First of his Kind and an Icon for Everyone!

Little fun fact to begin this post, The Original Black Ranger shares a name with the Twelfth President of the United States. Zack Taylor, President Zachary Taylor was that intentional? Of course the now dead and long gone President never rode a Mechanical Mastodon! Anyways The Original team has five members and when you've already got a brainac Blue Ranger, a cultural, daring, and determined Yellow Ranger, An overly adorable Pink Ranger who does Gymnastics, and Their Martial arts Master who takes charge during battle as the Red Ranger, then really the last member of the team logically has to be someone who feels a little underclass. That's exactly who Zack is, he's the one who often points out when they get lucky, or something about the situation that just feels really odd. Of course characters like this are quite common in superhero teams. Like the Fantastic Four has Johnny Storm or The First X-men team had Bobby Drake. (Human Torch and Iceman) So yeah when you have this really amazing team of superheroes and they're all really smart and strong and ready to save the world; If you still want to get the audience's attention you need someone who's still heroic, yet is also more compatible. Zack has the instincts of a hero and in a tough situation, he will rise to face danger. At the same time he's also the realist of the group, questioning whether or not they are taking a big gamble in some situations. For example he was ready to admit defeat during The Green Ranger story, and told Jason that GR was Rita's Trunk card. However even there Zack rejoined his friends as they marched out to stop the Green Ranger and free him from Rita's spell. He fought on even though he knew their victory was unlikely. Even though Zack may be the least confidant member of his team, his bravery comes from being around his friends and together they make each other strong.

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If you ask me I think casting a Black Actor in this role was genius. There had certainly never been a character like that before on prime time TV, and yeah it was the Nineties. It was a time to shake things up and show that role could be filled by a different kind of person. Of course Superheroes were first seen as mainly entertainment for kids, but the feeling of being the outside one looking in is something we can all really relate to. We all feel like the underdog every now and again. You could easily feel that way if you just worked at some fancy place and you were the only one who got in despite getting the lowest score on the entry exam. So yeah the concept had been done before but first time with a black guy. Of course some radicals have said it was unfair to make him the Black Ranger, but I think it suits him well, not to say that in a mean way but since this is something I grew up with it's hard to imagine him being a different color after all these years and I think most PR fans would agree with me on that. Zack was in the full first season, and the first half of season two. Zack disappears after "The Power Transfer" story never to be seen again on the show. However Power Rangers almost always has one black character with the exception of Ninja Storm, Mystic Force, and Jungle Fury which didn't have any. Anyways I just want to point out Zack's character was very complex and energetic. I still strongly support the pairing of Zack and Angela. I'll put more on that in a different article. White or black or whatever we all feel like Zack a little sometimes, so yeah the show really wouldn't be complete without him. Thank you Walter Jones for playing this character so well and for making Power Rangers a fun show to watch!