Legends Of tOmOrrOw
Rip In Yarns Season Two
released OUT NOW! 2016-2017 | 12 | Blu-ray/dVd
Showrunner Marc Guggenheim Cast Caity lotz, dominic Purcell, Victor Garber, arthur darvill
Legends Of Tomorrow is rubbish. Highly amusing rubbish. After so many decades of screen superheroics trying to bury the memory of the ’60s Batman series, Legends is best enjoyed with your irony dial turned up to 11. Because while the cheesy plots, hammy acting and complete disregard for any time travel logic should have you seething, the in-jokes, knowing winks and cultural references keep on giving (it’s great drinking game material for Doctor Who and Prison Break fans).
Season two’s new heroes, Steel and Vixen, are only really an improvement because the now departed Hawkman and Hawkgirl were so dreary. There are also new (albeit, second-hand) villains, with Arrowverse stalwarts Damien Darhk, Malcolm Merlyn and Reverse Flash forming the Legion Of Doom and searching through history for the Spear Of Destiny.
Rip Hunter is missing for half the season (Arthur Darvill was filming Broadchurch) and returns as a brainwashed villain, after a brief stint working as an assistant to a pre-Star Wars George Lucas. The Legends and Legion also encounter JRR Tolkien, General Ulysses S Grant, dinosaurs and the Justice Society Of America, among others. Caity Lotz continues to be the best thing about the show as the no-nonsense, ass-kicking White Canary, proving a much more effective captain than Rip ever was (though on his return, the sulky Rip is good value).
It’s all utter bilge. But it’s utter bilge with verve.
Extras The show’s 2016 Comic-Con Panel (29 minutes); “Allied: The Invasion Complex”, a feature on the show’s Arrowverse crossover episode (nine minutes); deleted scenes; a gag reel (six minutes). Dave Golder
Thawne’s reactor has a similar Vader’shelmet look to the Legion Of Doom HQ in ’70s toon Challenge Of The Superfriends.