DC's Legends of Tomorrow: Easter Eggs and DC Comics References In Pilot, Part One

JONAS

Is that a Jonas Quantum reference?

This is probably nothing, but Marc Guggenheim, one of the writers and executive producers on Legends of Tomorrow, is currently writing a comic book where the main character is named Jonas. That's hard not to spot when the kid names himself.

RIP HUNTER

Rip Hunter: Time Master first appeared in Showcase in 1959, and for much of his existence was a kind of Indiana Jones-style adventurer through time.

More recently he was a member of the Linear Men, and founded a group of Time Masters, both of which to some degree or another functioned like what we see the Linear Men doing on Legends of Tomorrow.

After years of relative obscurity, he became a big player during Geoff Johns's acclaimed JSA run, and then was introduced as the son of the titular hero in Booster Gold Volume 2.

Of course, for a bonus Easter egg/in-joke, Hunter is played by former Doctor Who companion Arthur Darvill.

THE WAVERIDER

The Waverider -- Rip Hunter's timeship -- is in fact named after Waverider, a time-traveling superhero and former member of the Linear Men.

What's funny is that the very by-the-book Linear Men feel more like the Time Masters of Legends of Tomorrow than most comics versions of the Time Masters. And in that particular take on the team -- largely authored by Waverider Dan Jurgens during his Superman run and in Zero Hour: A Crisis in Time -- it was Rip Hunter who was the joyless steward of the status quo and Waverider who always wanted to bend the rules of time travel to benefit humanity.

STAR WARS

Darth Vader and Boba Fett both get name-dropped here as looking like Chronos.

I can kinda see the resemblance. Hell, I even called Savage's armored soldiers from 2166 "Stormtroopers" in my recap.

THE TIME LAB

In the first couple of episodes, there won't be a lot of time spent in Rip Hunter's study/time lab, which is where he keeps his collection of oddities and trophies from throughout the ages. When I was on board The Waverider a few months ago, they whisked us through that room pretty quickly, which was a shame because the DC nerd in me wanted to move in and spend the night, so I could take a good, long look at all the Easter eggs planted around the room.

And now, DC has posted a photo to Instagram that gives fans a look at some of what I saw.

As we had previously noted, that helmet on the table -- seen in the DC's Legends of Tomorrow trailer high up on a shelf in the background -- appears to belong to Ma Hunkel, the Golden Age Red Tornado. That one's particularly interesting since we've already seen one Red Tornado on TV this season -- on Supergirl.

Speaking of people we've already seen on TV, it seems as though Rip Hunter is blowing on a more traditional version of the Pied Piper's flute in this shot -- not the techno-version seen during last year's appearances by the character on The Flash.

Sgt. Rock's helmet was already spotted in a promotional photo with Rip Hunter, so that's a check -- and what's that other helmet? It's not totally clear but many fans are guessing it belongs to the New God Orion. Given that it does bear a passing resemblance to one of the animated looks he's had in recent years, and the way its wearer (is that Brandon Routh?) is standing, as though he were holding Orion's Astro Harness, it seems like a good guess. Another possibility could be that it belongs to a Rocket Red, but that seems less likely since there's no red on the helmet. A third option would be S.T.R.I.P.E., the partner Stargirl.

During my set visit, I asked one of the designers whether the candle on the table was the Candle of Neron, but he told me that he designed only the Waverider itself, not the props, and had no idea. It doesn't particularly look like the one in the comics, but I like to think it could be.

A number of fans also point to what looks like a lantern on one of the shelves behind our heroes and say it's a good candidate to be Alan Scott's, but unless something major has changed since I visited the set in October, that's not the case.

I looked closely at the stuff around the room -- and while I was sworn to secrecy, I feel like I can say at this point that along with these, the other things that really stuck out were a silver scarab (possibly a nod to the many scarabs that played a role in Booster Gold Volume 2 and Time Masters: Vasnishing Point, both of which featured Rip Hunter?) and a wanted poster for Jonah Hex, who has since been confirmed to appear in an episode of the series.

DR. ALDUS BOARDMAN

Peter Francis James plays the role of Dr. Aldus Boardman on DC's Legends of Tomorrow. The character, unique to the TV show, first appeared during the Arrow/The Flash crossover.

Warner Bros. Television describes Boardman as a Classics professor at St. Roch University, who has devoted his life to researching the story of Chayara (Hawkgirl) and Prince Khufu (Hawkman) and their link to Vandal Savage. Professor Boardman is our team's only hope of finding Vandal and destroying him, so they can return home. But when the Legends learn a secret about Boardman, they insist on making him a part of their journey, only to learn the kind of sacrifice it will take to save the world.

This isn't James's first foray into comic book adaptations; he previously appeared in the 2010 adaptation of Vertigo's The Losers. He also portrayed two different judges in recurring stints on two different Law & Order series, and had runs on Oz and Guiding Light.

ST. ROCH

St. Roch is a city that was for a time the home of Hawkman and Hawkgirl.

Although St. Roch was first shown in Hawkman #1 in May 2002, it was first mentioned in The Flash Secret Files and Origins #3 (November 2001), which was presumably under the direction of Geoff Johns, a longtime writer on both The Flash and Hawkman.

CHRONOS

On tonight's series premiere of DC's Legends of Tomorrow, The CW introduced Chronos.

In the case of Legends, Chronos is a bounty hunter working for the Time Masters, who has been sent to stop Rip Hunter and the Legends of Tomorrow from fulfilling their mission of stopping Vandal Savage's rise to power.

In the comics, of course, Chronos has a significantly more complex backstory -- one that's put him at odds with the Time Masters, Rip Hunter, and The Atom.

In the comics, Chronos started as David Clinton, a villain created exclusively for the Ray Palmer version of The Atom. He was essentially very much like Clock King has been on Arrow -- he planned his crimes to the second to avoid capture and complications.

The big difference between Clock King and Chronos, though, is that Chronos incorporated time-related gadgetry into his schtick, giving him the illusion of powers by way of advanced technology that allowed him to manipulate time.

After the disappearance of Ray Palmer, this version of Chronos went on to be a villain to Ryan Choi, Palmer's successor as The Atom, as well as Rip Hunter and Booster Gold (in a story that was tied to his Choi/Atom adventures, and never fully resolved as it was left on a cliffhanger).

In the post-Flashpoint timeline, David Clinton was an A.R.G.U.S. agent assigned to investigate the origins of the time-traveling hero Booster Gold. He had time-bending abilities there, too, although it's not clear whether they were real powers or technology. He has, at this point, largely been a benign force; he was a government agent captured by villains and saved by heroes.

There is, however, another Chronos who's worth mentioning here.

Walker Gabriel was a corporate thief with a special set of skills that made him an ally to Clinton. The Gabriel version fo Chronos had a chronal suit that allowed him mastery of time that the Clinton Chronos could hardly dream of. He was kind of an antihero for a while in the '90s, even having his own title, until Per Degaton sent a team back in time to ensure Gabriel was killed in a car accident as a child, erasing his career as Chronos from existence.

THE MISSION

This feels a lot like Booster Gold Vol. 2.

In that series, in order to stay inconspicuous, the notoriously publicity-hungry superhero was told that he needed to let the world believe he was an ineffectual buffoon so that nobody figured out he was a Time Master and tried to kill him in his crib.

THE FLASH & ARROW

Okay, so I'm going to lump most of these into one entry since most of them likely don't require any real explanation.

Here's a list of names and places that probably sounded familiar to you because of watching Arrow and The Flash:

Oliver Queen - Hey, look! It's Green Arrow!

Star City and Central City - Homes to Green Arrow and The Flash, respectively.

HIVE - Oliver's big season four foes, who discovered and captured a powerless Ray Palmer after his first time shrinking.

Gideon - A computer intelligence from the future, previously seen in the hands of Eobard Thawne.