Which Characters Could Appear in DC’s Legends of Tomorrow?
Since DC Entertainment began the television show
Arrow on The CW, they have slowly been introducing new characters to fill out the TV universe. Black Canary, Arsenal, Flash, and Atom (as well as many villains) started on
Arrow while
The Flash introduced viewers to Firestorm, Captain Cold and Heatwave. Now, many of those characters and new ones to the DC TV universe will appear in the spin-off series
DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. That means that the pattern of introducing new characters will likely continue in this new show. So who else from the DC comic universe could appear on
Legends of Tomorrow?
We know that in addition to the already established characters Canary (a resurrected Sarah Lance), Atom, Professor Stein/Firestorm, Captain Cold, and Heatwave,
Legends of Tomorrow will introduce Rip Hunter, Hawkgirl and another yet-to-be-named and possibly entirely new hero named Jay Jackson. They will be facing off against Vandal Savage during the first season of the show. In my view, the most key member of this group, as far as related to additional new characters, is Rip Hunter.
Rip Hunter is a time traveler, meaning that he has access to many different generations of heroes. As far as the DC TV universe, Arrow and Flash are supposedly some of the first (if not the first) costumed heroes. So it would seem that the other generations of heroes would have to come from the future, or perhaps as established in
The Flash a different/alternate timeline.
Legion of Super-Heroes
If we are talking about future heroes from the DC Universe, my thinking goes to the Legion of Super-Heroes, an intergalactic squadron of heroes with a huge roster of characters. There have been many iterations of the Legion of Super-Heroes in DC Comics Universe, so there could be many options for producers. There are some problems with introducing the Legion. Many of the Legionnaires have extraordinary powers or appearances and their continuity is complicated. Besides Superboy, there really aren’t household names on their roster, either (Brainiac 5 is probably the second most well-known). Still, the Legion was popular enough to have an animated show for a couple of seasons. Also, with many time travel stories possible in
Legends of Tomorrow, it might make sense to eventually introduce some version of the Legion of Super-Heroes.
Booster Gold
In the DC Comics, Rip Hunter is a member of small group called the Time Masters, who guard the timeline against evil threats. One of the central members of the Time Masters is the superhero from the future, Booster Gold (who also has a close and complicated relationship with Rip). Booster Gold would be a good character to appear in
Legends of Tomorrow because he’s well known in the comics but not so big of a character (like Batman or Superman) that he would necessitate his own show. His powers would not require excessive special effects (he has a powered suit and flight ring). Booster’s frequent time traveling could also explain why he couldn’t be a regular member of the team. Finally, Booster Gold already appeared on
Smallville, so The CW should be comfortable with him.
Justice Society of America
The Justice Society of America has been a frequent foe of Vandal Savage, so there is a connection to
Legends of Tomorrow. Likewise,
The Flash has established alternate timelines and in the season one finale showed the helmet of Jay Garrick (the Flash of Earth 2). So if in addition to time travel,
Legends of Tomorrow established inter-dimensional travel as a possibility for our heroes, going to a version of Earth 2, populated by older heroes making up the Justice Society of America, could be a fun episode. There is a possibility that Jay Garrick and the JSA might be more of a story thread for
The Flash. However, it’s been shown that
Arrow and
The Flash frequently cross over, so the JSA appearing in
The Flash and then later in
Legends of Tomorrow doesn’t seem outside the realm of possibility.
Smallville also had a Justice Society of America episode, but it didn't get developed very much.
Hawkman
This one would seem to be an obvious connection since
Legends of Tomorrow will debut Kendra Saunders /Hawkgirl, so they could clearly bring in Carter Hall/Katar Hol. He appeared on
Smallville during the JSA episode. However, I actually think Hawkman could prove problematic because it would steal the spotlight from Hawkgirl and the show probably doesn’t want two versions of the same hero (although Arrow has gone in this direction with Roy Harper as Oliver Queen’s sidekick). I could see Carter Hall eventually being Kendra’s love interest but not turning into Hawkman (like how Cisco Ramon has not yet become Vibe in
The Flash). In the comics, writers developed a fun adversarial friendship dynamic between warrior Hawkman and liberal Oliver Queen, so it could be really cool to see that developed in the new DC TV universe.
There are thousands of characters in the DC Comics Universe and you could make a strong argument for likeliness or importance of an appearance for many others in
Legends of Tomorrow. So which other characters from the DC Comics Universe do you think could appear in
Legends of Tomorrow? Which do you really want to see in the show?