DC's Legends of Tomorrow: Things You Might Have Missed In "Left Behind"

LEFT BEHIND

The first thing that comes to mind for many viewers is likely the post-apocalyptic Christian novel and film series, of which four movies have been made.

What's more applicable here, though, is that "Left Behind" is the title of not only this episode, but of a Season Three episode of Arrow which dealt with the apparent death of Oliver Queen at the hands of Ra's al Ghul.

Legends of Tomorrow showrunner Marc Guggenheim co-wrote the episode, which guest-starred Brandon Routh as Ray Palmer.

RA'S AL GHUL

Ra's al Ghul, the head of the League of Assassins, was the Season Three big bad on Arrow.

Played there (as here) by Matt Nable, he's a ruthless and immortal killer who is, nevertheless, not without his own unique moral code.

In Arrow, we've see a good deal of his daughter Nyssa, who was apparently not yet born in this episode. His other daughter, Talia, is far more well-known.

TALIA

Talia Head is the older and more favored daughter of Ra's al Ghul.

In the comics, Ra's has repeatedly tried to pair her up with Batman to create a perfect offspring who might one day inherit the League of Assassins. Eventually, this led to the birth of Damian Wayne -- albeit without Ra's knowing it.

Talia's most recent live-action appearance was in The Dark Knight Rises, where she was played by Marion Cotillard.

Prior to now, Talia's existence had not been formally established onscreen in the universe of Arrow.

AND WHO, DISGUISED AS...

That's a very Clark Kent-looking outfit Ray Palmer finds himself wearing.

Specifically, it resembles Christopher Reeve's take on the mild-mannered reporter -- which is notable because Routh played Clark Kent/Superman in Superman Returns, a 2005 movie designed as a sequel to Reeve's Superman: The Movie and Superman II.

The Game of Life

While stuck in the 1958, Sara, Ray, and Kendra play the game of Life, which was created in 1860.

So...that makes sense, right?

Except that apparently, the modern version wasn't invented until 1960, which means that when they were playing it in 1958 before Sara left for Nanda Parbat, it must have been a prop they brought with them off the Waverider when Ray and Kendra were setting up their house.

HUB CITY

Hub City, where the team found itself in 1958 and Ray ended up setting up a life with Kendra, is in the comics the home of The Question and other DC superheroes imported from Charlton Comics.

Hub City has been referenced numerous times on Arrow and The Flash before actually being seen on Legends of Tomorrow.

NANDA PARBAT

Nanda Parbat, the home to the League of Assassins, has been the training ground for a number of DC Comics heroes and villains over the years, including Batman, Black Canary, The Question, Lady Shiva, and more.

VANISHING POINT

Vanishing Point is, in the comics, the home to Rip Hunter's Time Masters and, before them, the Linear Men.

As referenced in the episode, time doesn't pass the same way there. During Zero Hour: A Crisis In Time, a number of heroes were able to escape to Vanishing Point to stage a final stand, even as the timestream itself was destroyed, undoing reality.

As seen in the image above, Rip Hunter was raised at Vanishing Point in the comics, by his father Booster Gold.

SHADOW RECORD

The "Shadow Record" is the document the team uses to find the membership of the League of Assassins.

That's interesting in part because Arrow (and thus Legends of Tomorrow) has always shown the influence of Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, where the League of Assassins was branded as the League of Shadows.

KILL HER MORE THAN ONCE

That threat Mick makes to Snart -- that he's going to start in the far future and travel back in time over and over again forcing Snart to watch him murder Snart's sister each day -- is something similar to what happened in The Kingdom, Mark Waid's follow-up to Kingdom Come, in which the villain Gog did that to Superman.

HAWK OUT

It's not uncommon for fans or even characters to refer to the Incredible Hulk's state change from human to monster as "hulking out."

Here, we get "Hawk Out," a suspiciously-similar substitute, from Hawkgirl.

CAN'T BELIEVE I'M BACK HERE

Ray Palmer was among the members of Team Arrow who were imprisoned in the dungeon at Nanda Parbat last year, when Oliver Queen briefly took over the League of Assassins as part of a plot to overthrow Ra's al Ghul and save Star City.

So his comments about being "back here" weren't just about Nanda Parbat in general, but the dungeon in specific.

SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY

Sara Lance, found floating at sea around Lian Yu in 2008, later went on to become the WHite Canary...

...and set in motion the events that would save her younger self's life.

Kind of cool.