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General Comments on Watchtower:

Despite the reference to a hero with cool gadgets, setting the series in Gotham City was a genius idea as the Smallville version of the city and the Bat family of characters was essentially left untouched by Smallville during its ten-year run.

Despite this untapped fountain of DC history to reinterpret and revisit, I do applaud the series writers for doing their best to keep the stories within continuity.

While arguably, anything you write will be alternate universe to a certain extent, I admire your willingness to remain to keep unchanged the certain facts that we do know concerning the characters futures. It is something I try to strive for whenever I try my hand at fanfiction, as the most fun and challenge I have is filling in the gaps.

Review of Legend:

While I am already reading through season 2 (which brought me in as a viewer), I have started going back to read the first season. Any future reviews that I may do will be self-contained, although I figure as a latecomer, I will not be spoiling most viewers.

Chloe and Perry

In inclusion of Perry White into the new series provides a clear connection to the Superman mythos without having any of the other Superman characters brought into the series.

I enjoy seeing that both a strong professional and personal relationship has developed between Perry and Chloe since Chloe started working with the Gotham Daily.

Chloe has always had great respect for Perry White and the fact that he plays a role in her further development as a journalist, a dream that she only recently took up again makes perfect sense. It also gives her a reason to take her this position seriously, even as she returns to her role as Watchtower, which in the past has consumed Chloe's time and energy.

While journalism is a fast-paced profession, it also gives her an outlet to express herself and allows Chloe to have a life outside the superhero business, although both lives will continue to influence and inform the other as you made clear with the introduction of the Huntress.

As to Perry specifically, his role as Editor of the Gotham Daily is a logical stepping stone as he continues moving towards his own destiny. It makes sense that he would need experience in such a position despite having regained some if not all of his previous reputation after his personal fall from grace.

Given his past, it would not make sense to have him automatically become Editor of the Daily Planet in the Smallville universe, even though the Watchtower takes place after Clark becomes Superman.

Chloe and Bruce

While a fan of the series cannot help but be informed by our own knowledge of Bruce Wayne, I found myself viewing his introduction through Chloe's eyes. I think most people would have reacted badly to Bruce's confrontation, concerning Watchtower. Although I did assume that Bruce was asking Chloe for help, despite his terrible approach.

While I have become a fan of the Oliver / Chloe pairing, there definitely exists the potential for a close relationship between Bruce and Chloe, even if it is only a friendship.

Oliver and Chloe

As it appears that Oliver and Chloe's romantic relationship is currently in flux, it appears that it had more to do with Chloe's need to get away as opposed to falling out of love with each other, or Oliver returning to his womanizing ways from previous seasons of Smallville and the comic lore.

Regardless of the series being a spinoff of Smallville, I like the fact that you are taking the time to reestablish the relationship between Oliver and Chloe by keeping their interaction in present day Gotham focused on establishing Watchtower and beginning a crime-fighting campaign in the city.

If anything, you are staying true to the beginnings of the friendship between the characters where the mission comes first.

Bruce / No Batman

I am a bit disappointed in the fact that Bruce is not Batman yet, but I did enjoy the fact that he already is a skilled detective, as he was able to find out about Chloe's double life. This leads me to wonder what role both Chloe and Oliver will play in the creation of Batman, as we are already in the first episode and Bruce is already aiding the heroes in their exploits.

I found the comment by Alfred about Bruce joining the fight hilarious.

At the same time, Bruce's desire for revenge and his conception of justice and vengeance as the same harkens back to Oliver's struggle after discovering Lionel Luthor's role in the deaths of the Queens and Oliver taking the life of Lex Luthor.

Both characters have dealt with these issues, yet Oliver has hindsight, having seen the light at the end of the tunnel.

By contrast, Bruce is just now realizing the costs of crossing that line, a line that Bruce Wayne / Batman has never crossed, but twice (vampires and Darkseid) in the comic books and never for the sake
of vengeance or in coldblood.

Given the recent Green Arrow storyline, the usual dynamic of the reckless GA and the levelheaded Dark Knight is flipped on its head.

Having a prior friendship with Oliver further juxtaposes the different paths in their roles of hero Bruce and Oliver take despite their shared loss.

In Smallville, Oliver became Green Arrow in order to do good outside the system and as a way to become someone his parents would be proud of.

At least in the comics, Bruce became Batman in order to prevent a tragedy similar to the loss of his parents. However, while his parents would be proud of him, he unlike Oliver will never be able to let guy of the need to avenge his parents and as such, will remain in the darkness to a certain extent.

However, this version of Bruce Wayne may be able to achieve a life outside the Batman as he demonstrated by his willingness to ask Chloe for help. Asking for help is not something that Bruce Wayne / Batman would normally do so easily.

The Huntress

As Chloe has always served the role of mentor, guiding heroes old and new, I like this big sister / little sister relationship that will likely develop with Chloe and Helena. Oliver also is no stranger to mentoring heroes, given his founding of the League in the Smallville Universe.

Again we have a hero created by the tragedy that is Gotham City, yet has completely shut herself out of the real world by fighting crime as a vigilante.

While Bruce has Alfred to keep him grounded, Helena had no one, so it makes sense that it takes almost dying and needing to be rescued by GA and Chloe to knock some sense into her.

Given Chloe serving a similar role to Oracle, the inclusion of Huntress on the team does give some illusions to Birds of Prey and look forward to seeing if Canary or any other members of this group appear in the series.

Emil Hamilton

While we have seen glimpses of the sadness and pain he feels from the loss of his wife, I was completely shocked that Emil turned evil, although not surprised as my knowledge of the character is based on the Superman Animated Series of the 90s and Justice League.

It is therefore part of the character's path to fall from grace and seek to create metahumans for the purpose of shaping the world.

I am curious to see what caused the change in Emil in future episodes as it is a complete 180 from where we left the character in Smallville.

I also look forward to seeing Oliver and Chloe interact with the main villain of the season as both had previously strong friendships with him. Oliver, who brought him into this world, and Chloe, who relied on him early on in reestablishing Watchtower and the Justice League after Jimmy's death.

I was also surprised that you killed Black Mask so soon, and wonder if there is a revolving door in the comics for the monicker or was this a choice to set up Emil as someone much more dangerous.

Issues

My only issue was how Chloe could fake her death when she is writing for the Gotham Daily under her own name. To me, it doesn't make sense that she would keep working under her real name, and expect others, including Clark and Lois not to discover that she is alive.

This is particularly troublesome given the fact that Perry White is her boss, and likely has some contact with Lois Lane and Martha Kent given his portrayal on Smallville.

Overall I give this episode a 9/10.