and become stronger because it would corrupt her beauty.

Trakeena ran away and studied under a dark warrior named Villamax to become a warlord. She returned to find Scorpius dying from a battle with the Rangers and swore to avenge him as the new Big Bad.

She was eventually forced into the cocoon by her father’s general, but dragged him in with her. They fused into a much more powerful Trakeena with none of her former virtues. She launched a final attack on the Rangers’ home with her minions transformed into suicide bombers. Trakeena murdered Villamax when he refused to kill innocents and implicitly killed hundreds of civilians, but died in battle with the Red Ranger.

Demons resurrected Trakeena during a crossover with Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue. She began kidnapping humans and absorbing their life force to strengthen herself. When the tide turned against the villains, the demons betrayed Trakeena, transforming her into a gargantuan, mindless monster. Both teams of Rangers combined their weapons to finally destroy her.

#3 Power Ranger Villain: Ransik

Series: Power Rangers: Time Force
Played By: Vernon Wells

Power Rangers Villains aren’t deep. They want to conquer or destroy Earth or become gods by stealing some artifact of infinite power. But sometimes, they have a real cause to fight for. This Power Ranger villain is a firebrand.

Ransik was a mutant terrorist from the year 3000. He was captured by Time Force and imprisoned for life. Ransik was rescued by his daughter Nadira, murdered the Red Time Force Ranger, and used a time machine to escape into the past with Time Force hot on his trail.

The mutant criminals wreaked havoc, Ransik alternating between fighting for mutant supremacy and taking revenge on humans for the racism he had endured. Ransik may sound familiar, but he was an executioner’s axe compared to Magneto’s saber-rattling.

Ransik depended on a regenerative medicine to control his mutation’s side effects. It didn’t exist in the past and he eventually ran out, forcing a final battle so he could take the Rangers down with him. Ransik devastated the Rangers and almost won until he accidentally hurt Nadira in the crossfire. He surrendered to Time Force and was given an opportunity to be rehabilitated in the future.

#2 The Psycho Rangers

Series: Power Rangers: in Space
Played By: Patrick David, Michael Maize, Wally Wingert, Kamera Walton, Vicki Davis

The Power Rangers have destroyed thousands of monsters. It’s no exaggeration to say they’re the strongest warriors in their universe. So why rely on Power Ranger villains to stop them when you can send in villainous Power Rangers?

The Psycho Rangers were created by Astronema, Princess of Evil, who resurrected five warriors she had murdered. Her corrupted Psycho Rangers were were infused with single minded obsession and hatred for their counterparts. Each one was stronger, faster, and smarter than their respective Ranger and could read their minds and download their fighting styles.

The Power Rangers were outgunned and had to outsmart the evil Rangers. Luckily, the Psycho Rangers were awful at teamwork and could be manipulated by their obsessive nature. The Power Rangers picked them off one by one. 

Unfortunately for the heroes, the Psycho Rangers could be resurrected by data cards containing their minds. They revived many times to fight the Rangers. Psycho Pink had the honor of murdering the first Power Ranger onscreen when she killed her Galaxy counterpart.

The Psycho Rangers were recently resurrected by an unknown Psycho Green. They kidnapped Astronema to lead them, unaware that she had reformed since they had died. She slowly taught them to be more than weapons, transforming the Psycho Rangers into anti-heroes. Astronema destroyed the data cards, ensuring that this would be their final life, and left the Psycho Rangers so they could find their own path.

#1 Lord Zedd

Series: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Power Rangers: Cosmic Fury
Played By: Robert Axelrod, Andrew Laing

Rita Repulsa is the most famous Power Rangers villain, but she had a terrible track record against the Rangers. When Mighty Morphin Power Rangers shifted to original fight scenes instead of stock footage, the producers saw a golden opportunity to introduce the best Power Rangers villain.

Lord Zedd is an Emperor of Evil and Rita’s superior. He was outraged by her constant failures and replaced her as the Big Bad. Zedd destroyed the Rangers’ Zords, forcing them to develop new powers. His initial onslaught devolved into the status quo. Parents complained that Lord Zedd was too scary and the writers softened the character, even having him marry Rita.

Zedd was the strongest foe the Power Rangers faced. They never defeated him in direct combat and couldn’t oppose his own world-destroying Zord, Serpenterra. Lord Zedd joined the United Alliance of Evil and waged war on the universe until the Rangers’ mentor Zordon sacrificed himself to destroy the Alliance. Ironically, Zedd and Rita’s love caused the “Z-Wave” to purify them and transformed the lovers into humans.

The Z-Wave wasn’t a permanent fix. Lord Zedd’s darkness reconstituted years later, now free from all morals. He waged a one-man war on Earth, capturing every Ranger aside from the Cosmic Fury team. He absorbed many power sources to become the all-powerful Master Zedd. The Cosmic Fury Rangers learned Zedd’s philosophy and talked him into relinquishing his power. They trapped the now weakened Zedd in a reformative illusion for eternity with a fake, nagging Rita Repulsa.

What is your favorite Power Rangers villain? Did yours miss our list? Tell us in the comments.

Image courtesy of Boom! Studios

Jared Bounacos

Jared Bounacos has written for Movie Rewind since 2016.