WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Harley Quinn Episode 2, "A High Bar," streaming now on DC Universe.
On DC Universe's new animated series Harley Quinn, the newly single title character has made membership in the Legion of Doom her ultimate goal, to demonstrate she doesn't need The Joker to be happy and successful. The second episode takes the audience inside the supervillains' iconic headquarters, the Hall of Doom -- and it has come a long way since its 1978 debut.
Hidden within the murky waters of Slaughter Swamp, outside Gotham City, the Hall of Doom was introduced on Challenge of the Super Friends as a fortress/flying machine with a suspicious resemblance to Darth Vader's helmet from Star Wars. In 2019, however, the same unmistakable shape has remained, but the location, gleaming exterior and thoroughly modern interior are brand-new.
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Part of the fun with Harley Quinn is seeing new and unexpected interpretations of elements we already know and love. Sometimes that means playing up the extreme violence and eccentricities of the fan-favorite anitheroine, while other times it simply means showing a side to Batman’s rogues gallery that we’ve never seen before. Whether Calendar Man is having trouble remembering his own child’s birthday (but has no problem recalling precisely how many days Harley has been in Arkham Asylum), or Bane allowing other villains to walk all over him, the creators have obviously anticipated our preconceptions, and know exactly how to subvert them.
Introduced on the 1978 Saturday morning cartoon Challenge of the Super Friends, the Legion of Doom brought together enemies of the members of the Justice League -- Lex Luthor, Captain Cold, Cheetah and Scarecrow, among others -- for the sole purpose of conquering the universe. The Super Friends met in the Hall of Justice, so the Legion established its own base, the Hall of Doom.
While Black Manta thought the base should reside at the bottom of the sea, Captain Cold suggested beneath the polar ice caps and Gorilla Grodd in the jungle. In the end, Lex Luthor compromised by deciding it would hide beneath the murky waters of a swamp, surrounded by mud and alligators. So it was built, equipped with the most deadly devices in the universe, and submerged - only to rise again whenever a plot needed concocting. Taking into account the occasional variation over the years, this is primarily what most people imagine when they think of the Legion of Doom’s headquarters.
The opening scene of Harley Quinn’s second episode “A High Bar,” wastes no time in going against the grain by showing us a pristine, white Hall of Doom, surrounded by a moat of clear water, gleaming in the sunlight. The base isn’t hidden away somewhere; it shines proudly in the center of Gotham. Inside the hall isn’t some intimidating, over-the-top villain’s conference room (as it was in the ‘70s); it instead resembles your average corporate office. There’s even a break room where villains can gather to gossip over coffee and doughnuts.
While it may have only been glimpsed briefly in the episode’s cold open, this bright-and-sparkly Hall of Doom is a perfect example of how the animated series injects new life into largely unchanged concepts and characters. With this alternative, modern, subdued take on the home of the bad guys, one can’t help but wonder what kind of awful state this show’s version of the Hall of Justice might in.
DC Universe's Harley Quinn stars Kaley Cuoco, Lake Bell, Diedrich Bader, Alan Tudyk, Rahul Kohli, Christopher Meloni, Tony Hale, Ron Funches, Wanda Sykes, Natalie Morales, Jim Rash, Giancarlo Esposito, Jason Alexander and J.B. Smoove. New episodes are released on Fridays.