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Legion of Doom

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This article is about the supervillain group. For the electronica group, see Legion of Doom (mash up group).

The Legion of Doom was a group of supervillains led by Lex Luthor that appeared in Challenge of the Super Friends, an animated series that starred superheroes from DC Comics.

The Legion of Doom in Challenge of the Super Friends.
From left to right: Black Manta, Giganta, Toyman, Riddler, Bizarro, Scarecrow, Lex Luthor, Captain Cold, Cheetah, Solomon Grundy, Gorilla Grodd, Brainiac, and Sinestro.

In each episode they appeared in, the Legion of Doom would enact various plots against the Super Friends, only to be met with defeat by the end of the story. Often, however, they would escape capture through a last-minute escape plan.

The Hall of Doom

The Legion of Doom's headquarters was the Hall of Doom, a facility located in an anonymous swamp which had a more than passing resemblance to Darth Vader's breathing mask and helmet. The Hall of Doom was capable of being lowered below or raised above the swamp water's surface, and could also be flown through the air via rockets if needed, even remotely controlled. It also had laser defense weapons and could time travel to the past or future.

Members

There were thirteen members of the Legion of Doom:

Member Description Powers Archenemy
Bizarro Twisted doppelganger of Superman from Bizarro World Same as Superman, but often behaves in an erratic and irrational manner Superman
Black Manta Garbled-voiced deep-sea diver and would-be ocean conqueror Diving suit, high-tech submarine Aquaman
Brainiac Evil android from the planet Colu Super-intelligence Superman
Captain Cold Blue-suited master of low temperatures Freeze ray The Flash
Cheetah Cat-suit-wearing woman Cat-like reflexes, claw-tipped gloves Wonder Woman
Giganta Stole Apache Chief's magic powder to duplicate his powers Ability to grow, super strength Apache Chief & Wonder Woman
Gorilla Grodd Megalomaniacal exile from Gorilla City Super-intelligence, super strength The Flash
Lex Luthor Leader of the Legion of Doom Evil genius Superman
Riddler Uses riddles to taunt and confuse adversaries with while committing crimes Puzzle creation, problem solving Batman & Robin
Scarecrow Uses his fear gas to bring peoples' worst fears to life Fear gas Batman & Robin
Sinestro Renegade ex-Green Lantern Yellow power ring Green Lantern
Solomon Grundy A super-powered zombie born from the swamp Great strength, invulnerability Green Lantern
Toyman Dresses as a jester; uses toy-based tactics to commit crimes Creates destructive toys Superman
  • Despite the opening sequence for Challenge of the Super Friends claiming that the Legion's members had "banded together from remote galaxies", ten out of the thirteen are native to Earth; only Bizarro (from Bizarro World), Brainiac (from Colu), and Sinestro (from Korugar) are extraterrestrials.

Other Legion episodes

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

  • The Revenge of Doom (Super Friend short): All 13 LOD members appear, but only Lex Luthor, Sinestro and Solomon Grundy speak.
  • Two Gleeks are Deadlier Than One: Though only Giganta and Grodd appear, the Legion is mentioned.
  • 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.

Members of the team have solo appearances in later episodes.

Lex Luthor appears in:

Brainiac appears in:

Bizarro appears in:

  • Bizarroworld (Super Friends short)
  • Revenge of Bizarro (Super Friends short)
  • Video Victims (Super Friends short)
  • The Bizarro Super Powers Team (The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians)
    • This episode had Bizarro voiced by Danny Dark, who had been voicing Superman, as well as giving Bizarro his more backward personality. Ironically, though Superman didn't appear on this episode.

Riddler appears in, "Around the World in 80 Riddles" (Super Friends short).

Scarecrow makes an appearance in "The Fear", also introducing his real name, Jonathan Crane. (The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians)

Other appearances

The Legion of Doom made some appearances in the Super Friends spinoff comic title based on the TV series.

 
The Legion of Doom in their Justice incarnation. 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.

The 2006, DC comic miniseries Justice features a version of the Legion of Doom; series plotter/artist Alex Ross is a passionate Super Friends fan. In addition to the thirteen villains featured in the Super Friends cartoon, this version of the Legion counts Black Adam, Metallo, Clayface, Parasite, and Poison Ivy as members.

Justice League Unlimited

An updated version of the Legion of Doom is the primary focus of Season 3 of the 2000s animated series Justice League Unlimited. Although clearly based on the original Legion (down to their skull-like swamp-base) the group is never referred to by this name in the series (According to a post from Bruce Timm on Toon Zone.net, this was a direct order from DC, every script his team worked on however addressed the group as the Legion), and is treated simply as an expanded version of the Secret Society, previously formed by Gorilla Grodd in an earlier season and on camera referred to as such. Grodd is the leader of this "Legion," who refers to the group as a co-operative, a loose organization of super-villains that primarily work on their own, but back each other up when a member is challenged by the Justice League for a 25% portion of the requesting member's take of the crime commissioned at that time.

After the revelation that Grodd's ultimate plan in the creation of the new Secret Society was the ludicrous transformation of humanity into apes, Lex Luthor ousted him and assumed the position as leader with no objections from the membership. Solicitations for future episodes indicated that the team had a secret backer, but have turned out to be incorrect.

Confirmed members of this "Secret Society" (the DCAU take on the Legion) are as follows:

During the two-part series finale, Lex Luthor tried to resurrect Brainiac by ordering the crew to transform the base into a spaceship, so that they could travel to the site of Brainiac's ruined asteroid base. With Tala's help, Grodd attempted a coup to retake control of the Secret Society, leading to a battle between members loyal to either Grodd or Luthor.

  • The Secret Society members loyal to Luthor were: Atomic Skull, Bizarro, Cheetah, Evil Star, Giganta, Heat Wave, Sinestro, Star Sapphire, Toyman and Volcana.
  • The group loyal to Grodd included: Crowbar, Dr. Cyber, Major Disaster, Merlyn, Monocle, Shade, Hellgrammite, Neutron, Weather Wizard, Key, Fastball, Angle Man, Tala, Killer Frost, Goldface, Blockbuster, Silver Banshee, Parasite, Rampage, Electrocutioner, KGBeast, and Copperhead.

After a pitched battle, Luthor defeated Grodd by turning his mental powers back on him and shunting the ape out an airlock. The rest of Grodd's forces were frozen solid by a turncoat Killer Frost to spare herself from any retribution from Luthor. (Blockbuster, Copperhead, Fastball, Goldface, Hellgrammite,Key, Parasite, Rampage, Weather Wizard and Shade were shown being frozen).

When the Secret Society reaches the site of Brainiac's defeat, Luthor used Tala's magic to restore Brainiac, despite a sudden warning from the New God, Metron. Luthor accidentally resurrected Darkseid instead, who rewards Luthor for his help by destroying the Secret Society's base in a fiery explosion. However, force fields produced by Star Sapphire and Sinestro saved Luthor's crew. Lightray, another of the Gods of New Genesis, spotted the explosion, and was subsequently robbed of his mother box, which allowed the remnants of the Secret Society to make it back to Earth to warn the Justice League of Darkseid's return.

At the conclusion of "Alive!", the first part of the finale, the only remaining members of the team are: Atomic Skull, Bizarro, Cheetah, Evil Star, Giganta, Heat Wave, Killer Frost, Lex Luthor, Sinestro, Star Sapphire, Toyman and Volcana. They team up with the League to face Darkseid's invasion of Earth by Parademons. Matt Wayne stated that he consciously tried to round up the original 13 Legion of Doom members in Luthor's team, and for that he cited this Wikipedia page as one source.[6] In "Destroyer", (the series finale) Luthor acquires the Anti-Life Equation, which Darkseid was searching for, and shares it with him—or possibly uses it on him. Both villains disappear in a flash of light, and Darkseid's forces leave Earth. The remaining members of the Legion survive the battle, and as a reward are given a five-minute head start by the Justice League.

It is assumed that all other villians that weren't with Luthor were killed.

Cultural references

  • In the Family Guy episode, "It Takes a Village Idiot, and I Married One" it is claimed in a press conference that the Legion of Doom is conspiring with Adolf Hitler to assassinate Jesus. The scene then jumps to the Hall of Doom where Lex Luthor wonders how their plan was discovered. Solomon Grundy admits he "kind of dropped the ball on that one." Almost all of the original Legion is portrayed, except for the Riddler.
  • In Krypto the Superdog, the Intergalactic Villains Club that Mechanicat is a part of is a spoof of the Legion of Doom.
File:South Park LoD.jpg
South Park's Legion of Doom.
From left to right: Osama bin Laden, Doctor Doom, Black Manta, Saddam Hussein, Cheetah, Kim Jong-il, David Blaine, and Doctor Octopus.
  • The first episode of Season 3 of Duck Dodgers titled "Till Doom Do Us Part" featured the Legion of Duck Doom, led by Agent Roboto and was composed of various villains from the earlier seasons made up of Crusher, Fudd, Catapoid, Count Muerte, New Cadet, Black Eel, Nasty Canasta, Commandante Hilgalgo, Baby-Faced Moonbeam, Long John Silver the 23rd, K'chutha Sa'am, and Taz. Black Eel (a parody of Black Manta) makes his first appearance in this episode.
  • The professional wrestling tag-team of The Road Warriors was also known informally as "The Legion of Doom" while wrestling for the AWA, NWA, and WCW promotions. When they made the move to the WWF they took Legion of Doom as their official moniker and dropped the "Road Warriors" name entirely.
  • An episode of the Drew Carey Show featured Drew and his friends getting in trouble being a "gang". Drew gets sent to a counseling session for gang bangers and enters the room to see a group of imposing bikers and gang members sitting around a large table. He quips, "the reason I've called you all here is to destroy Superman!", as Lex Luthor would do when leading a Legion meeting.

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag Justice League Unlimited episode "I Am Legion"
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Justice League Unlimited episode "Dead Reckoning"
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Justice League Unlimited episode "The Great Brain Robbery"
  4. ^ Justice League Unlimited episode "Alive!"
  5. ^ a b c Justice League Unlimited episode "Grudge Match" Cite error: The named reference "GrudgeMatch" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  6. ^

    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; 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 [1]
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