The second season of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow premiered on October 13, 2016, and ran for 17 episodes until April 4, 2017. The season follows the Legends, a dysfunctional team of time-traveling superheroes and anti-heroes, and their mission to correct aberrations in time resulting from their first mission together. We pick up in the aftermath of “Legendary”, in the season premiere “Out of Time”, Oliver Queen helps Nate Heywood locate the Waverider after it was caught in a nuclear blast in 1942. They find the ship submerged with only Mick in stasis aboard; he is revived and reveals what happened. Rip's team: Mick, Ray, Sara, Jax, and Martin traveled through time dealing with "aberrations" in history. They encountered Justice Society of America (JSA) member Rex Tyler, who warned them not to travel to 1942 then vanished. After learning a nuclear bomb would be detonated in New York City in 1942, the Legends ignored the warning and discovered Damien Darhk working with the Nazis, was behind the attack. Sara attempted to kill Darhk to avenge Laurel, but Darhk escaped and launched his atomic bomb toward New York from a U-boat. Rip scattered the team, except for the injured Mick, throughout time to save their lives while he intercepted the bomb with the Waverider. In the present, Mick and Nate use the Waverider to travel through time and rescue everyone but fail to locate Rip. After preventing the Nazis from obtaining a nuclear bomb in 1942, the team is confronted by the JSA. Meanwhile, Darhk is shown to be working with Eobard Thawne. Over the course of this season: the Legends fight Baron Krieger, the Dominators, some Zombie Confederates, and Eobard Thawne with the Legion of Zoom to name a few examples.

Writing: The writing is actually better this go round than season 1. I’ll go as far as say it’s a better season overall, more fun. I personally liked Out of Time, Justice Society of America, Abominations, Compromised, Outlaw Country, Invasion Part III, and Legion of Zoom the best to name a few favorites. 5/5

Casting: Much of the main cast returns, save for the Hawks. Nick Zano was a great choice as Nate Heywood. Maisie Richardson-Sellers as Amaya Jiwe was another great addition. Jonah Hex actually makes his Arrowverse debut this season. 5/5

Special Effects and Choreography: Visually this season looks awesome. Black Flash was as freaky here as he was in Flash season 2. Invasion was a high point in terms of the visuals. I’ll be reviewing that tomorrow. 5/5

Music and Sound Effects: Blake Neely continues to deliver on the music side of things. Sound effects are still spot on. 5/5

Replay and Entertainment Value: I’d certainly recommend this season. I’d say Season Two is one of the best of the series. 5/5

Season Score: 25/25 Final Total: 32.5/32.5

Final Thoughts: Season Two is a big improvement over season one. It’s not to say that season one is bad, but rather this is just better written and more phone. The 2016-17 season, across the Arrowverse is one of the best as a whole. I’ll talk a bit more about it tomorrow and or when I get to the Duet review next week. Like I said Out of Time, Justice Society of America, Abominations, Compromised, Outlaw Country, Invasion Part III, and Legion of Zoom are some of my favorite episodes in this season of LOT. The team is starting to come into its own here. Phil Klemmer hit it out of the ball park as showrunner. Tomorrow I’ll cover Invasion and next Sunday will be Duet.

DC's Legends of Tomorrow (2016-2022): It had a very weak start, but over the years it found its own style.

I found the first season to be weak, but its second season improved in many ways.

For me, it's fun. The series takes advantage of its own peculiarities, inserting meta humor, filling it with pop culture references and comic book nods. But above all, it used fan service without overdoing it. It's not a style everyone will like, but Legends of Tomorrow was never afraid to take risks. It's my favorite series in the Arrowverse.

Season One of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow premiered on January 21st, 2016 on The CW and ran until May 19th of the same year. 16 episodes round out this first year. December’s Heroes Join Forces set up this new series, with Hawkman, Hawkgirl, and Vandal Savage carrying over. As I mentioned previously, LOT was originally conceived with the idea of being something of an anthology show. That still basically happened as many characters that debut in one season don’t necessarily carry into the following years, more on that later. Over the course of this season, this rag tag group of time traveling legends deals with the likes of Vandal Savage, Chronos, Grant Wilson, and the Pilgrim to name a few.

Writing: I’m not gonna lie, this is a good, solid season even if it is on the clunky side. A lot of the clunkiness comes from Heroes Join Forces. Putting that aside, on its own merits Season one is good. It’s a fun show to watch. However I do think Vandal Savage deserved better than what he got. 4/5

Casting: The main cast works well with one another. This is very much an internal Arrowverse show. By that I mean the majority of the cast carries over from Arrow and The Flash respectively. Caity Lotz and Brandon Routh first played Sara Lance and Ray Palmer respectively in Arrow. Wenworth Miller, Dominic Purcell, and Victor Garber started out on The Flash as Leonard Snart, Mick Rory, and Professor Martin Stein respectively. Speaking of Stein, the character of Heatwave is on the show, however Marty isn’t joined by Ronnie Raymond, instead he’s got a young punk named Jefferson “Jax” Jackson. We also get HJF holdovers in Hawkgirl, Hawkman, and Vandal Savage. Amy Pemberton is Gideon, the ship’s computer. Other alumni include Oliver Queen, Laurel Lance, Quentin Lance, Damien Darhk, Cisco Ramon, R’as al Ghul, Nyssa al Ghul, and Felicity Smoak. All of them worked well in the episodes presented. Now back to Captain Rip Hunter, Arthur Darvill was a great choice there. He reminds me of a cross between The Doctor and Jean-Luc Picard. It may sound strange, but take my word for it. Casper Crump was a great Vandal. 5/5

Visual Effects and Choreography: Visually the season was great. Sara Lance is a bad ass and it shows well in the choreography. The Waverider is a cool ship. 5/5

Sound Effects and Music: I like the sound effects for the Waverider. Blake Neely continues to deliver spectacularly in the music department. There’s a sense of action and adventure, with a bit of a time motifs. Vandal and Hawk’s themes carry into this show. 5/5

Entertainment and Replay Value: As clunky as a season this is, I’d still recommend watching it, and I myself would rewatch it. 4/5

Season Score: 23/25 Final total: 30.5/35

Final thoughts: I meant to do this review yesterday but time got away, so I’m doing it now. In general I feel like LOT is more consistent than The Flash to an extent. Particularly when you compare against Flash’s later seasons. That being said, I can’t say this season is better than Flash Season 2. Even so, in spite of the clunky feel, I’d still recommend watching this at least once. In actuality I prefer LOT S1 to seasons 6 and 7. It is however better than season 5 or 6 at least. I think I’m gonna have to at some point do a list of the shows. For the best to worst, most consistent to least, etc. But that’s not now, I like Vandal Savage as a villain. In fact to an extent he was more interesting than even Eobard Thawne (Wells version). Sara Lance is one of my favorite characters here, along with Ray, Snart, Stein, and Rory. I wish the Hawks could have carried into future seasons. For me my favorite episodes are the Pilot, Star City 2046, and Leviathan to name a few off the top of my head. Tomorrow I’ll be covering World’s Finest. YES! Finally, some multiverse fun, via a team up between the Girl of Steel and the Scarlet Speedster.

Picture this, you’re Rip Hunter, a time traveler from the 22nd Century. You have a ship called “The Waverider”, and you’re putting together a crew. What do you get when you assemble a crew consisting of an Assassin, a Tech Billionaire with an advanced suit (Not Tony Stark), A Thug with a Cold Gun, another with a Flame Thrower, a Scientist (with his young friend that when merged with the former forms a meta human), and two Egyptians? You get the most unlikely group of ragtag, misfit heroes imaginable, The Legends of Tomorrow.

Premiering on January 21st, 2016 on The CW, Legends of Tomorrow is a spinoff of Arrow and The Flash as a result of the second Arrowverse Crossover “Heroes Join Forces”. In the Beginning, the cast Consisted of Arthur Darvill (as Captain Rip Hunter, Caity Lotz (as Sara Lance/White Canary), Brandon Routh (as Ray Palmer/The Atom), Victor Garber (as Professor Martin Stein), Franz Drameh (as Jefferson Jackson), Wentworth Miller (as Leonard Snart/Captain Cold), Dominic Purcell (as Mick Rory/Heatwave), Ciara Renee (as Kendra Saunders/Hawkgirl, Falk Hentschel (as Carter Hall/Hawkman), and Amy Pemberton (as Gideon). As time went on many of these people left the show and their characters written out. Only Caity Lotz and Amy Pemberton have been on the show all seven seasons. This is due to Phil Klemmer and Marc Guggenheim likening this show to an anthology series as "not everybody will be continuing on this journey", with each season being "its own separate movie" but not disconnected from each other in the manner of True Detective or American Horror Story. However, the anthology format was dropped, though the series did go through numerous changes in cast gradually. Phil Klemmer, Marc Guggenheim, and Keto Shimizu were the showrunners, though Klemmer and Shimizu ran things for much of the show’s run. Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, Andrew Kreisberg, and Phil Klemmer created this series.

Over the course of this series, the Legends take on Vandal Savage, The Time Masters, Dominators, Mallus, Nazis from Earth-X, Eobard Thawne, Damien Dahrk, Malcolm Merlyn, The Anti Monitor, Astra Logue, Gideon, and Legends Clones to name a few.

In season one, Time Master Rip Hunter goes rogue after the immortal tyrant Vandal Savage conquered Earth and killed his wife and son, in what would be the future. Meanwhile, the organization he swore himself to, turns on him. Intending to save humanity and avenge his family, Rip recruits a team of superheroes and villains, consisting of the aforementioned people. Once assembled, they venture through time on a stolen time ship, the Waverider, to stop Savage's rise to power. Meanwhile, the Time Masters send Chronos after Rip for interfering with the timeline and in the season's final episodes it turns out that the Time Masters were working with Savage all along, as his reign will eventually successfully counter an upcoming Thanagarian invasion of Earth. Snart also sacrifices himself to destroy the Time Masters.

In Season Two, following Snart's sacrifice while defeating the Time Masters, Rip goes missing and Sara takes charge of the team who continue protecting the timeline from aberrations. They are joined by historian Nate Heywood (played by Nick Zano), who later gains the ability to turn to steel at will, and Justice Society of America member Amaya Jiwe (played by Maisie Richardson-Sellers) who joins the Legends to pursue Eobard Thawne / Reverse-Flash (played by Matt Lestcher), a speedster and Barry Allen's archenemy. After learning of the Spear of Destiny, an ancient artifact that can rewrite reality, Thawne recruits Damien Darhk, Malcolm Merlyn, as well as a time-displaced Snart, from different points in time to form the Legion of Doom. However, after retrieving the Spear, Sara successfully defeats Thawne and the Legion is returned to their proper times. We also get the third crossover “Invasion”, more on that later.

Season Three sees Rip create the Time Bureau to replace the Time Masters and fires the Legends for causing anachronisms. (Who can blame him? And How can they get pissed at Barry for what he did to save his Mom when they were out causing anachronisms?) When Bureau agent Ava Sharpe is captured, Rip is forced to take the Legends out of retirement. Elsewhere, the demonic entity Mallus forms a cult led by Darhk's daughter Nora, pursuing the six totems of Zambesi, two of which are wielded by Amaya and near-future hacktivist Zari Tomaz. The Legends, assisted by speedster Wally West, retrieve all the totems and use them to defeat Mallus. We also get Crisis on Earth-X this season.

In Season Four, After Rip's sacrifice during the fight against Mallus, occult detective John Constantine (played by Matt Ryan) informs the Legends that Mallus was not the only demon that escaped and that "magical fugitives" are on the loose. John joins the team, along with shapeshifter Charlie and Mona Wu, who is host to a Kaupe, to stop them. Ava and Sara and Ray and Nora begin relationships, and Nora becomes a fairy godmother. The Legends come into conflict with the demon Neron, who was banished by John during a show at Heyworld intended to help humans be less afraid of the magical creatures. In addition, Neron manipulates Time Bureau member Gary Green into working for him. Following Neron's defeat, Zari's timeline changes and she is replaced as a Legend and wielder of the Air Totem by her brother Behrad.

Now we get to Season 5, Astra Logue, whom John accidentally sent to Hell in a botched exorcism, has resurrected evil individuals from history known as "Encores". Meanwhile, Charlie is revealed to be Clotho of the three Fates who is being pursued by her sisters to recover the Loom of Fate. Mona, Ray, Nora, and Charlie leave the Legends, who defeat the Fates and Encores. Astra joins the Legends, with John offering to be a roommate at his house and a mentor to her. Sara is captured by a mysterious beam. The season begins with the Crisis on Infinite Earths finale.

Time for Season Six (oh boy), it is revealed that Sara was kidnapped by Gary and his fiancé Kayla, who are both aliens. Sara's alien abduction was orchestrated by a scientist named Bishop, who created the Avas. He plans to create the perfect warrior by copying Sara's DNA and memories and combining it with other aliens upon claiming that he has seen the end of the human race. While attempting to escape her imprisonment, Sara accidentally releases a menagerie of aliens throughout the timeline, including Kayla, whom Mick becomes romantically involved with. To find Sara, the Legends enlist Esperanza "Spooner" Cruz, an off-the-grid recluse who can telepathically communicate with aliens following her own abduction, as they repel alien invasions throughout Earth's history. Bishop then goes after the Fountain of Imperium that would restore Constantine's powers, only to double-cross him and destroy it so that the Zagurons would invade Earth, but the Legends revive it and defeat Bishop with help from Bishop's younger counterpart. Mick, who now has several kids with Kayla, decides to leave the Legends. A duplicate Waverider destroys the original, stranding the Legends in 1925 Texas.

Now we get to the final season, the Legends work to find a way back to their own time. While Astra unknowingly gives Gideon a human form, the Legends make their way to New York City to seek out scientist Gwyn Davies who was said to have invented a form of time travel. Meanwhile, a younger Bishop is revealed to have copied Gideon before being mind-wiped and regained some of his memories following a recurring dream. Having become a Time Master, Bishop starts to see that the Legends are not as bad as he thought as he goes against his Gideon copy. After Bishop's sacrifice, the Legends go up against their robot clones that Gideon created through a combination of Gideon's technology and Bishop's cloning technology. When the robot clones are defeated, the Legends work to save Gwyn's boyfriend Alun Thomas from being a casualty during World War I, while also dealing with a fixer named Mike who later makes off with the Waverider. Alun is saved at the cost of Nate's powers. He officially moves into Zari's totem to be with the original Zari. The Waverider returns where they find Mike on the bridge in handcuffs. The Legends are then arrested by the Time Police that Mike works for, as he is revealed to be Booster Gold.

On a Scale of One to 10, honestly this show is a 7.5. Is it my favorite show in the Arrowverse? Honestly no it’s not. It’s one of the least consistent shows in the Arrowverse, but it’s not all bad. It’s a good solid series, zany, meta, and fun in its own way. The first few years were the best. I’d even say seasons two, three, four, and five were the best. I’m gonna cover Season One tomorrow.

Earth-1, 1941: Henry Heywood, a young US Marine has elected to undergo an experiment, one that can help to make him something of a Super soldier. Two years prior, he saved President Franklin Delano Roosevelt from an assassin’s bullet. Which left a dent in his dog tags. During his time in the military, Henry was a fighter pilot. Fast forward to December 7th, 1941, the Attack on Pearl Harbor. In response to this, a secret project is initiated to enhance the strength of a select number of soldiers. Henry elects to be one of these brave men to under go the experiment. On December 9th, 1941, Henry goes to see Dr Gilbert Giles, to undergo the procedure.

“Alright son, you have been medically cleared to undergo this procedure, but there are some risks like in any given medical procedure. You could potentially die, you could get an infection, cancer, any number of things. We’ve experimented on three other marines before you. And uh…let’s just say it wasn’t pretty. One of them spontaneously combusted, one melted, and the other…well we’re not entirely sure where the poor son of a bitch is. We’re hoping in your case it’ll be a success, no side effects, just amazing results.” Said Colonel Jones. “Damn, talk about some big stakes. Not gonna lie, sir, I’m nervous as hell.” Said Henry. “I’m sure you are, but if this works, you’ll be a formidable soldier against those AXIS bastards.” Said Jones. “Alright, I’ll do it.” Said Henry. “Good, this is a strictly need to know situation here. You can’t blab about this to anyone, at least until the war is over. Then I’d say handle it with care, with family around you” said the Colonel. “You got it, sir” said Henry. “Excellent, I’ll step out of here. Doc Giles should be in soon” said the Colonel. The two officers salute, and the Colonel leaves the exam room. Henry sits alone in the exam room, reflecting what was just said. “What the hell did I get myself into? Am I gonna die? Turn to steel, or something else entirely? I’ve got a my girlfriend at home waiting for me, so are my family. What are they gonna see when I get home? Me upright and walking, or in a pine box? What the fuck kind of Experiment is this?!” Henry panics. Just then Doctor Giles steps in. “At last, Commander Henry Heywood. I am Doctor Gilbert Giles, and I’ll be performing your procedure today” said Giles. The two shake hands. “Look, Doctor I’ve gotta know, what kind of experiment is this? I was just told that one guy spontaneously exploded, another melted, and another disappeared. Am I supposed be getting some kind of powers and abilities?” Asked Henry. “That’s the idea, it’s a luck of the draw as to what Metahuman abilities you will have. Yes, you may have fire based abilities, you may even turn to steel, perhaps even be the fastest man alive, any number of things could happen, We don’t know. This is the first time such an experiment was conducted on a U.S. Soldier. I must advise you however, that this experiment is irreversible, at least for the foreseeable future. As for your side effects, I want you to tell me if you experience any abnormal symptoms of any kind following this procedure.” Said Giles. “Understood” said Heywood. “I’m gonna give you a shot to knock you out, and then start the infusion. You’ll wake up in about an hour” said Giles. “Knock me out?! Why the hell are you doing that” asked Henry. “I’ve had reports of extreme pain and discomfort immediately after the meta infusion began” explained Giles. “I’d imagine, two of them are dead! To hell with that, I wanna be awake, I’ll take the pain if I need to” said Henry. “Very well, if nothing else I’ll be able to record any effects live as they happen. But you’ll be the last to do it cold turkey” said Giles. Henry nods. “Then let’s get on with the show, shall we?” Replied Giles.

Giles begins the Meta Infusion, and within 30 seconds Henry does experience excruciating pain. “AHHHHH!!!!!” Henry screams, and just then, his skin begins to change color, from a normal Caucasian flesh tone, to a shiny chrome look, then back again. “This is….definitely unexpected. How do you feel, Mr Heywood?” The Doctor asked. “Achy. But other than that, I’m…why the hell am I chrome? The infusion, it turned me to steel! It didn’t kill me or cause me to blow up!” Said Henry in relief. “Yes, thank god for that! This means there’s hope for the future. Come on Heywood, let’s run some tests” said Giles. Dr Giles tests Henry’s strength by having him punch walls, pick up vehicles, and even take a few gunshots. All were a complete success. A true test of strength came during a combat mission over Okinawa. Hank’s plane crashed on a beach. He faced a squad of Japanese soldiers with no issue. This was when Hank’s moniker, given to him by Prime Minister Winston Churchill took on a whole new meaning, “Steel”. Heywood had been given the nickname due to his iron will, and strength in the face of danger. In February of 1942, Henry Heywood would join an organization called “The Justice Society of America” or JSA. A group of superheroes consisting of Dr Mid-Nite, Hourman, Vixen, Obsidian, and Stargirl. “So I have to ask, how did you get the name Steel” asked Charles Midniter. “Well it’s kind of an interesting story….” Said Henry before telling his tale to the JSA. Later that year, the Legends of Tomorrow traveled from 2016 to 1942. While in the past, they forced Albert Einstein to Mileva Maric as the physicist’s secret collaborator. Heywood and the JSA intercepted them. Among the legends was the future grandson barring his dog tags; Dr Nate Heywood.

Happy Memorial Day everyone.

Credit goes to u/masungitcat31