Legends of Tomorrow S02E02 Review: Legends of Yesterday

Legends of Tomorrow, Season 2, Episode 2: Justice Society of America

Bit of a mini-announcement. I'm putting weekly TV episode reviews on a bit of a hiatus. Real life's going to be very, very busy for me for the next month or so, meaning I don't have a lot of leisure time to watch a crapton of TV every week. I'll periodically post reviews whenever I catch up to an episode or two, but don't expect them to be too regular. Sorry about that. Cartoon and manga reviews should be progressing normally. 

Anyway, this episode! It's still a solid episode, even if not a lot of the Justice Society actually got much screentime after the initial very awesome fighting scene against the Legends of Tomorrow. How awesome is that scene? Obsidian putting out the lights by raising his hands to the sky and just expelling a crapton of shadow is just awesome, as are Stargirl shooting her starbolts, Dr. Mid-Nite doing his daredevil vision and Vixen summoning the strength of a gorilla, and they absolutely dominated the Legends. And, to be fair, only Canary and Firestorm are really fighting at full strength, but still. It's an awesome scene that made me all squee-y inside.

Stargirl, Doctor Mid-Nite, Hourman, Obsidian, Vixen and Commander Steel

So it's a shame that practically everyone else became window dressing after the end of the fight. Oh, sure, they show up and fight a bunch of Nazi troopers throughout the episode, or bounce dialogue off of Commander Steel, but Stargirl, Dr. Mid-Nite and Hourman basically get relegated to background decoration while I don't think poor Obsidian even got a line. Vixen and Commander Steel got the most focus, with Vixen being shoehorned into a respect-slash-romance nonsense with Ray Palmer that had almost as much chemistry as the Ray/Kendra romance last season (which is: none), whereas Commander Steel had some actually decent moments with his grandson Nate Haywood.

I think the two Haywoods are the highlight of the episode, personifying the concept of carrying a legacy of a team of superheroes far better than the bickering and the Ray/Vixen anger-fest ever did. Commander Steel doesn't want to be a hero, nor does he want other people to emulate him. And as Sara repeatedly tells Nate, he isn't a combatant, and neither is he suitable to be in a battlefield because he's apparently a haemophiliac -- his blood can't coagulate properly, and a small injury can mean death. But partially because he's inspired by the heroism of his grandfather, Nate's insistence to join in the battle and live up to his legacy -- especially when the Legends are put down several times by the JSA for being a dysfunctional team -- is very interesting to follow. As the newcomer of the team, this episode cements Haywood's characterization as well as making him a fair bit more interesting. Also, the injection of the super-serum might've saved his life, but I'm betting this is going to be what turns him into Citizen Steel. 

Equally interesting to follow is Martin Stein's short stint as leader of the Legends. With Rip dead (a fact that I actually forgot until it was pointed out in this episode), the Legends have been operating without a proper leader, and the JSA quickly zeroed in on the old, white man, Martin Stein, as the authoritative figure, a position that went to Stein's head in a hilarious way. In-between his absolutely beautiful rendition of Edelweiss, to his hammy Max Lorenz acting to infiltrate the Nazi bar, and him finally admitting to Jefferson that he's not cut out for this, it's a lot of great characterization moments for Stein, as oddly forced as this part seemed to be. Eventually Stein passes on the torch to Sara, a field commander who everyone in the team respects.

Ray and the 40's Vixen have this angry spat about how Ray isn't special without a suit (Vixen, without her totem, is a kickass martial artist) and it's a bit of a drag compared to the Stein and Haywood plotlines. Poor Ray has been the least interesting character in the cast, which is a huge shame considering how good the actor can be, and how much I love the Atom as a character. But here we get another series of generic plotline as Ray tries to prove that he is a superhero even out of the suit. (Ray refusing to play along and just salute Hitler is a bit dumb, though. Patriotism and all, yeah, but you're in a deep cover mission. Uncle Sam knows you didn't mean it.)

Vixen herself also felt like the weakest member of the Justice Society despite having arguably the second-most screentime in this episode. She's one of two women in the Society, and one of two coloured people... in a secret superhero team based during World War II, and while no one ever mentions gender or race as being inferior -- Steel eschewing Sara for Stein as the leader aside, plus that one Nazi douche in the bar -- Vixen is so weirdly subservient to Commander Steel and Hourman, going all "if it please you" and "if I may" all the time. Weird.

How fun was it for the Justice Society to have that stupid Powerpuff-Girls style red telephone in their base? That was hilarious. The fact that they're secret and not public knowledge (Nate only knows because of his grandfather's participation in it) explains why no one is aware that superheroes existed in the CW verse. 

The main enemy in this episode is one Baron Krieger (a.k.a. Captain Nazi to the DC fanbase), who's given a super-strength serum by Herr Thawne (hee hee). Reverse-Flash himself doesn't do much this episode other than showing up at the beginning to talk to Krieger, and later show up in the end for some old-fashioned Flash-style "Reverse-Flash does something unexpected and deadly at the end of an episode". In exchange for the super-serum, Reverse-Flash wants Krieger to get a certain mystical artifact for him, which he later takes himself anyway after showing up and killing Hourman, thus explaining Hourman's disappearance after the warning. I really wished we had actually spent more time with Hourman in this episode, because he shows up going "I... never met you crazy guys" and then alternating into just being a boring mission control that I forgot existed 90% of the time, before being killed off. Maybe swap out Vixen for Hourman as the character that received focus this episode? Minor quibble, though.

Krieger's steroid-muscle form didn't quite look as spectacular as Obsidian's shadows or Mid-Nite's blind vision, though, actually looking quite ridiculous in some shots. The fact that he randomly takes out half of the JSA/Legends team, before proceeding to be taken out rather unceremoniously by an air strike adds to the slight disappointment of him as a villain, though he was quite effective when he's just an evil Nazi military officer threatening Ray to reverse-engineer the serum for him. 

It's a lot of set-up, and maybe the JSA didn't do as much as I would've liked, but honestly, looking back on it? It's very, very enjoyable and I squee'd. So many times. The first fight between the Justice Society of America and the Legends of Tomorrow really was the biggest fangasm moment in the entirety of the CW universe, matched perhaps only by the penultimate episode of Flash's first season when Green Arrow, Flash and Firestorm stood together to face off against Reverse-Flash. Maybe it could've been better served if the team-up wasn't focused on Ray and Vixen -- the latter being honestly a boring character compared to CW's previous attempt at Vixen -- but the Commander Steel and Martin Stein bits really make up for it. And honestly, I did seem a bit too harsh after rereading this review, but man, I loved this episode. I'm a big JSA fanboy, and seeing a live-action version of them? Spectacular.

One last thing before I close off this review. That heroic riff that seems to be the JSA's theme, playing as we get the panning shot of the JSA standing over the defeated Legends? That was an awesome piece of music. Almost as awesome as hearing Victor Garber sing Edelweiss to a room filled with superheroes and Nazi soldiers. 

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• We talked about the origins of the JSA members last episode, so there's not a lot I can talk here. Baron Krieger, in the comics, is Albrecht Krieger, better known by his un-subtle moniker Captain Nazi. He is a Nazi super-soldier, albeit in more Captain America than Hulk, and was created by a Nazi super-soldier program to create someone who can combat Captain Marvel. He's more or less just an angry Nazi villain, really. An alternative would be a different Nazi villain, Baron Blitzkrieg, who shares the 'Baron' title... but Blitzkrieg has already made an appearance in Arrow as a modern-day, non-Nazi and non-German villain, showing up with his real name, Baron Reiter, as the villain in Arrow's exhaustive season four flashback plotline. Captain Nazi seems to fit this Baron Krieger better than Blitzkrieg, so we'll go for that.