My grandson Dayan and I get together every Wednesday afternoon. I pick him up from school, we grab Chinese food, and spend time together chatting and watching interesting shows on TV. For more than a year, our series of choice was BBC’s Doctor Who. In catching me up to the current series, we moved through nine seasons. Now that I’m caught up, we’ve discovered a new series to watch, while Doctor Who is in between seasons.
Legends of Tomorrow stars Victor Garber, Brandon Routh, Caity Lotz, Arthur Darvill, Ciara Renee, Franz Drameh, Dominic Purcell, Wentworth Miller and Casper Crump. This sci-fi action drama is part of the DC Comic universe.
Time traveler Rip Hunter (Darvill) assembles a ragtag group of heroes and villains in an attempt to save the future, and his family, from an evil nemesis, Vandal Savage (Crump). More than the earth’s future is at stake…time itself is threatened.
Vandal Savage
Rip tells his group that he has seen the future, and that they are all known as the heroes who save mankind. Each person brings gifts to the team…and also quirks, egos, and pasts full of angst and challenges.
Ray Palmer (Routh), is Atom, whose ability is to shrink his body. Sara Lance (Lotz), also known as White Canary, is a trained assassin. Jax Jackson (Drameh) and Dr. Martin Stein (Garber) together form the symbiotic hero, Firestorm, with the ability to fly, pass through solid objects, generate destructive blasts of fusion energy from his hands, absorb radiation harmlessly, and demonstrate superhuman levels of strength and resistance to injury.
Mick Rory (Purcell), is Heat Wave. He possesses a handgun sized flamethrower and knowledge of pyrotechnics and combustibles. His partner in crime, literally, is Leonard Snart (Miller), also known as Captain Cold. He has a cold gun that freezes objects to absolute zero and he possess knowledge of cryonics. These two are the “bad boys” of the group.
And lastly, Kendra Saunders (Renee), who is Hawkgirl, has the ability to fly, thanks to a electromagnetic/gravitational belt. It also grants superhuman strength, super-acute vision, and an enhanced healing/regeneration ability. Kendra’s partner, Carter, also known as Hawkman, has been with her through centuries of regenerations. His character died in episode 2.
This is a fun, fast paced series, which premiered last month on CW. Dayan and I both enjoy superhero type shows, and we have seen many of the DC Comic and Marvel Comic movies and series. We were initially drawn to Legends of Tomorrow because the main character, Rip Hunter, is played by Arthur Darvill, who also portrayed Rory on Doctor Who. It’s been interesting to see him as a time traveler in this show, and to get to know this cast of characters.
I like that this group of people, with their unique gifts and common flaws, were told that in the future, they are all called heroes. The truth is, none of them are. Rip selected them because extraordinary as they are, they live ordinary lives. Their possible deaths don’t greatly affect the future timeline.
However, as the group slowly becomes a team, united in their purpose of defeating Vandal Savage and securing the future for all mankind, they will most assuredly be known as legends…Legends of Tomorrow. In acknowledging who they are, and offering out of their strengths, they are sure to create their own futures. I’d call that heroic.
