- "And that is the truth of it, mateys. Astra and this whole bloody mess is on me. And she can't be reasoned with. So we need a more permanent solution to stopping her or she could continue releasing souls, indefinitely."
"Surely, Astra can change. She's still human, right? I mean, even a master of the dark arts must believe there's still some good left in her."
"Forget it, big man. Astra's lust for power, it zapped the humanity out of her."
"Well, on the bright side, at least the Encores aren't our fault this time." - —John Constantine, Ray Palmer and Sara Lance discuss Astra Logue's scheme with the Encores[src]
Encores, as coined by Mona Wu, are damned souls who Astra Logue freed from Hell. They were resurrected a brief time after their deaths (usually a few days or a couple of weeks), prompting the Legends to take action and send them back to Hell. Among other potential nicknames for these resurrected evil souls were evil do-overs and villa-agains, suggested by Ray Palmer and Nate Heywood, respectively. side from vendettas, Encores are charged with slaughtering and damning more souls to Hell, where they become Astra's property.[1]
History
Prior to January 2020, Astra Logue freed sixteen damned souls from Hell.[2]
Every one of them made their way back to their bodies and were resurrected a short time after their deaths. As the "Encores" that they are, they're immortal and virtually impossible to kill, due to the fact that after being resurrected, their soul coins are still in hell.[3]
After using her shape-shifting to take advantage of Tiberius, Lachesis stole Astra's collection of soul coins and sent several of the Encores Astra had already released through time to 1910 to retrieve the final ring that is part of the Loom of Fate. Astra learned what Lachesis did and went to confront her after incapacitating Ava Sharpe, Gary Green, and Mick Rory. Astra also found Atropos with Lachesis, who both insist that the soul coins are becoming a distraction for Astra; she's content to rule hell, when she could rule to cosmos alongside them as a Fate. Astra pretends to take their offer so that she can get John Constantine's soul coin back from Lachesis.[4]
Lachesis dispatched six Encores (Brutus, Henry VIII, Black Caesar, Jack the Ripper, Clyde Barrow and Bonnie) to retrieve the last piece of the Loom of Fate as exchange of their freedom but they fail and are all destroyed by the Legends.[4]
During the final battle against the Legends, Lachesis summoned eight Encores; Marie Antoinette, Caligula, Joseph Stalin, Charles Manson, Vlad the Impaler, George Armstrong Custer, an unidentified caveman and another unidentified Encore to oppose the heroes. But Clotho comes to help her friends, tossing them hell weapons, which the team had previously acquired, that could be used to kill the Encores. The Legends obliterated all of them.[5]
Known Encores
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Powers and abilities
Powers
- Immortality: As Encores, they cannot die as long as a chit of their soul is bound to Hell. Their immortality knows no bounds, as they can remain conscious even after each of their body parts are separated.[3] Also, as demonstrated by Genghis Khan, they don't age.
- Regenerative healing factor: With their immortality, Encores can also quickly regenerate any of their body parts, as long as they are within direct contact of it.[3]
- Self-resurrection: As demonstrated by Jack the Ripper after he had his neck broken by John Constantine, Encores have the ability to come back to life after being killed (courtesy of their immortality).
- Superhuman durability: Grigori Rasputin and Benjamin Siegel were both shot repeatedly in the chest and head, and neither one of them died as a result.
- Retrocognition: Although it is unclear if all of the Encores had this ability, Damien Darhk in particular was able to retain his pre-Crisis memories.
- Damning Victims: Anyone killed by an Encore goes to Hell, with that person's soul coin automatically going to Astra Logue.
- Time travel: Encores have the ability to circumnavigate time and travel through it at will. They first did this to get back to their dead bodies in their respective time zones. Then they did this when Lachesis sent the Encores after the Loom of Fate, and all of them left their places in history to meet up in one area in particular.
- Pyromancy: Damien Darhk was able to manipulate hellfire when he came into contact with Genghis Kahn’s hell sword. Although it is unknown if all the Encores could do this.
- Eye transformation: Jack the Ripper was able to make his eyes glow green with Hellfire when he came back to life.
Weaknesses
- Hell weapons: Special fire from Hell that can be weaponized and fashioned into weaponry such as bullets or swords,[6] and is capable of killing both the living and the dead, including Encores, despite their usual immunity to death.[1] However, in spite of this, hell weapons can't kill Fates.[7]
- Hell compass: A special compass capable of tracking anything.
- Hell guns: Special gun capable of destroying anyone. Astra gives it to Bugsy when she resurrected him, but John Constantine took it, along with Bugsy to Hell to confront Astra. John then used it to kill Bugsy and returned to Earth; leaving the now-empty gun in Hell. Different variations of Hell guns were given to Bonnie, Clyde and Black Caesar; with the latter two wielding Hell rifles. Later, in the final confrontation against several Encores Lachesis sent after the Legends, Astra used Bonnie's Hell gun to kill Joseph Stalin.
- Hell sword: A special sword capable of destroying anyone. Astra gives it to Genghis Khan when she resurrected him, but later Charlie takes it and uses it to kill Genghis Khan. Then, Sara uses it against Damien Darhk, and Darhk uses it to kill himself a short time later. Sara retakes it soon after. In the final battle against several Encores Lachesis sent after the team, Lita tossed the sword to her father, Mick Rory; who then used it to annihilate an oncoming Encore.
- Soul tokens: Soul tokens which remain in Hell even after Encores are sent back to Earth still contain the souls of the Encores and permit to their master to draw them back into Hell if they don't fulfill their mission, as Astra later dragged Rasputin and Marie Antoinette back to Hell to torture them for their failures.[8]
Appearances
DC's Legends of Tomorrow
Season 4
Season 5
Season 7
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Trivia
- An encore refers to a repeated or additional performance of an item at the end of a concert, as called for by an audience, which is a fitting name that Mona coined, as these souls got a second lease on life.
- Damien refers to being "encored" as parole from Hell. If an Encore fails to keep their end of the deal, Astra will recall them and submit them to horrible torment.[9]
- Some Encores (such as Genghis Khan and, in an alternate timeline, Kathy Meyers) succeeded in their half of the bargain, killing at least a few victims following their resurrections.
- This is implied to work even indirectly as Marie Antoinette used her hell perfume to make people party until they literally dropped dead.
- If an Encore is taken back to Hell by Astra, their physical bodies on Earth also disappear.[8]
- Some Encores (such as Genghis Khan and, in an alternate timeline, Kathy Meyers) succeeded in their half of the bargain, killing at least a few victims following their resurrections.
- As their names were seen among the coins stolen by Astra in "Hey, World!", Mary Tudor, Lizzie Borden and John Wayne Gacy should've appeared as Encores in Season 5, but they do not appear.
- It is possible they were dealt with off-screen like a few of the anachronisms during Season 3, or some of the magical fugitives in Season 4.