Comic books can tell any kind of story they like, but when we’re talking about superhero comics, the standard fare is something closer to soap opera than epic literature. Even when things are totally serious, they’re often a little goofy. Light-hearted characters with a tendency to crack jokes, like your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, help us remember that. Only lately, DC’s CW shows have been a bit too serious. Thankfully, we have Legends of Tomorrow keeping it real, and the new trailer for season 3 coming out of San Diego Comic-Con reminds me why it was one of my favorite shows last year.
Guys, I think we broke time
Season 2 ended with the team saving time from Damien Darhk, Malcolm Merlyn, and the Reverse Flash, Eobard Thawne. I bet those guys were bullied in school constantly. No wonder they ended up villains. In the process of saving time from being re-written in the image of a trio of megalomaniacs, though the team accidentally broke time, rippling out anachronisms and anomalies across the ages.
Instead of crying about it like Barry Allen, though, the team jumps into action to fix it. This season will take them to an old-timey circus just for starters. It sounds like they might be going to the Titanic, too. There’s a little easter egg here for movie fans. Professor Stein is played by Victor Garber, who played the role of Thomas Andrews in 1997’s Titanic, the movie every girl in my class saw at least three times in theaters. Thomas Andrews just happened to be the guy who designed the ship. It’s a willingness to be silly, winky, and goofy like this that made Legends of Tomorrow relentlessly watchable in its much-improved second season, and it seems like the writers are really hanging onto that idea. And that’s awesome.
DC’s Legends of Tomorrow season 3 premieres Tuesday, October 10, on The CW.