Legion of Doom
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- For other uses, see Legion of Doom (disambiguation)}}}.
The Legion of Doom was a group of supervillains led by Lex Luthor that appeared in Super Friends, a 1970s and 1980s animated series that starred superheroes from DC Comics.
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 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.
Members
There were thirteen members of the Legion of Doom:| Member | Description | Powers | Archenemy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bizarro | Twisted clone of Superman from Bizarro World | Same as Superman, plus sometimes behaves as a mad scientist | 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 |
| The Riddler | Uses riddles to taunt and confuse adversaries with while committing crimes | Puzzle creation. problem solving | Batman & Robin |
| The 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, resistant to damage | Green Lantern |
| Toyman | Dresses as a jester; uses toy-based tactics to commit crimes | Creates destructive toys | Superman |
| Doctor Natas | One time member of The Legion Of Doom. Mentioned on, "Superfriends, Rest In Peace" | Created the Noxium Crystal, made out of weakness that plagued each Superfriend. | Superfriends |
A popular misconception was that Joker was a member of the Legion of Doom. He appeared only once in a later iteration of the series.
- Though he was planned to appear in the Legion, but his appearance in The New Adventures Of Batman prevented that.
- Captain Marvel and a few of his enemies were to be part of Challenge Of The Superfriends, but Filmation bought the rights to the characters involved.
Other Legion Episodes
While Challenge Of The Superfriends was the series spotlighting The Legion Of Doom, they appear in a few Superfriends Shorts.
- The Revenge Of Doom (Superfriend 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 Superfriends were defeated by The Legion Of Doom. The alternate Legion shouldn't have been too much of a problem as Lex Luthor would never revert to villainy and Bizarro wouldn't exist(they'd still have Sinestro's ring, Grodd's strength and super intelligence, Grundy and Giganta's strength, and Brainiac's advanced technology and genius.)
Members of the team have solo appearances in later episodes.
Lex Luthor appears in:
- Lex Luthor Strikes Back (The World's Greatest Superfriends)
- The Case Of The Shrinking Superfriends (SuperFriends: The Legendary Super Powers Show)
- No Honor Among Thieves Superfriends (SuperFriends: The Legendary Super Powers Show)
- The Mask Of Mystery Superfriends (SuperFriends: The Legendary Super Powers Show)
- The Seeds Of Doom (The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians)
- Superclones (Superfriends Short)
- The Wraith Of Brainiac (SuperFriends: The Legendary Super Powers Show)
- *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 (SuperFriends: The Legendary Super Powers Show)
- Brainchild (The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians)
- Bizarroworld (Superfriends Short)
- Revenge Of Bizarro (Superfriends Short)
- Video Victims (Superfriends 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.
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 upcoming DC comic miniseries Justice, with artwork by Alex Ross, will feature an expanded version of the Legion of Doom.
Justice League Unlimited
An updated version of the Legion of Doom is the primary focus of season three of the 2000s animated series Justice League Unlimited. Although clearly based on the original Legion, down to their skull-like swamp-base, it should be noted that 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 of Super-Villains, previously formed by Gorilla Grodd in an earlier season. 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 Legion 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 Legion had a secret backer, but have turned out to be incorrect.Confirmed members of this version of the Legion are as follows:
- Lex Luthor - New Leader
- Gorilla Grodd – Founder & Former Leader
- Angle Man
- Atomic Skull
- Bizarro
- Black Mass
- Blockbuster
- Bloodsport
- Blue Lama
- Cheetah
- Copperhead
- Crowbar
- Devil Ray (based on Black Manta, who could not be used since all Aquaman-related characters were barred from the show due to the upcoming Aquaman television series)
- Doctor Cyber
- Doctor Destiny
- Doctor Polaris
- Doctor Spectro
- The Dummy
- Electrocutioner
- Evil Star I
- Fastball
- Gentleman Ghost
- Giganta
- Goldface
- Heat Wave
- Hellgrammite
- Hellhound
- Javelin
- The Key
- KGBeast
- Killer Frost
- Lady Lunar
- Livewire
- Major Disaster
- Merlyn
- Metallo
- The Monocle
- Neutron
- Parasite
- Psycho-Pirate
- The Puzzler
- Puppeteer
- Queen Bee
- Rampage
- The Shade
- The Shark III
- Shatterfist
- Silver Banshee
- Sinestro
- Sonar
- Sportsmaster
- Star Sapphire
- Tala
- Tattooed Man I
- The Thinker
- The Top
- Toyman
- Tsukuri
- Volcana
- Weather Wizard
During the two-part season finale, Lex Luthor tries to resurrect Brainiac by having the Legion transform the base into a spaceship to find lost pieces of Brainiac's last base; but with Tala's help, Grodd attempts a coup to retake control of the Legion, leading to a battle between members loyal to Grodd and Luthor. In the end, Luthor defeats Grodd by turning his hypnosis power back on him; and then disposes of those loyal to Grodd, showing Killer Frost mercy when she turns her freeze power on them. When the Legion reaches the location, Luthor uses Tala's magic to restore Brainiac, but instead, resurrects Darkseid, who rewards Luthor for his help by giving the Legion of Doom a quick death. Thanks to Sinestro and Lightray, one of the Gods of New Genesis who spotted the explosion, the remnants of the Legion make it back to Earth, and go to the Justice League to warn them of Darkseid.
At the end of Alive!, the first part of the finale, the only remaining members of the Legion of Doom are: Atomic Skull, Bizarro, Cheetah, Evil Star, Giganta, Heat Wave, Killer Frost, Lex Luthor, Sinestro, Star Sapphire, Toyman and Volcana. In Destroyer, Lex Luthor acquires the Anti-Life Equation, which Darkseid was searching for, and shares it with him—or possibly uses it on him; they both disappear in a huge explosion, and Darkseid's forces leave Earth. The remaining members of the Legion survive the battle, and are given a 5-minute head start by the Justice League, instead of being immediately arrested.
Cultural references
- The Legion of Doom was referenced in the animated series South Park episode Krazy Kripples featured Christopher Reeve forming his own version of the Legion of Doom, complete with the Hall of Doom as their headquarters; its main goal, according to Reeve, was to kill Gene Hackman. It included both parodies of actual LoD villains, at least two Marvel villains (Doctor Octopus and Doctor Doom) and villains from the South Park universe (such as Professor Chaos i. e. Butters and Saddam Hussein, as well as Osama Bin Laden and Kim Jong Il).
- The Legion of Doom was a forward line of the Philadelphia Flyers NHL hockey team in the mid-1990s. It consisted of Eric Lindros, John LeClair and Mikael Renberg.
- The Legion of Doom was the WWE (formerly WWF) name of the tag team of best friends Michael "Hawk" Hegstrand and Joe "Animal" Laurinaitis. Known for much of their careers as "The Road Warriors", Hawk and Animal are the only tag team to hold the AWA, NWA, WCW, and WWF tag titles - not to demean the fact that this tag team championships all over the globe. They are considered to be the most dominant tag team in wrestling history. In the 2005 Road Warriors DVD released by WWE, Animal mentions that them being known as the Legion of Doom was based on the Superfriends group.
- One of the most notorious groups of malicious hackers (crackers) identified themselves as the Legion of Doom hackers.
- Writer and internet personality Seanbaby has [a comedic tribute] to the Legion of Doom and the Superfriends on his web site.
- In an episode of The Drew Carey Show, Drew and his friends are sent to counseling because a judge thinks they are a street gang. Drew enters a counseling room with a variety of street toughs sitting around a large conference table, Legion of Doom style. "I've always wanted to say this. Gentlemen, I've called you here today because we must destroy Superman."
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