Legion of Doom

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Legion of Doom
Publication information
First appearanceTV:
Challenge of the Superfriends, Episode 1: "Wanted: The Super Friends" (September 9, 1978)
Comics:
Extreme Justice #16 (May 1996)
In-story information
Base(s)Hall of Doom
Leader(s)Lex Luthor
Member(s)Bizarro
Black Manta
Brainiac
Captain Cold
Cheetah
Giganta
Gorilla Grodd
Reverse-Flash
Riddler
Scarecrow
Sinestro
Solomon Grundy
Toyman

The Legion of Doom is a group of supervillains who originated in Challenge of the Superfriends, an animated series from Hanna-Barbera based on DC Comics' Justice League.[1] The Legion of Doom has since been incorporated into the main DC Universe, appearing in comics, as well as further animated and live-action adaptations, and also video games.

History

In each episode of Challenge of the Superfriends that they appeared, the Legion of Doom would enact a plot against the Super Friends and a plot to take over the world only to be met with defeat by the end of the story. In some episodes, they would escape capture through a last-minute escape plan often contrived by Luthor. Other times, the Legion of Doom (or portions of it) would end up apprehended.

The episode "History of Doom" showed that Lex Luthor assembled 12 supervillains in order to form the most powerful and sinister group the world had ever seen.

Development

When the Challenge of the Superfriends season was originally conceived, it was named Battle of the Superheroes and featured the introduction of Captain Marvel to the Super Friends. The group that challenged the heroes was to be called the "League of Evil", led by Captain Marvel's nemesis Doctor Sivana. However, Filmation was producing Shazam! and The New Adventures of Batman which prevented the use of characters such as Mister Atom, King Kull, Beautia Sivana, Joker, Penguin, Mr. Freeze, and Catwoman. Early conceptual art drawn by Alex Toth also included Heat Wave, Poison Ivy, and Abra Kadabra.[2]

The Hall of Doom

The Legion of Doom's headquarters was the Hall of Doom which was located in

Slaughter Swamp (just outside Gotham City
). The facility, which resembles Black Manta's helmet, could be lowered or raised above the swamp water's surface. It could fly or enter space using rockets. The Hall of Doom's mobility could be controlled through remote control helping the Legion to escape on several occasions. Its defenses included laser weapons and the ability to time travel.

In "Doomsday" after Sinestro, Black Manta and Cheetah are abandoned by the rest of the Legion after they take control of a mental device, they use it to create another Hall of Doom, which attacks the original one and enables the Legion to be captured.

In "History of Doom", the Hall is shown being constructed in a barn just after the Legion formed. Black Manta proposes that they have it in the ocean, Captain Cold proposes to have it underneath the polar ice caps, and Gorilla Grodd proposes that they have it in the jungle. As a compromise, Lex Luthor decides to have it within the waters of Slaughter Swamp as it is flown to that location.

Members

There were thirteen members of the Legion of Doom:

Member Alter ego Description Powers Traditional enemy Voice actor
Bizarro Tnek Kralc Twisted duplicate of Superman created from a duplication ray by Lex Luthor on Earth. Same as Superman, but often behaves in an erratic and irrational manner, such as freeze beams from his eyes and flaming breath as opposed to Superman's heat ray and freezing breath. Superman William Callaway
Black Manta David Hyde Deep sea diver and would-be ocean conqueror. Enhanced strength, water breathing ability (through artificial gills), high tech equipment, laser beams. Aquaman Ted Cassidy
Brainiac Vril Dox Evil alien android. Super-intelligence, advanced technology. Superman Ted Cassidy
Captain Cold Leonard Snart Blue-suited master of low temperatures. Absolute-zero ray guns. Flash Dick Ryal
Michael Bell
Cheetah Priscilla Rich Cheetah suit-wearing woman. Cat-like reflexes, claw-tipped gloves. Wonder Woman Marlene Aragon
Giganta Doris Zeul Stole Apache Chief's magic powder to duplicate his powers. Ability to grow, super strength while in giant form. Wonder Woman[3] and Apache Chief Ruth Forman
Gorilla Grodd Grodd Megalomaniacal exile from
Gorilla City
.
Super-intelligence, peak gorilla strength. Flash Stanley Ralph Ross
Lex Luthor None Mad scientist and founder/leader of the Legion of Doom. Evil genius, highly advanced weaponry. Superman
Stanley Jones
Riddler Edward Nygma Uses riddles to taunt and confuse adversaries while committing crimes. Puzzle creation, problem solving, super intelligent evil genius, puzzle themed traps and gadgets. Batman and Robin Michael Bell
Scarecrow Jonathan Crane Uses his fear gas to bring peoples' worst fears to life. Fear gas Batman and Robin Don Messick
Sinestro Thaal Sinestro Renegade ex-Green Lantern. Yellow power ring Green Lantern Vic Perrin
Don Messick (additional dialogue)
Solomon Grundy Cyrus Gold A super-powered gangster revived as a zombie in Slaughter Swamp. Great strength, invulnerability Green Lantern,[4] Batman, and Superman. Jimmy Weldon
Toyman Jackson "Jack" Nimball Dresses as a jester and uses toy-based tactics to commit crimes. Creates destructive toys. Superman Frank Welker
  • Despite the opening sequence for Challenge of the Superfriends claiming that the Legion's members had "banded together from remote galaxies", ten out of the thirteen are native to Earth; only Brainiac (from Colu), Bizarro (from Bizarro World), and Sinestro (from Korugar) are extraterrestrials.
  • The episode "Super Friends: Rest In Peace" makes a reference to a former unseen member of the Legion of Doom, the only time such a reference has been made. This was Doctor Natas, the inventor of the Noxium crystal that had the power to destroy all of the Super Friends like mimicking Kryptonite for Superman and mimicking a yellow energy for Green Lantern. The Super Friends knew of this crystal and tricked the Legion of Doom into thinking that it had killed all of them using android doubles of the Super Friends while the real ones hid in their space station. They anticipated that the Legion of Doom would throw away the crystal when they no longer needed it. The crystal was retrieved by Apache Chief in a hazmat suit and launched into deep space. It was not explained what happened to Doctor Natas.
  • Prior to the first televised appearance of the Legion of Doom, a group called the Super Foes appeared in the first issue of the Super Friends comic book (Nov 1976). Its membership featured Toyman, Penguin, Poison Ivy, Cheetah, Human Flying Fish, and their protégés Toyboy, Chick, Honeysuckle, Kitten and Sardine, respectively, in keeping with the theme of trainees ala Wendy, Marvin and Wonder Dog.

Other Legion episodes

While Challenge of the Superfriends was the series spotlighting the Legion of Doom, they appear in a few Super Friends shorts:

  • "The Krypton Syndrome": After Superman saves Krypton in the past, he returns to an alternate present. Robin mentions that the Super Friends were defeated by the Legion of Doom.
  • "Two Gleeks are Deadlier Than One": Though only Giganta and Gorilla Grodd appear, the Legion of Doom is mentioned where the Super Friends investigate rumors that the Legion of Doom are getting back together. Like in "Super Friends: Rest in Peace", the Super Friends used androids to trick Giganta and Gorilla Grodd into thinking they were destroyed.
  • "The Revenge of Doom" (Super Friends short): All 13 members of the Legion of Doom appear after getting back together, but only Lex Luthor, Sinestro and Solomon Grundy have dialogue. In this appearance, they salvaged the Hall of Doom disguised as construction workers with the cover-up that they were going to turn it into a museum. Batman and Robin came upon the "construction workers" and demanded to see their permit which they did having been obtained by the Department of Parks. When there was a mentioning that the Ion Engines were removed by the Super Friends which would've made it the first flying museum, the Dynamic Duo gets suspicious about the construction workers learning about the top secret operation as the lead construction worker claims that the info of that might've been leaked to the news. With the plot exposed, Lex Luthor and the Legion of Doom shed their disguises and capture Batman and Robin. After refurbishing the Legion of Doom and equipping it with new weapons, they have developed a crystallizing ray to immobilize Superman and Wonder Woman. Batman and Robin eventually escape, reverse the effects of the crystallizing ray on Superman and Wonder Woman, and apprehend the Legion of Doom.

Members of the team have solo appearances in later episodes.

Lex Luthor appears in:

  • "Lex Luthor Strikes Back" (
    The World's Greatest Super Friends
    ) – using a special camera that would enable him to assume the disguise of everyone, Lex Luthor escapes from prison.
  • "No Honor Among Thieves Super Friends" (Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show) – Lex Luthor collaborates with Darkseid in order to steal the powers of the Super Friends.
  • "The Case of the Shrinking Super Friends" (Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show) – Lex Luthor uses a shrink ray to shrink the Wonder Twins, Gleek, Robin, Ronnie Raymond, and Professor Martin Stein.
  • "The Mask of Mystery" (Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show) – Lex Luthor steals data that the incompetent superhero wannabe Captain Mystery had tapped from the Hall of Justice's computers in order to trap the Super Friends.
  • "The Seeds of Doom" (The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians) – Lex Luthor attacks the city in a giant mechanical spider before he is defeated by the Super Powers Team and Cyborg.

Brainiac appears in:

  • "Superclones" (Super Friends short) - Brainiac clones Aquaman and El Dorado creating supervillain counterparts of them as part of a plot to discredit the Super Friends.
  • "The Wrath of Brainiac" (Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show) – Brainiac collaborates with Darkseid to create android versions of Superman and Wonder Woman. Starting here, Brainiac takes up a more robotic form from this appearance to Brainchild matching his current comic counterpart at the time.
  • "The Village of Lost Souls" (Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show) – Brainiac brainwashes a village of people to serve him and help him rebuild his ship.
  • "Brainchild" (
    Cyborg
    for an evil "mind-blowing" plan.

Bizarro appears in:

  • "Revenge of Bizarro" (Super Friends short) – Bizarro makes the Super Friends his slaves. He also uses Red Krytonite on Superman causing him to sprout many arms and legs.
  • "Bazarowurld" (Super Friends short) – Bizarro tricks Superman and Black Vulcan into going to Bazarowurld where Black Vulcan is placed in a maze of mirrors and Superman is placed in a Red Kryptonite Mine where he becomes a skinny figure.
  • "Video Victims" (Super Friends short) – Bizarro zaps some of the Super-Friends into a Pac-Man-like video game with him controlling the Pac-Man-like creature.
  • "The Bizarro Super Powers Team" (The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians) - Mister Mxyzptlk brings Bizarro #1 to Earth where he uses an invention that makes Bizarro versions of Wonder Woman, Firestorm, and Cyborg. He later accidentally creates a Bizarro version of Mister Mxyzptlk called Mister Kltpzyxm.

Riddler appears in:

  • "Around the World in 80 Riddles" (Super Friends short) – Riddler infiltrates the Batcave and sprays Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, and Robin with Stupid Spray that would decrease their intelligence and had to solve each riddle that would lead to the location of the antidote.

Scarecrow makes an appearance in The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians episode "The Fear" while also introducing his real name of Jonathan Crane.

Appearances in comics

Members of the Legion of Doom made some appearances in the Super Friends spin-off comic title based on the TV series:

  • A version of the Legion of Doom appeared in
    Madmen, and a robot duplicate of Gorilla Grodd.[5][6]
The Legion of Doom in their Justice incarnation.[7] From left to right: Clayface, Poison Ivy, Solomon Grundy, Parasite, Toyman, Sinestro, Black Manta, Scarecrow, Brainiac, Lex Luthor, Gorilla Grodd, Captain Cold, Cheetah, Riddler, Bizarro, Giganta, Black Adam and Metallo. Art by Alex Ross and Doug Braithwaite.

In other media

Television

Film

Video games

Miscellaneous

Cultural references

See also

  • Legion of Zoom

Notes

  1. ^

    One of the nicest bits in "Alive!" was consciously making Luthor's team the villains that the audience had seen most of, more or less, and cared about. Which was good, since we were hopefully making the audience worry about and root for Luthor's group. This also let us come as close as we could to the classic 13 LOD villains. Grodd was now the enemy and was dead; Captain Cold wasn't around; Devil Ray and Grundy were gone and we couldn't use Scarecrow or Riddler, so we were left with: Luthor (who kind of counted as Brainiac), Bizarro, Giganta, Cheetah, Sinestro and Toyman. And no, I couldn't keep all 13 straight two years later without referring to my script and Wikipedia.

    — Matt Wayne (dcanimated.com)

References

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  2. ^ Nobleman, Marc Tyler (29 July 2011). "Super '70s and '80s: "Super Friends" – Darrell McNeil, animator". Noblemania. Archived from the original on 3 December 2011. Retrieved 25 October 2011.
  3. ^ Although she is depicted as an enemy of Apache Chief in Challenge of the Superfriends, Giganta first appeared as a Wonder Woman villain in 1944.
  4. ^ Solomon Grundy was originally an enemy of the Golden Age Green Lantern Alan Scott.
  5. ^ Extreme Justice #17
  6. ^ Extreme Justice #18
  7. ^ Justice#10 (April 2007)
  8. .
  9. ^ Justice #9 (February 2007)
  10. ^ Justice League of America #14 (December 2007)
  11. ^ Superman/Batman #83 (April 2011)
  12. ^ Flashpoint: Legion of Doom #1
  13. ^ Flashpoint: Legion of Doom #2
  14. ^ Flashpoint: Legion of Doom #3
  15. ^ "DC Comics in August 2011". Archived from the original on 2011-08-01. Retrieved 2011-07-03.
  16. ^ Teen Titans (vol. 3) #98
  17. ^ Scooby-Doo! Team-Up #6
  18. ^ Super Powers #4
  19. ^ Kingdom Come #4
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  21. ^ Justice League (vol. 4) #30, 34. DC Comics.
  22. ^ Wonder Twins #4. DC Comics
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  26. ^ Bucksbaum, Sydney (July 23, 2016). "Comic-Con: 'Legends of Tomorrow' to Tackle Legion of Doom Villain Team In Season 2". The Hollywood Reporter.
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