This Forgotten 7-Part Superhero Series Is Better Than You Remember

In 2016, the MCU may have dominated theaters, but thanks to the Arrowverse on The CW network, DC’s presence on television was markedly more pronounced. So named after the initial series, Arrow, which centered around Stephen Amell‘s Oliver Queen/Green Arrow, the shared universe gave life to DC heroes outside the blessed trinity of Wonder Woman, Superman, and Batman. It did so with a reverence for the source material, decent special effects, and much-better-than-expected performances, most notably Grant Gustin‘s Flash, the definitive depiction of the speedster. The first three series — Arrow, The Flash, and Supergirl (which moved from CBS to The CW in 2016) — all utilized that second tier of heroes. The Arrowverse’s fourth series, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow did not. But after a spectacular 7-season run, Legends of Tomorrow stands as the best of the Arrowverse lot, and it deserves a second chance.

In ‘DC’s Legends of Tomorrow,’ Misfits Start From the Bottom

The series kicks off in the future, where Time Master Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill) vows to prevent the immortal tyrant Vandal Savage (Casper Crump) from conquering Earth, killing his wife and son in the process. To that end, the rogue Time Master returns to the present, where he recruits heroes Ray Palmer/The Atom (Brandon Routh), Sara Lance/White Canary (Caity Lotz), Martin Stein (Victor Garber) and “Jax” Jackson (Franz Drameh), who together create Firestorm, Kendra Saunders/Hawkgirl (Ciara Renée), and Carter Hall/Hawkman (Falk Hentschel). He also brought on villains Leonard Snart/Captain Cold and Mick Rory/Heat Wave (played by Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell respectively, reuniting the actors from Prison Break).

Not exactly renowned names (told you), but there’s a reason for it: Hunter specifically selected them because they were insignificant to the timeline, misfits who, if they failed, would cause minimal disruption to history. Of course, he doesn’t tell them they’re nothing more than pawns, but instead tells them that if they’re successful, they’ll become “legends.” They join him aboard the Waverider, a time ship that Hunter has “borrowed” from the Time Masters. They hop from time period to time period in pursuit of Savage, dealing with bumps in the timeline along the way, and ultimately succeed, but at the price of one of their own.

Legends of Tomorrow was a curious choice for an Arrowverse series, clearly banking on the success of the first three series to carry it. Arguably, the only hero known by the public-at-large was Hawkman, and the use of obscure characters like Rip Hunter, who debuted in 1959, and Vandal Savage, who debuted in Green Lantern #10 in 1943, didn’t help. Legends of Tomorrow was the worst of The CW’s stable of DC shows, but it had potential.

Better yet, it had four characters that stood out. Routh brought a charming, optimistic innocence to genius scientist Palmer, ultimately justifying his selection as Superman in Superman Returns. Lotz brought strength and a hint of the leadership that would define her in later seasons to Lance. Purcell and Wentworth stole the show, with the former a surly antisocial who prefers to act first and think eventually, and the latter a sarcastic and ruthless evildoer, as cold with his quips as he is with his freeze gun. The series earned a second season, where it began to separate itself from its kin… in a good way.

‘Legends of Tomorrow’ Loses Its Self-Seriousness and Finds Its Groove

Arguably, the two factors that contributed to Legends of Tomorrow‘s lackluster first season were its self-seriousness, inherited from its parent series, and Rip Hunter. Season 2 remedies that right off the bat, with Rip going missing, and with the addition of goofy historian Nate Heywood/Citizen Steel (Nick Zano). With Rip no longer around to captain the ship, it falls to Sara Lance to become the leader, a move that pays off in spades, while Heywood brings a much-needed dose of fun. They are also up against a far better antagonist in Reverse-Flash (Matt Letscher) and his Legion of Doom.

The series starts to really find its groove with Episode 9, “Raiders of the Lost Art,” where they inadvertently scare a young George Lucas away from making films altogether, altering the backstories of fanboys Palmer and Heywood in the process. The season continues on the trajectory well into Season 3’s ninth episode, “Beebo the God of War,” and any semblance of taking itself seriously is all but abandoned. It leans on the time-travel trope of something in the future being sent to the past, i.e., the Sports Almanac from Back to the Future: Part III, that alters the timeline. Only the object is a Beebo, a toy in the Tickle-Me-Elmo vein that gets sent to 1000 AD, where Leif Erikson (Thor Knai) and his crew of Vikings mistake it for a god, and his “I luh-luh-love you!” is a call for them to conquer the world. It’s utterly ridiculous, but in the context of the show, it works.

That episode would also bring Matt Ryan‘s Constantine into the fold, a brilliant move that brings a supernatural element to the series, not only providing fodder for broad, imaginative storylines, but also redeeming the actor and his character after the (undeservedly) short-lived Constantine series on NBC. While the show did still have poignant, serious moments – the death of Professor Stein, for one – but with plotlines like Mick writing romance novels under a pseudonym, an episode where the Legends are trapped on TV, and the return of Beebo as a giant, power-bombing a large winged demon into oblivion, Legends of Tomorrow had found its niche. Over seven seasons, Legends of Tomorrow balanced comedy, action, and heart spectacularly, making the series the best of the Arrowverse and well worth watching time and time again.