It’s kind of funny how a year ago, the annual crossover was just The Flash and Arrow, and now we have both Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow entering the fray this year. This DC TV universe is getting almost as expansive as the Marvel one. It’s bigger than the DC movie universe, that’s for sure. Hopefully I didn’t trigger anyone there.
The DC CW TV crew must’ve had a ton of pressure on them to pull this off, and thankfully it turned out just fine.
So the overarching plot here is that a race of aliens known as the Dominators have come to Earth, and their intentions with the world aren’t as peaceful as they insist. So, Barry calls up Team Arrow and the Legends and hops over to Earth-38 to grab Kara, and the gang defends the Earth from those pesky Dominators.
If we look at the story as a whole, with the three (not counting Supergirl) chapters combined, it’s a good yarn. The episodes flow into each other well (I think you could sew the three episodes together in an editing program and it would work as a two-hour film) and, as always, seeing virtually every major hero introduced in the Arrowverse interact onscreen together is incredibly satisfying, especially when you throw a, up to this point, separate character like Supergirl into the mix. She and Barry already have a pretty great dynamic, so it was fun to see how she interact with everyone else, most notably Oliver and Mick. Especially Mick.
Now, how was each individual chapter?
The Flash provided a good start. It introduced the conflict, rallied the characters, which provided a good amount of excitement. What made all the more satisfying was having the rest of the heroes learn about Barry’s Flashpoint shenanigans, and furthermore having Flashpoint play a big role in the crossover. Dig learns about once having a daughter, and the Legends are pretty pissed (even though they mess around with time on a weekly basis but shhhh). The battle of Barry, Oliver and Wally against the rest of the mind-controlled heroes was great, especially Oliver facing off against Sara, Diggle and Thea. If this episode had a weak point, it’s that the Wally arc seemed shoehorned in. Whenever it cut from the crossover parts to Wally getting a pep talk or a scolding from Joe or Iris, I got a bit annoyed. That being said, it was cool to see him get a bit of action during the fight, even if it was for roughly 20 seconds, and I like the idea of him teaming up with HR.
The Arrow chapter was simultaneously the best and “worst” episode of the three. It worked better as a celebration of the show’s 100th episode than it did as the second part of the crossover. Getting to see a whack of familiar faces form Arrow’s past, such as Laurel, Robert, Moira, Malcolm, and even Darhk, was fun. It was also a great reminder of just how far the series and, by extension, this universe has come in 100 episodes. I mean, in episode 1 it was Oliver just breaking into a corrupt banker;s high-rise, and now, in episode 100, it’s Oliver and friends escaping from a freaking alien spaceship. Meanwhile, the rest of Team Arrow, along with Barry, Cisco, and Kara, were attempting to track them down. Though seeing Flash and Supergirl team up will forever be entertaining, I just felt like that whole fetch quest subplot was there just because they had to tie the episode into the overarching story. I think spending a whole episode in Oliver and friends’ dreamworld, and then having the alien chase and Waverider rescue at the end would’ve been better, but I could be wrong. Also, Wild Dog’s “I hate metahumans” schtick was dumb. His complete 180 after just watching Flash and Supergirl knock that woman around for a few minutes was dumber.
Legends of Tomorrow’s chapter provided a good ending to the story. They even found a way to incorporate time travel into the story, with a few of the crew members, along with Cisco and Felicity, going back in time to kidnap a Dominator. And, of course, there was the big final battle against the Dominators, featuring the obligatory group shot pictured above. That…that was pretty great. Apart from the main action, we learnt a bit more about Stein’s “new” daughter, which was pretty interesting, and Cisco’s beef with Barry was resolved, albeit in a rather contrived way. The party scene at the end was another highlight. I have to say, I adore the Barry/Oliver/Kara “trinity,” and I’m looking forward to seeing the three interact in the future, especially now that the door is open (pun intended) for more frequent crossovers with Supergirl and the rest of the Arrowverse. And then the story ends, not with the Legends aboard the Waverider as one might expect an episode of Legends to end, but with Barry and Oliver grabbing a beer and talking about just how crazy the world has become. Love it.
What’ll be interesting now is what they do for next year’s crossover. I think “alien invasion” is the biggest they can go with this universe, unless they decide to introduce the main Justice League roster (besides Superman) which would probably shatter everyone’s minds. But just in case they don’t, I wouldn’t mind scaling things down a bit next year. Like, maybe instead of having a story that spans all four shows, how about having The Flash and Arrow share a story, and then having Supergirl and Legends share another? And it doesn’t have to be those exact combinations either. But that’s literally another year away, so I shouldn’t be worrying about that now. But seriously, deciding to bring the Justice League into the universe would be pretty sick.
Anyways, until next year.
Noah
“You know why I’ve never done drugs? Because I was always afraid I’d see weird stuff.”
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