Falk Hentschel and Ciara Renée star in “DC’s Legends of Tomorrow”

Hang on -- has CW bought out DC Comics? It certainly seems as though the two are joined at the hip. It started with “Smallville” back in 2006, when CW was still known as The WB, but more recently, the network has found great success with “Arrow,” its spinoff “The Flash” and even DC Comics' Vertigo imprint “iZombie.”

With the dawning of 2016 comes yet another CW series spawned from the DC Comics Universe. Last month, an action-packed, two-night crossover event of “Arrow” and “The Flash" aired -- an event that also introduced characters from the network's newest DC collaboration, “Legends of Tomorrow,” which premieres Thursday, Jan. 21, on CW.

It’s a definite boon for a brand new series to have a popular, existing show to launch from, as opposed to going in cold. The exciting new characters of “Legends of Tomorrow” were introduced in last month's "Arrow" and "The Flash" crossover. Predictably, the event earned both existing shows a ratings spike, a fact that also bodes well for the new series.

While the “Legends” crew exists in the same world as Green Arrow and The Flash, the series has a distinct feel to it. Its predecessors focus primarily on their respective title characters and the cities in which they live, while “Legends” features a large ensemble cast of time-traveling superheroes who zip back and forth, not just across the world, but between time periods as well. It’s this time-traveling aspect that really sets “Legends” apart, and showrunner Phil Klemmer discussed it at New York Comic Con back in the fall:

“We’ll see the ‘50s, we’ll see the Cold War, we’ll see fascism and terrorism,” he said, jokingly adding, “We’ll see dinosaurs, I don’t know!”

The team element has drawn frequent comparisons to “The Dirty Dozen” (1967) and “Ocean’s 11” (1960, 2001), with a motley assortment of heroes and villains coming together to handle a job that can only be undertaken by this elite group. In this case, the job at hand is to take down an immortal villain known as Vandal Savage (Casper Crump, “Tvillingerne & Julemanden”) who, in the future, has gained world domination through the manipulation of leaders throughout history.

Those versed in the comics will know that the character is a real baddie. (To be fair, how can you not be with a name like Vandal Savage?) Savage first appeared in the Green Lantern comics, and has been inflicting violence and crime upon the world since time immemorial.

Rounding up the team is roguish time traveler Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill, “Doctor Who”), who is bent on preventing the terrible future he’s witnessed from coming to pass. This means capturing Savage before he grows into the monster he becomes, which can only be done by altering the past.

The cast of “DC’s Legends of Tomorrow”

The team Hunter pulls together is made up of the good, the bad and the -- well, no one's ugly, but it’s a real mishmash of characters, some of whom we’ve seen already in “Arrow” and “The Flash,” and some of whom make their debut in “Legends.” “Arrow” introduced The Atom (Brandon Routh, “Superman Returns,” 2006) and White Canary (Caity Lotz, “The Pact,” 2012), while “The Flash” gave us a taste of Firestorm (Victor Garber, “Titanic,” 1997/Franz Drameh, “Edge of Tomorrow,” 2014), Hawkgirl (Ciara Renée in her first major role) and partners-in-crime Heat Wave (Dominic Purcell, “Prison Break”) and Captain Cold (Wentworth Miller, “Prison Break”). Along with Hunter, Hawkgirl’s fellow reincarnating squeeze, Hawkman (Falk Hentschel, “Knight and Day,” 2010), is new to the scene, and made his debut in the crossover episodes.

Obviously such a large and disparate group provides a lot to work with, and part of the fun is in the dynamic of both heroes and villains having to put their differences aside and try to work together.

The biggest challenge, though, is jaunting through time, which comes with its own unique set of dangers. Exceptional though these men and women may be, they’re not only tasked with defeating someone who can’t be killed, but to do so without doing anything that will negatively affect the rest of history or upset the existing timeline.

It’s a lot to keep track of, but as far as executive producer Andrew Kreisberg is concerned, the weirder the better when it comes to “Legends.”

“On ‘Arrow’ and ‘Flash,’ we’ll come up with an idea and then we’ll say, ‘oh, that’s too crazy,’” he said at a Comic Con panel. “‘Legends of Tomorrow,’ all it is, is the crazy ideas.’” This should help separate “Legends” from its predecessors -- something that was important to showrunners, who wanted to create a series that, despite existing in the same universe, is a radically different show.

Different or not, fans of "Arrow" and "The Flash" are likely to be drawn to "Legends," but you certainly don't have to be an avid follower of either of those shows to appreciate the new one. Check out "Legends of Tomorrow" when it premieres Thursday, Jan. 21, on CW.