What the Spear of Destiny means for Legends of Tomorrow

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If you’re watching Legends of Tomorrow, the mid-season finale this year revealed a pretty significant plot point for both the show and the CWniverse as a whole.  It was shown that this season’s villains, the Legion of Doom, are in search of the Spear of Destiny, an incredibly powerful mystic artifact.  They explain in the episode that the Spear, more commonly known as the Spear of Longinus, is the same Spear that the Roman soldier used to pierce the side of Christ during the crucifixion. 

That fact has afforded it tremendous power, though Legends of Tomorrow was a little unclear what that power was.  Though the Spear of Longinus is a real world artifact of note, it also has a long and storied history in DC comics that hints at some major shake-ups and new additions to the Legends’ roster. 

Legends of Tomorrow Adds 4 New Heroes

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Edited by Robert Beach

At this point, CW’s domination of the super TV genre is almost comical. The Network is currently sporting 4 original superhero shows and an online animated series with a universe so massive and broad, it’s frankly astounding it works at all. It’s not like all their shows are diet superhero fair like Smallville;  they dove head first into Multiverse, time travel, magic, talking apes, and strange visitors from beyond the stars.  The crown jewel in that treasure trove of superhero fiction would have to be Legends of Tomorrow, the first live-action superhero team show to be produced with all original footage. 

The series boasts a strong central cast, amazing action, high-concept adventures through time, and an expanding roster of superheroes that’s honestly become the equal of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  To illustrate this fact, CW is now bringing the Justice Society of America to Legends of Tomorrow season 2 and has revealed 4 new major heroes who will appear in the upcoming season. 

Panel Vision - DC Comic Pasts

So, Legends of Tomorrow is on the way and a big part of this show is going to be time travel.  How much time travel is involved is still a little unclear but we at least know a good chunk of the show will take place in the ‘70s and that Jonah Hex, a cowboy hero from America’s old west (1870-1880s) will play a role in the story.  Those are both pretty great ideas and they’ve got me thinking about the history of the DC Universe.  One of the weird things about comic book universes is that because of how much unregulated weirdness was popping around comics for so long they end up with super weird visions of history.

 Sometimes this is due to the mandate of setting, like how all of DC’s cowboy adventures had to happen in the old west even if they involved guys like El Diablo, a bank teller who was possessed by a spirit of vengeance.  Other times it’s the result of time travel nonsense or just the fact that some characters and places have just always existed.  As such I’m looking back at some of the craziest and most interesting points in DC Comics’ history, let’s dive in. 

Panel Vision - Legend of the Hawkman

Previously on Panel Vision I discussed the 1989 comic Hawkworld, a dark, gritty reimagining of the Hawkman characters and mythos that was informed by the stylistic trends and affects of Judge Dredd, Bladerunner, and Soylent Green.  However, despite being critically well regarded and establishing a handful of still relevant things Hawkworld really didn’t leave that big a footprint on the comics landscape or Hawkman in particular.  It spawned an ongoing comic that lasted for a few years followed by a new Hawkman comic in 1993, which has been rightfully forgotten by all good and descent comic fans, and then that was it. 

By 1997, when DC made a major shift in writers and series spearheaded by Grant Morrison’s relaunched Justice League of America comic, Hawkman had more or less passed on from continuity and would stay there for about 4 years.  In 2001, Hawkman returned with a back to basics look and a strained attempt to combine all the most popular elements of his mythos at the time.  Though interesting that Hawkman is pretty inhospitable to new comers, which is a shame given how much he incorporated from the Silver Age character while elevating the material through modern writing sensibilities.  Thankfully, in 2000 there was an exceptional mini-series that did just that: Legend of the Hawkman.

Comics Rainbow - Supergirl

Edited by Robert Beach 

So, Supergirl has premiered, and I loved it. It’s a fun show that absolutely cuts to the heart of what makes Supergirl such a great character and proves how easy it is to actually get the Superman franchise right without descending into the same disappointing well as Smallville, Quest for Peace, Superman Returns, or Man of Steel.  It’s actually a pretty impressive feat given the fact that Supergirl has always had a decidedly checkered history in the comics. 

Like a lot of female heroes that emerged out of the comics code to support superhero families, Supergirl’s design, origin, and backstory have been through a plethora of alterations; none of which was helped by her sidelining in the mid-80s when DC wanted to revert Superman to the last Kryptonian survivor on Earth.  In honor of Supergirl’s triumphant debut on the TV landscape, this is your full spectrum look at Supergirl, all her shades, shames, and successes. 

Jay Garrick's Costume Revealed

So CW’s Flash, the best live action superhero show on the air right now and possibly of all time, started its second season this past week.  The first season started slow and rocky but picked up incredible speed to turn in an incredibly excellent and jam packed extravaganza of comic weirdness and well written characters.  There was compelling human drama amid all the time travel and psychic apes to say nothing of all the DC Universe shout outs and cameos.  I’ve written about the possibilities of season 2 previously but I wanted to take one more look now that CW has officially revealed Jay Garrick’s costume.

Jay Garrick in the comics was the original Flash, created by Gardner Fox in 1940s during the so-called Golden Age of comics.  He was later reintegrated into the mainstream living in a parallel reality called Earth-2, which was populated with other heroes from the Golden Age DC was no longer publishing.  So far his role has been pretty unclear on the show but this costume speaks volumes about what will be happening with him and even though I know this is old news keep reading because ‘Would You Like To Know More’ isn’t just a column about reporting news, it’s a column about wild speculation and in-depth nerdy explanations. 

First Image of Supergirl's Red Tornado

Edited by Robert Beach 

As some of you hopefully gleaned from the title of this article, there’s a Supergirl TV show currently in the works from the people at CBS. I’m not exactly sure why the show is being developed by CBS instead of CW, but it’s best not to get too caught up in these things and just accept DC comics TV rights are spread across all of TV for no real reason. 

What I do know is that the show will be adapting other DC heroes beyond just Supergirl as part of its supporting cast. The only hero yet confirmed is Red Tornado, played by Iddo Goldberg of Salem fame, and today we got our first look at him. Goldberg will also be playing super scientist and super villain T.O. Morrow, the man who invented Red Tornado in the comics, though the hows and whys of that particular casting have yet to be revealed.

Panel Vision - Best Art of Dale Eaglesham

Edited by Robert Beach 

Dale Eaglesham is an amazing comic book artist who’s been working in the industry for over 25 years. His artwork is wonderfully dynamic, combining an idealized depiction of the human form with realistic proportions and larger than life physicality; however, despite his incredible work, he’s still tends to slip under a lot of people’s radar. 

I first became aware of his work during his run on Justice Society of America with Geoff Johns and have remained a fan ever since, so the lack of enthusiasm and knowledge for his work has always irked me. I’m devoting a whole panel vision to the 16 best pages of Dale Eagelsham art I was able to find through my own experience and Google investigations.  

Flash of Two Worlds Poster

Early in the year I reported that Jay Garrick, the original Golden Age Flash, would be coming to CW’s Flash show in its second season. At the time, this raised a lot of questions. It had been announced that Jay Garrick would be on the show but now word about his abilities or how he’d be portrayed.  The only thing we’d heard was that he would be playing an older mentor figure to Barry, filling the boots of Dr. Harrison Wells from season 1. Well, we have our first major confirmation that CW is planning way more than that with this amazing Flash of Two Worlds reveal poster.

As you can see from the poster, Jay Garrick will have super speed in his appearance on the Flash and even be sporting a costume drawn directly from his Golden Age depiction. This is pretty good news as it confirms that CW will be working with the classical costume design for most of the JSA as they slowly introduced them over the course of season 2, instead the New 52 costume redesigns. More importantly, this poster confirms that CW is planning to introduce Earth 2 this coming season. 

Is the Justice Society coming to CW?

As the summer begins to wind down all the big networks have started ramping up for the fall premieres.  By this I of course mean that the small handful of networks to feature comic book adaptations or genre shows are prepping for the fall while everyone else continues to push their summer blockbuster shows like Tyrant, Under the Dome, or The Humans.  Among the ramp up to the autumn of genre shows has been a ton of character reveals coming out of CW for their shared universe of superhero shows, which includes The Flash, Arrow, and Legends of Tomorrow.  There have been a bunch of reveals of ultimately obscure characters like Atom Smasher, Mr. Terrific, Hawkman, Baron Blitzkrieg, Vandal Savage, and Jay Garrick, to appear in the coming seasons.  Individually these reveals wouldn’t really matter but taken as a whole they actually build up to a pretty startling picture, especially given statements by producers about Flash season 2’s emphasis on parallel realities and Legends of Tomorrow’s bent towards time travel.  The big question I’ve ended up asking myself is…is CW planning to introduce the Justice Society of America?