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Legends of Tomorrow - S1E1 - Pilot (Pt. 1)

Rip Hunter is basically The Doctor: a rogue member of a group of time travelers, who steals a time machine and travels through time and space with companions, and occasionally encounters a powerful sworn enemy.

Images: The CW

Legends of Tomorrow is the first team superhero show (if you don’t count the fact that Arrow now has about 50-leven of them helping Oliver Queen), a spinoff of both Arrow and The Flash. The pilot was fun, and shows promise, but the weak points need to be addressed if it’s going to have legs.

Of all the side characters and villains featured on both Arrow and The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow chose Ray Palmer (The Atom), Firestorm (Dr. Stein & Jax), Captain Cold and Heat Wave, Sara Lance (The White Canary), and Hawkman and Hawkgirl. Oddly enough, it kinda works.

Rip travels back to 2016 to gather these future “legends” and asks for their assistance in taking down Vandal Savage, an immortal who will one day rule the world. The Hawks have a personal interest in seeing Vandal gone once and for all as their fates have been tied to his for centuries. The others take a bit more convincing and eventually agree for various (and some not to so noble) reasons.

They travel back to the ’70s to interview a historian, Aldus Boardman, with knowledge of Savage’s movements. Boardman is due to die within 24 hours of their arrival, so any contact with him should have little to no effect on the timeline. This encounter reveals a shocking connection between Boardman and the Hawks, and also gives a few of the team members an opportunity to bond over a bar brawl.

Unfortunately for our merry band of time traveling legends, the Time Masters have sent a bounty hunter named Chronos after Rip, and his arrival forces Rip to tell the truth about why these legends were chosen. That was a nice twist and forced the group to re-evaluate their motivations for participating. It will be interesting to see how it plays out and what, if any, growth this brings out of the characters individually and as a team.

Now for those weak spots:

I understand that Hawkgirl and Hawkman have a loyal following from the comic books and DC’s animated series/movies, but I’ve yet to see what makes these two characters so compelling. And those masks gotta go. They just look ridiculous.

I can forgive the cheesy dialogue when it’s delivered by characters who are just so damn likable like Jax, Captain Cold, Heat Wave, and The Atom.

So, we really drugging a black man and taking him on a voyage without his consent in 2016? Right before Black History Month? Okay.

What did you think of the premiere? Leave your thoughts below and we’ll read them on our Premium podcast for Legends of Tomorrow. 

Editor’s Note: A previous version incorrectly listed Laurel Lance as The White Canary.

Legends of Tomorrow S1E1
  • 8.5/10
    Plot - 8.5/10
  • 6/10
    Dialogue - 6/10
  • 9.5/10
    Action - 9.5/10
  • 7/10
    Performances - 7/10
7.8/10

Summary

Promising start. I’m sticking around for the action and characters like Captain Cold, Heat Wave, and White Canary, and because I enjoy the interactions between Jax and Dr. Stein. I curious how far back they’ll travel because I still say you can’t take Jax back before 1970. TOPS!

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About Nina Perez (1391 Articles)
Nina Perez is the founder of Project Fandom. She is also the author of a YA series of books, "The Twin Prophecies," and a collection of essays titled, "Blog It Out, B*tch." Her latest books, a contemporary romance 6-book series titled Sharing Space, are now available on Amazon.com for Kindle download. She has a degree in journalism, works in social media, lives in Portland, Oregon, and loves Idris Elba. When not watching massive amounts of British television or writing, she is sketching plans to build her very own TARDIS. She watches more television than anyone you know and she's totally fine with that.

2 Comments on Legends of Tomorrow - S1E1 - Pilot (Pt. 1)

  1. I was interested in catching this premiere even though I haven’t been keeping up with Arrow and The Flash this season, mainly because of the novelty of a team show. I find most of these characters uncompelling and, for some, I have a strong dislike. That said, as a whole I was mildly entertained by the crew. I’ll tune in next week.
    Podcast: Interesting start to the show. I hope they get a little more cavalier and take themselves less seriously. I think it would make for a fun show. I like the actor playing Snart, but Captain Cold as a character just turns me off. Hawkgirl’s mouth keeps distracing me. Dr. Stein makes a pretty good Hannibal with Jax as his B.A. Baracus. “I ain’t gettin on no plane, Hannibal.”

  2. Look this is a pilot so yeah they’re usually rough edges to work out for the most part
    So I’ll wait 3 more episodes to make a judgement but I like it so far .

    Wait if rip hunter usually works alone..why does he conveniently have eight seats in his ship .

    So we drugging people or nah. This didn’t bother me that much as I think it should ..it’s still pretty messed tho .

    Why do I have to stay on the ship….cause it’s 70’s and we don’t wanna discuss racism on this show just yet .

    Ok now the whole baby picture thing
    I got “mixed” feelings on this …cause when Micheal B Jordan was cast as johnny storm i was all for them never explaining that Sue was adopted it would be cool if they let the audience come to that conclusion on their own . They explain it anyway which kinda annoyed me , so what ever.

    This show tho i dont think is being that clever they’re saying that this is there natural kid ..ok sure …they’re cases where a child has came out a completely different complexion compared to their parents fine . ….again I really don’t think they’re being that clever…I really believe that they just photoshop a black child in between these two people with no thought at all about it.
    Because generally that in no way is their kid …unless they pull ” the magic card”
    … My main problem if yea this is their natural kid , why is the the adult version light skinned ?
    In my head “casting Cannon ” it’s like they said …”Does the professor need to be that dark ?” Which if that’s case that really bothers me allot .. Cause Cw shows tends not to have really dark complexion people in their cast . They’re either light skinned or “European white” LOL
    I hope that came out they way I intended it to ….I don’t wanna end up like Kate .

    All in all I like the show I’ll stick with it

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