3 out of 5

Developed by: Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, Andrew Kreisberg and Phil Klemmer

covers season 1

With Supergirl, I’d noted that the Berlanti crew had done a good job of capturing different “takes” on comic book universes with their three shows (Arrow, Flash, and SG) each having various mixes of yuks, melodrama, and grim n’ gritty.  The announcement of Legends seemed almost too Comic to be true.  We only really believed Marvel would make the Avengers when they’d successfully knocked out several of their primary character solo films; DC is only allowed faith in the JLA film because the world revolves around announcing superhero movies at this point.  And as they’ve clearly drawn a line between their big and little screen worlds, that faith doesn’t extend to the boob tube.  Pitches are forever a’plenty, but the reality has to be seen to be believed.

Arrow and Flash, happily co-mingling characters, did right by dorks by dropping referenceable heroes and villains into every other episode.  The pieces were there for Legends – a team of Firestorm, Atom, Captain Cold, Heatwave, Hawkman and Hawkgirl, White Canary and Rip Hunter, traveling through time to right wrongs – but it still didn’t have to mean anything.  Every character will have someone proclaiming spin-off, especially in the rumor-happy comic world.  And besides – it felt like Flash had started to get into a comfortable rhythm.  Must we spread ourselves thinner?

Sure, why not.  Because there was still an unexplored avenue in the Berlantiverse: the goofy team-up.  It makes sense, as the chemistry is there in all of the above mentioned shows what with the lead’s various hanger-ons, but that’s just it: you still have a main character.  With Legends – with a team-up show – the group _is_ the character, and we’re quick to spot when you’re lazy and relegate folks to cliches like ‘the funny one’ (I’m looking at you, Michelangelo), which is a shtick that can generally only last so long.  Which is where DC’s TV-verse pulled a Marvel: some of these characters were newer to the fold, but on the whole, they’re carryovers from previous Flash/Arrow episodes, so core attributes are done, and we can jump right in to the extras… which end up being the more important bits (the flavor, so to speak) when you have to shuffle through so many leads.  Add to that the rife-with-opportunity time-travel setup…  This has potential to be an amazing comic book show.

And it times: it more than exceeds.  At times, the creators can’t contain the smiles, and it comes out in wonderful action choreography and banter and quirky “We’re in the 70s!”  “We’re in the Wild West!” ideas.  But the other half of the time we’re shackled to resolving the purpose for the spin-off – that Vandal Savage (Casper Crump) destroys the future and Rip Hunter needs heroes – and it’s good, but it’s also so tangled in nonsense that collapse seems imminent.

Warded off by the goofy moments.  Which, we hope, become the norm in season 2 if/when they wrap up Savage for season 1.

So here it is.  In the same way Marvel proved they could handle various genres on the big and small screen, Berlanti and crew have claimed their own corner of motion comics.  It’s expanding quickly, and League of Legends seemed worringly too quick… but despite the show somewhat lurching about for a larger purpose, it’s turned out to be another excellent addition to the mini-verse.