With all of the CW’s DC Universe shows currently on summer break, we’re officially in the offseason. If this were sports, we’d be concerned with recruiting, dealmaking, chemistry and free agency. Indeed, the whole rationale behind Legends of Tomorrow involves making new and exciting combinations out of characters from its sister series. We already know that LOT’s third season will feature some roster shakeups, and that's including a mystery character, but it’s still capable of raiding Arrow, Flash and Supergirl’s benches. In fact, we’d argue that those shows have introduced enough new characters that LOT owes it to its viewers to not let them go to waste.
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Although we’ll warn you as needed of spoilers for Arrow, Flash and Supergirl, the beauty of LOT is that it can pull characters from across time and space with just a bit of hand-waving. Nevertheless, just because the show can use any character doesn’t mean that it should. There are good fits and bad fits, and we’re obliged to break down both. Join us, won’t you, as we scout some prospects for LOT Season Three.
WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for several Arrowverse shows.
15 SHOULD: KILLER FROST
The Legends crew includes Ray Palmer, who the world thinks is dead; Sara Lance, who died but was revived via Lazarus Pit; and Mick Rory, a thief who struggles with his own morality. It should welcome Caitlin Snow, a scientist who would have died if not for her metahuman healing abilities; and who struggles with the corrupting influence of her cold-based powers.
During Flash’s Season Two, Caitlin was torn between her relatively-normal role on Team Flash’s braintrust, and the darker influences her growing powers encouraged. To avoid spoilers, we’re not saying how she’s doing now, but wanting to find herself would be an excellent reason to join a group of mismatched timestream guardians. Caitlin and Martin Stein could reconnect over their memories of Ronnie Raymond, and Frost’s powers and attitude would once again be a good complement for Mick’s love of fire.
14 SHOULDN’T: GREEN ARROW (JOHN DIGGLE JR./CONNOR HAWKE)
The Legends encountered Oliver Queen’s successor in the gang-ravaged Star City of 2046. There, John Diggle Jr., a.k.a. Connor Hawke, had become the new Green Arrow in order to battle the new Deathstroke (Slade Wilson’s son Grant). All that “new” aside, the Legends wanted to prevent Star City from descending into chaos, because of reasons. In short, we’re not sure Connor Hawke’s GA even exists anymore, and if he does, it’s probably not quite in the same form.
Saying that your new teammate hails from a deleted timeline is the kind of convoluted backstory which almost worked for Reverse-Flash and the Legion of Doom, but not so much as an ongoing concern. While it justified Eobard Thawne’s actions, it’s harder to explain for the heroic Connor. We like the idea of Connor Hawke because he’s a great DC legacy character, but we’re not sure he’s right for full-time Legend status.
13 SHOULD: RAGMAN
Early in Arrow’s Season Five, Rory Regan was a great addition to the team. His spirituality and down-to-earth perspective helped ground Oliver Queen’s inexperienced group of associates. In particular, he helped Felicity deal with her guilt and grief over destroying his home of Havenrock at the end of Season Four. His mystical powers also set him apart from the rest of Team Arrow’s science and weapons-oriented heroes.
When Ragman burned out those powers halfway through Season Five, we were sorry to see him go, but he explained that it was only temporary. If he doesn’t return to Team Arrow, we think he’d make a good Legend. His personality and powers are distinct enough to stand out among the Legends’ own scientists and fighters. In return, the Legends could help restore the rags to full potency.
12 SHOULDN’T: NYSSA AL-GHUL
We like Nyssa quite a bit, and we’d enjoy seeing her reunited with Sara Lance. However, we think she works better as an occasional supporting character on Arrow. Although Nyssa doesn’t appear very often, she plays a significant role behind the scenes. Originally one of her father’s most trusted soldiers in the League of Assassins, Nyssa eventually took control of the group before disbanding it. Along the way, she has helped to defeat Deathstroke and Prometheus and restore Thea Queen’s sanity.
If Nyssa joined LOT, it would take her away from the all-purpose ally role she’s filled so capably on Arrow. She’s also forged complex relationships not just with Oliver, but with Laurel and Quentin Lance. We never know when Arrow will need her, but we’re sure it’ll happen again, and we don’t want her off in the timestream when it does.
11 SHOULD: GYPSY
Introduced this past season on The Flash, essentially Gypsy is a parallel-universe version of Vibe. She hails from Earth-19 and works as a bounty hunter, bringing in inter-dimensional (and time-lost) fugitives like H.R. Wells and Abra Kadabra. Her powers would literally open up whole new worlds to the Legends, while her background could give the team a new perspective on the dangers of mucking with the space-time continuum.
For that matter, Gypsy’s involvement could send the team even deeper into temporal chaos, forcing them to restore not just their own timeline, but countless others as well – including some less-appealing ones. While that could show viewers all kinds of weird universes (Earth-C! The Justifiers of Angor!), it could also have repercussions all across The CW’s superhero shows. Either way, putting Gypsy on the Legends is the first step.
10 SHOULDN’T: MON-EL
Despite his lingering role in present-day Kara Danvers’ life, Mon-El’s presence on Supergirl still seems to point to the 31st Century’s Legion of Super-Heroes. After all, in the comics, he spent 1,000 years in the Phantom Zone until Brainiac 5 could cure his lead poisoning. As of Supergirl’s second-season finale, he’s not quite there, but we have to think he’s on the way.
It’s a shame, because the Legends could use a Daxamite-style powerhouse. Although Mon-El doesn’t have the full range of Kryptonian powers, he could still beef up the Legends’ front line. Regardless, until the lead-poisoning and Legion parts of his backstory are addressed, we’re afraid they’ll overshadow his other character arcs. Ironically, LOT could address both easily via time travel, but then they wouldn’t feel as earned.
9 SHOULD: KATANA
Like Vixen’s Tantu Totem, Katana’s main weapon is the Soultaker sword, an ancient artifact passed down over generations. The Soultaker was even seen during the Legends’ trip to feudal Japan. However, Katana herself (a.k.a. Tatsu Yamashiro) may be associated more with Oliver Queen’s time in Hong Kong, as shown in Arrow Season Three’s flashbacks. There, Oliver helped Tatsu and her husband Maseo survive a terrorist attack. In the present, Tatsu joined Team Arrow briefly during Oliver’s assault on the League of Assassins’ headquarters, and nursed Oliver back to health following his first duel with Rā’s al-Ghūl.
If she joined the Legends, Katana would combine White Canary’s martial artistry and Vixen’s mysticism, since the Soultaker absorbs its victims’ spirits. This, plus her tragic backstory, would make Katana one of LOT’s darker characters, but by the same token it would set her up for a redemptive character arc.
8 SHOULDN’T: ARSENAL
Part of White Canary’s spot on the Legends is practical – Team Arrow replaced her with her sister, so she’s got nowhere else to go. Arguably, that applies more to Roy Harper, who was replaced by Thea Queen once he took the fall for Ollie. Does that mean Roy’s parkour-flavored archery deserves a spot on the Legends?
Not necessarily. Roy has a special place in Green Arrow history, but on Arrow itself he’s been almost superseded by the characters who followed him. His heyday on the show came before the Arrowverse expanded to its current scope, so there may be a learning curve; and odds are LOT would put him on a journey of self-discovery. Finally, since Roy seems pretty content to be retired, there’s no real urgency for his return.
7 SHOULD: PIED PIPER
Hartley Rathaway was introduced in Flash Season One as a villain who unwittingly went up against the show’s main villain. Hartley was a former STAR Labs scientist who blamed Harrison Wells for ruining his reputation and thus sought revenge – not knowing that “Wells” was really the time-lost Reverse-Flash. In a bit of time-tinkering which didn’t come back to haunt Team Flash, Barry Allen altered Hartley’s history just a smidge to get him to help defeat Zoom. This paid off when Barry returned to the present, because Harley’s villainous career had been erased and he had become an occasional associate of Team Flash.
We like Harley for the Legends because the team can always use a gadgeteer, and his sometimes-brittle personality would challenge them. In fact, we’d almost want an episode where the Legends end up restoring his supervillain status, just to see how bad he could be.
6 SHOULDN’T: GUARDIAN
In its second season, Supergirl paid homage to Jack Kirby’s Jimmy Olsen run by having Mr. Action become The Guardian. Ostensibly this was to help James Olsen work through his issues about not being a crimefighter, like most of his friends and close associates. In practice, it was a little clunky, because it was hard to accept the image of “Superman’s Pal” in monochromatic Captain America-style body armor and shield.
Although James’ desire to do good would transfer pretty easily to the Legends, nobody seems really convinced that he makes the best superhero. Like Nyssa al-Ghūl, James does a lot behind the scenes, especially when it comes to running CatCo. Besides, now that he’s been Guardian for most of one season, the Supergirl producers might be ready to put him in a new role. He’s not ready to ship out with the Legends just yet.
5 SHOULD: HUNTRESS
On Arrow, Helena Bertinelli shared many of her comics counterpart’s qualities. She came from an organized-crime family, saw a lot of carnage and death, and became the Huntress to carry out her own ideas about justice. During the show’s first two seasons, Helena romanced Oliver, learning his secret identity in the process. Ultimately, her quest to destroy her mobster father put her at odds with Team Arrow, including both the Lance sisters. When last seen she was in federal prison.
That might not sound like the best résumé for Legends membership, but Helena packed a surprising amount of plot into her appearances. Like Arsenal, she doesn’t have much connection to the expanded Arrowverse; but we get the sense her story’s not yet over. Her history with Sara Lance, including the Birds of Prey vibe it would create, also argues for a redemptive storyline aboard the Waverider.
4 SHOULDN’T: SUPERMAN
In Supergirl’s Season Two, Tyler Hoechlin’s performance as the Man of Steel was so charming it stirred talk of a Super-spinoff. As mentioned above, the Legends could always use a powerhouse on the order of a Daxamite or Kryptonian, so who better than the second-most-powerful Kryptonian on Earth? We think LOT would be passing up a great opportunity if it never decided to use Hoechlin.
Nevertheless, wherever Superman goes, the issue of his limitless abilities goes with him. Since Superman and Supergirl are so powerful (and this version of Superman’s pretty experienced), they must often be challenged in unconventional ways. If you think Firestorm gives the writers and producers fits, you can imagine how Superman could frustrate them. Naturally, there’s also his commitments to Lois Lane and Metropolis. We’ll be very happy to leave Supes’ LOT involvement with a two-part guest appearance.
3 SHOULD: JESSE QUICK
If LOT Season Two taught us anything, it’s that having a speedster on your team never hurts. How many times were the Legends thwarted by a last-minute yellow-and-red blur? Adding Jesse Quick would be a nice turnaround, particularly since she’s establishing herself as one of Earth-2's main super-people. If her dad ever comes back to Earth-1 for an extended period, she may want a vacation of her own – and since the Legends could drop her off right after she left, Earth-2 wouldn’t be vulnerable for long.
Because Flash has largely done right by its heroic speedsters, it makes us eager to see more of Jesse, and sorry she’s stuck on another Earth. She’s got a winning personality (which should annoy some of the Legends to no end) and a good track record. Giving her a spot on LOT is a winning proposition.
2 SHOULDN’T: FLASH (JAY GARRICK)
That said, we don’t think Jay Garrick, the Flash of Earth-3, would work well on LOT. Yes, he’s got gobs of experience, a commanding presence, and not much of an outlet for either; but we can’t see him meshing smoothly with the Legends. For the most part, they’re outcasts and misfits who found each other in the course of saving all creation. Rightly or wrongly, they might see Jay as the father figure they never wanted. (Jay being a doppelganger for Henry Allen doesn’t help.) Even Martin Stein didn’t give off that kind of vibe.
Really, it’s more about the Legends than it is Jay. LOT feeds off the clash of personalities, but with Jay the contrasts might be too great. For example, Jay probably wouldn’t take a lot of guff off of Heat Wave. It’s best to let him be an occasional speedster mentor where he currently is.
1 SHOULD: SPEEDY
Much as she’d hate to admit it, Thea Queen came into her own after discovering her true parentage. Training with Malcolm Merlyn gave her the skills to join Team Arrow, and donning the Speedy suit let her fight crime alongside her brother. It also shook her out of the party-girl mode which dominated her behavior during Arrow’s first two seasons. The Thea who practically ran Star City in Season Five was very much her own person, and one of the best things about the show.
That’s why we were A) frustrated we didn’t get to see more of her, and B) why she’d be fantastic on LOT. Although she takes charge well, she’s still soul-searching; and the Dominator invasion showed us she’s not done with superheroics. If Thea’s not back on Team Arrow next season, she’d be great for the Legends.
Which Arrowverse character do you want on the Waverider? Let us know in the comments!