Who and why?
Well, it’s gotta be Road Warrior Animal, since Hawk is dead.
Sinestro, though Brainiac and Luthor have a claim on it as well. Bizarro is the most powerful, aside from Sinestro, but…he’s Bizarro, which tends to dampen his danger level without someone aiming him.
At the exact opposite extreme, Riddler’s the most harmless, with Toyman and Scarecrow coming in a distant second. (Even more distant if taken out of the constraints of late 70s-early 80s cartoons.)
/thread
Never mind.
I thought Black Adam was a member of the LoD.
I have to say Braniac and his 12th level intellect. Though Sinestro is the scariest, he really thinks he’s doing the ‘right’ thing.
Doctor Natas.
Luthor.
Period.
Brainiac has tech, but Luthor is the only one who creates a plan worth a darn.
John LeClair had more goals but the francophobic Eric Lindros was the better player.
I dunno, Precious Paul was pretty dangerous.
Do you mean the “classic” Super-Friends LoD?
Just FYI, if you didn’t know, here’s their roster: Lex Luthor, Brainiac, Bizarro, Toyman, Scarecrow, Riddler, Cheetah, Giganta, Captain Cold, Gorilla Grodd, Sinestro, Solomon Grundy and Black Manta.*
I’d go with Solomon Grundy - Superman level strength, invulnerable, technically unkillable (he’s a zombie already) and basically a pure rage machine like the Hulk.
*(Great Zod, I’m a geek!)
I realize that this is a cop-out answer but, as in the case of all things comics-related, the answer to who is the most dangerous member of the Legion of Doom is, depends on who the writer is (and, in turn, who that writer’s favorite character is).
I’ll never forget the opening line from seanbaby’s take on the Riddler: “Look out, universe: here comes a guy as tough as a regular guy, but easier to catch.”
“Even if you’re an old lady running into him on the street and your only weapon is a purse, that’s one more purse than the Riddler has. While you’re hitting him in the head, all he can do is make up a nursery rhyme about how he’s going to try to find a band-aid later.”
Seanbaby equals truth.
Luthor’s endgame is the removal of Superman. He is not going to save the Earth from the alien only to be left with a glowing cinder to rule.
Sinestro or Braniac would be more than likely to accept the complete destruction of Earth as collateral damage. (Of course, if dropping Thanagar into its sun would help defeat Superman, Luthor would be the first to activate the graviton beam.)
So “dangerous” depends on context. What nefarious acts are they trying to perform?
Talking about their comic book equivalents rather than the Superfriends versions …
It’s a four-way tie between Luthor, Brainiac, and Bizarro. The latter has the most personal power, and more importantly is the most irrational and unpredictable. Supes knows how to handle him, but most heroes don’t, and he’s equally likely to accidentally destroy a city (while trying to help) or to set out to destroy it in the first place.
Luthor is mostly dangerous to superheroes in general and Superman in particular. He’s rational enough that there’s things he generally won’t do. He won’t try to destroy the Earth or anything close to it, as Earth is where he keeps his stuff. Plus he’s capable of empathy.
Sinestro, like Luthor, has limits. He’s a conqueror, not a nihilist. There’s atrocities he won’t commit do simply because they don’t give him any advantage.
Brainiac is probably the worst of the four. Luthor’s the better leader, but Brainiac, on his own, is terrifying. No empathy, and way too much power.
Riddler has masterminded at least one gigantic scheme, which I won’t spoil, and if memory serves, he once beat the hell out of Green Arrow (admittedly, something we’ve probably all wanted to do at times). I would class him as at least more dangerous than Cheetah.
Lindros had more penalty minutes, so more dangerous by another metric as well.
And Droz is crippled and no one seems to know what happened to Heidenrich.
“Turn everyone into gorillas? That was your big plan?”
-Luthor, to Gorilla Grodd