If
you liked this article, please like us on Facebook or follow us
on Twitter and please consider Donating to keep the blog
going
One of the biggest stories of superhero TV in 2015 was the
rise of Legends of Tomorrow, the
first team superhero TV show to be produced in live action and not cut together
from repackage Japanese TV like Power
Rangers. The first season was
a pretty big hit, working through some ups and downs to deliver a fun and
action packed family adventure show in the vein of Doctor Who or Power Rangers
but starring a dynamic and unique team of lovable and engaging heroes.
Now it’s season 2 time which raises a slew of questions,
most especially because season 1 was so tied to defeating the immortal tyrant
Vandal Savage and, spoilers, that’s what the team did at the end of that
season. This has raised the
question of what season 2 will be about but the first details are now filtering
through and, aside from a pretty interesting synopsis, the big news is that Legends of Tomorrow season 2 will
feature the Legion of Doom as their new antagonists.
Before I dive into the Legion of Doom, the greatest super
villain team of all time, let’s take a look at the synopsis. According to CW, the new season will be
based around the Legends of Tomorrow ending up scattered through time forcing
the charming and unconventional historian Nate Heywood (played by Nick Zano) to
find the team.
I’m not sure
exactly how the team got lost in time though this description definitely seems
to suggest the opening of season 2 won’t directly pick-up on the cliff hangar
ending of season 1 with Hourman and the Justice Society of America.
What seems most likely, as Rip Hunter is also listed as
missing, is that Heywood, a future superhero himself and grandson of Justice
Society member Commander Steel, will be left with possession of the Wave Rider
time ship and forced to scour the time stream in search of the Legends.
That basically makes this a repackaging
of the classic DC Comics Justice League/Justice Society team-up In Search of the Seven Soldiers of Victory,
in which the two teams had to recover time lost heroes from throughout
history. The story is considered
one of the greatest team-ups of DC’s Silver Age and was the first major
superhero event to be punctuated by a dramatic death when the Red Tornado
android sacrificed himself to save the universe in Justice League #100.
If that is the case it does the raise the question of how
the Legion of Doom will factor into the proceedings. My suspicion is that time travel shenanigans will be
involved given the immortal and timeless nature of most of the Legion of Doom’s
members. Where the original Legion
of Doom, forming out of the Super Friends
TV show and then migrating to the mainstream comics, was basically just a team
of everyone’s archenemies, this new team is a bizarre hodgepodge of mastermind
villains.
The team is so far
comprised solely of returning villains like Reverse Flash or Merlin/Ras Al Ghul
but almost everyone assembled is free from the constraints of time in some way,
which is the perfect opportunity to dive into the members of the Legion of
Doom.
MERLIN/RAS AL GHUL
– JOHN BARROWMAN
The longest lasting villain on the team, Barrowman’s “evil
guy” role has been a factor on Arrow
as far back as season 1. What his
actual villain identity IS is a little screwy but for the most part he seems to
be a fusion of Batman foe Ras Al Ghul and Green Arrow archenemy Merlin.
Traditionally Merlin has been a servant
of Ras Al Ghul, acting as one of the assassins in the Sensei’s Seven Men of
Death but Arrow has put a weird spin
on things. Now, Ras Al Ghul is a
titled passed down through various leaders of the League of Assassins, though
the league does have access to the Lazarus Pits.
Barrowman seems to have initially been a villainous bowman
ala Merlin but eventually moved in to take the Ras Al Ghul mantel and now leads
the league. I’m not sure how all
of that will coalesce for Legends of
Tomorrow but his seeming immortality could make him a good villain for any
given time period, or he could just be an excuse to set an episode or two in
the modern era.
More importantly,
I believe Barrowman still has Vandal Savage’s ashes from the end of the 2015 Flash/Arrow crossover so I wouldn’t be
surprised if those popped up in the plot somewhere.
THE REVERSE FLASH
– MATT LETSCHER
Matt Letscher is The
Flash’s secret weapon. He
appeared very briefly in The Flash season
1 as the original version of the Reverse Flash before getting a solo episode in
season 2. Now he’s set to be a
primary supporting character in season 3 and a main villain of Legends of Tomorrow, which is great
because this guy is incredible.
Tom Cavanagh portrayed Reverse Flash for most of season 1 and as much as
I love him Letchser’s take on Reverse Flash is every bit his excellent
equal. Letscher imbues the
character with an unhinged, rampantly narcissistic menace that’s an absolute delight
and never feels like a retread of Cavanagh’s work. The fact we’ll be getting so much more of this guy in the
new seasons is an absolute good.
Anyway, his presence in Legends
of Tomorrow season 2 is probably linked to the team being scattered through
time. He’s the only character
currently revealed that has time travel capabilities plus his identity as
someone from the future means we could be seeing one of the Legends thrown into
the 25th Century with maybe even a cameo from Booster Gold, a hero
of the future that’s a real favorite for the DC Entertainment higher ups. Reverse Flash’s presence also hints
that this season might be disconnected from The
Flash’s season 3 storyline.
If you aren’t a Flash fan, season 3 is an altered timeline
story called Flashpoint and features the Reverse Flash locked up in the Flash’s
subbasement of solitude for most of it.
If Reverse Flash is free to be involved in the Legion of Doom during Legends of Tomorrow it might follow that
the Legends story won’t tie to fixing Flash’s time travel shenanigans. Most importantly, I suspect Reverse
Flash’s knowledge of history and time travel will be tied to however it is the
Legion of Doom come together across history as some of their members are
already dead by the time of the present.
DAMIEN DARHK –
NEAL MCDONOUGH
One of the only truly original characters to pop-up in the
CWniverse, Damien Darhk has been the central antagonist of the last season of Arrow, making him the second Arrow villain to migrate to Legends of Tomorrow as part of the
Legion of Doom. He shares his name
and nothing else with an obscure Teen Titans villain but his main inspiration
seems to be Black Hand, in that they’re both villains with the power of the
touch of death.
Darhk’s best
described as an evil nigh immortal wizard with his biggest continuity
contributions being that he killed the Black Canary and was publicly defeated
by Green Arrow in a battle that inspired a whole new crop of vigilantes.
Darhk seems the most out of place of all the Legion of Doom
bad guys as it’s not like he’s a particularly important or impressive bad
guy. Honestly, the big reason I
think he’s around is because White Canary is a favorite member of the Legends
of Tomorrow and Darhk killing her sister sets him up for a nice vendetta
storyline.
What’s more, his role
as a quasi-immortal (it’s not terribly clear how immortal he really is) means
he could work as a bad guy from any point in the past prior to his death in the
Arrow season 4 finale. His presence does raise an interesting
question of science vs. magic on the team as he’s black mage while Reverse
Flash is a future scientist so it’d be cool if that popped up.
CAPTAIN COLD –
WENTWORTH MILLER
This is the most surprising bad guy associated with the
Legion of Doom as Captain Cold was pretty definitively dead at the end of Legends of Tomorrow season 1. He died rescuing all of time from the
manipulation of the Time Masters in a heroic sacrifice so the fact he’s somehow
back from the great beyond is pretty noteworthy.
The big, obvious question is of course how but there’s also
the linger question of why he’s now on the side of the bad guys. Even though Cold was a thief and a criminal
his whole arc in season 1 was about admitting his inner heroism and moving
towards his noble sacrifice at the end of the season, basically becoming a good
guy. So the fact that his return
has flipped his moral compass once more seems a pretty major deal.
Now obviously, there’s the possibility that Cold’s presence
on the team is tied to timing, with the Legion of Doom forming sometime prior
to Legends of Tomorrow season 1. This would explain some stuff like
Reverse Flash and Darhk’s presence, as the timing would set the team’s
existence prior to Arrow season 4 and
The Flash season 3, but honestly that
would feel like a big of a cop-out.
Sure, it’d be a clever way to deal with avoiding the fallout of the
Flash’s reality warping but it just seems like a bate and switch.
I’d much prefer it if the events of
Flashpoint somehow warped Cold back to life and the Legion of Doom is his
revenge on the Legends of Tomorrow not being able to save him. It’d work really well in grounding all
the different villains in a familiar motivation and keeping the focus on the
Legends of Tomorrow rather than CW’s attendant mythology.
Legends of Tomorrow
season 2 premieres October 13, 2016
If you liked this article, please like us on
Facebook or follow us on Twitter and please consider Donating to keep the blog going 
No comments:
Post a Comment