Legion of Doom | |
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Publication information | |
First appearance | TV: 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 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.
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.
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 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.
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 |
While Challenge of the Superfriends 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:
Scarecrow makes an appearance in The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians episode "The Fear" while also introducing his real name of Jonathan Crane.
Members of the Legion of Doom made some appearances in the Super Friends spin-off comic title based on the TV series:
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)
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