The CW's Seven Soldiers of Victory: Part 1 of "Things They're Enjoying on Earth-2 That We'll Never Get to See"

I won't over-blow the extent to which I have been emotionally drained by Avengers Endgame and the Battle of Winterfell in the last week, but there's no denying that a lot of activities--these, as well as "Take Your Kid to Work Day" and a weekend gaming outing--have eaten up much of the time I usually spend in preparing my blog. Nevertheless, I'm plagued by musings about alternate timelines--so I'll share a brief impression of one here.

In my mind's eye, it's so clear to me... (Insert swirling dissolve.)

On Earth-2 right now, following every episode of "Serenity Now" (the next-generation spin-off of 12-season-long TV juggernaut Firefly), sci-fi fans flip over from Fox to the CW to watch Legends of Tomorrow--the story of Rip Hunter and his rag-tag band of anachronauts bent on protecting history from Vandal Savage, Per Degaton, Chronos, and other time-related villains.

Wait--isn't that what people are doing on this (prime) Earth? (Minus the Firefly spin-off, of course.)

Yes and no. Because, you see, on Earth-2, the Legends of Tomorrow are made up of DC Comics's obscure but ripe-for-interpretation "Seven Soldiers of Victory."

Our Earth's Legends cast is basically a who's who of the second tier of Justice League heroes: Firestorm, The Atom, Vixen, etc. And while I have no issue with them making a splash on the small screen, I don't know that they're the best choices to be the guardians of time--especially not when DC has a group of forgotten heroes who are practically designed for the purpose.

If you're unfamiliar with the Seven Soldiers--also known as Law's Legionnaires--they were an eclectic group of mystery men from the golden age of comics, DC's second super-team following the creation of the Justice Society of America (JSA). Most prominent among their number was a pre-JLA Green Arrow and his sidekick Speedy--hence a great tie-in to CW's "Arrowverse." But listen to the rest of the roster: Vigilante (a cowboy), the Shining Knight (er, a knight--with a magic blade and winged horse), the Star-Spangled Kid and his sidekick Stripesy (more on them in a moment), and the Crimson Avenger (a turn-of-the-century masked hero with a heavy film noir vibe). They already seem to be a hodge podge group of time-tossed characters to start. In more modern depictions, Star-Spangled Kid is swapped for star-powered Star Girl and Paul Dugan (Stripesy) wears an armored mech suit to become S.T.R.I.P.E. And that could probably all work "as is." Personally, I'd turn Stripe into a pirate. Something about that just rings true to the ear--he was already a sailor, I think--and it would check another box in terms of historical adventure.

What I love about the idea of using these characters is that they are, in fact, so obscure. Because that's where the network could exercise so much creative license. There would be no kid gloves--you could tell any type of story you wanted, with whatever stakes or twists you wanted, without having to worry about raising the ire of an angry fan-base. Instead, you could use the series to craft a fan-base from scratch with avant-garde storytelling and compelling, original characters within the wrapper of an existing comics franchise.

Admittedly, the original team of Seven Soldiers is pretty dated--all male, not really at all diverse. But their obscurity would give you plenty of leeway to gender-swap or recast various roles. Could Greg Saunders, The Vigilante, be portrayed as a black cavalryman dolling out justice in the West following the Civil War? Why not? And could the aforementioned pirate "Stripe" be a notorious woman with a scarlet past? Again, why not?

I realize that this is the Catch-22 where a lot of entertainment derived from comics is concerned. Where there is demand for certain characters, that demand has expectations attached to it. So more obscure characters give you more runway, but it doesn't matter if people aren't interested enough to tune in long enough to develop attachment to them.

Several of these characters appear as part of the massive JLA roster in Bruce Timm's Justice League Unlimited series, and even assemble briefly in an homage episode called "Patriot Act" where they have to fight the hulking mutated General Eiling. They don't get a lot of dialogue or characterization--these were only half-hour episodes in a series with a large ensemble cast, after all--but Timm clearly saw the potential in their interaction, such as when Sir Justin (Shining Knight) and Vigilante (voiced by Nathan Fillion) debate whether the world is in moral decline as compared to the mores of their respective times.

What's especially unfortunate is that it's essentially an either-or proposition. The existence of The Legends of Tomorrow--the version we've gotten--basically precludes us ever getting The Seven Soldiers of Victory in the DCEU. But whereas I can't envision these characters getting a different treatment--as the time travel dynamic is just oh-so-appropriate for this group--I don't know that the likes of Firestorm, Vixen and others from the current Legends roster would be blocked from either the big or small screen by their exclusion from this concept. So on Earth-2, they're probably watching an expanded assortment of CW shows inclusive of all of these characters. (The jerks.) But then they also have carnivorous koalas with razor-sharp fangs--so you take the good with the bad.

Next time: More entertainment from across the multiverse that you didn't know you were missing.