About halfway through the first episode of Legends of Tomorrow, Kendra Saunders (Ciara Renée) boards Rip Hunter’s (Arthur Darvill) time-traveling vessel and exclaims, “I have never seen anything like this before!” In response, her lover and fellow immortal, Carter Hall (Falk Hentschel) remarks, “Neither have I, and considering I have 4,000 years’ worth of memories, that’s saying something.” Hall’s line is one of a dozen moments in which the pilot inundates viewers with excessively self-conscious exposition. Sure, the sets are pretty and the effects are generally decent, but when a team of eight mostly unknown superheroes comes together for the first time, a single explanation won’t suffice. And since straight exposition is boring, a little lot of camp is thrown in for good measure.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Legends knows exactly who its audience is, what they want to see and how quickly they’d prefer to see it. Other Greg Berlanti-produced shows like Arrow, The Flash and Supergirl required significant development in order to build their respective individual characters, but Legends? If the plural wasn’t a dead giveaway, then audiences should know that what they’re about to see amounts to The CW’s attempt to beat Avengers: Infinity War directors Joe and Anthony Russo to their multi-character punch — in the span of a two-part premiere episode. It’s not always perfect, but considering Berlanti’s success with three shows on two networks, it’s a sure bet that Legends is about to please a lot of people.
The story begins in the year 2166. London apparently falls during a “Second Blitz,” thanks to the cool and calculated efforts of Vandal Savage (Casper Crump), an immortal villain who manages to conquer the entire planet. Hunter, a member of the Time Masters, pleas with his overseers for permission to travel back in time to stop Savage’s war before it begins. The council disagrees with Hunter’s intention, but he leaves the meeting equipped with his time machine, the Wave Rider, and puts his plans into action. How? By traveling 150 years into the past to find and recruit Saunders/Hawkgirl and Hall/Hawkman, Ray Palmer/The Atom (Brandon Routh), Sara Lance/White Canary (Caity Lotz), Dr. Martin Stein/Firestorm (Victor Garber), Jefferson Jackson/Firestorm (Franz Drameh), Mick Rory/Heat Wave (Dominic Purcell) and Leonard Snart/Captain Cold (Wentworth Miller).
Hunter rounds all eight Arrow and The Flash supporting heroes and villains together to form a team intent on preventing Savage from conquering the planet. Since their present is the year 2016, none of them have any real inclination to save a world none of them will be alive to see. However, Hunter convinces them all that they will one day be known as legends — instead of mere sidekicks, nobodies and criminals — and that their exploits will live on. Hence the show’s title.
What follows is a colorful trip to the mid 1970s, where Hunter and his new pals hope to discover Savage’s location and prevent his plans from coming to fruition. To Legends‘ credit, as soon as all the major players were rounded up, the first half of the pilot could have blasted right into all the action comic book fans are jonesing to see. And it does, but not without a few moments of added story to help advance a few of the characters along — especially Saunders and Hall. For not only are Hawkgirl and Hawkman integral to both halves of the premiere, but their connection to Savage and the series’ arc is one of its most prominent features.
Nonetheless, Saunders and Hall’s intertwined stories are where Legends‘ attempts to develop the show beyond a mere comic book story in televised form come to an end. Doctor Who alum Darvill is afforded the most dialogue as Hunter, and he does an excellent job with the material given to him, but its twists and turns remain predictable at best. As for Crump’s Savage, the villain as portrayed seems wholly evil and without room for character growth. Then again, there are another 15 episodes to go in this season, so only time will reveal whether or not Savage presents The CW with its own version of the “Marvel villain problem” that plagues the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Okay, but who cares? No seriously… I’m not being rhetorical. None of these issues are going to matter to Legends‘ target audience. That’s because it tries to recreate The Avengers for television, and though it doesn’t necessarily succeed, the show knows that its audience doesn’t care. They just want to see a team of superheroes come together and fight the good fight. So Legends cobbles together several B characters from Arrow and The Flash, adds a few new ones, casts geeky fan-favorites like Darvill, and eureka! We have yet another comic book property (or several properties, rather) converted to television by Berlanti for viewers hungry for more examples of good guys punching bad guys, and vice versa. And, flaws and all, that’s still a very good thing for the state of superhero properties today.
Legends of Tomorrow premieres on Thursday, Jan. 21 at 8 p.m. ET on the CW. Until then, here’s a preview…
