Legends of Tomorrow 2nd Full Trailer

Legends of Tomorrow is the next step in the amazing experiment that is CW’s shared DC Comics TV universe.  This ambitious project had a difficult infancy, struggling through a pretty rocky start with the first couple seasons of Arrow as little more than a Batman knock-off.  Then Flash happened and it was poor to mediocre at first, right up until CW hosted its first crossover episodes and found they could get a winning combination of sitcom antics, melodrama, and comic book action.  Since then both Flash and Arrow have improved immensely, embracing a broader and more accepting view of the DC comic universe where pretty much anything from the comics is free game to adapt to TV. 

So far Flash’s first season and a half alone have featured time travel, psychic apes, the speed force, and parallel realities while Arrow has branched out to include Ras Al Ghul, the Lazarus Pit, and Magic.  Now, with Legends of Tomorrow CW looks to reinvent the superhero wheel once more with their own Justice League.  Now, after a bit of a reshuffle owing to the departure of Robbie Amell’s Firestorm and CW wanting Legends of Tomorrow to run longer than intended, we’ve got our first trailer for DC’s first live action multi-hero team-up and it looks amazing.

So the big change up of Legends of Tomorrow has mainly been in the roster.  Firestorm is now Jefferson ‘Jax’ Jackson as played by Franz Drameh and the roles of Green Arrow and the Flash on the show have been significantly downgraded.  In the original trailer Rip Hunter actually recruited them alongside the others but now they’ve been swapped out for Hawkman.  The current line up is: the Atom, complete with shrinking powers, the new Firestorm, White Canary, Black canary now having returned from death, Captain Cold and Heatwave, a couple of villains with a noble streak, and Hawkman and Hawkgirl, continually reincarnated alien bird police from the planet Thanagar.  I’m actually not sure how much of the alien police stuff will make it into Hawkman and Hawkgirl’s history but the fact they’re a pair of doomed lovers constantly being reincarnated across time is definitely part of their story and a big reason for their appearance here.

As Rip Hunter handily explains in the opening the villain of the show is Vandal Savage, an immortal being whose stalked the Earth since caveman times and, in the future, seems to have wiped out all humanity.  I’m not sure why Rip Hunter is trying to alter the past as usually he works to preserve the timeline so I can only assume Savage or his allies must’ve found a way to monkey with time to secure his victory.  However, Savage’s immortal history is a big part of why Hawkman and Hawkgirl are on hand as they’ve battled him many times across the course of human history, even during their original incarnation in Ancient Egypt.  Some of the footage here seems to suggest things will be headed to Ancient Egypt though it seems the main crux of the time travel plot revolves around the 1970s and Savage trying to get his hands on a Soviet Nuke. 

The nuclear missile stuff is an odd addition and I’m willing to bet not necessarily Savage’s end goal.  He alludes to both Batman and Superman in the trailer’s narration which would suggest he needs a way to defeat some pretty heavy hitter heroes and we actually see some Kryptonite at one point in the trailer.  My guess though is that Savage’s plans already hinge on Hunter’s time travel and that this is all heading for a great big paradox resolution.  Specifically I’m betting Savage is trying to get his hands on the Firestorm Matrix via that weird nuclear module that Dr. Stein gets stuck in near the end of the trailer.  Firestorm is an incredibly powerful asset given that he’s a living nuke who can transmute elements at will so if I was looking for an all powerful super weapon to take on Earth’s mightiest heroes he’d be a good pick. 

There’s also a major theme in this trailer about the heroes misusing the power of Time Travel.  That’s been a part of this story since the start but it’s interesting to see it get more development here and we’re finally getting some inkling of how time travel will function in this continuity.  We see in a brief flash that Dr. Stein’s wedding ring warps out of existence due to some time monkeying, which implies the heroes’ actions in the past will have immediate impact upon them thus ruling out my theory that all the time travel would end up creating parallel worlds.  

We also see a major theme of the heroes trying to determine their own destiny, like Captain Cold going back in time to meet his past self during childhood.  We also hear Hunter mention they’ve somehow altered the timeline to create a threat worse than Savage.  I’m not sure who that could be but it seems like it’s probably this creepy, armored, Phantasma looking armored soldier.  I have no idea who this character is as, if they are a DC villain or hero they’ve been altered beyond my ability to recognize them.

 

Overall this is a really good trailer mainly because of how fun and creative all the action looks in it.  I love Firestorm’s new costume bringing him more in line with the classic design, the shrinking scenes with the Atom look amazing, Hawkman & Hawkgirl seem incredibly well realized, and it’s fun to see Heatwave and Captain Cold blasting about in the middle of it all.  Additionally I like the sense of comradery that’s forming between the characters now that the mini-series seems to have a more definite structure and roster.  A lot of those last few moments of the trailer where the characters all sort of bro out together over their personal fractured history and enjoying the feeling of belonging to something greater are some of the best shots in the trailer, and that ominous funeral scene certainly raises a lot of questions.  I’m still not sure what’s to be accomplished with referencing Batman and Superman as neither of them are allowed to appear on the show for rights reasons but if CW has found some way around that I’m totally open to it.  For now, this is a kick-ass trailer that shows just how committed CW is to this project and how much passion and energy there is up on screen. 

Legends of Tomorrow is scheduled to premiere on January 16


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