The turn of the 21^st century was a weird time. The world was far from the utopian wonderland that optimistic science fiction media had predicted decades before. Instead, the early 2000s saw the rise of the “dude-bro.” The once underground culture of the “skateboarder” had suddenly poked its head into the mainstream. It was finally cool to be a doofus who rode around on a dangerous plank of wood or a dirt bike for fun.

Extreme sports. Dude talk. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. X-Treme X-Men. Xtreme Jell-O Sticks. Aside from Rocket Power, nothing seems to embody this bizarre turn-of-the-century more than Waldo – I mean, Dustin – Brooks.

NAME: Waldo “Dustin” Brooks
RANGER DESIGNATION: Yellow Wind Ranger, Power Rangers Ninja Storm
BASE OF OPERATION: Blue Bay Harbor
FIRST APPEARANCE: “Prelude to a Storm” – Power Rangers Ninja Storm
LAST APPEARANCE: S12 E32 “Thunder Storm Pt 2” – Power Rangers Dino Thunder
PERSONAL WEAPONS/GEAR: Lion Hammer, Earth-based Ninja Skills
ZORDS: Lion Zord
PORTRAYED BY: Glenn McMillan

PROFILE

Dustin, along with his pals Tori and Shane, was a novice student at the Wind Ninja Academy. Being the chill and laid-back member of the group, he was consistently late for ninja class, which got the trio in trouble with Sensei Watanabe. This worked in their favor when the evil space ninja Lothor attacked the Academy and captured the students. Oh, and he turned the Sensei into a guinea pig. The three remaining students were picked to become the Wind Power Rangers. Dustin was pleased to learn that the Power Rangers do exist, even though he lives in the same universe (and US State) as most of the other teams. The first Wind Ranger to successfully morph, Dustin also qualifies as the first prominent male Yellow Ranger (preceded by the Yellow Alien Ranger, Tideus, but be honest… did you remember his name?).

Dustin was a talented motocross racer and worked at Storm Chargers, a bike shop and repair facility in Blue Bay Harbor. During a race, Dustin met Hunter and Blake Bradley, adopted brothers who gave him a run for his money on the track. He begins spending a lot of time with these new kids in town, which caused his Ranger team to question his commitment to his universe-saving duties. He was able to prove his dedication to the cause by almost single-handedly destroying the alien Terramole.

Ever-so-trusting and slightly airheaded, Dustin managed to misplace his backpack, which had a disc in it containing some important spec information for Cam’s Tsunami Cycles. It turns out he left it behind after talking to Blake and Hunter by the race track. The two brothers wound up being the Thunder Rangers, a pair of evil warriors working for Lothor that have been giving our heroes a hard time. They used the cycle designs to craft their own and use them against the Rangers. Once the Thunder Rangers discovered that it was Lothor and not Sensei that killed their parents, Dustin welcomed them to the team with open arms.

A dirty man with long hair named Dwayne Wheeler (of course) offered to install some fancy parts on Dustin’s bike. He took it to the dude’s shop and never heard back about it. Meanwhile, Marah came to Earth and confided in Dustin that she was kicked out of the Evil Space Alien gang for not being evil enough. She’d been replaced by her friend Beevil and wanted to get back at them for ostracizing her. Being a fellow doofus who doesn’t get taken seriously, Dustin agreed to help her. She gave him a weapon that he could use to overpower Beevil if it’s charged up with enough energy. Dustin tried to power it up back at headquarters, but he got caught by the rest of the team in the process. Though they tried to discourage him, he persisted.

Dustin’s instinct seemed to be correct when Marah showed up to confront Beevil. But when she used the special weapon to power up her monstrous friend, Dustin felt he had once again been betrayed. Upset from being made a fool of, he tackled the giant Beevil solo in the Storm Megazord. The two dinguses were slightly crushing on each other but they were forced to go their separate ways. The good news is that Dwayne brought his bike back, reaffirming Dustin’s belief that you should always look for the good in people.

The Yellow Ranger became a local celebrity after Dustin used his powers to ward off some burglars trying to mess up Storm Chargers. This goes to Dustin’s head a little bit, and he wound up arguing with Shane during a battle and getting Tori hurt. Desiring to be a team again, this brings them together to attempt probably one of the coolest (and most ridiculous) combo attacks in Power Rangers history.

Desiring to get away from racing and dedicate more time to freestyle motocross, Dustin entered the “U.S. Action Games” competition. I assume the X Games were trademarked. Anyway, this was an inconvenient time for Lothor to fulfill a prophecy foretold in an ancient scroll and unleash the Abyss of Evil. Also, the Abyss happens to be under the ground where the competition was happening. Go figure.

Coincidentally, another scroll dictates that Shane, Dustin, and Tori were destined to take part in the final showdown against Lothor. After the evil space ninja man used the Samurai Amulet to strip the Rangers of their ability to morph, Dustin used what remained of his Earth ninja power to help seal Lothor back into the Abyss of Evil. Dustin went on to nab third place in the U.S. Action Games, which is at least one victory for our boy.

The Wind Ninja Academy restored, and all its students rescued, Dustin and the other five Rangers graduated (I assume with some big honors and maybe a high-five). He and his fellow Wind Rangers all became instructors for the new recruits.

Lothor returned from the Abyss of Evil about a year later and gave the Wind Rangers new Morphers that placed them under his control. The gang got into a short-lived tussle with the Dino Thunder Rangers before being freed from the spell. The two teams combine forces to take on Lothor’s goons once and for all, with Dustin coordinating heavily with Ethan, the Blue Dino Ranger.

 

SUGGESTED VIEWING

Let me just come out and say that I’m biased. Ninja Storm is my favorite season of Power Rangers and I don’t think it has a lot of bad episodes. That being said, for Dustin specifically, I recommend All About Beevil because it’s really everything that I love about the guy. Tongue and Cheek is pretty good, too, but not as good. This is only because I believe it would be a little out-of-character for Dustin to be so enthusiastic about hogging the spotlight. But – given that he’s underappreciated – I think it’s still a fine showing for the guy.

Or just watch all of Ninja Storm. And then watch it again. I’m gonna go do that right now.

 

RANKING

I love Dustin. I have a soft spot for well-intentioned idiot characters, and I think Dustin is the near perfect encapsulation of that archetype. He’s a guy whose heart is always in the right place, even if his mind and body aren’t. You don’t necessarily have to be the smartest, most talented, or most punctual (looking at you, Tommy Oliver) person in the world to be a great Ranger. Plus, Glenn McMillan also brings an abundance of charm to a character that, in the wrong hands, could have been annoying and grating.

Dustin definitely outranks Chad. He’s much more interesting and fleshed-out and has so much more to offer than some dope karate moves. Kimberly is his only other competition, and this leaves me torn. I have a fondness for both of them. At the end of the day, I’d rather watch a Dustin focus episode than one with Kimberly. I have chosen this hill and I will proudly die on it. His flaws ultimately give him an advantage—because let’s be real, the only time most of the MMPRangers had any conflict was when they were under an evil spell. This makes our boy Waldo the new number one on the Children of Zordon.

Don’t forget to follow Children of Zordon on Twitter – although if you’re here you’re probably already aware of it and are either following me or actively ignoring me. That’s fine, I’m not bitter. Next week, we’ll have a look at a Red Ranger that brought up more questions about the show’s (already convoluted) continuity than he answered – Scott Truman.