WARNING: This article contains spoilers for this week's episode of DC's Legends of Tomorrow, "Zari," which premiered Tuesday on The CW.


Legends of Tomorrow this week not only introduced a new member of the Waverider team, the Zari of the episode's title, but also hinted at the existence of another DC Comics character.

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The arrival this season of Zari Adrianna Tomaz was announced over the summer, fulfilling the promise of “an established character who is not from the comics" - the superheroine Isis, who debuted in 1975 on Saturday-morning television before at last being integrated into the DC Universe in 2006, albeit in a significantly different form, in the pages of the weekly series 52. There, she wasn't high-school science teacher Andrea Thomas, who discovered an ancient Egyptian amulet that imbued her with the powers of a goddess, but instead Adrianna Tomaz (a nod to the original.

An Egyptian refugee who was enslaved by the organized crime group Intergang and delivered as a gift to classic Captain Marvel foe turned antihero/ruler of Kahndaq Black Adam, who freed Adrianna, gave her the amulet of Isis, and asked Captain Marvel (then the Keeper of the Rock of Eternity) to bestow its powers upon her: super-strength and -speed, invulnerability, flight, telekinesis, clairvoyance and control of the elements. Following their wedding, Adrianna asked Black Adam to help find her long-lost brother, Amon Tomaz, who remained in an Intergang prison, where he had been beaten and left for dead. To save the young man, Black Adam granted him a portion of his powers; afterward, when Amon spoke the words "Black Adam," he was transformed into Osiris who, like his sister and brother-in-law, possessed the powers of gods.

Osiris in DC Comics

On DC's Legends of Tomorrow, the Waverider crew encountered Zari (played by Tala Ashe) in a dystopian, near-future Seattle, placed under marshal law by A.R.G.U.S., which sought enforce to the Metahuman Act of 2021 as well as laws prohibiting the practice of religion. Hunted not only by the covert organization but also by the deadly Kuasa (played by Tracy Ifeachor), Zari is offered protection by the Legends, only to convince them to help free her brother from an A.R.G.U.S. prison. They agree, of course, only to discover after the fact that Zari's brother isn't actually in the prison; she had used that as a ruse so she could steal an amulet -- one that looks remarkably like the one worn by the Isis of the comics and Saturday morning television.

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There are truths behind Zari's lies, however, as the magical amulet, which grants its wearer control over the elements (at the very least), belonged to her brother; we know he actually existed, because we see a photo of him wearing it. Unfortunately, though, we was killed by A.R.G.U.S.

Zari's family on Legends of Tomorrow

"My brother had powers because he wielded this," Zari later tells Ray Palmer at what remains of her family's "sanctuary," showing him the amulet. "He fought against A.R.G.U.S.'s injustices, so he was hunted -- we all were. The night we were leaving, A.R.G.U.S. raided our house, killed my brother and took the only part that's left of him."

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Zari's brother isn't named in the episode, so whether he's Amon Tomaz as in the comics remains to be seen. However, Legends of Tomorrow establishes a connection between Zari's totem -- not an amulet, she's told -- and Amaya Jiwe's own, opening the door to exploration of its history. Perhaps her brother will be given a name in flashback or, considering the series is all about time travel, the team may actually meet him face to face.

Of course, life didn't go so well in the comics for Amon Tomaz. Sure, he was freed from Intergang custody, imbued with the powers of a god, reunited with his sister and even granted membership in the Teen Titans. But that all came to an end when he was shockingly devoured by his friend Sobek, a bioengineered talking crocodile who's revealed to be one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

sobek in dc's 52

Osiris got his vengeance during DC's Blackest Night, when he was resurrected as a Black Lantern but was able to break free of the ring's influence and destroy Sobek, who clearly had it coming. As part of DC's New 52 relaunch in 2011, Amon was reintroduced as a young man recruited by the Sons of Adam, a terrorist group devoted to liberating Khandaq from the rule of the longtime Shazam foe Ibac. While reading an ancient spell to resurrect Black Adam, Amon was shot and killed in a military attack, leaving it to his sister to complete the incantation.


Airing Tuesdays at 9 pm ET/PT on The CW, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow stars Victor Garber as Martin Stein, Arthur Darvill as Rip Hunter, Dominic Purcell as Mick Rory/Heat Wave, Caity Lotz as Sara Lance/White Canary, Franz Drameh as Jefferson “Jax” Jackson/Firestorm, Brandon Routh as Ray Palmer/Atom, Maisie Richardson-Sellers as Amaya Jiwe/Vixen, and Nick Zano as Nate Heywood/Steel.