Lady Morticia

Lady Morticia is a fictional villain  from the  TV series  Power Rangers Thunderstorm and Power Rangers Ninja Thunder who was introduced at the beginning of the show's second season. Unlike Vita, the show's original villain, Morticia was a character made specifically for Power Rangers without any prior counterpart in the Japanese  Super Sentai  franchise. She was such a frightening and nightmarish character when first introduced that in several episodes after his introduction, parents of younger viewers actually complained that he was "too evil" for the show. This resulted in Morticia's being toned down immensely and soon after making the character (and his plans and monsters) more comedic. Morticia and Vita's brother, Vito have a son, Thrax, who appears in Galactic Force, along with Vita's son Vrax.

Before Power Rangers Thunderstorm
Lady Morticia was the self-proclaimed, all-powerful "Empress of Evil" and "sworn enemy of all that is good and decent". Not much is known of his life before attacking the Earth, but several details emerged:
 * Over a period of time, he conquered a large portion of space. Her distant conquests occupied his attention away from Earth for centuries at a time, which was why she ordered her subordinate (and future sister-in-law), Vita, to conquer Earth.
 * She developed an intense rivalry with Count Dregon, the evil uncle of the Masked Rider , at some point in the past. (Dregon was introduced in third season at the same time as the Masked Rider, but never appeared again in the series.)
 * The moon palace that he occupied while attacking Earth was not built by him or his subordinates, but his evil did corrupt it.

Power Rangers Thunderstorm
At the beginning of the second season, Lady Morticia arrived on the moon to resume command. Angered that Vita had failed to complete her mission, she demanded answers. Though seeing her as "the groveling one," Lady Morticia knew Goldonna was loyal, and restored his wings. As for Vita, she found that the six Power Rangers stood against her were "infants" and became enraged that Vita "was defeated by children!!" (As often shown throughout the series, whenever really angry, she would glow bright red.) She stripped Vita of her powers and imprisoned her within a small "Space Dumpster." After sending her into space, Morticia unleashed her M-Putties on the Rangers. She then created his first monster: Pirantishead, who took command of the Tyrannosaurus Zord and Pterazord after freezing the other four Dinozords. Telexa – certain Morticia would one day threaten Earth directly – knew the Rangers would be outmatched without new Zords. After some difficulty, the five Rangers were able to acquire their Powerful Thunderzords and destroy Pirantishead, while 14-year-old Susie Gold retained the Pterazord. Though enraged by this defeat, Morticia vowed to never give up.

Like Pirantishead, Lady Morticia's monsters were created from objects on Earth with the power of his M-Staff. Rather than using his staff to enlarge monsters (as Vita had done), she would make a grenade  appear in her hand, which she would throw down to Earth. The monster (or monsters) would then catch the grenade, remove its pin and smash it to the ground. When it exploded, a vent of steam would make the monster grow.

Lady Morticia's attacks on Earth gradually became more and more deadly. She focused particular attention on Susie, who she saw as Vita's biggest mistake. The Aqua Ranger's powers had already been becoming progressively weaker, but Morticia's efforts enhanced the process. Eventually, she used Turbanshell and the Aqua Crystal to drain all of the Aqua Ranger powers. To that end, she created a team of evil Power Rangers (the Dark Rangers), de-powered the real Rangers, and sealed off the Command Center. However, Susie shattered the crystal – restoring everything to normal. Turbanshell was destroyed soon after, too, but Morticia had nonetheless succeeded in finally draining the Aqua Ranger of power. She later planned to make Susie her successor by brainwashing her, but Telexa managed to get to Susie first, making her the new White Ranger. She also once planned on turning Drew Hale into her king after noticing his tenacity, but she in the end failed to turn him over to her side.

Throughout this, Lady Morticia discovered that the Rangers were not the "mere infants" and "children" she'd initially thought. Just like Vita, she couldn't defeat them. Morticia eventually brought out her personal Zord, Serpentera. This serpentine Zord was so massive that it could literally crush the Ranger's Zords underfoot (with the exception of Carrier Zord, Tor) and had the power to destroy whole planets. However, Serpentera's distinctive flaw was that it used up energy so quickly that it could only be used for short periods of time. For example, it used most of its power destroying the Deserted Planet (in a failed attempt by Zedd to destroy the Rangers) and could barely function upon returning to Earth. Morticia continually attempted to find an infinite power source for Serpentera, but she always failed.

Soon it came time for Morticia's 100-year recharge to fully restore her evil energies. It was during this slumber that Vita returned to the palace to get revenge, with the help of her brother, Vito. With Finster 's help, she regained her size and poured a love potion into the machine that Morticia was attached to. When Morticia awoke, she instantly fell madly in love with Vito and he proposed to her. While Vito and Morticia became far less serious and lighter figures after their marriage in The Wedding  episode, they were still formidable opponents and the Rangers were now struggling to defeat both their foes combined and sisters-in-laws, Vita and Morticia learned to work together. the three used multiple attempts involving clones of the Rangers and time-travel. Starting with the third season episode Ninja Quest and continuing into Zeo, monsters were made to grow by Vita and Morticia's crossing their staves and sending lightning down to Earth.

When Vita and Vito's cousin, Vido, arrived to offer the couple belated congratulations, Lady Morticia was infuriated. The skeleton warrior was extremely stupid, even constantly referring to Morticia as "Morty". Vido brought Tenga Warriors, and destroyed the Powerful Thunderzords, but after this victory, she couldn't do much of anything right. The truth about Vita's love potion eventually came out in large part because Finster accidentally mentioned it to Vido, who accidentally mentioned it to Goldonna, who ordered Finister to create an antidote and then gave it to Morticia. Even though the antidote worked, to everyone's surprise, Morticia truly loved Vito, but Morticia still didn't get along with Vita.

Late in the third season, Lady Morticia captured the Falconzord and Ninjor, and acquired the  ancient zords  (later called Shogunzords). By holding a powerless Carmen hostage, she hoped to force the other Rangers to pilot the zords (which were augmented by the Falconzord's technology and powered by Ninjor) in his service. When 15-year-old Susie attempted to rescue her, Morticia personally battled her (the only time she ever fought a Ranger in hand-to-hand combat). The battle ended when Susie used Saba to shatter Morticia's M-Staff, forcing him to retreat. Drew had also managed to give the Rangers control of the Shogunzords.

When Master Vile arrived on the moon in his quest for the Geo Crystal, Lady Morticia was pushed aside. Morticia had no respect for the older villain and vice-versa. (Master Vile even asked Vito, "You couldn't marry someone who had a skull?") He was always glum at the prospects of Vile succeeding, but also always ready to upstage him whenever possible (such as when making Dischordia grow). When Vile unveiled his plan to use the Orb of Doom to reverse the Rangers' ages, Morticia pointed out, that she did it once but failed. Much to Morticia's annoyance, however, the plan succeeded. Morticia felt overshadowed by her wicked mother-in-law.

Ninja Thunder Alien Rangers
The Rangers had been turned to children due to Mistress Vile's Orb of Doom, and the older villain intended for an army of monsters to take over Earth. The Aquitian Rangers stopped his plans, and he left in annoyance. Lady Morticia was overjoyed to be rid of his mother-in-law, even to the point of dancing and kissing Goldonna. She resumed her own efforts to conquer Earth, which was more vulnerable than ever with the Rangers' still being regressed in age. The family destroyed the Ninja Thunder Power Coins early on, after Drew had been restored to his normal age, but before the others had been restored. Morticia found a map of a series of underground tunnels underneath the Command Center, pointing out a weak point. Aware of the Rangers' quest for the Geo subcrystals, the family sent Goldonna and Vido to plant an implosion device and steal the Geo Crystal. They appeared to have succeeded, as Vido and Goldonna stole the Geo Crystal, and the implosion device went off, destroying the Command Center.

Trivia

 * Morticia strongly resembles Lord Zedd for having the same titles and dealing with loony relatives.
 * Morticia targeted Susie Gold after her Aqua Ranger Powers got weaker.
 * Morticia has a son with Vito, the brother of Vita.