Ok, I try to take my reviews at least a little seriously. Every once in a while I can’t. This is one of those times. If you really loved Legends of Tomorrow’s “Abominations” episode, you might want to skip this. Personally, I think this was the worst episode of the season, the series, and the entire CW-verse, including those really shaky early Arrow episodes.
The writers are really going deep in the DC archives this season. Wild Dog is an obscure character, even if this is a different version, and Adrian Chase isn’t exactly well known. Now they dig up another one who most people don’t know about, even if did have his own show for a while. This episode is the DC CW-verse premier of the Human Target, also the title of the episode.
This week’s Supergirl is called “Survivors” and that’s the running theme in the episode. They hit you with that early as Mon-El is shown barely escaping the destruction of Daxam at the time of Krypton’s destruction. We learn that Mon was a Palace Guard, and everyone (except maybe Mon-El himself) seems to think it’s a good idea to keep him confined at DEO Headquarters for now. Especially with more of his background in this episode, I’m a bit disappointed they aren’t at least commenting on his sharing the family name with both Superman and Supergirl. Maybe they’ll get to that later. Hank then surprises everyone by leaving for “personal business.”
This week, Flash and the STAR crew are dealing with a “Monster.” It’s a good episode for the “nothing is as it seems” theme. We learn a few secrets about various characters, and get a few surprises along the way. Of the various hero shows currently airing, I think Flash is remaining my favorite, not counting the Netflix shows which are in a class by themselves.
The Legends take a detour to feudal Japan in the rather simply titled “Shogun.” They mingle an origin story, a new team member, and a few different elements of various classic styles of Japanese-themed movies. It doesn’t all make sense, but it’s fun to watch.
“Penance,” opens with Team Arrow on the streets. Green Arrow is giving them a chance to show what they can do, and they fail pretty spectacularly. They are after Sergio, one of the higher-ups in Church’s organization. Artemis, who finally has a codename and is using a bow for absolutely no reason (aside from maybe the character from the Young Justice cartoon using one?) misses her shot when Wild Dog gets impatient and disobeys orders (again) and then Mr. Terrific rushes in and gets beaten to a pulp. In the comics, Mr. Terrific is a black belt in several different disciplines. That’s something Curtis might want to look into. Green Arrow eventually steps in to take over and finish with the thug. The team is told to bring him and the box he was carrying to the Anti-Crime Unit. Curtis, ever the rational one, wonders how to do this. “Do we call an Uber?”
This week’s Flash begins with a bit of a flashback (no pun intended for once). We see more events the night of the infamous particle accelerator explosion at STAR Labs. Interestingly I didn’t realize that Captain Cold/Leonard Snart had his trademark gun back then. In fact, I’m pretty sure I remember Cisco invented it after Barry got his powers as a way to stop him if he had to. So I guess this is somehow a ripple from Flashpoint, although that seems a bit thin since these events happened so long before Barry started time traveling.
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.
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