At time of writing, Legends
of Tomorrow has managed to clear its first major hurdle by completing its
2-part pilot in spectacular fashion.
The team is assembled, the characters are fun and engaging, and the
fight scenes spectacular, and the stakes have never been higher within the
realm of the CW. Now that the
opening salvo has been fired Legends of
Tomorrow is settling in for the long haul, planning a full season’s worth
of time travel throughout the crazy corners of DC’s past and introducing even
more weird heroes of the DC universe.
This has always been CW’s greatest strength, a complete
embrace of the weirdest and most obscure elements of DC continuity without a
hint of irony or self-consciousness over the strangeness of the characters
they’re adapting. That incredible
confidence of adaptation seems to be coming to a head now as CW announces 5 new
characters to appear in Legends of
Tomorrow, some logical like Jonah Hex or Sergeant Rock while other likes
Hourman the third and Ma Hunkle are as strange a choice as comic book
adaptations are allowed to make nowadays.
JONAH HEX
I’ve spoken on Jonah Hex before so I’ll keep this one a bit
shorter. Jonan Hex was a DC cowboy
hero from the ‘70s when DC was reviving a lot of their ‘50s western comics in
an effort to diversify their output.
A former confederate soldier before he deserted, Hex became a bounty
hunter after the civil war and receiving a nasty scar over half of his face. For better or worse Hex is the face of
DC westerns, which are in all honesty a lot better than Marvel’s handful of
western attempts. His inclusion
isn’t that surprising given this is a time travel and would suggest folks like
El Diablo, Batlash, Pow Wow Smith, Super Chief, or Nighthawk aren’t far
behind.
Interestingly, Hex was briefly revived in the ‘80s for a
mini-series entitled Hex, in which he
was transported into a distant and apocalyptic future in the vein of Mad Max. I’m not totally convinced that will happen here but given
the set-up is literally “Jonah Hex and time travel” meeting up again I wouldn’t
be surprised if he found himself stranded in the future once Legends of Tomorrow wraps up.
SERGEANT ROCK
Another character I’ve addressed before but if you want the
full story that’s what links are for.
Premiering in 1959 as the birth of a new age of war comics, now informed
by a harsher view of World War 2, Rock served as the face of DC’s wide line of
war comics. He was meant as a sort
of everyman soldier leading Easy Company through the embittered terrain of Europe
and North Africa against the Nazi menace.
Sergeant Rock is the prototypical war hero, the archetype from which all
others are cut whether knowingly or not.
He’s gruff, he’s tough, he’s got a secret heart of gold, and he always
gets the job done no matter the cost.
Like Jonah Hex, his inclusion is probably paving the road
for more esoteric war characters like Haunted Tank, The Losers, Gravedigger,
Unknown Soldier and plenty of others.
DC spent the better part of the ‘60s perfecting war stories and I’m
surprised it’s taken this long for someone to bring them to life. Rock later returned as the leader of
the Suicide Squad but given DC Entertainment’s moratorium on using them outside
the films I doubt they’ll show up.
Still, if Rock’s involvement is set-up for a Dirty Dozen type situation starring the Legends of Tomorrow I
wouldn’t complain.
SANDMAN
This is one of the stranger characters to talk about, mainly
because there have been a lot of Sandman variations in DC’s history and the
most popular one isn’t the one we’re talking about here. Classically, most folks know Sandman as
the lord of dreams from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman
comic. However, the original
Sandman was a crime buster created in the wake of Batman’s smash debut in
1939. Like a lot of heroes at the
time, Sandman was a gritty urban vigilante who fought pulpy street crime with a
handful of gadgets to augment his true grit and fisticuffs. His big gimmick was a gas gun and gas
mask that he used to spray his opponents with knockout gas.
Sandman has popped up sporadically throughout DC continuity,
even getting a brief costume redesign that hopefully won’t appear in Legends of Tomorrow. As far as when Sandman might appear
he’ll probably be situated in either the ‘30s or ‘50s, most likely ‘50s. His gritty noir feel lends itself much
more the shady black and white of a ‘50s pulp mystery than anything else. It’s possible they’ll tie this version
of Sandman to his successor Sand, who had geokinetic powers and prophetic
dreams, but I kind of doubt it.
HOURMAN
Strap in folks: we’ve got a weird one here. Hourman was originally a mystery man; a
‘40s superhero where the emphasis was on low rent homemade costumes and a
single bizarre power set. In
Hourman’s case he had developed a pill called Miraclo that granted him 1 hour
of super strength and increased speed, agility, and durability. Given that Sergeant Rock is already
confirmed it seems a little dubious that the original Hourman, Rex Tyler, will
be the one featured in the show.
None of DC’s ‘40s heroes actually fought in World War 2 owing to
Hitler’s spear of destiny granting him the power to nullify their abilities so
unless that’s dropped and Hourman is attached to Rock’s unit it seems
dubious.
What’s more, this image actually features a very faded
outline of the third Hourman: Tyler, a bio-android from the 853rd
century. This Hourman has time
travel and time manipulation powers, including his very own time ship. He’s one of the coolest characters ever
and enjoyed a spectacularly underappreciated comic during the late ‘90s. Overall, Hourman III seems the more
likely candidate to appear, especially given fellow DC time travel characters
Chronos and Per Degaton have already come into play. However, his inclusion could imply the Legends will be
heading forward into the future as well as back in time.
MA HUNKEL
You have no idea how surreal this is. Ma Hunkel is one of those characters
you never expect to see adapted to live action like Bat Mite or Fatman, someone
just too weird to ever fit but here we are. As is hopefully apparent, Ma Hunkel was initially a more
comical character, created during the time when a lot of comics were just
transitioning from a grittier pulp aesthetic to a more lighthearted and
fantastical approach for younger children. Ma Hunkel was a single mother who dawned longjohns and a
cooking pot helmet to fight crime on the mean streets of New York in the
1940s.
While it’s strange that Ma Hunkel will actually appear in
live action given how garish her costume design is, it’s not that surprising
that CW wants her around. Given
that CW has currently adapted or plans to adapt 11 different members of the
Justice Society I still suspect they plan on bringing the full team into the
CWniverse. If that is the case, Ma
Hunkel makes perfect sense as an adaptation as she’s often served as the
curator of the JSA headquarters/museum brownstone in New York.
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