The Power Rangers franchise began its impressive run in the early '90s with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, giving the audience a color-coded team of young people who just wanted to do some good. The Red Ranger was the team leader, the Black Ranger was his second-in-command, the Yellow Ranger was the consistently supportive force, the Blue Ranger was the reluctant hero with the technical know-how, and the Pink Ranger was the one who appeared to know the least about defending herself.
In Agents Of SHIELD, the audience can actually draw lines to connect those character types with their favorite Marvel TV characters as well. Some of the Agents Of SHIELD characters even correspond well to classic Power Rangers villains.
Phil Coulson: Red Ranger
Some fans might have thought of Phil Coulson as more of a mentor figure, like Zordon. He's definitely better in the field than he is sitting in the base. If fans take the 2017 Power Rangers movie into account, however, he's really both - the Red Ranger who becomes a mentor to the next team.
Coulson knows the ins and outs of being an agent. He rolls with the punches, sticks up for the little guys, and makes sure to teach everyone what he knows. Take the original '90s Red Ranger Jason, and there's a near-perfect Coulson comparison. Jason is the team leader who knows when to step aside when a new leader is ready to step up. He also teaches those younger than him to take on their bullies.
Melinda May: Black Ranger
The original Black Ranger Zack Taylor is a fun-loving practical joker who loves to dance. That doesn't sound like the Melinda May fans know. The truth is, however, she was much more of a jokester before being traumatized by the incident in Bahrain. She also serves the same functions as the original Black Ranger.
The Black Ranger and the Red Ranger are best friends. They're together nearly all the time. The Black Ranger also serves as the second-in-command to the team for much of their time. The Red Ranger trusts them most to make the tough calls. That's Melinda May's role for Coulson in the early seasons of the series. She then moves on to become a teacher and a mentor in her own right.
Jemma Simmons: The Sixth Ranger
With Jemma Simmons being one of the romantic leads, it makes sense to see her as half of an iconic couple. She's not the initially-hesitant-to-fight Pink Ranger though. Instead, Jemma's more like the surprise addition to the team that is the original Green/White Ranger.
She doesn't start off as a villain like Tommy Oliver did, but she is all in when it comes to SHIELD's cool toys and potentially shady practices - at first. Jemma also grows into an effective team leader, even outranking the agents who were her superiors by the time season four rolls around. She also becomes a surprisingly effective fighter, using whatever objects are around her to defend herself.
Leo Fitz: Pink Ranger
If any character qualifies as the Kimberly Hart of the group, it's definitely Leo Fitz. Snarky and sarcastic, Fitz could have been a mean girl in the '90s who went good. While Kimberly is often seen as one of the nicest people by her peers, in the early episodes of Power Rangers, she has no interest in being a Ranger (just as Fitz didn't want to go into the field) and frequently makes fun of people outside of her clique (just as Fitz makes fun of others who don't understand his science speak at the start of the series).
Fitz also becomes an incredibly strong agent. He leads missions on his own and takes it upon himself to set time travel wrongs right. Kimberly has a similar storyline in Power Rangers, and even leads her own team a time or two.
Bobbi Morse: Yellow Ranger
The Yellow Rangers that were a part of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers team were fierce combatants just like Bobbi Morse. Both Trini and Aisha were some of the nicest people anyone could meet, always willing to help out someone in trouble, much like Bobbi's sympathy for "Skye" when she first begins using her Inhuman abilities.
Yellow Rangers also weren't just fighters, but were highly intelligent and spent a lot of time assisting the Blue Ranger with technological fixes to problems. While much of Bobbi's time is spent in the field in the series, she's also a scientist and equally at home in the lab.
Alphonso Mackenzie: Red Ranger
In the second season of Power Rangers, there was a changing of the guard. A new Red Ranger joined the team, though Rocky wasn't initially the team leader like the previous version.
When Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie joins Agents Of SHIELD in the second season, he's a lot like that Red Ranger. He helps out the team members the audience already knows, and after a few hiccups, grows into someone the team trusts. By the time the sixth season rolls around, however, Mack is even more like the original Red Ranger. Though he and Coulson have their differences, Mack is able to step into the role Coulson previously occupied and make fair decisions for the team.
Elena Rodriguez: Black Ranger
Not long after Mack becomes a permanent addition to the team, Elena Rodriguez joins Daisy's Inhuman task force. Much like Mack, Elena has a few hiccups as one of the new kids, but she comes to trust the team she joins, and they trust her.
Over time, it's clear that Elena and May have more in common than the audience might have initially thought - which is why it makes sense for to be a Black Ranger as well. Like May, Elena becomes a right-hand to the agents ranked above her, specifically Daisy, then Mack, and even Jemma when she joins her on an unsanctioned mission in the fifth season. Elena is capable of leading her own team, as the series finale demonstrates, but she works most often in support of others.
Grant Ward: Scorpina
In the first season, everyone thinks they can trust Grant Ward, but he's working for the enemy. Some fans might think he's more in line with Goldar, but Goldar wasn't loyal to his immediate supervisor Rita Repulsa. Scorpina was. Grant Ward holds an unmatched loyalty to John Garett.
Scorpina also disguises herself as a regular human and attempts to romance a Power Ranger at one point, but she's thwarted by one of his friends. Ward not only has a relationship with May, but also pursues one with Skye. The only difference is that Scorpina fled the scene when it was clear Rita wasn't in charge anymore; Ward sticks around and strikes out on his own.
Daisy Johnson: Blue Ranger
Some might have thought Daisy Johnson a nice counterpart to the powerful Sixth Ranger Tommy. Daisy actually has a lot in common with the Blue Ranger, though Billy was more content to stay in the background than she is.
Billy is definitely not comfortable fighting at first. He'd much rather be behind a computer screen, just like Daisy during her Skye days. With a whole lot of training from the Red and Black Rangers, however, Billy becomes effective in the field. He also eventually leaves Earth, and his love interest is someone from another planet. Daisy ends up with a man out of time instead, but the space exploration, her love of technology, and her commitment to training is all right on the money.
Nick Fury: Zordon
Unlike Zordon in Power Rangers, Nick Fury only appears in a handful of Agents of SHIELD episodes. His fingerprints, however, are all over the early episodes. He's the leader from afar who knows how difficult it is to battle the monster of the week.
Like Zordon, it's Fury who sets the wheels in motion for this team to exist. Despite Zordon being little more than a floating head in the original series, he even set up multiple teams across the galaxy, much like Fury being able to have his hands in global operations - until his reach catches up with him, and he turns over his post to someone new.