Legends of Tomorrow: Things You Might Have Missed in "Destiny"

THANAGAR

Tonight's episode of DC's Legends of Tomorrow name-dropped a race of DC Comics aliens...but it wasn't in quite the same way as so many of their casual Easter eggs have been in the past.

Rather than just using a name, Legends of Tomorrow actually inserted the Thanagarians -- a war-like alien race who were repelled by Earth's forces, as assembled by Vandal Savage in the 2170s -- into the history of the series.

So...who are they?

Longtime DC Comics fans likely jumped at the mention of the Thanagarians -- who are one of the most frequently-used alien races in DC. They've also got deep ties to Hawkman and Hawkgirl.

In the comics, Thanagar is the homeworld of the hawk-like Thanagarians and known for its mineral deposit of Nth Metal. At one point, it was retconned that Hawkman and Hawkgirl were actually of Thanagarian descent -- a status quo that lasted longer than one might think becuase of the popularity of Hawkworld, a series set on Thanagar.

Thanagar's brutal queen -- deposed in the comics by Hawkman and Hawkgirl -- was Hyathis, who is currently appearing as an antagonist in Superman: Lois and Clark. Funny enough, the last time Thanagar got an other-media tie was in the Man of Steel Prequel comic, in which the race was mentioned by a member of Krypton's science council.

The Thanagarians were one of a number of races who participated in the Invasion! event in the '80s, where they tried to conquer Earth because so many cosmic-level threats seemed fixated on the planet, and it was determined by a number of other worlds to be a threat to the universe.

SMUGGLER'S HATCH

It can't be just me who had shades of Han and Chewie hiding from the Empire on board the Millennium Falcon when Snart and Sara popped up out of the panel in the floor, right?

Okay, good. Not just me.

Funny enough, before we even got this episode, Star Wars: The Force Awakens made a callback to that scene (as seen above).

TIME SPHERE

When Jax heads back to 2016, we get a look at he and Martin working on the Time Sphere that was broken in the season finale of The Flash last year.

The Time Sphere, designed by Eobard Thawne and assembled by Ronnie Raymond (the previous Firestorm) and Cisco Ramon, was intended to bring Thawne back to his home in the future, but was badly damaged and rendered unusable when The Flash returned to the present sooner than expected and attacked it.

In that episode, they referenced the inventor of the first Time Sphere as having been Rip Hunter.

In the comics, the Time Sphere (also sometimes called a Time Bubble) was the primary means of time-travel used by Rip Hunter, Time Master...as well as Booster Gold, The Legion of Super-Heroes, and other characters.

I'LL SHAVE YOUR HEAD

The threat Mick uses against Ray -- that he'll "shave your head" -- is presumably a nod to the fact that all season long, he's referred to Ray as "haircut."

NO STRINGS ON ME

Admit it, Captain Cold's delivery of that line was way cooler than Ultron's.

It's a reference to Pinocchio, but returned to the pop culture lexicon again last year, when the Avengers villain used the phrase to indicate that he had brought himself out from under the influence of Iron Man and was his "own man."

TABULA RASA

Yes, "Tabula rasa" has a broader cultural meaning outside of DC Comics. It means "blank slate," and its meaning within the context of the episode was ably explained by Ray.

That said, it's worth noting that there are two major DC Comics uses of the phrase: one is a Batman story in which he is forced to work with Bane -- and the other is an organization in the Wildstorm universe whose actual name is Tabula Rasa.