Supergirl picks up exactly where it left off last time. The mysterious Pod Person has woken up, and apparently isn’t a morning person. He chokes out Kara, runs amok through the DEO, fights various guards, and manages to escape. He seemed surprised by his powers, which is an indication that either he wasn’t planning on coming to Earth or at least didn’t know that getting here would give him powers. Everyone is fine, but no one has a clue where he went.
Legends of Tomorrow’s new voice-over intro is done by Sara, which makes sense given the events of the episode. At the end of last episode, the Legends met a version of the Justice Society of America (also the title of the episode), consisting of Commander Steel, Dr. Midnight, Hourman, Obsidian, Stargirl, and Vixen. I’ll offer my commentary on that line up in a separate section after the main review. Typical for a first meeting of heroes, they fight at first, and the Legends get their collective butts kicked. I’m not quite sure how Stargirl’s cosmic rod split Firestorm back into Stein and Jax, but that’s another issue.
Arrow’s new episode, “A Matter of Trust,” has a lot of trust issues in it. Maybe it should have been “Matters”? It does open with a pretty good idea for the new team. Green Arrow is running down a drug dealer, while the team watches via some version of a body camera. That’s a pretty clever training technique, even if most of them aren’t impressed, especially the ever-impatient Wild Dog. After dropping by for a brief chat with the recruits, Oliver heads out again to a report of a gunman with an AR-15. This proves to be a false alarm by Billy Malone, Felicity’s new boyfriend and Star City Police Detective. Malone wanted to meet the archer, among other things, to warn him about Prometheus and his declared vendetta against the hero.
The Flash has changed the intro again, which was a good switch. He doesn’t sound like he’s frantic to the point of breaking like he did in the first episode, but that’s understandable. Barry hasn’t fixed everything, but he’s at least realizing he can’t. I’m so glad Jay spoke with him about that as part of the ongoing series of “CW heroes get told to get their act together” by their nearest and dearest. This week’s episode is titled “Magenta.”
“The Last Children of Krypton” begins with the CW tradition of updating their introductory voice over, with Kara now mentioning she’s a reporter, which I still think is a bad idea. After that, Kara and Kal-El help out National City’s Fire Department when there’s a major blaze. Kara fights the flames directly while Superman does something new and different and somehow makes it rain. That’s a new power. Maybe it was a speed-vortex that sucked up the water from the hoses. Then they fly off to break up an armed robbery. That goes as smoothly as you’d expect for two normals fighting two Krpytonians. Superman even shakes his head at one of them, saying, “If the bullets don’t work, why the punching? I’ve never understood that,” echoing an in-joke among comics fans for years.
I’ve been commenting that all of the comic book based shows seem to have improved a lot this season. Well, this week Gotham joins those ranks with “Mad City: Anything For You.” There are a lot of twists and turns to the complex, scheming plot, and some good character moments as well. I think it was one of their better episodes, in my personal top few favorites of the series. Because there are so many intricate plot points, there are spoilers in this review. Be warned.
The Legends of Tomorrow are back with a new line up, new season, and the introductory voice-over by Martin Stein gives a brief rundown of the members. The season opens with the somewhat ominous title of “Out of Time,” which starts us off in a new status quo. A lot has happened since the last time we saw the team.
Arrow’s new voiceover at the top of the show mentions that he’s working as both hero and mayor. I like that they adapt the voiceover/introductions for the CW hero shows as they go. It’s a nice touch, and a nod that the shows change as time passes. Arrow is now trying to deal with “Recruits.”
Flash’s second episode is “Paradox,” as Barry continues to find differences between what he remembers and the changes and ripples he’s caused by traveling in time. They do a good job of this even with the new voice over. Instead of the heroic narration, Barry sounds like he’s not very far from a nervous breakdown, which was both entertaining and gave a feel for how bad things are for the Fastest Man Alive.
Gotham’s Mad City arc continues with “New Day Rising.” It’s more or less part two of last week’s Mad Hatter and Alice adventure. I have to admit, I’m not loving Jim Gordon as mercenary bounty hunter, but I think I see how they are going to end it and I’m thinking it might be soon. I hope so, anyway.
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