A Tribute to “Tomorrow”

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May 24, 2022 by Meghan J

this really stinks
Me and Legends
Batwoman
Arrowverse vs. MCU

Obviously this is a fairly belated post. Perhaps surprisingly, that’s not because I’ve been taking a mourning period. I was half-expecting to have a full-on emotional meltdown whenever this news dropped, whether that was this year or otherwise (and remember, I was 62% confident for otherwise), but I didn’t, and haven’t. I truly don’t think it’s sunk in yet. I once went 11 months without this show, and barely a year ago at that, so I don’t know if it’ll feel real until it’s been that long. Maybe in the fall, when the new CW season starts airing, it’ll start to feel real. Maybe it’ll start to feel real when I publish this post and mAyBe that’s why I’ve waited so long to write this post.

There’s been a whole lot said about what a blow and a bummer and a loss/affront to the greater world of quirky TV this is. And that is, of course, very, very true. There’s the fact that this show is ending on a shiny golden cliffhanger that fans asked for for ages. (Pour one out for Comic-Con Guy, whom I now maybe hope isn’t still watching the show because this is just salt in the wound.) There’s the fact that I took it for granted that this show would at least get a proper series finale, as the other live-action Arrowverse shows (that ended before 2022) all knew that their final seasons would be their final seasons. There’s the fact that this show would’ve made an absolute meal of a proper series finale (not to mention a proper final season—Arrow’s final season was basically a “Greatest Hits” reel, paying homage to the history of the show, and I feel like Legends would’ve done something similar).

There’s the fact that Sara Lance, a character who’s been part of the Arrowverse since the pilot of Arrow (sort of), won’t get a satisfying send-off (to say nothing of any of the other current Legends). (*tries to ignore the sneaking suspicion that Nate decided to leave the show because he saw the writing on the wall and figured he would snag himself a proper send-off*) There’s, as EW has mentioned, the blow to LGBTQ+ representation on TV. There’s all the things I talked about in my previous post about why this wouldn’t be a good time to end the show.

And, finally, there’s the fact that it’s pretty clear that this show isn’t ending because it’s run its course or lost its mojo. Yes, I personally didn’t particularly like Season 6, but EW listed “Bored On Board Onboard” as one of their best TV episodes of 2021; and the first half of Season 7 was a high point for me.

To my knowledge, the only reason it’s ending now is because the CW network is up for sale, which, while I don’t quite know exactly what that means, seemed to be the death knell for not only this show but, like, half the network’s shows?! While that honestly, sadistically makes me feel a little better, it’s also kind of baffling—like, you’re just shooting yourself in the foot here, CW?!

I’m all for things not going on too long or overstaying their welcome. (For instance, The Flash, which, in my opinion, has been operating at a decidedly meh level for a few seasons now, was greenlit for Season 9 after only a few Season 8 episodes had aired.) And, yes, seven seasons—just one fewer than the flagship, Arrow, and the eventual same number as CW juggernaut Riverdale—is an incredible number for this little-show-that-could and its misfire of a first season.
But also, I kind of don’t want to live in a world without this show.

I’D SAY I LOVE THIS SHOW BUT “LOVE” IS A RATHER MIDDLING WORD FOR HOW I FEEL ABOUT IT

But that’s not what this post is about. (Anymore.) In the greater scheme of things, especially in the dumpster fire that we’re all living in right now, a beloved TV show getting canceled is not that big a deal. What I want to talk about now, and the primary reason I’m surprised this hasn’t been harder on me so far, is my personal connection to this show and the life it’s taken on as part of my life.

I initially didn’t want to blog about this show. It started as a project for one of my college classes. I had to produce a weekly blog, with a consistent theme; I already loved Arrow, Flash, and the MCU; and this show was airing weekly starting right as the class was starting. But I hadn’t originally been planning on
watching Legends, with its eyebrow-raising, clearly-milking-the-franchise concept. The pieces of the puzzle just lined up, the Avengers comparison idea was low-hanging fruit, and watching and word-vomiting about Legends of Tomorrow became something I was graded on. But even when the show wasn’t a winner, writing about it was really fun. (Credit where credit is due.**)

And then, if only because I’d spent so much time with it (even then!), and its intriguing Season 1–ending cliffhanger, I decided to check out Season 2, was massively pleasantly surprised (as were many), and the rest is, ahem, history.

I actually haven’t seen every MCU movie (I’ll get to you someday, Thor 2 and non–Mark Ruffalo Hulk movie, maybe)—but I’ve seen every episode of Legends of Tomorrow, multiple times as I’ve watched and rewatched while writing these increasingly wordy, thorough, opinionated blog posts. This has been six years of my life, constant in its wackiness and in the joy I’ve gotten from writing about even the iffy episodes. Watching “The One Where We’re Trapped on TV” in May of 2020 was one of the most surreal things I’ve ever experienced. I’m not sure I’ll ever find another piece of media that I’ll throw myself into so fully, somewhat without even meaning to. I had it down to a science by Season 7, but, again—the positive power of this show started as a total surprise.

I SHOULD PROBABLY TALK ABOUT THE FACT THAT LEGENDS ISN’T THE ONLY ARROWVERSE CASUALTY

Not generating as much of an uproar in the media world but also quite significant in the Arrowverse is the concurrent cancellation of Batwoman, which ran for three seasons. (And for the record, CW, announcing the cancellation of just Batwoman despite the news of Legends’ cancellation dropping just hours later was VERY MISLEADING.)

I personally feel like maybe it was the right time for the Crimson Knight to say goodbye. Season 3 actually had a really satisfying, series ender–feeling ending, barring a nonspecific, rather half-baked cliffhanger in the final moments. Plus Batwoman has also…had a very different journey than Legends.

In addition to experiencing a whole suitload of non-universe controversy, it just seemed to have the odds stacked against it. It debuted at an odd time in the Arrowverse, right as a major chapter (or “phase,” shall we say) was coming to a close with “Crisis on Infinite Earths” and the end of Arrow. And then it kind of had to establish itself all over again, with an entirely new hero, at a time when crossovers were a nonstarter.

Despite the challenges, not the least of which was a raging pandemic, I thought Batwoman actually did manage to produce an innovative, enjoyable, compelling Arrowverse season in Season 2. And its new status as the first Arrowverse show with an LGBTQ person of color as the main, headlining hero provided a very welcome, if long overdue, new perspective.

But it seems like as a whole, the show never achieved the crowd-pleasing grip that the other shows had at least when they started (and, TBH, Legends had pretty consistently, even if its fandom was small but mighty). For one thing, I feel like, because of when it debuted among the fully established, then-ubiquitous Arrowverse, there was not much of a Venn diagram of people watching Batwoman who weren’t already neck-deep Arrowverse fans, while there were plenty of people watching, say, just Flash or just Supergirl. For another, it seems the novelty of the Arrowverse formula had long since worn off. And, of course, there’s just been a major oversaturation of Batman-related media lately.

THE PAST OF THE ARROWVERSE AND THE FUTURE OF MAINSTREAM SUPERHERO MEDIA: SEMI-COHERENT THOUGHTS

So it does seem like the door is closing on the Arrowverse just as it approaches its ten-year anniversary (Arrow premiered in October 2012). A good while back, I saw a headline saying that “Crisis on Infinite Earths” was the beginning of the end for the Arrowverse, and I don’t disagree. (Which gives the first sentence I wrote in that blog post a whole spooky new meaning, wowzers.)

And I genuinely don’t know if that was an inevitability—if it was always going to lose steam after the uber-ambitious “Crisis”—or if it was a victim of the pandemic media world. (Probably a bit of both.) After all, the powers that be behind “Crisis” were clearly treating it as a just-the-beginning, Avengers 1–style event. We all remember that perhaps brazenly optimistic final scene of “Crisis,” with the Justice League Main Heroes from a Plethora of Shows cheesily beaming at one another around their Exclusive Hero Table (and that was before the peppy Wonder Twins tease), a scene that feels equal parts haunting and depressing now. Hindsight is 20/20. And so was the year that “Crisis” finished at the beginning of. What would the Arrowverse look like if not for that particular bad bit of timing? Would it still be going strong, or would it look similar to what we’re seeing now? We’ll never know…

Meanwhile, there’s Marvel. Cue up “One Last Time” from Hamilton, it’s time to compare the Arrowverse to the MCU.

While the pandemic seemed to seal the fate of the Arrowverse, it coincided with the MCU, meanwhile, launching Phase 4 with access to a whole new medium of
content. Phase 4 has been weird, different, experimental, emotionally relevant…(and, it’s worth noting, delightfully, hilariously diegetically musical like a certain Arrowverse show I know).* (Aaaand there are the tears. The comment on that “I Surrender” video. We got there.)

And it has been hit-and-miss in that different things have worked for different fans. I (and many others) thought WandaVision was a triumph, but I actively didn’t like Loki (though I do think it gave us a fantastic new character and performance in Sylvie); but I know plenty of others think Loki is the best show of all time. Also, Spider-Man: No Way Home happened. While the Arrowverse introduced the multiverse fairly quickly (and then proceeded to base that entire season of The Flash around it), the MCU made us wait a long, long time for it—but when they did it, THEY. DID. IT.

Anyway, the MCU is diversifying and showing no signs of slowing down, in stark contrast to the past few years of the Arrowverse, is where I’m going. And now with Legends, its misfit crossover-follow-up-that-no-one-asked-for show turned formula-breaking, character-rotating, fan-amassing bright spot in the weird, less-than-coherent, crossover-less COVID-landscape Arrovwerse, gone…well…my future as a DC fan doesn’t look too long for this world.

I know it’s very much not comparing apples to apples, of course. Marvel Studios is a film studio making the highest-grossing movies ever (and it’s literal Disney), and could not have been given free rein to create in-universe streaming content at a more opportune time. The Arrowverse, meanwhile, was on a notoriously budget-strapped television network.

Although of course, I suppose that just makes what Legends accomplished that much more impressive. And hats off to the teams and the many people behind the show: everyone that took wacky, risky liberties; broke up that tried-and-true Arrowverse formula that got stale on the other shows; made fun of itself and subverted historical figures, pop culture, and the superhero genre alike; and, I can assuredly say, messed me up for the better.

*Yes, I know diegetic music was Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)’s whole gimmick, but Phase 4 has graced us with original MCU music. (And the GOTG themselves weren’t performing that music.)
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**The very first line of this blog’s “About” page, “It’s a bird…it’s a plane…it’s…another superhero show,” actually came from one of my classmates in that class when we helped each other brainstorm. Unfortunately the suggestions were anonymous so I don’t know their name, but it feels high time to mention that I am not responsible for that line. Thanks, whoever you are!
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Legends of Tomorrow — “Knocked Down, Knocked Up” — Image Number: LGN713b_0241r.jpg — Pictured (L-R): Lisseth Chavez as Esperanza “Spooner” Cruz, Tala Ashe as Zari Tarazi, Jes Macallan as Ava Sharpe, Caity Lotz as Sara Lance, Matt Ryan as Dr. Gwyn Davies, Shayan Sobhian as Behrad Tarazi, Olivia Swann as Astra Logue, Amy Pemberton as Gideon and Adam Tsekhman as Gary Green — Photo: Bettina Strauss/The CW — (C) 2022 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.