Suicide Squad/Banana Splits Annual #1 (And The Snagglepuss Backup) Review: Combining Sweetness And Sourness Leads To A Hit

The Suicide Squad/Banana Splits Annual #1 special is a boatload of fun, from start to finish. What more could you expect from a group of singing animals teaming up with a group of deadly assassins? I admit, I've never actually watched the original Hanna-Barbera show, but that wasn't necessary to enjoy the story. Even if I hadn't done some research on the characters beforehand, the introduction would have caught me up almost instantly.

"And if you thee the Muppets, tell them to thtep off or Stompy will thow them just how he got his name!" "HONK!"

Most of the humor comes from the sheer absurdity of a band of singing animals and the sheer zaniness that ensues. Some of it satirizes modern situations, such as the aforementioned picture. Obviously, the police officers don't react well to them and draw fire, leading to the comment "It's open season on Animal-Americans!"

Some time spent in Belle Reve adds to this, with a group of animal-themed metahuman criminals urging the Banana Splits to stay with 'their own kind' and join up with their gang. Unfortunately, the jovial band doesn't really understand what they're talking about, and the resulting chaos leads to Amanda Waller recruiting them as a backup Suicide Squad. Most of the best jokes just come from the Squad and the Splits interacting.

"Please don't kill us, Waller said we're expendable! Wait..."

It's a wonderful story. If I had to make one criticism, it would be that the revamped look of the Splits at the end isn't very interesting. I preferred the bubblegum pop edition, if only for the novelty. Also, there was no song during the final battle. If you want to read an amusing, unlikely crossover event, I definitely recommend it. Also, I present this image with zero context. Enjoy!

As for the backup feature, it's a fairly short teaser for Mark Russell's next DC Comics project, a Snagglepuss tale. It stays completely true to the original tone of the character while also giving a powerful lesson on ethics and morality. It's also hilarious, with Snagglepuss giving snarky answers to a group of grumpy politicians. The Flinstones may be ending in June, but Mr. Russell will still be writing wonderful stories for years to come.

Suicide Squad/Banana Splits Annual #1 is written by Tony Bedard, drawn by Ben Caldwell, inked by Mark Morales, colored by Jeremy Lawson, and lettered by A Larger World's Troy 'N' Dave. "House Fires" is written by Mark Russell, drawn by Howard Porter, colored by Steve Buccellato, and lettered by Dave Sharpe. You can find it at your local comic book shop.

Zachary Krishef is an evil genius. Do not question his knowledge of Saturday Night Live trivia or Harry Potter books.

To My Eternal Delight, Select DC Comics Heroes And Looney Tunes Will Unite In June

Yes, this is really happening. To my delight, DC Comics has announced a series of Looney Tunes crossovers in the same vein as the Hanna-Barbera specials set to come out later this month. However, unlike those, the much more humor-orientated epics will be released over the course of June. Interestingly enough, this isn't the first time that DC has taken advantage of their shared ownership by Warner Brothers. 

A notable episode of the Duck Dodgers tv show, based on 1953's Duck Dodgers In The 24 1/2th Century, actually had Daffy Duck accidentally become a Green Lantern after a mishap with the cleaners. Later, The Looney Tunes Show featured a one-off gag revealing that Bugs Bunny was secretly Batman, an entire episode dedicated to Superman's mythology, the Looney Tunes: Back In Action feature film had a sequence with the Batmobile, and, of course, a set of amazing variant covers back in 2015. It's been two years and I would still read those. There was even an awesome four-part crossover miniseries called Superman & Bugs Bunny. (Check back later in June for my review!)

In fact, an original Bugs Bunny short entitled "Super Rabbit" aired all the way back in 1943, satirizing Superman. Essentially, I'm saying that this has been brewing for a long time and I'm so happy that DC Rebirth has now provided the means for some suitably zany crossover action. Six specials will be arriving and here's the scoop on all of them, served with a generous side portion of speculation and nerdy predictions.

"Batman/Elmer Fudd Special #1"- After a chance meeting with billionaire Bruce Wayne, multi-millionaire Elmer Fudd’s obsession quickly escalates into stalking Batman through the dark alleys and high-class social settings of Gotham City.

Isn't this cover amazing? I just love the image of Elmer Fudd and Batman stalking each other. Just the thought of someone as pathetic as Elmer trying to hunt down Batman makes me chuckle. I've been coming up with my own joking dialogue for this ever since the crossovers were teased. Despite the dark nature of much of Tom King's Batman work, I'm not worried that the special will be lacking in humorous content. The beginning of Batman #16 was hilarious. Set to be written by Tom King and drawn by Lee Weeks, who also illustrated the cover, it will come out on June 28th. Mark your calendars and make sure to be vewy, vewy quiet, Elmer's got a new target.

"Jonax Hex/Yosemite Sam Special #1"-  When miner Yosemite Sam strikes it rich, word gets out as everyone comes gunning for his wealth, including the notorious Freleng gang! To protect himself and his his new riches, he hires bounty Hunter Jonah Hex­—but the man protecting him may be his worst nightmare!

This is where I start to get a little dubious. Part of the problem with the crossovers would be the more realistic style that the Looney Tunes characters are drawn in. I mean, they're cartoons, and it looks odd to have them with fairly realistic proportions, or as realistic as you can get. It's not as awkward for Yosemite Sam, but something about Foghorn Leghorn seems off. Maybe it's just that I can't really see his face.

In any case, I appreciate the nod to Friz Freleng, one of the original workers on the cartoons. I'm also curious as to precisely how Foghorn fits into the whole affair. Is he part of the gang? Could he be Sam's partner in crime? Jimmy Palmiotti and Mark Texeira will give us the details on June 28th.

"The Legion Of Super-Heroes/Bugs Bunny Special #1"-  The Legion of Super Heroes always thought they had taken their inspiration from the 21st Century’s Superboy. But when they try to bring that hero into their future time, the team discovers to their surprise the caped champion isn’t who—or even what—they expected!

Nyehhh, what's up, doc? Super Rabbit is what's up, coming all the way from 1943, or earlier in this article. I wonder if this will lead to a Legion Of Super-Pets joke. I do wish that Bugs had on the classic Superman suit, but at least the over-sized boots are red. As I mentioned earlier, seeing a titch more realistic Bugs is slightly disconcerting, but it could be much worse. I also love the full-cover homage to Adventure Comics #247, the first issue to feature the team. I'm kind of a Legion nerd, I've had the first two Showcase Presents volumes for years. Cosmic writer supreme, Sam Humphries will scribe the tale and both Tom Grummett and Scott Hanna will provide the artwork, coming on June 14th.

"Lobo/Road Runner Special #1"- Wile E. Coyote travels to the far reaches of space to hire Lobo to hunt down and kill his greatest nemesis of all time, The Road Runner. When the Coyote and Lobo are after you, the Road Runner realizes if they catch him he’s through.

Okay, Bill Morrison could just take an actual Road Runner comic and crudely paste Lobo over Wil E. Coyote and I would probably still love it. I believe this one has the most potential for some classic slapstick because of the sheer absurdity of Lobo's healing factor. He once healed from a single drop of blood, after all. I'm not sure how Wil E. got into space, but maybe he's also in his "Super Genius" persona from a few Bugs Bunny crossovers. In any case, will hiring an intergalactic hit-man prove to be more successful than using a Batman suit? (Twice, actually.) Bill and Kelley Jones will release the results on June 21st.

"Martian Manhunter/Marvin The Martian Special #1"- Martian Manhunter tries to halt Marvin the Martian’s determination for world domination. J’onn is conflicted with his own Martian identity as he attempts to stop the hapless, determined Marvin from blowing Earth to bits in order to gain a clear view of Venus.

This was the most obvious crossover of the bunch. With two Martian-based characters, how could you not have them interact in some meaningful way? I'm glad that they're still keeping Marvin's extremely petty reason for wanting to blow up the Earth and I'm interested by the new twist of them being related. Shape-shifting vs a Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator, what will win? The comic will be released on June 14th, written by Steve Orlando and Frank Barberi and drawn by Aaron Lopresti.

"Wonder Woman/Tazmanian Devil Special #1"- Not since the twelve labors of Hercules has a Greek warrior faced as great a danger and as destructive a peril as the Tasmanian Devil!

Whoa, Taz, buddy, I hate to be mean, but have you been taking steroids? Wow, he looks bigger than usual. This one is the most mystifying to me. Apart from the brief synopsis, I'm really not sure why Wonder Woman would be matched up with Taz. Maybe he's supposed to represent toxic masculinity, but you would think that Pepe LePew would fulfill that role. I guess he just looks like more of a threat. In any case, the comic is coming out on June 21st, written by Tony Bedard and drawn by Barry Kitson, with Jim Lee providing the cover.

So, that's everything to be released for the event and I'm pretty hyped. No matter what, this definitely seems to be a return to the fun DC Comics days of yore. I hope this goes well. Maybe it'll lead to a second wave of specials with Plastic Man meeting Daffy Duck or Zatanna encountering Dr. Moron. Let's hear it for crossovers! I'm going to go crack open a big bag of carrots and watch some cartoons.

Zachary Krishef is an evil genius. Do not question his knowledge of Saturday Night Live trivia or Harry Potter books.

The Wrath of Savitar - The Flash Recap & Review

I don't know about anyone else, but I find it exhausting that the characters on The Flash have to constantly learn the same ruddy lessons every half season. Like not even every season... every few episodes it seems we have someone keeping secrets so monumental that it ends up hurting everyone. 

The other thing I find exhausting about this show is that in every season, at least once (and most of the time, it's more often than that), everyone has to get to Maximum Butthurt mode. That is, everyone has to end up pissed off (usually at Barry) and overly dramatic about something. 

Well we get the double-feature of both secret-keeping and contrived melodrama in "The Wrath of Savitar."

(Spoilers beyond the fold)

Wally is finally clocking fast enough to save Iris when Savitar murders her, but he is plagued by visions of Savitar, who keeps appearing only to him. Of course, Wally fails to tell anyone about this in the first of the idiotic secret-keeping of this episode. Team Flash only discovers Savitar has been plaguing him when Wally and Barry are running off to save people from a building burning, which apparently never happens, because Wally kind of gets beat up by his vision of Savitar.

Barry is so pissed that he tells Wally he's off the team, because how can they know that Wally isn't spying, even accidentally, for Savitar?

See ya, Wallace!

Mine! You can't have her unless you ask permission!

Side note: early in the episode, Barry and Iris tell everyone the happy news, that they are engaged, and although Joe is happy and misty-eyed, he gets a bug up his butt that Barry didn't ask his permission.

Wait huh?

What in the ever-loving hell? It's 2017 not 1817! Since when do Millenials ask permission from a father to marry a woman? Can she not make that determination for herself? Later on, even Iris dings Barry for not asking for Joe's permission. Iris uses this to bludgeon Barry over the head as proof that he asked her to marry him out of fear for her life (more on that later).

WHAT THE HELL?

Why did I join this dysfunctional team again? Death Eaters were more cohesive, FFS.

Much to poor Julian's reluctance, he is forced (*cough* I mean convinced), TWICE, to serve as a mouthpiece for Savitar, during which Savi basically just channels Hogwart's Draco Malfoy as a smug deep-throated taunting bastard. But Team Flash does learn from these talks that Savitar doesn't yet have all the missing pieces he needs to get out of his prison, but he soon will.

This forces Caitlin to reveal that she's also been keeping secrets of late: she apparently chipped off a piece of the Philosopher's Stone before Barry tossed it into the speed force, and has kept that chip secretly all this time. She kept it in the hopes of being able to use it to figure out how to undo her metahuman status, but hasn't yet figured out how.

Julian gets mad because he thinks the reason Caitlin has been keeping him around is solely as her metahuman expert in order to try to "fix" herself. This after he popped a shy and sweet kiss on her lips earlier in the episode.

Desperate to figure out exactly how he's supposed to save his sister's life, Wally convinces Cisco to vibe him into the future so he can see the murder happen. During that vibe, Wally realizes that Iris isn't wearing her engagement ring, so when he gets back to reality land, he announces to the team that Barry hasn't told them the truth about the engagement. Barry admits that part of his motivation in asking Iris to marry him was indeed because she appeared to not be engaged in the future.

So Iris is now pissed at Barry, and she takes off the ring (which incidentally, to me doesn't prove that she wasn't engaged in the future... she could have just not been wearing the ring).

Meanwhile, Savitar is still screwing with Wally's mind. He appears as Wally's mother, and although Wally eventually sees through it, Savitar's taunting forces him to take action. Idiotically, Wally grabs Caitlin's piece of the stone and decides it needs to be chucked into the speed force so that Savitar can't get to it.

Except of course this is precisely what Savitar wants, because as Barry belatedly figures out, Savitar is, in fact, trapped in the speed force. Savitar has 90% of the Philosopher's Stone already, so he needs Wally to chuck the last piece in. As soon as that happens, Savitar is released, but apparently someone needs to take his place, because now we're into Greek myth territory. Wally is sucked into the speed force, and Savitar is now free in Central City.

Good game, everyone! Savitar played you all like fiddles. Much like another Greek myth, the harder you attempt to run from your fate, the more you just run straight into it. HR kind of warned Barry about this, but no one listens to HR, because he's HR.

"You guys are dumb." -Savitar, probably

As a story, this whole fate/Greek myth stuff is pretty cool. And while this season's arc has dragged on horribly, it was nice to finally move it along this much in this episode. I can also appreciate the way Savitar orchestrated everything. He created Wally, and he set Wally up for failure. Truly, Savitar has been one step ahead of Team Flash, who has effectively run around like chickens with their heads cut off. As a villain, he's been pretty effective. Also, everything is Barry's fault, because of course it is: it was the creation of Flashpoint and the Kid Flash in that alternate timeline, that gave Savitar the idea of using Wally. Savitar is one smart dude.

But Team Flash has been written into the ground. They are idiots. They continue keeping secrets from each other even though every goddamn season they have to relearn this lesson at least twice. And they are constantly getting pissed off at each other over stupid crap. These people never learn, and after three seasons of the same writing shenanigans used to create tension between the good guys, it is getting beyond old. At this point, it's just lazy writing.

Team Flash, you guys can do better at writing this stuff. I know you can.

On the bright side, Entertainment Weekly has released photos of the upcoming Supergirl/Flash crossover episode, "Duet."

Bask in the joyous glory that is Grant Gustin in a tux and Melissa Benoit in a bombshell of a golden dress:

I need this much joy and happiness in my life right now.

The Flash airs on Tuesdays at 8/7c on the CW.

Ivonne Martin is a writer, gamer, and avid consumer of all things geek—and is probably entirely too verbose for her own good.

The Invasion Continues - Arrow S05E08

This isn't just a huge crossover event for #DCWeek; this was also the 100th episode of Arrow, so this one was more than a little special.

Right away, let me commend the writers and actors and director. They clearly felt the weight of the importance of this episode, and there was a whole lot of talent on display here. I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but an episode chockful of feels wasn't it. 

(spoilers beyond the fold)

So yesterday's The Flash ended with several of our heroes being abducted by the bad-news aliens, the Dominators. I don't know how I missed it, but the people taken were all non meta-humans, as Cisco ends up pointing out in this episode. That sound you're hearing is me rolling my eyes at myself, because I don't normally miss something that big. But yeah, the abductees were Oliver, Sara, John, Thea, and Ray. The aliens didn't want the metas at all.

This episode begins with something we haven't seen in a long, long time:

Hellllllooooo, Queen mansion, we haven't seen you in forever! 

Oliver is clearly living some idyllic life, one where his parents and Laurel are still alive. But within minutes of seeing Laurel with a giant rock on her finger, it becomes obvious something is not right. Oliver has a flash, like he's remembering something from another life. 

Still, how fabulous to see Laurel again. You never should have killed her off, Arrow. The episode just started and I am already hurting. 

Back in the Darkest Timeline our heroes actually inhabit, Felicity and Cisco arrive at the Arrowcave and let Team Arrow (minus Artemis, who for some freaking reason isn't in this episode at all) know that Oliver has been abducted. Cisco asks for something of Oliver's that he can vibe to try to find out where the missing team members are, and the minute it becomes obvious that he's a meta, Wild Dog gets a stinkyface. "You're one of them." 

Yeah whatever, dude. 

It's okay though, Cisco and Curtis hit if off immediately, and suddenly what I need in my life that I never knew is a Vibe and Mr. Terrific team-up. Pronto.

Cisco's vibe reveals that the missing team members are in Matrix pods. Cisco also reveals that he brought along a piece of the alien ship that landed in Central City, so Team Techie (Felicity, Curtis, Cisco) get down to the business of trying to hack it. But they end up blowing it up because human tech doesn't play nice with alien tech. They need a thing. Never you mind what the thing is, just know that it is a thing and they need it. This is the most macguffin thing ever in the history of writing, but it was an excuse to track down a freak-of-the-week who has stolen the thing. 

Ragman, Mr. Terrific, and Wild Dog team up with Flash and Supergirl to get go the thing, and Wild Dog is decidedly unimpressed with both Barry and Kara and tells them so to their faces. At least we didn't have to wait long to find out what Rene's problem is: he feels that metas attract bad metas, and that aliens attract bad aliens, so the world would be better off without any and all of them. The Dog then proceeds to get his butt kicked by a cyborg lady, and Barry and Kara have to save him, after which Rene has a sudden about-face in his opinion of them. 

Meh. I honestly could have done without this whole worthless side-plot. The only cute part of it all was Ragman and Terrific gushing over how awesome Barry and Kara are. But Supergirl's role in this episode of the Invasion seemed particularly superfluous. 

And where in Hades was Artemis???

Okay but are you ready for some feels?

I was not prepared for how I would feel at the sight of Oliver's parents, especially Moira. Not gonna lie, I suddenly realized with this episode just how much this show has been missing Moira (and specifically, actress Susanna Thompson) and her incredible warmth and depth. Moira Queen was not the most admirable of characters in the first two seasons of the show, to be sure. She did some pretty crappy stuff. But I never got the sense that she was evil, and her being such a flawed mother and wife and human being and yet ultimately striving to be better, was great story-telling. 

I think this episode made me mourn her more than her actual death scene did. And did Stephen Amell and Susanna Thompson always have that level of chemistry, or has Stephen matured enough in this role, I guess? Either way, they were fabulous together. 

Anyway, Oliver's fantasy life is pretty rad: it is the eve of his wedding to Laurel, Robert and Moira Queen are there, Sara arrives to be her sister's bridesmaid, and all is awesome! 

Except Oliver keeps having these crazy flashes of another life. And despite supposedly never getting on the Queen's Gambit, and thus never learning to fight in Lian Yu, he has some pretty crazy superhero reflexes and instincts. During one scene where he and Robert Queen are in a dark alley that was wayyyy too obviously reminiscent of a certain Batman origin story, Oliver faces down a thug with a gun. But ultimately it's the Hood, a dude with a bow, who shows up to save the Queens. But that only seems to exacerbate Oliver's weird flashes, so he ends up following his instincts and arrives at the Arrowcave, only to find that a tragic John Diggle is the Hood. 

Sara and John seem to also be having weird flashes, but it's hard to tell how much, because the episode is fully filmed from Oliver's perspective. Ultimately, though, Sara and John both realize Oliver is right, and that this place is fake. Ray is almost nonexistent in this shared fantasy world, but he is there, kinda. And he also accepts that this isn't right. 

Thea is apparently aware of the wrongness, but she doesn't care, because she has her family back. When Oliver and Sara try to convince her that they need to all find a way out, Thea resists. And in a scene that again taps into some crazy feels, Stephen Amell and Willa Holland really amp it up to the max. Oliver doesn't want Thea to suffer, so he accepts that she wants to stay behind in this fantasy world, and his goodbye scene made me genuinely teary-eyed. 

There's a fight scene because we need some action now, and the Matrix is fighting back against these guys getting out, so it sends in Damien Darhk (who Sara fights), Deathstroke (who Oliver fights), and some random thugs who keep John and Ray busy. Oh, and Malcolm Merlyn as the Dark Archer is there too, and Thea ends up deciding that she doesn't want to lose the only real family she has left (Oliver), so she shows up to fight the Dark Archer. 

What I liked about the fantasy world overall was that the alien device picked out things and people from all of their memories, so there are a bunch of Arrow easter eggs all over the place, and I'm pretty sure I didn't capture them all. 

Still, we cannot leave this fantasy world without a final gutpunch, because the writers want you to cry. Joke's on them, though, because I'm not crying ur crying!

The Matrix (this is not actually the name of the alien device, by the way, it's just my name for it) sends Laurel to make a final plea for Oliver to stay.

By this point in the episode I cannot handle all the feels anymore. 

I don't care how badly it screws things up, Barry Allen, you need to go back in time and save Laurel Lance. Killing off Black Canary was the single dumbest thing this show has ever done, and this episode, and these moments with Laurel, made me realize how badly this show needs her. Please, I am begging you, Comic Book Gods, wave your magic wand and bring her back for good. There simply cannot exist a Green Arrow narrative without his Black Canary. It is wrong. It feels wrong. 

Uggh, okay. So our heroes exit the alien mind probe thingie, and come to realize they are actually in an alien spaceship. In space. They manage to steal an escape pod, but they can't fly it. 

But wait! Remember that thing that Team Arrow needed? Well said thing helped them get coordinates for our heroes, and just when all seems lost, the Waverider, piloted by Nate and Gideon, show up to save the day! 

Sidenote: this seemed like a huge missed opportunity to have Supergirl fly into space and kick alien ass. I mean kicking alien ass is why they brought her to Earth-1, no? She has done incredibly little alien asskicking. Just sayin'

Anyway, turns out that while Oliver and Co. (no not the Disney movie, which yes, Cisco totally referenced!) were dreaming of better times, the aliens were probing their minds for something. And that something leads to the ominous end of this episode:

Probing their minds helped wrap up some kind of weapon the Dominators are now ready to deploy. Things are looking pretty grim.

We'll have to wait and see how Legends of Tomorrow wraps up this storyline! 

Ivonne Martin is a writer, gamer, and avid consumer of all things geek—and is probably entirely too verbose for her own good.

"Invasion!" Rocks the Arrowverse - The Flash S03E08

#DCWeek continues, with The Flash kicking off the real start of the alien invasion of Earth-1 (aka the Arrowverse). Don't come expecting Shakespearean story-telling, because the story is quite simple, but do come expecting lots of fun and a surprisingly good continuation of several existing storylines on The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow. You may also expect plenty of butthurt, because someone always has to be angry at someone else in the Berlantiverse. Always. It is a universal constant.

In fact, last night's The Flash rocked its highest viewer ratings since December 9 2014. These crossover things, you might want to keep doing them, CW.

(spoilers beyond the fold)

Okay let's get the simple story out of the way, because it's quick and easy. An alien pod lands in the middle of Central City, and when Barry goes to investigate, a bunch of aliens pop out of it and run off. Lila of ARGUS reveals to him that this isn't the first time these aliens, called the Dominators, have been here, and that back in the 50s a bunch of soldiers got killed for messing with them. Lila and the official channels want Barry to step off and let them handle it, but we all know how that's gonna go. And yeah, the aliens end up coming for the President and abducting him.

So there's your setup. Let's get to the meat that matters (...mmm bacon).

The real Civil War!

The episode actually started off with a brief scene of the future, wherein Barry and Oliver are facing off against all the other heroes, because the Avengers are noobs and every DC fan knows it. Real heroes fight each other with completely lopsided odds: two against like 25, because we all know Supergirl counts as at least twenty of the Arrowverse heroes.

Ok but let's back up to see how we got here!

Some really fun Flashy moments in this episode!

The Flash figures he's in over his head with these aliens, so he gathers the troops, starting with Team Arrow, who includes Speedy for this one because Thea is super excited at the prospect of kicking alien ass. Felicity then calls for the Legends of Tomorrow to join in on the fun. So let's tally this up, shall we? We now have Green Arrow, Felicity, Spartan, Speedy, The Flash, Iris, HR Wells, Cisco, Caitlin, White Canary, Heatwave, The Atom, and Firestorm. Yes, that means the Legend newbies Steel and Vixen got left behind, as well as Green Arrow's proteges, and Joe and Iris are so busy lying to Wally about what a gifted meta he is, that he doesn't join in on the fun either.

But even with this teamup, Barry doesn't think it's enough, so he and Vibe open up a portal to Earth-38 and bring in Supergirl (we get the exact same scene in her apartment that we did in yesterday's Supergirl).

I think the moment I was most looking forward to with this crossover was the Arrowverse meeting Supergirl for the first time (especially Diggle), and boy I wasn't disappointed.

Team Arrow in particular isn't super impressed by the sight of a mildly petite pretty blonde girl in a skirt, as grumpy Oliver is all like, "I thought you said you were bringing an alien."

So Kara is all like:

Diggle's calmly-but-not-really "I'm convinced" is probably one of the great moments in this episode.

Okay, so we now have an alien on the team. Oliver still doesn't seem impressed, and Kara wonders if he doesn't like her, but Barry assures her he's that way with everyone. Despite the fact that Oliver tries to make Barry the team leader, it's pretty clear that Barry doesn't know what he's doing, and when Oliver quietly makes suggestions that Barry immediately echoes, there was another great moment when the Legends are like, "So are we supposed to just ignore the fact that he said that?"

I'm gushing about these scenes a little, but honestly the chemistry between all the actors is there, and these scenes were just super fun. Kudos on the care taken by the writers here, because I'm sure I wasn't the only one looking forward to these moments.

Oliver McGrumpyPants suggests that everyone else train against Supergirl, and he does ask Kara not to go easy on them. If you ask me, though, she went pretty easy on them:

I just adore Kara's expression here, because you know she's all like, "Hee hee that tickles!"

Surprisingly, even though this was The Flash's episode, the story ends up revealing the end of a plot thread that had been left open for weeks now over at Legends of Tomorrow. Stein and Jax reveal to Barry and Oliver that they discovered a message from future Barry in the Waverider's secret room, and we finally get to hear what that message was: future-Barry is telling Captain Hunter not to trust past Barry because of the major Flashpoint screw-up. This is the first time Oliver is hearing about Flashpoint, because apparently Felicity kept the secret pretty well. Oliver takes the news with a heavy sigh (Metas, emirite?) and then delivers another great line: "One sci-fi problem at a time." In typical Green Arrow fashion, he suggests they need to keep this a secret from everyone else until after the aliens are dealt with.

You would think by now these people would have figured out that keeping secrets from one another never ends well.

Because of course, Cisco ends up finding the recording from future Barry lying around (dammit, Stein, really?), and confronts Barry about it. That's the point at which everyone finds out about Flashpoint. And remember that butthurt I talked about in the beginning of this review? Yeah, suddenly everyone is super pissed at Barry, especially Diggle at finding out that Barry "erased a daughter out of his life."

This was also the point at which my partner and I booed, hissed, and jeered loudly at the television. Because wow, the stones on Sara and her team, as they express their disappointment with Barry being so selfish and changing time because of someone he loves. Sara Lance literally just spent the entire first half of her show's season screwing up her team's plans to deal with time anomalies because everytime she saw Damien Darhk she would go absolutely batshit and try to kill him to save her sister's life. And Stein... Stein... who gives Barry his best "I'm so disappointed in you, son" look! Stein, the man who walked his younger self happily around the Waverider! And I'm not so sure that the reveal of Stein's daughter in this episode is due to Flashpoint at all, but rather at Stein's own meddling in his younger self's romance with Clarissa! Jax wanted to kill white Southerners in Civil War Mississippi! And this team kills historical randos in every single episode!

I literally cannot even right now with the Legends.

Anyway, the team doesn't want anything to do with Barry, and Oliver shows solidarity with his speedster bro, so Supergirl leads the rest to go rescue the president. There's a pretty brilliant interaction between Heatwave and Supergirl that I never knew I needed in my life, before they storm the castle to save the president.

Meanwhile, Oliver and Barry bond in a really cute and sweet scene where Oliver says that if he had Barry's power, he would have saved his own parents too. Their moment is interrupted when STAR Labs comes under attack... by Supergirl and her team. Turns out that they not only didn't save the President, but they were brainwashed by an alien thing.

"Well, this sucks..." - Barry Allen, probably

There is a fight wherein Oliver and Barry are clearly going to lose, and Wally briefly zooms in to help, gets hurt, and Oliver has to carry him to safety. Meanwhile, Barry pisses off Supergirl and gets her to chase him all the way back to the alien thingie, and uses her to destroy it. 

Crisis averted! Or not! Because before we can really celebrate, heroes start disappearing!

"Run, Barry, R--" - Oliver Queen, probably

In a minor The Flash continuing plot point, after Wally nearly gets killed here, HR Wells agrees to train him. I mean, in season one, Barry had Harrison Wells/Eobard Thawne to train him. And in season two, Cisco had Harrison Wells of Earth-2 to bond with. So it makes total sense that in season three, young padawan Wally West shall have a Wells to train him as well. Even if said Wells is... a novelist.

Sounds legit.

Anyway, some of our heroes have been beamed aboard by Scotty, apparently, and the story will continue in tonight's Arrow.

I think what I really liked about this crossover overall--despite the butthurt and the complete lack of a sense of irony on behalf of the Legends--is that this really felt like the Berlantiverse was fully interconnected, for once. I mean yeah heroes appear randomly in each other's shows, but often those moments seem incredibly pointless, like the writers are just saying, "Oh hey, don't forget, these universes are interconnected... now back to our regular storylines that have nothing to do with anyone else!" But other than Supergirl's episode, this crossover feels like okay, yeah, these guys all inhabit the same world. Their lives are interconnected as they go about their superheroing business. They effect each other: Barry and his time travel affected everyone, of course, but we also revealed two major Legends of Tomorrow plots here (future-Barry's message, and Stein's daughter), and Oliver Wayne *cough* I mean Queen, is the gruff and smart leader that everyone else naturally trusts, much like a certain dude in a bat costume in most of your Justice League teamups.

Let's see what Arrow does with this crossover. Hope you are enjoying #DCWeek!


Ivonne Martin is a writer, gamer, and avid consumer of all things geek—and is probably entirely too verbose for her own good.