The fourth episode of Luke Cage, “Step Into The Arena,” jumps back and forth between the present and the major portions of his origin. The present isn’t looking so good, since last episode ended with Cottonmouth launching a rocket attack on Genghis Connie’s with Connie and Luke inside. I’m guessing Cottonmouth doesn’t believe in the concept of overkill. They do make the title work on two different levels, which is a nice job.
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.
Supergirl returns for a second season with “The Adventures of Supergirl.” Most likely that’s a reference to one of her past comic book titles, “The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl.” Not only is she back for a new season, she’s on a new network and has several changes from the opening forward. For one thing, now that she’s on the CW with most of DC’s other currently running shows (Gotham over on Fox being the exception), she’s being drawn into the “CW-verse” or “Arrow-verse” as I’ve heard it called. Flash appears in her opening credits from their crossover episode, which I thought was a nice touch.
The third episode of Luke Cage is called, “Who’s Gonna Take the Weight?” and it’s a good follow up to the tragedy near the end of “Code of The Streets.” It starts off with a big firefight and people fleeing the Crispus Attaks building. After a couch goes sailing out one of the upper floor windows, Cage strolls out, hood up, carrying a large duffel bag. Then we get text of “Earlier That Day” to explain what we’re seeing and how Cage got here.
Arrow returns for season five with “Legacy,” a concept that’s a part of a lot of DC’s history. Unfortunately, they don’t live up to the word on pretty much any front. I’ve been a fan of the show with varying degrees of intensity over the years. If nothing else, I like the show for starting off the “CW-verse.” But this may be, in my opinion, one of their worst individual episodes.
At the end of last season, Barry once again gave in to temptation and returned to the night of his mother’s murder. It must be getting very crowded at that moment in time, with so many versions of Barry and Reverse Flash cluttering up the background. This trip, Barry saved his mother and caused a massive paradox, changing many events in his timeline (and presumably changing things for Arrow and the Legends of Tomorrow folks as well, since it’s a shared universe. Maybe this is how Supergirl gets integrated into the CW-verse?). In “Flashpoint,” a name full of meaning for a lot of DC Comics fans, we see the new world.
Haley Atwell is back as Agent Carter… in voice only. She’ll reprise her fan-favorite role on the latest incarnation of the Avengers cartoon. I’m glad to hear this, but I still want more live-action Agent Carter. Then again, I also preferred Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes on the cartoon front.
The second episode of Luke Cage starts with a trick I’m really starting to get tired of. It’s a situation that’s presented, and then we work our way back to that point. It can be a nice plot device, and it’s even done decently here, but I really think they could have done the story without it. Countering that, they include something I’m hugely in favor of. The infamous N-word gets used, in my humble opinion, far too often in movies and tv. Luke gives a mini-lecture against it, and he’s the second character in this series to do that. I wholeheartedly approve.
March 17th is the next Netflix series release date for Iron Fist, with my favorite of four heroes.
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