"Powered by comic-book physics (and bags of money), the superhero universe is always expanding. It's true in movies (hey, didja see that Suicide Squad trailer?), and for the past half-decade it's been true on television as well, with Marvel spreading all over Netflix and ABC, and DC Comics metastasizing across The CW with Arrow and The Flash. Last night, the "Arrowverse" expanded yet another notch with the premiere of Legends of Tomorrow—and in doing so, furthered what is already one of the most interesting hero universes in pop culture.
The show's time-travelling premise means that protagonist Rip Hunter is able to pull from their timelines a who's-who of oh-right-them DC supporting players—Hawkman and Hawkgirl, the Atom, Firestorm, the Black Canary, Captain Cold, and Heatwave—to chase immortal Vandal Savage across various eras. As far as comic-book team-ups with a huge period-costume budget, it's a damn sight better than League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. In fact, if you like Arrow and Flash, you'll like Legends of Tomorrow, full stop. It has the same sense of humor, the same dextrous continuity with the other shows and DC at large, and a bunch of actors who are pretty damn charming in silly outfits, shooting well-rendered flames from their hands or crunching badguy bones hand-to-hand.
If you're a Doctor Who fan, you'll probably also enjoy Arthur Darvill, who played the Doctor's companion Rory for a couple years, as Rip Hunter. Hanging out with a dashing British man in a long coat who has a vessel that can camouflage itself and travel in both space and time has clearly equipped Darvill to play a dashing British man in a long coat who has a vessel that can camouflage itself and travel in both space and time.
But what's most interesting about Legends is the expansion of the DC TV story universe—what I called a paracosm in my December story about Star Wars. The three shows share writers and producers, and in fact "Arrow is at one end of the hallway, Legends is in the middle, and Flash is at the other end," says Andrew Kreisberg, an executive producer on all three shows. "And Supergirl is right upstairs." (It's on a different network, CBS, but Kreisberg is an EP on that show, too.) "You'll say, ‘wait, what episode of Arrow are they doing X in?' and by the time somebody gets on the phone to call down the hall it's just as easy to get up and ask them."…"
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Sgt. Rock? … yes!… Please! (smile)
Amicalement
Armand
brings back some oldies.
