DC gets heavily criticized and understandably so for the most part for their cinematic universe known as DCEU. Where they miss the mark in films, they more than make up for it in their TV Universe known as the Arrowverse. Monday night began Crisis on Earth-X, the big two-night crossover annual event involving The CW’s superhero quartet of Supergirl, Arrow, The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow. Warning, spoilers ahead…
First up on Supergirl, everyone has gathered in Central City to celebrate Barry and Iris’ wedding. But it wouldn’t be a crisis if a threat did not loom over the happy event. “Familiar” villains from Earth-X attack the wedding just before the “I do’s”, causing Barry, Oliver, Kara and the others to band together and fend them off. These familiar villains match the skills of both Supergirl and the Green Arrow and that’s for a very good reason. It turns out they are Kara and Oliver doppelgänger who happen to be married from Earth-53. They’ll be referred to as Overgirl and Dark Arrow. Their sole mission is to find and kill their counterparts Besides doppelgängers of Supergirl and Green Arrow, there is an Earth-53 Prometheus who during the fight gets captured and was brought back to STAR Labs. It is later revealed that this Prometheus is non other than a doppelgänger of Tommy Merlyn. Tommy was Oliver’s best friend from Earth-1 who died many years ago.
Arrow begins where Supergirl ended with the revelation of Tommy as Prometheus-X, and a stunned Oliver who tried to reach his old friend even though he knows that it’s not the same Tommy of Earth-1. Oliver couldn’t get through and Tommy commits suicide. Harry goes on to explain that through his exploration of the multiverse he had discovered that on Earth-X, the Nazi’s won the war. Now Dark Arrow, Overgirl and the returning Reverse Flash, Eobard Thawne, seek a power source called the Prism, to create a bomb that will destroy all the other worlds leaving only theirs. The villains also reveal their plans to use the Prism to create an artificial red sunlight that would weaken Supergirl and allow them to transport her heart to save a dying Overgirl. After a battle with the Nazi’s, the heroes are captured and wake up on a Earth-X concentration camp.
Waking up in a concentration camp to start Part 3 on The Flash, the heroes look to escape but is easily controlled and subdued. Facing execution, the team is rescued by Ray Terrill and Citizen Cold, Leonard Snart. Terrill and Snart are part of a resistance freedom fighters led by Winn Schott’s doppelgänger General Schott. As they try to stop the Nazi’s and find their way back to Earth-1, Iris and Felicity work to free their friends in STAR Labs and stop Thawne who prepares to operate on both Overgirl and Kara. They are quickly caught by Nazi forces and brought to Dark Arrow.
Battling both the resistance fighters and the Nazi’s, Flash, the Red Tornado and Terrill/The Ray devise a way to defeat the Nazi forces and in the process allow the others to steal the Nazi’s dimensional projector and open the portal back to Earth-1. The projector however comes at a stiff price as Stein is shot and morally wounded. On Earth-1, Iris, Felicity and Kara are saved as the Legends led by Ray Palmer arrive along with the returning heroes from Earth-X. Stein’s injuries cause issues for Jefferson as well when they merge as Firestorm. This leads to heartbreaking scene between Stein and Jefferson where Stein makes the ultimate sacrifice to save Jefferson from his fate. Stein takes a drug that Cisco created that would separate Stein from Jefferson. Moments later Stein dies.
In the finale on Legends of Tomorrow, with Stein’s death weighing heavily on everyone, the Green Arrow uses this as a rallying point to declare war against Dark Arrow and his Nazi forces.
The Nazis led by Dark Arrow invade and attack Central City. As the heroes and Legends counter their attack, Kara battles Overgirl, Barry battles Thawne and Oliver takes on Dark Arrow. The action is fierce and well constructed. Kudos to the production team and the writing team for delivering some wonderful Superman movie references starting with Supergirl calling out Overgirl with “General, would you care to step outside?”. I love that moment and it shows that the writers understand their audience. I even enjoyed Harry’s up, up and away suggestion to Supergirl when during their fight, Overgirl’s exposure to the solar radiation causes her cells to expand and a chain reaction ensues. Supergirl carries Overgirl into space where she explodes, killing Overgirl. With his wife now dead, Dark Arrow vows to destroy Earth-1 but Oliver kills him realizing just how dangerous it would be to keep him alive. As for Barry who defeats Thawne, he decides to spare his life and lets him go knowing they will cross paths again.
After Stein’s funeral, everyone says their goodbyes including Kara and Alex who return to their Earth-38. As for Citizen Cold, he decides to stay on Earth-1 so we haven’t seen the last of Snart. Crisis on Earth-X started with a wedding that got interrupted but ended with a double wedding in Central City Park with John Diggle officiating both Barry and Iris and Oliver and Felicity finally saying ‘I do’.
May the Dork be with you,
JPB
The Dork Knight
