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Legends of Tomorrow season 3, episode 1 review: Aruba-Con

By Kevin Smith

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Reviewing Tuesday night’s season 3 premiere of Legends of Tomorrow.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow returned tonight to begin its third season, beginning with a (relatively) low stakes, place-setting type of episode. While it lacks some of the manic energy and crazy deep-cut references to DC comics that characterize the best episodes of Legends of Tomorrow (like the Old West episodes), the shows return episode continues to make a case for its existence as a showcase for some of the Arrowverse’s most consistently entertaining performers.

Beginning with Mick Rory in Aruba, discovering Julius Caesar in the middle of his much-deserved vacation, Legends quickly makes the case that these characters are no longer characters thrown together by fate: they literally aren’t satisfied doing anything else. Sara Lance, the White Canary, works at a second-rate Bed, Bath, and Beyond stand-in (which ultimately gives Caity Lotz an opportunity for an amazingly petty post-quit offense: knocking over a pile of towels and boxes.). Ray Palmer, the shrinking-suit wearing Atom, is a soulless Silicon Valley sellout, and Hank Heywood is “The Second Most Popular Superhero in Central City.” (I guess Team Flash all counts as one, because I feel like Wally West’s Kid Flash probably outranks him, too.). Hank is also mourning his breakup with Amaya, a.k.a. Vixen, who has since returned to her time and her home country, Zambesi, in the time between seasons (and has since developed a bit of a dark side, if the stinger at the end of the episode is to be believed).

Bored with their lives sans-time travel, the trio decide to bring Caesar to his own time and get back in the game, incurring the wrath of Rip Hunter and his new Time Bureau, which gives Arthur Darvill, an experienced hand at delivering time travel mumbo-jumbo from both this show and his time on Doctor Who, the opportunity to be his most bookish and irritating. Of course, after recruiting an equally anxious Jax and Martin Stein, who is happy to embrace grandfatherhood, they screw things up, accidentally tipping off Julius Caesar to his eventual assassination and causing the expansion of the Roman Empire to cover the entire planet. To be honest, though, the whole first leg of the episode is worth it exclusively for the fight scene between Sara and Caesar, who gets a truly impressive League of Assassins beat-down on the beach.

This crisis in time, and their return to the moment of divergence, leads to one of the show’s workmanlike action scenes. Like almost every one of the show’s superhero action scenes, they pull off more than you’d expect on a CW budget, like Firestorm at full power. But with the exception of the tried and true martial artists, like Lotz, the action on the show never seems to pop like a full-on super-team battle should.

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By the end, the pieces are all in place, the Legends are back on the Waverider, charged with fixing the Anachronisms they created at the conclusion of last season, and ready to get back to “swashbuckling through time.” There’s also the obligatory Arrowverse season villain reference by the endearingly sarcastic and almost definitely evil Agent Sharp, Rip’s right-hand woman. I consider myself someone with a fair amount of DC Lore expertise, and I cant come up with a character to attach to Malus, at least in the DC Universe. (If you’ve got an idea let me know in the comments, I’d love to see what you’ve got.)

Overall, the show seems to be going in a direction I’m excited about. Obviously we’re going to get a season-long arc (fixing anachronisms and time paradoxes they accidentally created) and a Big Bad, but the show seems looser this time around. We don’t get a lot of CW-brand melodrama. Instead, we get personalities and characters we know bouncing off each other. There’s less focus here on broken people with something to prove and more on a band of lovable losers who are motivated by not wanting to be screw-ups, and just happen to be ninja assassins, super geniuses, and nuclear-powered superbeings. In a world where we’ve all seen enough glowering heroes questioning their role in the world, I’m really into a screwball time-traveling action comedy featuring superheroes. Here’s to a great season, hope to see you next week!

MVL (Most Valuable Legend): Sara Lance

Caity Lotz has become one of the Arrowverse’s best players, both as one of the few actors who sell the martial arts and action scenes, but also because she’s one of the only actors they have to really nail a performance that winks at how ridiculous everything around her is while still reveling in it. Also, her continually beating everybody up while still getting every girl (and guy) she wants is low key one of the show’s best gags.

Notes from the Waverider

  • Sinks Showers and Stuff a name, is a pretty great gag. King Arthur and Men in Black Flashy-Thingies? Less so. Aim higher, LoT.
  • I was getting serious Star Trek II vibes from the Waverider getting turned into a simulator. I half expected the Legends (who are the laughingstock of the Time Bureau) to watch the new recruits fail the Kobayashi Maru test.
  • There were no more than 20 extras on set for Arubacon. Kudos to a hard-working CW cameraman for trying to make it look like more.
  • “Batteries to Power. Turbines to speed.” I see your Batman ’66 reference, LoT.
  • Ray Palmer and Hank Heywood: Beach Bros is the Baywatch movie we deserved.
  • “What’s wrong with you people? Do you want to get shot?” -Agent Sharpe asking a perfectly valid question upon meeting the Legends. Also, she’s definitely evil, right?

Must Read: Top 50 super heroes in comic book history

Legends of Tomorrow returns on Tuesday, Oct. 17 at 9:00 p.m. ET.

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