Initial Thoughts on Legends of Tomorrow

• I don't like that they decided Ray Palmer was such a nothing. I didn't like the decision to conflate The Atom and OMAC, but I could swallow it. Totally unokay with taking one of the big geniuses of the DCU - basically their Reed Richards - and deciding he's so forgettable that another big genius of the DCU (Stein) has no recollection of him.

• Slow start, especially with the cheesy dialog, but it improved significantly once the ensemble started to come together in the final act. Interesting dynamic(s). And hey, way to make me enjoy people I've always found a little boring: the Hawks, Firestorm...Cold and Heatwave are the only two characters in this show I actually liked in any prior incarnation.
• (Well, I have always loved Canary, but...y'know, the actual one, Dinah Lance. Who, in the Arrowverse, doesn't exactly exist.)

• I've always been a Savage fan; I kinda dig Rip Hunter as a character; and that's an....interesting....version of Chronos. None of that makes it less weird that Berlanti et al. mined DC's worst era for this story.  It's like handicapping yourself, some sort of storyteller's game in which the winner is whomever can tell the best story with the worst elements and devices.

• I have a sneaking suspicion Booster Gold is waiting in the wings somewhere, which I will *only* appreciate if Beetle comes along with him.  Unfortunately, the Ted Kord of the Arrowverse is...Ray Palmer*...so either that's deeply unlikely? Or we get Dan Garret - whom nobody knows - or Jaime Reyes, in what would be a fierce blow for diversity and a much milder one for interesting character dynamics.  Every attempt to make Booster Gold not an annoying [feminine-hygiene product reference excluded] has resulted in far less interesting storytelling - so if he shows up, count on them writing him as SUPER-ANNOYING.

• I think the casting of Miller and Purcell as Snart and Rory will go down as the smartest move across all three Arrowverse shows, however long they may last.  (I say that having never watched a full episode of Prison Break; however, I recall how wild everyone was about their chemistry.  Now I get it.)
• That said, Victor Garber is the best thing about any show with Victor Garber.

• Finally, my dear dear Arthur Darvill.  What is it about Doctor Who actors who are beyond phenomenal in their craft appearing in comic-book franchise shows that makes them regurgitate The Doctor all over their new characters?  (And there were some distinct Rory-Pond deliveries in his snark.)  At least Darvill has the excuse that Rip Hunter is basically a Time Lord with one heart and no regeneration.
• (Dear Mr. Tennant: you have less excuse.  Thanks, at least, for keeping Killgrave less than 50% Doctor.)
• (Seriously, Team Arrowverse, I know Doctor Who hadn't been created at the time of Rip Hunter's first naming as "Time Master".  But Doctor Who exists now.  It is a powerhouse of science fiction, a British national treasure, and perhaps the One True Love of Tumblr itself.  Also, most people don't know as much DCU history as I do.  You didn't think - maybe - that a renaming was in order?  So many of your fans are about to launch the "derivative" accusation at you....)

Incidentally, this is what Waverider looks like in the comics:

*Wait.  Wait.  Wait.  Brandon Routh's character was originally intended to be Ted Kord.  DC killed that idea.  In one of the greatest modern comic stories ever told, Max Lord instituted the OMAC protocol shortly after killing Ted Kord...  ...No, no, I refuse to believe Arrow's production team included the concept of Atom's suit being an OMAC-concept to take a potshot at DC for killing the Ted-Kord plan.  But it's an interesting thought...