Things In Legends Of Tomorrow Only Super Fans Notice
Legends Of Tomorrow is the outlier of the Arrowverse. Its first season's grim tone is much like that of Arrow, as it features a relentlessly driven hero who stops at nothing to quash a psychopathic supervillain. In Rip Hunter, you have a ruthless lead who chooses the initial Legends because they're expendable, and he needs all the help he can get against Vandal Savage. However, this quirky assemblage of characters is the first season's saving grace, particularly in the way they add humor to what is otherwise a straightforward vendetta storyline.
Something unusual happens after that: Legends becomes a comedy superhero show that often pokes at the fourth wall. Sure, there are still major supervillains to fight and quests to save the universe to fulfill. However, this is also a show where the heroes join together in a magic ritual to become Beebo, a giant talking stuffed animal, whose adorable powers can kill a demon — to say nothing of the time John Constantine accidentally turns his teammates into singing puppets.
For all its weirdness, however, much of the show is still firmly rooted in the DC universe. Legends Of Tomorrow has plucked many of its characters from comic-bound obscurity and given them a fun, live-action world to play in. Let's take a look at them, and the associated details only the most diehard fans know.
John Constantine's brush with cancer
In season five of Legends, Astra Logue gets hold of the coin that determines John Constantine's ultimate fate. She gets the Coin Maker (who turns out to be one of the Fates) to move up his date of death from lung cancer from 2030 to 2020. Poor John starts coughing up blood on the spot. Thankfully, the Legends talk her into a deal to save his life.
This plot point is based on writer Garth Ennis' first Hellblazer storline, "Dangerous Habits." After a lifetime of smoking, Constantine learns that he has incurable lung cancer. Knowing he's already damned to Hell, he tries figuring a way out of his predicament. He turns to a wizard friend of his in hopes of a cure, but his friend hopes John can cure him! Constantine helps save his friend's soul, which makes Lucifer even angrier. A demon friend can't help him, and the angel Gabriel refuses him outright, saying he's going to get what he deserves.
Constantine then has a brainstorm: He sells his soul to Beelzebub and Azazel, the co-rulers of Hell, along with Lucifer. Then he tries to commit suicide. All three devils show up to take his soul, each of them having a claim on it. Clever Constantine knows that they can't go to war over it, lest they draw the attention of Heaven. Lucifer reluctantly cures him, but warns him that they'll get him one day.
The Rip Hunter timeline
Legends' Rip is a renegade member of the Time Masters, time travelers who wipe out anomalies that threaten the time stream. He goes against the will of the group to fight Vandal Savage.
In the comics, there are two versions of Rip Hunter. One is from the original DC timeline, prior to the "Crisis on Infinite Earths" event of the 1980s. That Rip is also part of the Time Masters, here a quartet who go on time-spanning adventures. He later joins people like Animal Man and Dolphin as the Forgotten Heroes, as they oppose Vandal Savage. Rip is a crucial part of Crisis, bringing heroes to the dawn of time to face off against the all-devouring Anti-Monitor. Rip is one of the few beings who emerge from the Crisis with a clear memory of everything that happened — however, everyone else forgets who he is. He eventually joins a group of time police called the Linear Men and dies in a cosmic conflagration.
Complicating things is a new Rip Hunter of the post-Crisis reality. This character uses "Rip Hunter" as an alias, so that his time-traveling enemies can't track him down as a child and kill him. He turns out to be the son of time-traveling grifter superhero Booster Gold, and opposes Vandal Savage yet again. Rip also knows about the existence of the new Multiverse and stops Mr. Mind from devouring it.
The Spear of Destiny
The Spear of Destiny is the legendary lance used by a Roman soldier to pierce the side of Jesus Christ. On Legends, the Spear is retrieved from Germany, and its fragments are sent back in time with different members of the Justice Society of America as guards. The Legion of Doom go after it, and use it to rewrite reality before they're defeated by time travel shenanigans.
In the comics, Adolf Hitler possessed the Spear of Destiny during World War II. Any hero who came within its sphere of influence fell under Hitler's power. This is the stated reason why the DC heroes didn't simply gang up on the Axis powers en masse, and why Superman didn't do it single-handedly. The US gained control of the staff after the war and stored it away, not unlike the end of Raiders Of The Lost Ark.
In subsequent years, Superman is summoned to use the Spear against the Spectre, who has gone insane. The Spear, tainted by Hitler, tries to force Superman to kill everyone on Earth, but he resists it, and an apologetic Spectre ties it to a rock and throws it into Earth's orbit. That taint is eventually lifted when the Question uses it to heal a soul.
Oh, Mighty Isis?
Zari Tomaz is introduced on Legends in its third season, when the Legends travel to 2042. The country is under the military control of A.R.G.U.S., and Zari tells the Legends that her brother Behrad is imprisoned because of their Muslim faith. She actually knows he's dead, but she wants the Air Totem, his magical family heirloom. It gives her the ability to fly and generate strong winds, and she eventually joins the Legends. When the future is changed and Behrad returns to life, Zari disappears from the timeline, and a different version of her, Zari Tarazi, takes her place. Both characters' sarcastic wit has made them fan favorites.
Zari's powers are identical to the DC hero Isis, who first appeared on the 1975 Filmation show The Secrets Of Isis. Isis' alter ego is a science teacher named Andrea Thomas who finds a magic amulet. When she chants "Oh, mighty Isis," the amulet transforms her into the Egyptian goddess Isis and gives her powers over earth and air. Her show was originally part of the Shazam/Isis Hour – she even crossed over to Shazam's show on occasion. DC later adapted the TV show to the comics, with Adrianna Tomaz receiving the totem from Black Adam. She and Black Adam marry, and she successfully revives her brother, who becomes Osiris.
So why the name change? Series showrunner Marc Guggenheim went with Zari because he didn't want viewers to confuse the character with the terrorist organization known as ISIS.
The tragedy of Astra Logue
Astra Logue is a key character in John Constantine's history in both the comics and the TV show, but she's the rare character who's far more developed on the show than in the comics. In both instances, she represents a younger Constantine's greatest failure and source of guilt. In the comics, Astra is the daughter of an abusive magician named Alex. During a brutal assault, Astra summons a hellhound that tears her tormentors to bits. A cocky young Constantine and his Newcastle crew of mystics arrive to drive out the hellhound, but they botch the spell and Astra is dragged off to Hell by the demon Nergal. The "Newcastle incident" puts Constantine in an insane asylum for a couple of years, and haunts him until her soul is freed and goes to Heaven.
On the TV show, Constantine and his Newcastle crew try to resurrect Astra's beloved mother (and John's ex), Natalie. While the spell has the desired effect, it isn't done properly. As a result, Astra is taken to Hell by Nergal. Natalie subsequently kills herself, and John spends two years in an institution.
Astra grows up in Hell, raised by her surrogate mother Lachesis, one of the Fates. Lachesis fans Astra's hatred for Constantine until she is rabid for revenge. It's all part of Lachesis' plan to make Astra a new Fate and control reality. Astra eventually turns against her and forms a tentative alliance with the Legends.
The Steel legacy
Nate "Steel" Heywood is a minor character from the comics, as was his grandfather, Commander Steel. On Legends, Nate is a cornerstone character. He's a historian and superhero who can turn his body into living steel, thanks to a formula developed by Ray Palmer. After a disaster scatters the Legends, he deduces the location of the Waverider with Oliver Queen's help. Once he gets his powers, this formerly fragile hemophiliac becomes tough, durable, and able to carry on the legacy of his grandfather, Henry "Commander Steel" Heywood.
Henry was a member of the Justice Society who gets to meet his grandson in the past and sacrifices himself years later, saving the Legends in the process. In the comics, Henry is a scientist who becomes Commander Steel after being injured by Baron Blitzkrieg. He joins the All-Star Squadron and later equips one of his grandsons, Henry Heywood III, with the same mechanical parts he had been given. Henry III becomes Steel and joins the Justice League. Henry Sr. later dies fighting Eclipso.
Another grandson, Nate Heywood, is a former football star who has to have his leg amputated below his knee. The Heywood family is later attacked by the fiendish Fourth Reich, and Nate tries to defend them by jamming his crutch into the mouth of their leader, Reichsmark. He gains powers from the liquid metal blood Reichsmark spits on him. Thus, he becomes Citizen Steel and joins the Justice Society.
Various Vixens
In the comics, Mari McCabe, AKA Vixen, grows up in a small African village as Mari Jiwe. She flees when her uncle kills her father and takes a magical family heirloom, the Tantu Totem. She escapes to America, changes her name, and becomes a successful model. When she goes back to Africa, she steals back the Totem and uses its powers to become Vixen. She joins the Justice League and later the Suicide Squad, losing and regaining the Totem over time.
In the Arrowverse, Vixen is first introduced on her own animated webseries, and later appears on an episode of Arrow. Here, she's Mari McCabe, born in Africa but raised in America by adoptive parents. After a lot of trial and error, she discovers that her mother's talisman is magical and gives her the power to summon the abilities of animals. She becomes a capable hero, if one haunted by her past. Later, when the Legends alter the timeline, she loses her orphan status and shares the Vixen identity with her older sister.
The Vixen seen on Legends is Amaya Jiwe, Mari's grandmother. She was active during World War II and joined the Justice Society, later stowing away on the Waverider because she thinks one of the Legends killed her teammate, Hourman. She falls in love with Nate Heywood but eventually returns to her home village back in 1942, after the time-travelling demon Mallus is eliminated.
The Legion Of Doom
In season two of Legends, a desperate Eobard Thawne (the Reverse-Flash) runs through time and recruits Damien Darhk, Malcolm Merlyn, and Leonard "Captain Cold" Snart to join him in tracking down the Spear of Destiny. He knows all of their eventual fates, and things don't work out well for any of them. As they race against the Legends to find the different pieces of the Spear, Nate Heywood dubs them "the Legion of Doom."
This is a cheeky reference to the 1970s team of supervillains from the cartoon Challenge Of The Superfriends. This first incarnation of the team is put together by Lex Luthor, who has the idea to band together a dozen of the deadliest villains in the world to oppose the Super Friends. The group includes Superman villains like Brainiac, Bizarro, and Toyman; Batman villains such as the Riddler and Scarecrow; Flash villains Captain Cold and Gorilla Grodd; and Wonder Woman villains Cheetah and Giganta. The group meets in a mobile, skull-shaped base hidden in a swamp called the Hall of Doom.
The Legion of Doom has popped up a few times in the comics. They've appeared as a team organized by Brainwave, another team led by Superboy Prime, and one closer to the original spirit of the team led by Lex Luthor. The iconic Hall of Doom also appears as a prison in the miniseries Kingdom Come.
Jonah Hex, time-traveling cowboy
Jonah Hex is a gritty Western gunslinger who's seen his share of weirdness, both in the comics and on Legends. On the show, the Legends travel to a small town called Salvation in 1868, where they immediately get in trouble and incite a bar brawl. Hex sniffs them out as time travelers and asks if they know Rip Hunter. Hunter and Hex were close friends, as Rip spent a long time in this era. Hunter eventually left Hex behind, but they team up once more to fight a local gang. Six years later, the Legends return and save Hex from being hanged. His longtime enemy Quentin Turnbull has acquired dwarf star alloy metal, but Hex teams up with this different set of Legends to defeat him. Later on, when the Legends make a final stand against Mallus, Jonah Hex (now the sheriff of Salvation) stands by them.
In the comics, Jonah Hex was sold to an Apache tribe as a child. He's made a full member when he saves the chief from a puma, but his adopted brother eventually betrays him, leaving Hex for dead in the wilderness. Hex goes on to become a grim, hard-drinking bounty hunter. He meets the time-traveling Justice League a few times, helps the heroes during the Crisis, acts as part of a time-spanning team called the Five Warriors from Forever, and spends time in a post-apocalyptic 21st century. Safe to say, he's seen a lot of strange stuff.
The many faces of Neron
Neron is a demon who holds the deed to John Constantine's soul. He tries to force Constantine to help him, and Constantine responds by trying to send him to Hell. Thus, Neron takes Constantine's boyfriend Desmond, leaving John with yet more guilt. Constantine tries to alter the timeline so he and Desmond never met, which results in total chaos before he reverses course.
Neron takes on Desmond's form and goes after the Legends, but Constantine and Nora Darhk trick him into a trap. The demon is about to die before Ray Palmer comes bumbling in and becomes promptly possessed by Neron. Ray makes a deal with him: He'll let Neron take control if he doesn't harm Nate Heywood. Neron embarks upon a scheme to bring his lover Tabitha (the Fairy Godmother who torments the Legends) into a new form and break down the divide between Earth and Hell. Neron seemingly kills Constantine, but actually murders a disguised Nate instead, breaking his deal and allowing Constantine to kill him once and for all.
In the comics, Neron is a fallen angel who collects souls. He offers the Flash's baddies great power in exchange for their help in creating a ritual that would help him trap a pure soul. He unsuccessfully tries to tempt Green Lantern Kyle Rayner, but does manage to temporarily kill Wonder Woman. It doesn't end there, either: In later comics, he attempts to seize the powers of the Spectre and Doctor Fate.
Enchantress in the background
The Enchantress is a deep cut of a character. She is revealed to be an ancient sorceress who was friends with Clotho, AKA Charlie, back in ancient Egypt. She likes that Clotho destroyed the Loom of Fate, and helps her by casting a spell on a fragment that makes it invisible to anyone thinking about it. Later, she is required not to interfere with mortals, and so she disguises herself as the owner of a boarding house in 1910 as John Constantine and Zari Tarazi look for the loom. She subtly helps them defeat a number of criminals returning from Hell, and John quietly calls her out on it. She soon transforms back into her true form.
The Enchantress of the comics has a long and twisted history as both a hero and a villain. The mortal woman June Moone is given powers that turn her into a powerful witch. She initially fights crime, but has a huge fight with Supergirl after she proves herself willing to let a small town suffer in exchange for unmatched power. Thus begins a pattern: Every time June has too much access to too much power, the Enchantress rages out of control. She eventually joins the Suicide Squad, the Forgotten Villains, and Shadowpact. She completely loses her mind when fighting Justice League Dark, but limits are subsequently placed on her that allow her to mostly control her powers. She remains an unstable figure.