"Oh you've GOT to be kidding me."
Hello everyone!
As promised back on Tuesday, here's my contribution to all the different reviews rolling around online about this week's MASSIVE, four-episode cross-over event that the CW gave to the fans with a little help from DC.
Then again, the mothership, aka Arrow, has probably been aiming for this kind of thing since its premiere six years ago.
Boy, was it action-packed!
Also at times fluffy, adorable, hilarious, OMG-inspiring, and above all uncontrollably fun.
I'm sure this has been said many times before and at different spots, but when it comes to working together and bringing a show-stopper to their audience, the cast and crew of each of the four shows (Arrow, Flash, Legends of Tomorrow and Supergirl) really bring their A-game to make sure no nook and cranny is left unexplored.
Of course only Americans would come up with the idea of Nazis for enemies #1, but oh well.
Crisis on Earth-X, here we go!
Because this show season sees a bit of a different airing schedule than last year, the powers-that-be had to pull a little stunt to ensure the cross-over ran smoothly.
If you recall, last year's schedule went like this: Supergirl dominated Mondays, then it was Flash on Tuesdays, Arrow on Wednedays, and finally Legends on Thursdays, giving the CW a full four-night sweep without interruptions. But this year came with a bit of a shake-up where Legends now air right after Flash and Arrow got bumped from its slot to Thursday, and so that left the CW with a gap.
So for this special, one-week limited time offer only, Arrow aired directly after Supergirl, so the cross-over could follow like this: Supergirl-Arrow-Flash-Legends. Not that I'm complaining. Early chance of seeing Stephen Amell & Co at work? Where do I sign up for more of this?
Anyway, we start off the cross-over in what has got to be my favourite scene mash-up ever: Barry is busy squaring off with King Shark when Iris announces they have a big problem.
"Yeah," says her erst-while beau, "I'm fighting it!"
But no, Barry, it's not meta-related! Not everyone RSVP-ed to the wedding yet!
Cue screeching halt where King Shark and Barry both wonder: who are the douchebags who haven't RSVP-ed?!?
Cut to Star City, where the one and only original Green Arrow is busy handling a bunch of 'ordinary' ninjas (I love how Oliver grouches about what Felicity nicknames 'ordinary') while Overwatch is worrying because she doesn't know if they're going to the wedding. Geting kicked around and thoroughly pissed because these ninjas are ruining his broody-ness, Oliver tells his girlfriend to RSVP them already.
Meanwhile, in Robin Hood's day somewhere in the 12th century, Sara and the Legends realize they've committed a serious faux-pas: they haven't RSVP-ed yet, either!
"All right team, let's go! We got a wedding to prepare for!" says Martin Stein, sending everyone scurrying to Central City where we're treated to a lovely scene of our heroes converging via Waverider, an interdimensional portal for Kara and Alex Danvers, and motorcycle for one Mayor of Star City.
We then quickly move through all the wedding stuff (namely the girls all getting glammed up, Barry and the audience collectively cursing his idea of putting Oliver Queen in a tux, and everyone and their mother wanting to know when Ollie and Felicity will be tying the knot) and one very loud NO by Felicity Smoak which crushes everyone's hearts around the globe (can I take her place? Tell me when and where). At least Alex and Sara got some action in, though.
Of course this wedding wouldn't be a superhero one if it wasn't for some sort of interruption (depite Kara's amazing singing skillz). Because Jimmy Olson aka Guardian bit it on a really weird red-brown Earth with swastikas, the invasion of Nazi soldiers isn't exactly a surprise, but it IS a nasty shock.
They picked the wrong time and place, however, because there's way too many superheroes (and legends) in one place for them to win, although Oliver, Barry and Kara all find themselves pretty evenly matched.
The wedding is postponed indefinitely while we start solving this puzzle-piece - which of course gets semi-solved when the masks come off.
The speedster? Eobard Thawne who really doesn't want to stay dead. The Supergirl-matchup? Kara's evil doppleganger, Overgirl. And the Dark Arrow? Oliver Queen's evil twin who looks incredibly good in black but that swastika isn't buying him any brownie points.
What's worse?
On Earth-X, Oliver and Kara are, apparently, married. Also, she's The General as far as sobriquets go, so if she's the army leader, Thawne is the crazy scientist every general needs, then what's Darth Oliver then?
The one and only, The Führer.
I swear, only American people have this sort of sense of humour.
But moving on.
The X-ers are here to invade Earth-1 because ... well, they want to do the domination thing again since it worked so well on Earth-X, a dismal place no one wants to visit and that isn't usually mentioned as the 53rd Earth in the Multiverse for obvious reasons.
Also, they need Supergirl because Overgirl is dying from too much radiation and sun exposure.
Neat, right?
Of course this means that Oliver, Barry, Sara, both parts of Firestorm, Rory and Alex get transported to Earth-X to keep them out of the way and out of trouble. Meanwhile, Supergirl is prepped for surgery while Team Arrow and Team Flash get themselves caught, with only Felicity and Iris running arund the ventilation system.
The girls try their very best but it's just not enough to handle Metallo and other X-ers, so instead of having someone die for her (as Overgirl is only too happy to consider), Supergirl says she'll let them take her heart.
Meawhile, on Earth-X, there's a prison break happening, and where there's one you know there's Wentworth Miller aka Captain Cold, or Citizen Cold, or Leo, or whatever. He and a curious person named The Ray, an obvious meta-human from Earth-1 who's in a relationship with Leo, save our heroes and take them to Winn, or, the general of the resistance who wants to blow the portal machine to atom-sized particles.
Oliver & Co need to get back home first, though, so Oliver poses as his Darth side to fool Darth Quentin, not that it works for long. Still they manage to actually pass through and get back to their own Earth just on time.
Especially since reinforcements arrived: Ray Palmer aka the Atom manages to stop Thawne from cutting Supergirl open, and the Waverider is equally here to help, especially since the X-ers have their own time-travelling ship. Darth Oliver promises to leave Earth-1 if our heroes give up Supergirl, but unfortunately, our team lost Martin Stein, who sacrificed himself to get them back home and for his counterpart Jax to live.
Like Coulson's "death" on Marvel's Avengers, Stein's passing draws the heroes tighter together and Oliver tells his evil twin that he doesn't abandon his friends, so it's a duel to the death.
As the marathon four-episode cross-over is coming to a close, we see Overgirl going Supernova because of her radiation poisoning, Nate catching Supergirl as she plummets from the sky (also very Avengers-esque, and everyone likes a good Man of Steel joke), Oliver killing Darth Oliver and Barry letting Thawne scurry off to come bother him another day.
After a tearful goodbye to Stein (where I pretend I have allergies even though I don't), Barry whisks one John Diggle up from Star City to marry him and Iris.
And in a rather interesting twist, Felicity asks John to marry her and Oliver, too.
John Diggle and everyone else exclaim HALLELUJAH.
And so, children, does Earth get saved (yet again) by our resident heroes.
Agent Watson from Arrow should take note of this. How would the police or the FBI have dealth with these X-ers? It would have meant the end of the world as we know it, and yet STILL she's annoying the hell out of me. I really wish Oliver would be savvy enough to use his doppleganger's body to convince her about the Green Arrow thing, but who knows. Probably not happening.
In any event, I thoroughly enjoyed myself this year, maybe even more than in 2016. I hope this cross-over trend continues, because, really, the amount of jokes thrown around by all our heroes was spectacular.
Also, the internet collectively exploding over the Darth Oliver/Kara thing was also neat, and, hello, a Tommy Merlyn cameo?
Until next time, friends!
xx
*images and video not mine
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