| Legion of Doom | |
|---|---|
From left to right: Black Manta, Giganta, Toyman, the Riddler, Bizarro, the Scarecrow, Lex Luthor, Captain Cold, Cheetah, Solomon Grundy, Gorilla Grodd, Brainiac, and Sinestro. |
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| Publication information | |
| First appearance | "Wanted: The Super Friends" (Challenge of the Super Friends, Episode 1 - September 9, 1978) |
| In-story information | |
| Base(s) | Hall of Doom |
| Member(s) | Bizarro Black Manta Brainiac Captain Cold Cheetah Giganta Gorilla Grodd Lex Luthor Riddler Scarecrow Sinestro Solomon Grundy Toyman |
The Legion of Doom is a group of supervillains led by Lex Luthor that appeared in Challenge of the Super Friends, an ABC animated series that starred superheroes from DC Comics.
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In each episode of Challenge of the Super Friends that they appeared, the Legion of Doom would enact various plots against the Super Friends, 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 would end up captured in the end.
When the Challenge of the Super Friends 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 called the "League of Evil", led by Marvel's nemesis Doctor Sivana. However, Filmation produced 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 would also include Heat Wave, Poison Ivy, and Abra Kadabra.[1]
The Legion of Doom's headquarters was the Hall of Doom, a facility most often located in Slaughter Swamp (just outside Gotham City). The Hall of Doom was mobile, lowered below or raised above the swamp water's surface, and often flown through the air via rockets if needed, even remotely controlled. It also had laser defense weapons and at times was altered to time travel to the past or future. It resembled Darth Vader's helmet.
There were thirteen members of the Legion of Doom:
| Member | Secret Identity | Description | Powers | Traditional enemy | Voice actor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bizarro | Bizarro | Twisted doppelganger of Superman from Bizarro World | Same as Superman, but often behaves in an erratic and irrational manner | Superman | William Callaway |
| Black Manta | Unknown | 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 | Brainiac | Evil android | Super-intelligence, advanced technology | Superman | Ted Cassidy |
| Captain Cold | Leonard Snart | Blue-suited master of low temperatures | Freeze ray | The Flash | Dick Ryal Michael Bell (additional dialogue) |
| Cheetah | Priscilla Rich | Cat-suit-wearing woman | Cat-like reflexes, claw-tipped gloves | Wonder Woman | Marlene Aragon |
| Giganta | Unknown | Stole Apache Chief's magic powder to duplicate his powers | Ability to grow, super strength | Wonder Woman[2] and Apache Chief | Ruth Forman |
| Gorilla Grodd | Gorilla Grodd | Megalomaniacal exile from Gorilla City | Super-intelligence, super strength | The Flash | Stanley Ralph Ross |
| Lex Luthor | Lex Luthor | Leader of the Legion of Doom | Evil genius, highly-advanced weaponry | Superman | Stanley Jones |
| Riddler | Edward Nigma | Uses riddles to taunt and confuse adversaries with while committing crimes | Puzzle creation, problem solving | Batman and Robin | Michael Bell |
| Scarecrow | Professor Jonathan Crane | Uses his fear gas to bring peoples' worst fears to life | Fear gas | Batman and Robin | Don Messick |
| Sinestro | Sinestro | Renegade ex-Green Lantern | Yellow power ring | Green Lantern | Vic Perrin Don Messick (additional dialogue) |
| Solomon Grundy | Cyrus Gold | A super-powered zombie born from the swamp | Great strength, invulnerability | Green Lantern[3] and Superman[4] | Jimmy Weldon |
| Toyman | Jack Nimball | Dresses as a jester; uses toy-based tactics to commit crimes | Creates destructive toys | Superman | Frank Welker |
While Challenge of the Super Friends was the series spotlighting the Legion of Doom, they appear in a few Super Friends shorts.
Members of the team have solo appearances in later episodes.
Lex Luthor appears in:
Brainiac appears in:
Bizarro appears in:
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)
The two NBC televised specials of Legends of the Superheroes was based largely on Challenge of the Super Friends while featuring Adam West, Burt Ward, and Frank Gorshin of the 1966 Batman television series fame. The Legion of Doom featured Mordru leading Doctor Sivana, Riddler, Giganta, Sinestro, Weather Wizard, and Solomon Grundy (Superman, Wonder Woman, and their associate characters were absent due to the Superman film and Wonder Woman television series licensing the rights, respectively).
In 2003, Cartoon Network Latin America aired the spoof series The Aquaman & Friends Action Hour that starred Aquaman as a children's television show host and the Legion of Doom as his bankrupt villains.
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, as does the cover of the DVD season release), 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. Timm had also said he wanted to include The Riddler and Scarecrow as villains in the group as a nod to the original Legion, but was prevented from doing this by DC.
Confirmed members of this "Secret Society" (the DCAU take on the Legion) are as follows:
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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.
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, Shade, and Weather Wizard 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.[15] 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 villains that weren't with Luthor were killed.
The Legion of Doom appear in the Batman: The Brave and the Bold series. In the teaser of "Triumvirate of Terror", they play a game of baseball against the Justice League International. Members of the Legion are Lex Luthor, Joker, Cheetah, Weather Wizard, Felix Faust, and Amazo.
In the Young Justice episode "Revelation", the team battles the Light's Injustice League in the Louisiana bayou. The group's headquarters and location is a homage to the Hall of Doom.[16]
In 2007 at Six Flags New England, a live show written by Brandon T. Snider featured the Legion of Doom. This incarnation of the group involved Lex Luthor, Sinestro, Cheetah, Captain Cold, Riddler, and the Joker.[17]
The Legion of Doom will appear as the central antagonists in the animated film Justice League: Doom.[18] Confirmed members are Cheetah (Claudia Black), Vandal Savage (Phil Morris), Star Sapphire (Olivia d'Abo), Bane (Carlos Alazraqui), Metallo (Paul Blackthorne), Mirror Master (Alexis Denisof), and Ma'alefa'ak.[19]
| “ | 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.) | ” |
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—Matt Wayne [1] |
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