Disclaimer: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided Cinema Sentries with a free copy of the Blu-ray reviewed in this post. The opinions shared are those solely of the writer.
During Season One, the newly formed Legends managed to vanquish Vandal Savage (Casper Crump), an immortal madman set on the total conquest of Earth. During their adventures, they managed to lose a few crewmembers, defeat the Time Masters, and ended up becoming the only ones to watch over time and history for any time aberrations to occur and repair them.
But things didn’t work out so well for our heroes as the first episode starts off with historian Dr. Nate Heywood (Nick Zano) breaking into the office of the mayor of Star City. He’s come to speak with Mayor Oliver Queen (Stephen Armell) to get his help. He knows Oliver’s secret identity as the Arrow and he has been seeing strange anomalies in history involving the Legends. The biggest event being some kind of nuclear explosion that occurred three years before the atomic bond was invented. Arriving at the ocean location where the explosion had occurred, they find the time-travelling spaceship, the Waverider. While searching for any clue as to what happened, they stumble upon Mick Rory (Dominic Purcell), who has been trapped in suspended animation for more than 70 years.
After reviving him, Mick explains that they had come across a time aberration during World War II where the Nazis had blown up New York City using an atomic bomb. In order to stop them, Captain Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill) placed the ship in the way of the explosion, saving the city, damaging the ship, and scattering the crew across time.
Having a city to run and protect, Oliver suggests that Nate accompanies Mick to retrieve the team. Using his vast historical knowledge, the two quickly reassemble the team except for their leader Rip who has left no trace of his whereabouts. Continuing without him, they continue to track down what they think is a time pirate messing with the timeline, which turns out to be a group that they nickname the Legion of Doom, which contains Damien Darhk (Neal McDonough), Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman), Eobard Thawne (Matt Letscher), and Leonard Snart (Wentworth Miller).
The Legion is looking for the Spear of Destiny, the legendary spear that pierced the side of Christ while he was on the cross and has the power to rewrite history. The race to find the spear will take them throughout time where they will run across Albert Einstein, Ronald Reagan, J.R.R. Tolkien, George Washington, Jonah Hex, confederate zombies, and an altered reality where they are no longer heroes and the Legion runs the world.
While it’s difficult to pick the best episodes from this season, there are four special ones that stick out more than the others for different reasons:
“The Justice Society of America” is the introduction to the superhero organization that is a precursor to the Justice League. Not only does it bring together a group of new superheroes with a group of older ones, but this is also the episode where Vixen (Maisie Richardson-Sellers) joins the Legion.
“Invasion!” is the conclusion of the four-part crossover event on Supergirl, The Flash, Arrow, and Legends of Tomorrow. Not only is it fun and entertaining seeing the cast of four different DC/CW shows coming together on screen, but the story is also well developed and entertaining. The only odd thing is that there is only the one episode so you don’t get the entire story. It’s reminiscent of how comic books used to have story arcs that you had to read different comics just to get the whole story. One of the reasons I stopped reading comics and something I’m not too happy that they decided to do on this Blu-ray.
“Raiders of the Lost Art” is where Rip finally rejoins the show. Even though he has no powers, he is a much more important character in the team than they realize. This episode is also fun because a 1960s George Lucas makes an appearance where his future is in jeopardy.
“Doomworld” is the most exciting episode of the season. The Legion of Doom has won, and the world is changed. How will the Legends win the day and rewrite reality once again? There is still one more episode to come after this one, but it’s the most pivotal and crucial episode where the teams is at their lowest and almost all hope is lost.
The Blu-ray is presented in 1080p High Definition 16×9 1.78:1 video with a DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. The video is crisp and clean and of good quality, but what is most impressive is the audio. The surround sound is set up perfectly with explosions and action happening on all sides. It mixes very well with the dialogue and is very immersive.
There are two special features on the Blu-ray. The “2016 Comic-Con Panel” is the panel that came out after Season One at Comic-Con International and is an introduction to the two new actors joining the show. “Allied: The Invasion! Complex” is an in-depth look into the CW cross-over event with the casts of Arrow, Supergirl, and The Flash. There are “Deleted Scenes” scattered throughout the discs. And finally the “Gag Reel”, which is a typical blooper reel made slightly more tolerable because it’s set to music.
Overall, the second season of Legends Of Tomorrow is much stronger and more coherent than the previous one. The introduction of Nate, who becomes Citizen Steel, and Amaya Jiwe, known as Vixen, add to the cast and are a much better fit than some of the teammates that were lost last season. The Legion of Doom has much more interesting personalities that create confusion and conflict within themselves that make them much better villains than Vandal Savage. Both of these aspects give the show a much better flow and a more precise objective to follow while using different time periods as a backdrop. And like any good comic book story, the season ends with a cliffhanger, leaving the audience wanting more and wondering just how will they get out of this new predicament.
