Mighty Morphin Power Rangers

If you grew up in the '90s, no one was cooler than the Power Rangers. Not even Batman.

Set in the fictional small town of Angel Grove, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers followed the adventures of five average teenagers who could transform into rainbow-hued champions of justice. Using the powers of ancient dinosaurs, these superheroes battled it out against the boisterous Rita Repulsa and her envoy of evil space aliens.

Chosen for their pluck and attitude, the original Rangers consisted of five core members. The team's level-headed leader was martial artist Jason Lee Scott, who summoned the power of the Tyrannosaurus Rex to transform into the Red Ranger. Billy Cranston, the brains of the team, became the Blue Ranger by using the power of the Triceratops. Gymnast and total valley girl Kimberly Hart used the power of the Pterodactyl to morph into the Pink Ranger. Zack Taylor was the hip-hop dancing prankster of the group, who called on the power of the Mastodon to become the Black Ranger. The final member of this team was environmentalist Trini Kwan, who used her kung fu prowess to kick butt as the Yellow Ranger. Her power came from the Sabretooth Tiger. The team would eventually grow to include a sixth member, the Green Ranger. Originally brainwashed into being a villain, Tommy Oliver was granted powers from the Dragon and later the White Tiger. Tommy would eventually become the group's leader following the departure of Jason, Trini and Zack in the show's second season.

For those in the know, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was produced using footage from the iconic Japanese franchise known as Super Sentai. The first couple of seasons were very loosely based off of Zyuranger, taking the battle footage and villains then setting it to an all new narrative. At the time, Power Rangers was a groundbreaking series. Though it drew the ire of parents for its "violence" and is generally derisively looked upon for being campy, it presented young children with positive role models and a more diversified glimpse at superheroes. After the largely white-washed children's programming of the '80s, the Power Rangers were a breath of fresh air with its more diversified cast of heroes. Controversy about the Yellow and Black designations aside, it paved the way for other television series to include characters of colour as part of the main cast. On the superhero front, it was also ahead of most other programming. Batman featured a predominantly white cast and as did Spider-Man, though X-Men blazed a trail all its own with a cast that included a fierce African-American weather-wielding diva and a spunky Asian-American teen sidekick. Fun fact: Super Sentai was the primary inspiration behind Sailor Moon.

Speaking personally, the Power Rangers were a staple of my childhood. Though I never seemed to catch the seasons in their entirety, I collected the toys and plucked myself down at the television every weekend to catch their adventures. Now that I'm older, I've made a conscious effort to re-watch all of the series within the franchise from the beginning on Netflix. Since I started with the OG Rangers, I ended up drawing a piece of that original line-up. It was a challenging task, but I was glad to see some turnout amongst you guys in support of these drawings. Trini's piece in particular racked up quite a few favourites on here, while also pulling out a few retweets on Twitter and likes on Instagram. When it came time to put them all together, I decided to whip up the Green Ranger. These days I like to include a little something extra for ensemble pieces, since I consider it an added incentive for favouriting the piece even if you'd favourited the individual ones.

All that said, I'm interested to know who your favourites were of the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and why. Beyond that, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this piece.

For those interested, I should mention that I've reviewed Mighty Morphin Power Rangers on my blog and the links to those reviews can be found below.

Review: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Season 1 - divas-femmes-fatales.blogspot.…
Review: Mighty Moprhin Power Rangers, Season 2 - divas-femmes-fatales.blogspot.…
Review: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Season 3 - divas-femmes-fatales.blogspot.…

Enjoy!