The massive CW crossover continues with Arrow’s part of the “Invasion!” At the end of the Flash episode, we saw a good chunk of the Arrow cast beamed up by the Dominators. Now we get to find out what happened to them, along with a few scenes of what the others are up to. Well, most of them. As I commented about in my Flash review, Artemis is never seen, mentioned, referred to at all. Rory gets a passing scene, but no in-costume action.
While it sort of started on Supergirl, the big four-part crossover really kicks off on Flash. All the other shows share the title of “Invasion!” which was the title of the comic book event in the 90’s this story is loosely based on. For a big-time herogeek like me, it’s a lot of fun, especially as someone who’s been reading comics so long that I remember the initial story. It’s streamlined a lot, since the comic crossover went into every DC title running back then, and there were a LOT more heroes in the DCU of the 90’s than the DC CW-verse of the present.
The CW hero shows have their big crossover this week. Crossovers are a big thing in comics, so it makes sense that now that they have all these linked shows, they follow suit. While it helps reinforce the shared world of most of the shows, it ended up emphasizing that Supergirl is off on her own. Not only is she literally on a different Earth than the others (Earth 38, apparently), but all the other shows shared the “Invasion!” title for their episodes, where this one was “Medusa,” a follow up on something from last week. They also didn’t do as much for the actual tie-in as the other shows did.
With the big CW crossover coming up, there’s a new group of bad guys on the radar. The aliens the gathered heroes will be fighting are called Dominators, collectively known as the Dominion. They are one of DC Comics’ many alien races. In the comics they have yellow skin, pointed ears, vicious looking teeth and fingernails that look more like claws. They don’t have individual names, all serving the Dominion. Their place within their caste is marked by the size of the red dot on their forehead. The bigger the dot, the more important they are.
This week’s Flash starts exactly where last week’s stopped. They even skip the voice over. Flash is pinned to a wall by Savitar, Wally’s in some kind of cocoon, and Joe has been grabbed by cultists of Dr. Alchemy’s. Alchemy himself takes advantage of the confusion to grab his stone and slip away. Joe gets free, but apparently can’t see Savitar. Savitar yanks Barry outside, and proceeds to beat on him. Savitar drags Flash all over the city, moving so fast the trackers in Flash’s suit can’t keep up.
This week’s episode of The Flash starts off with Wally. He’s having very vivid dreams of being Kid Flash. While it’s great to see a live action version of the iconic Kid Flash costume, it’s a bit worrisome on the show. Joe is very worried that what’s happening with Wally is similar to what happened to Frankie Kane, and her dreams that led to her villainous Magenta persona. Wally argues that she was an evil split personality, and all he wants to do is help people. There’s definitely some tension between them about this.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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