Evil Week: The Legion... Only Without Hawk, Animal, And "Precious" Paul.

The pall of darkness, and sinister doings, falls upon the blog for ONE SOLID WEEK.  That's right; from this Saturday until next Saturday, the forces of EEEEVIL control my blogging efforts!  (But considering I've done my fair share of writing about villainous subjects in the recent past, what's one solid week compared to the subject being peppered in regular subjects?)  And I decided that if I was going to perform a theme week about those characters that make our superheroes' existence worth it... unless they just WANTED to continually fight petty thugs and criminals... I would have to start off with an impact.  And I would have to talk about the first team of villains that attracted my attention.  I'm SURE I was aware of such luminaries like Doctor Octopus and the Joker when I was a little boy, but there was one animated series... and one season in particular... that introduced me to what a sheer overwhelming force a group of super villains could be to a super heroic team.  A group WORTHY of being considered a genuine "Challenge of the Super Friends".  (See what I did with connection of yesterday's blog?)

THE LEGION OF DOOM

I'll tackle the membership by heroic blocks.  And since there WAS a time where DC Comics WASN'T dominated by Batman and his universe, we cover the previous king of their continuity, Superman, and his threats:

• Lex Luthor: Ever since Superboy ruined an anti-kryptonite experiment, along with destroying Luthor's follicle development, this criminal super-scientist dedicated his life to the destruction of Kal-El, the domination of humanity, and the accumulation of wealth.  Lex was, de facto, the leader of the Legion of Doom, and wore his then-current semi-battlesuit costume.
• Brainiac: Super-intelligent... and wicked... Coluan android, who, in the comics, was obsessed with collecting civilizations.  How does one collect civilizations?  Why, you shrink major cities, and their citizens, and place them in a bottle!  Superman saved a Kryptonian city called Kandor who was the victim of such a treatment.  But we're talking about the cartoon, where Brainiac... was kind of there as a secondary genius character?  (But he DID rock out a pair of pink hot pants that only an non-living entity would consider threatening.)
• Bizarro: The imperfect clone of Superman, who possessed all the powers of the Man of Steel, but with blocky physical features, a reverse "S" shield, and a running competition with another member of the team over who could speak the most Hulk-like of the group.  (Sadly, without the reverse-speak of the comics.  I would attempt an example for you, but I am running on sleep fumes...  Maybe I COULD sound like the grunty Bizarro as the day goes on...)
• Toyman: This was actually a semi-original creation for the series.  A Toyman had ALREADY existed in the DC Universe, but Winslow Schott... who looked basically like Benjamin Franklin with a more full head of hair... wasn't exactly visually thrilling for a cartoon.  So, Jack Nimble was born, with a puppet-esque costume.  The M/O remained the same, at least: the use of weaponized toys to commit crime.

I know people have been DYING to hear about Batman's foes, and their membership on the team, so thus, I deliver.

• Riddler: Edward Nygma, master of criminal riddles, which are SUPPOSED to confuse our heroes, and mislead them from the actual crime.  Er... Actually, most of the time, the Super Friends figured out his clues with relative ease.  I'm betting even that blockhead Marvin could've pieced together Eddie's clues.  But he did sport that green and purple one-piece, AND by his insane giggling, almost served as the Joker replacement.
• Scarecrow: Jonathan Crane... not too subtle of a name connection... is the farmyard-tressed master of phobia and fear... that REALLY didn't showcase much of that in the series.  But at least he looked pretty cool with his creepy mask!

One thing that IS still amazing about this series, to me, is that Wonder Woman scores two rogues for the Legion of Doom!  Hell, I'm betting if you asked a comics fan from the past 5 years, they'd STILL puzzle over who were members of her rivals.  But let us proceed!

• Cheetah: Pricilla Rich... who wore a cat costume and hissed in a lot of her speech.  But we couldn't just overload Batman by inviting Catwoman on the team, so Cheetah serves as a fine surrogate.  And speaking as a purely piggish male, she does fill in nicely one of the two "nice LLLADIES" slots of the team.  The other being...
• Giganta: Doris Zeul was after riches, and with the ability to increase her size and body mass, who would deny her?  And with her growth ability, Giganta also served to give Apache Chief a suitable opponent.  (Though, being a regular-sized male, I would NOT hesitate to try attacking a multi-story tall Giganta.  ... What?  She's a scantily-clad redhead!)

DC owed its Silver Age success to the relaunch/reinvention of The Flash, so it stands to reason he would score two members of his Rogue's Gallery for the Legion of Doom.

• Captain Cold: Leonard Snart was freezing things with his freeze ray MORE effectively than Victor Frieze had to this point in comic's history.  He also sported shades that would make any developing Punk green with envy.  One major cosmetic difference is that Captain Cold's complexion took a turn for the Smurf for this animated series.  Blue skin like that CANNOT be healthy.
• Gorilla Grodd: Even an idyllic society like the hidden Gorilla City can produce some bad seeds.  Grodd is such a bad seed, an intelligent gorilla with psychic abilities AND the sheer physical attributes to one of nature's most imposing creatures.  In case you couldn't tell, I am loathe to speak ill of Grodd, since he's one of my personal favorites... PERIOD.

Green Lantern... he receives an unusual section of villainy for the team, because while you could argue he TECHNICALLY only has one arch-villain on the team, the Green Lantern LEGACY allows for the counting of two team members.  Let me explain:

• Sinestro: Before the Sith were conceived to be the opposite of the Jedi, a rogue Green Lantern named Sinestro, from the planet Korrugar, collected a forged ring of yellow from the weaponeers of Quard.  (At this time, the Green Lantern Corps had a ring impurity that made their constructs vunrible to anything yellow.  ... So, technically you could throw a BOATLOAD of Twinkies and Peeps at a Green Lantern, and score some hits.)
• Solomon Grundy: Born on a Monday... et al.  And HE WANTS PANTS, TOO!  (You just KNEW I had to make that reference!)  Bizarro wasn't enough muscle for the team, so the Legion of Doom snagged the zombie Hulk as a member of the team.  Of course, this would lead to many engaging conversations with Bizarro.

Even during a time where Aquaman wasn't considered DC "top tier", one of his threats make the grade to membership of the Legion of Doom.

• Black Manta: At this time, Black Manta's identity was unknown.  He was best known as an undersea pirate, and general menace.  Aside from being one of the team "tech support" enhancements, he had the COOLEST CARTOON VOICE for the series.  Seriously!  I would KILL to be able to talk like that!

WHEW!  And there's our happy family!  Notice some heroes do not contain villainous counterparts to the team?  Well... Hawkman's Shadow Thief could have been a fun addition to the team.  But I have to be honest; the one Atom arch-nemesis I know of around this time was Chronos, and he would have SSUUCCKKEEDD as a member of the Legion of Doom.  But some series highlights included a plot to transform the world's population to Bizarros and Cheetahs to commit crimes for the Legion, turning members OTHER than Giganta into giants, travelling back in time to halt the creation of Superman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern, AND having to... GASP... assist the forces of good to avert a global holocaust.  Because when your main planet of operations is destroyed by an outside force, things... get... PERSONAL! 

Sadly, the sheer awesomeness of having the Justice League square off against an equally balanced team of villains was apparently "too much" for Hanna Barbera, and "Challenge of the Super Friends" only lasted a single season.  But like all great concepts, it never truly dies.  It just rests, and regains its strength, for a latter battle...

"Justice League Unlimited", one of the BEST DC Animated series ever created, reintroduced the Legion of Doom.  But the fun thing about this modern take on the team was the membership EXPLODED.  It read like a checklist of the entire DC Universe's threat levels!  One key difference is that the leadership was often contested between Lex Luthor and Gorilla Grodd.  The seeds for the Legion did exist in the "Justice League" series, with the "Injustice League".  ... Which was the first time Joker was included on the team!  And one could say the massive gathering of villains to take advantage of the chaos the Anti-Monitor unleased in "Crisis on Infinite Earths" could have counted as an extension of the Legion of Doom concept.  But the CLASSIC Legion concept regained its legs in the form of a comic series in the early 2000's.

Jim Krueger and Alex Ross created a twelve issue love letter to the "Super Friends", with a slightly more modern/dark turn in the mini-series "Justice".  There ARE some new additions to the team, but the core membership remained the same, and the Legion was much more clever about their campaign against the Justice League.  Their basic plot was the projection of a desire to help humanity with their crisis that the super heroes were supposedly "ignoring".  Along with this smear campaign, they partook in secret... yet lethal... strikes against the members of the Justice League.  But not counting regular animated series, and comic book events, the Legion of Doom STILL thrived... even in this "New 52" era!

Two animated films worthy of mention are "Justice League Doom" and "JLA Adventures: Trapped in Time".  The latter involved a crossing over of the JLA and the Legion of Superheroes, as the established Legion of Doom ensnare the Legion arch-foe, Time Trapper, in a scheme to eliminate their arch foes in the past.  (Sound familiar, eh?)  Still, this original feature is pretty fun, and worthy of exploration.  The former features a team that, aside from Cheetah, is the Legion of Doom in NAME ONLY.  But it does continue the trend of throwing together the DC heroes' primary threats together in a team.  Heck, even the Martian Manhunter earns a foe for the team!  (But don't ask me who he was, because I know JACK about J'ohnn's villains.) 

I cannot express enough the impression the Legion of Doom left on me from that "Challenge of the Super Friends" introduction as a kid.  Until the "Super Friends" began facing off against Darkseid, this was the most AWESOME series of "Super Friends" adventures.  Most of the time they just faced off against random one-off alien and mystical jobbers.  (And that was when you were LUCKY!  Most of the time it was moronic scientists that inadvertently created something that proved to be a major threat to humanity.  Those episodes can be murder to get through...)  So knowing there was a season where the heroes had an evenly-matched group of villains to face off against, it was exciting, and it made me realize it's a cool "BAD GUY" that makes a hero all the more interesting to follow!  But tomorrow, we take a look at what it's like when a hero faces off against threats that VASTLY outnumber him.