Team Spotlight: Legion of Doom (for real this time)

The Legion of Doom is no stranger to this site. I've mentioned their name being used before, and we've seen an alternate reality version of them, but we've never seen the actual team...until now.

If you're not familiar, the Legion of Doom were the antagonists on Challenge of the Superfriends (September 1978). They were comprised of the Super Friends' greatest foes...

From left to right, we have Black Manta, Giganta, Toyman, The Riddler, Bizarro, Scarecrow, Lex Luthor, Captain Cold, Cheetah, Solomon Grundy, Gorilla Grodd, Brainiac, and Sinestro. If you're familiar with the characters, you'll notice some heroes are more represented than others. Batman, Flash, and Green Lantern all get two a piece. Wonder Woman also gets two but shares one with Apache Chief (Giganta, which is why she has size-changing powers). Aquaman only gets one, but Superman gets four. Samurai, Black Vulcan, and the Wonder Twins get none.

Challenge of the Super Friends is arguably the most well known season of the series, and the Legion of Doom is a major reason for that. They were big time villains with a cool team name in a cool headquarters. So why, if the name and headquarters have appeared in comics, hasn't the team? I don't know, but we don't have to worry about that anymore.

The Legion of Doom makes their debut in Scott Snyder's Justice League #1 (June 2018). They're a team put together by Lex Luthor to deal with the ramifications of the Source Wall breaking in Dark Knights: Metal.

As you can see, the team doesn't include everyone from the cartoon, but it's the closest we've gotten yet. I don't know how Joker sneaked in there, but DC can't seem to help themselves, I guess.

From what I gather, there were several previously undiscovered forces on the other side of the wall. Grodd has taken control of the Still Force, which is the opposite of the Flash's Speed Force, and there's also a new part of the Emotional Spectrum (Ultraviolet) that I can see Sinestro trying to control. With the also-recently-discovered Sage and Strength Forces being easily tied to the not-yet-Legion members Brainiac and Solomon Grundy, it wouldn't surprise me if each member has their own thing. But that's all speculation at this juncture.

(Honestly, Grodd should have the Sage Force and Captain Cold should have the Still Force, but I imagine they want to keep it to one villain per hero. Can't blame them for that.)