Over a week after the premiere of the much anticipated but underwhelming Justice League movie, the DC television Arrowverse debuted its annual crossover with big action, small character moments, and emotional stakes that overshadow its big movie counterpart. “Crisis on Earth X” does something the previous crossovers didn’t do which is tell one cinematic story across four hours of television. It separates itself from a being a part of each respective shows seasons yet gives character arcs that satisfy each of them.
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The plot point and gathering is carried by The Flash with Barry and Iris’ wedding. While both get their moments to shine, their arc is probably the most obvious since they’ve been through so much already as a couple it was a given they would end up married by crossover’s end. Nazis or anyone crashing their wedding was probably 50/50 going to happen anyway.
A nice touch to this season has been Iris’ claim as the leader of team Flash and her sticking around while the other non-powered folks were whisked away was great especially since we get a Felicity team-up as they attempt to save Supergirl from a Nazi infested Star Labs in the third hour.
For Supergirl we get Kara facing the growing alienation with her humanity since the loss of Mon El. She is faced with Overgirl her Earth X counterpart and a literal heartless Nazi. I’m sure this is going to wake Kara up and bring her back to being her old human self.
For Alex it’s a simple one-night-stand that makes her question her decisions with Maggie. The crossover solidifies her as a superhero as well when she becomes part of the squad to take out the evil dopplegangers which in turn has that team stranded on Earth X.
Arrow had an interesting but unexpected turning point for Ollie and Felicity’s relationship with the two both having different ideas about marriage which drew new found tension between them. The two were mostly separated for the four hours and spontaneously get married along with Iris and Barry in the last minutes of “Crisis.”
Legends of Tomorrow had the biggest shake-up and most emotional arc for Jax and Stein aka Firestorm. This season had them trying to separate themselves from the Firestorm matrix so that Martin could spend time being a grandfather while Jax remained on the Waverider being a Legend. A potion created by Wells and Cisco would make it possible but Jax had second thoughts having separation anxiety from Stein who had become like a father to him. The two hugged out their issues while fighting as Firestorm and being trapped on Earth X with Stein ultimately getting shot.
In order to save Jax’s life (as one of them dies so does the other) Martin takes the potion to separate himself from the matrix and tears start to flow as the two share a heartbreaking goodbye. (Victor Garbor really sold the hell out of that scene) Which is followed up by reactions from everyone from Sara kissing a just deceases Stein on the forehead, to Ray tearing up with the rest of the Legends, to Jax telling Martin’s wife and daughter that he was dead. I was ugly crying the whole time!
Beyond the high concept plot of Earth X (a world where the Nazis won World War II) invading the Arrowverse lead by villains who were dopplegangers of our heroes most notably Supergirl and Arrow who are married (“ewww” as our Kara put it); there were smaller character moments that reigned supreme.
From Alex and Sara’s one-night-stand to their tag-team fight against Prometheus and more, Chyler Leah and Katy Lotz were stand-outs. Also another big LGBT couple, Citizen Cold and The Ray, played by out actors Wentworth Miller and Russel Tovey, had kickass and milestone moments being the first superheroes to lock-lips on screens, not once, but three times. It was heartening that the two characters were in love and fought for one another. Let’s hope Russel comes back into the fold soon! Wentworth has already stated he would be exiting the Arrowverse.
Other moments besides Iris and Felicity’s romp in the lab (“Take that you nazi mother—“) were:
- Rory’s crush on Killer Frost
- Rory and Citizen Cold’s interactions
- Stein and Caitlyn reminiscing about former Firestorm counterpart and husband, Ronnie
- Killer Frost ice sliding as well as her mini team up with Amaya and Zari
- The Atom holding up Thawne’s scalpel
- Team Arrow coming in last minute to help only to get beaten up by Ollie’s doppleganger
- The Legends sweeping in for the last minute save and actually saving people
- Red Tornado!
- The mysterious waitress that spoke to Barry at the wedding
- Supergirl’s thunderclap!
- Terrific throwing a T-Sphere with the Atom on it to attack Nazis
- All the heroes going on Ham on Metallo
- All of the fight scenes!
While these four hours were treated as one movie almost separate from the rest of their respective seasons each had arcs that will play into the rest of their storylines. It succeeds on many fronts storytelling-wise. It actually isn’t fair to compare this with the Justice League movie since the Arrowverse had six years to cultivate these characters with background and story to draw from. It’s easy to care about people we’ve watched for three plus years. How can we root for all these relative new comers in comparison?
What were some of your favorite moments? Which was your favorite fight scene or use of power? Do you want The Ray to come back? Would you go out drinking with Alex and Sara? Should there be more mini crossovers? Will Jax stay with the Legends? What old or new hero/villain should join?
GNerd GNiche 