Class clowns are hard to take seriously. It may be even more difficult to see them as a superhero. It might be even more difficult for them to gain the affection of their superhero teammate. So goes the tale of Jake Holling, goofball extraordinaire and bi-colorous member of the Super Mega Rangers.

NAME: Jake Holling

RANGER DESIGNATION: Megaforce Black/Ultra Megaforce Black, Power Rangers Megaforce; Super Megaforce Green, Power Rangers Super Megaforce

BASE OF OPERATION: Harwood County

FIRST APPEARANCE: “Mega Mission” – Power Rangers Megaforce

LAST APPEARANCE: “Legendary Battle” – Power Rangers Super Megaforce

PERSONAL WEAPONS/GEAR: Snake Axe; Rock-Based Power Cards; Ranger Keys (mostly Green and Black Rangers); Super Mega Blaster; Super Mega Saber

ZORDS: Gosei Snake Mechazord; Land Brothers Zords; Ultra Snake Zord; Super Mega Racer Zord

PORTRAYED BY: Azim Rizk

PROFILE

Jake was hanging out at Ernie’s Brain Freeze trying to get a pretty blonde girl’s attention with frozen yogurt. Suddenly, he and four other teenagers were whisked away to the lair of Gosei, a weird tiki head on a wall and student of Zordon. Jake was one of five chosen to defend the Earth from the invading Warstar aliens as the Power Rangers Megaforce.

As the Black Megaforce Ranger, Jake used the earth element to fight off his enemies. He also used a soccer ball sometimes. Both were effective. He also had a close bond with the Blue Ranger, Noah, acting as sort of the “fool” to his “straight man.”

Jake’s crush on the Yellow Ranger, Gia, led to a lot of awkward interactions. She didn’t exactly return his affection outwardly, but he was rather… persistent, to say the least. To be fair, she never outright rejected him. She was always kinda in the middle, playing hard to get.

In a quest to learn more about humans, Admiral Malkor sent a scientist named Yuffo down to Earth to study them – and by that I mean abduct them. Jake, who happened to be walking Gia home for a chance to flirt with her, encountered Yuffo and his band of Loogies but were quickly overwhelmed. They called upon their teammates and were able to take Yuffo down. Jake made sure to note that he and Gia made a great team, because a man’s gotta shoot his shot.

After the Megaforce Rangers defeated Prince Vrak, his older brother Vekar takes his turn to invade Earth, causing mass hysteria around Harwood County. Jake and Gia returned to the Command Center battered and bruised from trying to fend them off. This is when Gosei decided for no real good reason that this is the best time to tell them about Super Mega Mode and provided the Rangers with new Morphers and Ranger Keys. Jake gained the power of Super Megaforce Green and the ability to transform into past Rangers and use their powers. Jake – like any level-headed person – inquired as to why he changed from Black to Green. Gosei wanted to offer him an explanation, but he was saved by the bell… or, rather, an explosion.

Pacha Chamak, a monster that was basically an ugly Magneto, used his magnetic powers to disarm the Rangers during combat. Jake and Emma (the Pink Ranger) turned to a strange dude shoveling elephant crap at the zoo (I assume) named Casey Rhodes to help them. Casey taught them about their “animal spirits” and Jake learned to channel the spirit of the snake, I guess. Also Casey was the Red Jungle Fury Ranger so he was an expert in animal spirits or something. Using the Jungle Fury Ranger powers, Jake transformed into the Wolf Ranger to defeat the magnet monster.

A new silver alien boy named Orion joined the Super Megaforce team, and Jake wasn’t too happy about it. He was super handsome and charming, and the lady Rangers seemed to like him. This made Jake very jealous. They soon found common ground when the other four Rangers were forced to go nuh-night by an energy stealing monster. Jake felt a bit of survivor’s guilt since they got sapped trying to protect him. Orion understood this feeling more than anyone – being the only survivor of his planet after it got messed up and stuff – and they were able to find common ground. Jake then assisted the Silver Ranger in unlocking his Gold Mode to save the day.

The Armada general Levira had a nasty run-in with a love potion that caused her to fall in love with Jake. She sent down Invidious – the monster who gave her the potion to fall in love with him – to abduct the Ranger. When Insidious found out she was in love with Jake, he became furious and tried to destroy him. After the Rangers put an end to the human/monster love triangle, Jake attempted to ask Gia out but was blocked by his friend Noah – not a very bro thing to do. The good news is that a video of Jake doing soccer trick shots went viral.

Jake and Noah got a Freaky Friday episode. They wore each other’s clothes which was a terrible idea and probably would have made everybody more suspicious. Nothing super interesting came out of it, except Gia liked him a little better with glasses on.

Emperor Mavro arrived on Earth, hellbent on avenging the deaths of his two Princes. He ordered the high-ranking alien dude Damaras to attack the Rangers and execute the Red Ranger. With Troy captured and the other Rangers out of commission, Jake was the last one who could save the day. He distracted Damaras and his minions long enough for the little robot Tensou to free Troy. The Rangers reunite and tear Damaras a new one.

For some reason, Jake used his Black Megaforce powers during the Legendary Battle™. Following the destruction of the Armada, Gia gave him a kiss on the cheek. I suppose all it took for her to display her affection is 2 minutes of fighting and some old Rangers showing up.

SUGGESTED VIEWING

Eh. I like Spirit of the Tiger. It’s one of the few Jake-centric-ish episodes that doesn’t focus so much on his crush on Yellow. The Grass is Always Greener… or Bluer is fun, I guess. Despite the abhorrent title, it’s a good showcase of Jake and Noah’s friendship, which is probably the most underutilized part of (Super) Megaforce.

Besides literally everything else, of course. *Z-SNAP*

RANKING

Jake falls somewhere in the middle of the road when it comes to comic relief Rangers. Sometimes they hit with me, sometimes they don’t. Whether or not Jake happened to get a better season would have let him shine more, I’m not sure, but I like to lean toward the positive side. I think I enjoy him more than Chad, simply because Chad is very, very vanilla and Jake’s personality pops a bit more. That being said, his entire character arc is pretty much just trying to impress Gia over and over. That gets stale, and at least Scott’s attempts to impress his dad had more emotional weight behind them. That makes our Green Pirate Super Megaforce Ranger the new number four in the Children of Zordon.

Be sure to check back next week when we talk about the man whose Q-Rex would (probably) eat the Dragonzord for lunch – Eric Myers.