Can 'Legends Of Tomorrow' Get Jonah Hex Right?

Legends of Tomorrow, TV’s most convoluted and yet consistently entertaining property, returns to TV on March 31st. And it’s bringing yet another new character to the party: Jonah Hex (played by Johnathon Schaech).

While today’s trailer release for the second party of season one shows off a bunch of different timelines and character reveals, we’re still ostensibly trying to kill Vandal Savage. That’s the show’s driving story right now, but it seems tangential to showing off bizarre dystopian versions of other DC locations, and of course interfering with younger versions of prominent characters. For a show that delights in how fanfic it can become, pulling in an anti-hero cowboy like Jonah Hex is starting to feel like they’re just showing off.

Hex, a bounty hunter with a terrible scar and a very personal code of ethics, got his own film with Josh Brolin in the lead role back in 2010. It did not do well. So giving the reigns for the character over to actor Johnathon Schaech is a big finger-cross that TV can do this character right. This wouldn’t be the first time DC has pulled in a “failed” character via this kind of cross-over, since Constantine’s show got cancelled but he’s still made guest appearances across the DCTVerse.

This trailer also gives us our first look at a new character from Firefly’s Jewel Staite and some shots of a young Talia Al Ghul getting her hands dirty among the League of Assassins.

Sure, it seems like throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks, but there’s a constant influx of great characters in a gigantic cross-over event that probably is rendered meaningless in the end by timey-wimey nonsense. It’s the best comic show airing that allows you to completely switch-off your brain and just focus on pretty colors and cool explosions — and for that I am eternally thankful. That’s also the reason they keep getting so many characters right, and hopefully that’s good news for Jonah Hex.

Hey, it could be worse.