Legends Of Tomorrow Hints At Red Tornado, Hourman, Sandman On Instagram

If you’re a fan of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow and don’t have an Instagram account, you’re missing out. DC’s official feed spent the weekend teasing two human superheroes and one android, though maybe not exactly the ones you’d expect just from reading the names.

Specifically, DC showed images of three iconic objects belonging to three different heroes, then asked fans to use Instagram filters to uncover the hidden image and message in each one. As with most Instagram tricks like this, you can probably make some of them out even without a filter, but it’s still a fun idea to get fans to interact.

Here’s the most recent one featuring an instantly recognizable costume element from a World War II-era crimefighter:

That’s Sandman’s gas mask alright, the one that belonged to Wesley Dodds, who first began his comic book career in July of 1939. A founding member of the Justice Society of America, Dodds, used the gas mask because he also carried a sleeping gas gun to knock out evildoers. He also lived up to the Sandman moniker due to his visions of crimes that came to him in dreams, a gift of sorts from the entity also names Dream, the star of Neil Gaiman’s highly regarded Vertigo series The Sandman.

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The previous two Instagram images featured Hourman’s Hourglass and Ma Hunkel’s pot helmet. Those suggest that Legends of Tomorrow will feature the original, human Red Tornado and the android Hourman instead of the other way around. Hunkel was a humorous lady who dressed in a homemade costume to fight street crime as the Red Tornado during the Golden Age, inspiring actual superheroes enough that they made her an honorary member of the Justice Society. A more famous, android version of Red Tornado with wind-related powers has already been seen (sort of) on Supergirl.

The android Hourman was the third hero to go by that name, and originated from a much more distant future than Rip Hunter: from the 853rd century, to be exact. Based on the memories and genetic code of original Hourman Rex Tyler, this android made his way back to our present and had adventures with both the Justice League and Justice Society. His hourglass kept track of his 60 minutes of power, during which he could travel through time, speed or slow the passage of time around people or objects and other nifty feats. He also used a timeship that could change shape and allow him to journey between time periods even without using his own personal power.

More than one commenter has pointed out that in pre-New 52 continuity, all of these heroes either originated on (in the cases of Dodds and Hunkel) or have concrete ties to (like Hourman) DC’s original Earth-Two. Considering that Jay Garrick hails from the TV version of Earth-2 on The Flash, there may be a connection between them all, or it might just be a huge coincidence.

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There’s also no guarantee we’ll see all three characters on Legends of Tomorrow, as it’s possible they’ll merely be mentioned or their items seen on the Waverider. It’s still awesome that the show’s creative team is even considering them, not to mention using them to reach out to fans to keep them interested in-between episodes.

Speaking of which, Legends of Tomorrow is back on Thursday, February 4 with another new episode, “Blood Ties.” It airs at 8 pm on The CW, and is worth checking out to see if any of these heroes make an appearance.