20 Greatest Arrowverse Villains
4. The Legion Of Doom
In the same broadcast year that he was playing out his final episodes on Arrow, Barrowman was also hamming it up in glorious fashion as one of the major villains on Legends Of Tomorrow’s second season.
How could Merlyn appear in both shows at the same time? Legends Of Tomorrow is about time travel: this version of Merlyn was shanghaied from Star City in 2016, shortly after that time period’s Damian Darhk was killed by the Green Arrow. His partners in crime? None other than Darhk himself… at least, the 1987 version of the character, alongside a version of Eobard Thawne, the Reverse Flash (played by Matt Letscher).
And how does Thawne (who also died, in The Flash’s season one finale) come back? It’s complicated… far too complicated to bother going into. Let’s just say ‘timey-wimey’ and leave it at that: the Arrowverse’s many, many time travel storylines make very little sense.
Whoever came up with the idea of teaming Barrowman, McDonough and Letscher, to say nothing of the characters they play, was a freaking genius. Fusing the best parts of each of the three fantastic villains into one beautifully snarky unit, the Legion Of Doom effortlessly stole every scene they were in, and elevated the second-string show they were in to something eminently watchable just by showing up.