In its second season, Legends of Tomorrow has become a completely different show compared to what it was in season 1. No longer chasing after a single villain with a single goal in mind, the show has gotten something of a reboot with some new legends (goodbye Captain Cold and Hawkgirl, hello Vixen and Citizen Steel), a new leader as Sara/White Canary takes over for the missing Rip Hunter, and a new job protecting history from aberrations that change the future. This has allowed for more standalone episodes, a bit more humor, and for the characters to explore where they fit in the team.
But now that the season is nearly half over, the time has come for all the different elements to start moving together. As they have traveled through time, fixing aberrations, the Legends have been looking for Rip Hunter - who the audience has seen filming a movie, sporting a new American accent. And now that there have been a few confrontations with the villains of the season, its time to find out a bit more of what they are up to.
Most of the time aberrations this season have been caused by Reverse Flash, assisted by Damien Darhk and the newly-joined Malcolm Merlyn. Together, they make a pretty formidable team, known to fans as the Legion of Doom. Legends of Tomorrow executive producer Marc Guggenheim recently spoke about the Legion of Doom to TVLine:
“The second half of the season is really paying off the Legion of Doom and what we now know is the MacGuffin of Season 2, the Spear of Destiny… Changing time is like painting with the biggest paintbrush possible; using the Spear of Destiny is like using a very, very fine-point technical pen.”
The Legion of Doom made their debut not in the comics, but instead in the Hanna-Barbera cartoon Challenge of the Super Friends. Originally the Legion was made up of thirteen different Batman, Superman, Flash, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern villains. None of the members of the Legion on Legends of Tomorrow were among the original membership, but now that Mick Rory has seen an appearance of his old friend (and original Legion member) Leonard Snart/Captain Cold, perhaps Snart will be joining the Legion. One of the fun elements of a show about time travel is that just because someone has dies, that doesn’t mean a past version of them can’t return. After all, before he became a Legend, Snart was absolutely a bad guy.
So far the Legion of Doom has been changing history to get their hands on various artifacts, like the Spear of Destiny, but their reason for doing so has yet to be explained. Whatever their plan is, it should make for a difficult challenge for the Legends to face.
Legends of Tomorrow returns to the CW on a new night Tuesday January 24, following The Flash.
