Only two twisty episodes into its freshman season, The CW’s Legends of Tomorrow has already featured several handfuls of characters that originated in the DC Comics-verse, and the show has a long line of them set to pop in as Season 1 goes on. Anyone who has seen flagship shows The Flash or Arrow knows that there is seemingly no end to cast additions, and DC took to social media over the weekend to announce several new characters that will appear on Legends of Tomorrow later this year, which included this teaser for the Golden Age version of the Red Tornado, one of the earliest female superheroes ever.
As you can tell, this isn’t the same Red Tornado that made his big bulky red presence known on Supergirl last year, but an earlier version of the character. First appearing as working mother Ma Hunkel in 1939 and as Red Tornado in 1940, the character was initially used for humor rather than super-serious crimefighting, with a cooking pot on her head and a strength that made many mistake her for a man. Ma Hunkel’s Red Tornado managed to live on in the modern times in bit parts, and Legends of Tomorrow would mark the character’s second appearance in live-action, as a version of Hunkel appeared in the extended episode Smallville: Absolute Justice.
It isn’t clear just yet when we’ll get to see Red Tornado 1.0, or how she’ll enter the story, but we’re hoping the titular super-squad gets to head to the 1940s for part of their world-saving duties. Nothing like big band music for the perfect soundtrack to whipping ass.
Speaking of characters whose introductions we’re basically clueless about, DC also put this teaser image up for fans to speculate over.
Obviously, this image refers to another classic Golden Age comic hero, Hourman. First introduced in 1940, Hourman uses super-strength, super-speed and more to take down the bad guys, but it comes with a stipulation. He gets those powers from taking the vitamin Miraclo, and he only has them for the hour in which the substance is working. Several people have taken the Hourman persona over the years, and each has his own quasi-unique relationship with the Miraclo. This will be the hero’s first live-action appearance – though he appeared on Justice League Unlimited and Batman: The Brave and the Bold – but it isn’t the first time Hourman and The CW are in the same sentence, as the network was looking to use the character for his own drama a couple of years ago, but that fell through. Maybe now, though…
Of the two further character reveals, we already knew about Johnathon Schaech’s Jonah Hex making an appearance for a Wild West episode, but the other character is new and surprising. It looks like we’ll also get to see Sandman mixing it up with Rip Hunter and the crew at some point. Not Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, sadly, but seemingly the first iteration of the character, Wesley Dodds, who came alive in 1939. Originally more of a mystery-genre character than a superhero, Sandman was dressed to the nines in a green suit, a fedora and a gas mask, which helped him stay safe when he was spraying knock-out gas at criminals. Both the character’s central persona and secret identity changed a lot over the years, but it looks like Legends of Tomorrow will go back to basics here.
With so many characters coming up both in the future and in the past, it might seem like Legends of Tomorrow will get a little too populated for its own good. But we have faith that the creative team will give each of them just the right amount of attention. Legends of Tomorrow airs Thursdays on The CW.
To see the other character teasers from DC’s Instagram page, click over to the next page.
