Legends of Tomorrow make a difference today
The following article contains spoilers for DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.
On Oct. 13 past differences were made, or rather prevented, in DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. The series began on Jan. 21 where every other DC Comic-based show is aired on: The CW. You meet Time Master (or former time master) Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill) in the pilot episode. Rip recruits scientist/inventor/businessman/CEO of Palmer Technologies, Ray Palmer/Atom (2005’s Superman). He also recruits Martin Stein (Victor Garber), a nuclear physicist who is not only Ray Palmer’s former college professor, but the other half of the hero Firestorm. The other half of Firestorm is Jefferson Jackson (Franz Drameh), a former high school football player turned mechanic whose injury derailed his future.
Three other people Rip recruits have a questionable, if not criminal, background, such as Sara Lance/White Canary (Caity Lotz), a former League of Assassins member and vigilante in Star City who had been revived by the Lazarus Pit. Criminals Leonard Snart/Captain Cold (Wentworth Miller) and Mick Rory/Heatwave (Dominic Purcell) who is later brought in by the Time Masters and becomes the bounty hunter Chronos.
The strangest pair Rip recruits are Kendra Summer/Hawkgirl (Ciara Renée) and Carter Hall/Hawkman (Falk Hentschel) who have been reincarnated for centuries since Ancient Egypt.
Like Captain Cold, Heatwave, Jackson and Stein, they made their first appearances in The Flash.
The purpose of Rip Hunter’s recruitment of these talented individuals is to stop the immortal tyrant, Vandal Savage (Casper Crump), from taking over the world in the year 2166.
That is only part of the reason Rip Hunter goes back in time to recruit the Legends; the real reason he did it was to prevent the deaths of his wife and son who were brutally murdered by Savage. The first season has the Legends going as far back as 1871 to North Dakota where they meet the DC character Jonah Hex (Johnathon Schaech) to hide from the Time Masters, and as far as 2147, where Savage rises to power.
The second season starts off with historian Nate Haywood and Oliver Queen finding the Wave Rider (the flying machine the Legends use to travel through time and space) beneath the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of New York. In there, they find Heatwave in a stasis field and he tells them that he had been there since 1942 CE, where Rip and the rest of the Legends nearly got themselves killed preventing a nuclear attack on New York by the Nazis. They survived due to Rip Hunter spreading them throughout time, except Heatwave who was in a stasis field, and Rip’s nowhere to be found. The Legends must continue to be the new Time Masters and prevent history from being altered in unpleasant ways.
The second season’s premiere did not get the best reviews, unlike many episodes from the first season, but not to worry fans; the series isn’t going away anytime soon, hopefully. The second season also hints at the coming of Citizen Steel. I cannot say when, but he would not be coming if something hadn’t been said. Be on time for the next episode at 7 p.m., this Thursday on the CW where they meet the Justice Society of America in 1942.