by Thom Yee

Legends of Tomorrow images courtesy of Warner Bros. Television Distribution

1×06: “Star City 2046”

Time Travelling to a ruined future to find the Connor Hawke version of Green Arrow and a one-armed Oliver Queen should be one of those squee-level moments that comicbook nerds like me fear we’ll never get to see in our lifetimes. It’s just too bad for Legends of Tomorrow that The Flash did their alterna-verse story on Earth-2 better only two weeks earlier.

Having survived Chronos’ surprise attack on the Waverider, our heroes find themselves unexpectedly thrown forward in time to Star City in the year 2046 where the city is in ruins, gangs rule the streets, law enforcement is extinguished, Oliver Queen has been missing for years, and a new Green Arrow struggles to defend the city. Continue reading →

by Thom Yee

Legends of Tomorrow images courtesy of Warner Bros. Television Distribution

1×05: “Fail-Safe”

I so called that Prison Break joke.

With this week’s “Fail-Safe” we continue with the second part of our heroes’ trip to ‘80s-era Soviet Russia, but unlike last week, we start off with a slightly clearer goal than usual: break our friends out of prison. With all of Professor Stein, Ray, and Heatwave caught behind the iron curtain, it’s up to Cold and Sara to bust them out before the Ruskies can break Stein and force him to reveal the secrets that will lead to an army of Soviet Firestorms. But Sara has a secret mission of her own, charged by Rip to kill Stein should his retrieval prove untenable. That all sounds exciting, but… it kind of wasn’t. Continue reading →

by Thom Yee

Legends of Tomorrow images courtesy of Warner Bros. Television Distribution

1×04: “White Knights”

With the economy flagging and the value of our dollar plummeting, it’s tough to be Canadian right now, but if there’s one good thing about living here, I would say it’s that we got to see this week’s Legends of Tomorrow early. But that’s about it.

So according to Legends of Tomorrow, breaking into the Pentagon was even easier in the ‘80s than it was in X-Men: Days of Future Past in the ‘70s as our heroes this week infiltrated the United States DoD headquarters on the trail of redacted files that might lead to Vandal Savage’s ‘80s-era goings on. It’s a pretty entertaining scene, particularly because they find a way to involve everyone on the team and particularly because Sara got to do a pretty nifty maneuver with her double spin kick (which looked like it was really done by the actress rather than a stunt double).  But come on. Continue reading →

by Thom Yee

Legends of Tomorrow images courtesy of Warner Bros. Television Distribution

1×03: “Blood Ties”

Pfft. Some Time Master.

This week we pick up with our heroes still getting weird in the ‘70s, and once again we’re split up into three discrete groups as we try to solve the mystery of what Vandal Savage is doing with Hawkman’s deceased body. Forming new plans after failing to stop Savage during last week’s shenanigans, Rip and Sarah decide that if they can’t halt Savage’s plans, they can at least slow them down by hitting where it hurts (his wallet), Jax is charged with repairing the Waverider’s heretofore unrevealed secondary jump ship that was damaged during the team’s fight with Chronos and Leonard and Rory decide to take advantage by forcing Jax to use the ship to right a previous wrong, and Martin and Ray get into their own subatomic adventures in order to save Kendra’s life. Continue reading →

by Thom Yee

Legends of Tomorrow images courtesy of Warner Bros. Television Distribution

1×02: “Pilot (2)”

After the disastrous (but probably fated to happen) events of the previous episode in which our heroes travelled back to the ‘70s, get two of their own teammate’s’ grownup child killed, and then find out they’re less legends but losers, we now find ourselves with a group that’s somewhat more disillusioned with their series’ initial premise and now very distrustful of Rip Hunter, the time master/mastermind that brought them together. Following clues left behind in the wake of their misadventures, the group sets off on the trail of Vandal Savage without Rip’s supervision, but when the Atom accidentally leaves a piece of his supersuit behind in the hands of terrorists, they end up ruining their own present and have to undo their latest mistake before leaving 1975. Continue reading →

Why I’m Watching… Legends of Tomorrow

by Thom Yee

When you break superheroes down to their base concepts, the one thing that probably draws us all to them is their superpowers. For all of its apparent faults, my favourite moment in Avengers:  Age of Ultron is when all of the Vision, the Thor, and Iron Man combine their individual energy blasts to take down Ultron. It’s one of those glorious, everyone-gang-up-on-the impossible-threat moments (à la George Perez) that really made me love that movie, but like any other story, a good superhero story needs at least a little more complexity than “People! With powers!” On television, though, most shows have had a problem even getting that first part right. Continue reading →