DC’s Legends of Tomorrow continues their sojourn in the 1970’s with this week’s “Blood Ties.” The feud between Rip and Vandal Savage goes back further than we realized. They had a run in in 1700 BC Egypt. It didn’t go that well, in part because Rip Hunter is a good man, and Savage is, well, Savage.
Things get really weird when Flash finally visits Earth 2 in the appropriately named “Welcome to Earth 2.” They do a great job with turning things in unexpected directions with the dopplegangers of people we’ve seen a lot to some who haven’t been around in a while. I suspect the writers and casting directors had a lot of fun with this one. I know I did.
This week’s Arrow is called “Unchained” but it very easily could have been titled “Reunion.” Several characters ranging from recurring to series regulars in the past all come back this week, along with a major new villain. They manage to cram a lot into one episode, and are building to something major happening soon.
It really says a lot about a genre show when the characterization and dialogue manages to consistently overwhelm the sci fi/fantasy aspects of it. The writing on iZombie has been pretty damn entertaining, managing to swing from funny to high action to borderline tragic with apparent ease. Add in some great dialogue and the show keeps impressing me.
Central City continues to get new metahuman criminals in “Fast Lane.” There are also several personal developments for the STAR Labs crew. They are making an interesting world that mostly reflects the rebooted “DCNU” comic book universe, but has some elements unique to the tv show as well.
Maxwell Lord continues to play supervillain for never specified reasons in “Bizarro.” Any fan of Superman, and most comic fans in general, know what’s coming from that title. Max has created his own faux-Supergirl, mentally conditioned her to hate the real Supergirl, and turned her loose.
Team Arrow largely gets distracted from their war with Damian Darhk in “A.W.O.L” Lyla and Diggle go out for a well-deserved night on the town, with some actual normal concerns like getting back in time for the sitter. Of course, that can’t last, and they get interrupted by the sudden appearance of Alan Chang, ARGUS agent. Chang then gets attacked and carried off by unknown assailants who are not Darhk’s Ghosts for once.
In the second part of the pilot, Legends of Tomorrow finishes setting up the status quo for the show. They are still in 1975, now trying to get a better fix on where Vandal Savage is, after getting the information from Professor Boardman. They are already developing some quirks- apparently flying on the Waverider, whether through time or just normal space, doesn’t agree with Mick Rory, Heat Wave.
As if Barry doesn’t have enough problems to deal with, a foe he thought was gone forever pops up in “The Reverse-Flash Returns.” Flash speeds through the city, to a voice-over about reasons to run, especially ironic from a speedster. He checks in with Cisco, who tells him he’s handled everything in Central City already. Barry ignores Cisco’s suggestion to take a break. Wells and Cisco, meanwhile, get into a humorous bickering match over coffee.
They are having fun with bits of the Superman mythos on Supergirl. This week’s title, Strange Visitor From Another Planet, is one of the descriptions of Superman from the radio and tv show days. It’s nice to see the nods to the decades-long history of the various characters.
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