DC CW Invasion! My Biggest Review for the CW Heroe's Biggest Storyline.

Hey folks.  Well, I wanted to wait until all four episodes had actually aired and everyone had plenty of time to see them on either television, On Demand, or the CW app (which is where I saw them).  So lets dig into “Invasion”!

Calling it a 4 part storyline is kind of generous since Supergirl: Medusa didn’t have actually anything to do with the aliens at all.  Medusa chronicled Supergirl’s struggle with a virus that threatened all alien life except Kryptonians…and apparently humans.  That was one plot hole I never felt was suitably dealt with, why did the virus not register humans as aliens.  If its origins are from Krypton, then humans are by default aliens.  Not that it mattered because through the efforts of the team and Lena Luthor, the virus was stopped and J’onn’s white-Martian transformation was reversed through explanations that felt kind of phoned in.  We got some development between Mon’El and Kara, but that’s was about the extent.  Throughout the episode we did see the multiverse warps open up, but close in unexpected places, leading to Cisco and Barry arriving in Kara’s apartment and their recruiting her.

Supergirl: Medusa seemed to be an exercise of convenient timing, and like I said, calling it a part of Invasion is a generous thing at best.

That leads us to The Flash: Invasion, where in we meet the aliens properly as they land in Central City.  This episode leads us in with a brief recap of where everyone is emotional after the events of Killer Frost, where in it was revealed that Barry’s meddling with the timeline indirectly lead to Dante’s (Cisco’s brother) death.  Facing the alien invasion, he teams with Oliver Queen and company and calls in the aid of the Legends of Tomorrow to mount a counter offensive.  He then works with a very standoffish Cisco to warp to Earth 38 (picking up where Supergirl Medusa left off).  Tracking the kidnapped president, they find the aliens who mind attack most of the team and turn them against Oliver and Barry.  Wally unleashes his full speed (which there is a sub plot of Team Flash not wanting to encourage him to use his powers out of fear he will get hurt) and lends an assist before getting knocked out.  Barry leads Kara on a “catch me if you can” run using her to destroy the alien device causing the mind warp.

The episode ends with everyone regrouping and a handful of the non-powered characters getting taken by the aliens, including Oliver.

              

  This leads us into Arrow: Invasion, where we find the minds of our heroes trapped in an alien hallucination where they are leading their ideal lives.  The heroes soon start having flashes of their real lives and see holes in the hallucination.  When they combat the hallucination they are met with versions of their enemies.  In the meantime the heroes outside the alien abduction plot are trying to track them down and learn as much as they can, with Cisco working with Team Arrow, the Flash and Supergirl assisting Wild Dog.  Wild Dog as a bit of a moment but it feels completely forced and anything but organic where-in he has this “I don’t trust you because you have powers…” attitude and seconds later is “Okay, I trust you.” I get that they are trying to give everyone their due, but with four hours to fill they don’t have to rush these little moments.

Oliver and company (nice Disney reference from Cisco there) break out of the mental prison to find themselves on a space ship, and they are promptly rescued by the Waverider.  The team then decides they need to return the abduction favor and locate an alien.

               

Hey folks.  Well, I wanted to wait until all four episodes had actually aired and everyone had plenty of time to see them on either television, On Demand, or the CW app (which is where I saw them).  So lets dig into “Invasion”!

Calling it a 4 part storyline is kind of generous since Supergirl: Medusa didn’t have actually anything to do with the aliens at all.  Medusa chronicled Supergirl’s struggle with a virus that threatened all alien life except Kryptonians…and apparently humans.  That was one plot hole I never felt was suitably dealt with, why did the virus not register humans as aliens.  If its origins are from Krypton, then humans are by default aliens.  Not that it mattered because through the efforts of the team and Lena Luthor, the virus was stopped and J’onn’s white-Martian transformation was reversed through explanations that felt kind of phoned in.  We got some development between Mon’El and Kara, but that’s was about the extent.  Throughout the episode we did see the multiverse warps open up, but close in unexpected places, leading to Cisco and Barry arriving in Kara’s apartment and their recruiting her.

Supergirl: Medusa seemed to be an exercise of convenient timing, and like I said, calling it a part of Invasion is a generous thing at best.

That leads us to The Flash: Invasion, where in we meet the aliens properly as they land in Central City.  This episode leads us in with a brief recap of where everyone is emotional after the events of Killer Frost, where in it was revealed that Barry’s meddling with the timeline indirectly lead to Dante’s (Cisco’s brother) death.  Facing the alien invasion, he teams with Oliver Queen and company and calls in the aid of the Legends of Tomorrow to mount a counter offensive.  He then works with a very standoffish Cisco to warp to Earth 38 (picking up where Supergirl Medusa left off).  Tracking the kidnapped president, they find the aliens who mind attack most of the team and turn them against Oliver and Barry.  Wally unleashes his full speed (which there is a sub plot of Team Flash not wanting to encourage him to use his powers out of fear he will get hurt) and lends an assist before getting knocked out.  Barry leads Kara on a “catch me if you can” run using her to destroy the alien device causing the mind warp.

The episode ends with everyone regrouping and a handful of the non-powered characters getting taken by the aliens, including Oliver.

                This leads us into Arrow: Invasion, where we find the minds of our heroes trapped in an alien hallucination where they are leading their ideal lives.  The heroes soon start having flashes of their real lives and see holes in the hallucination.  When they combat the hallucination they are met with versions of their enemies.  In the meantime the heroes outside the alien abduction plot are trying to track them down and learn as much as they can, with Cisco working with Team Arrow, the Flash and Supergirl assisting Wild Dog.  Wild Dog as a bit of a moment but it feels completely forced and anything but organic where-in he has this “I don’t trust you because you have powers…” attitude and seconds later is “Okay, I trust you.” I get that they are trying to give everyone their due, but with four hours to fill they don’t have to rush these little moments.

Oliver and company (nice Disney reference from Cisco there) break out of the mental prison to find themselves on a space ship, and they are promptly rescued by the Waverider.  The team then decides they need to return the abduction favor and locate an alien.

                Which brings us to Legends of Tomorrow: Invasion where Team Legend splits up and takes Cisco and Felicity into the past to capture an alien.  Leaving the tech support on the ship, the rest go after the alien, which they capture, only for them all to be captured by the men in black.  This leads us back around to the origin of the presidential advisor who was seen all the way back in “The Flash” as he, in the future, sets up Oliver, Barry, and friends to be captured and given over to the aliens.  A couple of things here.  Oliver sidelines Supergirl because he “just wants some normal”…which is stupid because he’s fighting aliens with powers.  You can have normal after Supergirl knocks them out.  Second, we discover that the aliens want Barry surrendered to them because of his time screwery back in Flashpoint which they say proves he’s too dangerous.

The past team is rescued by Cisco and Felicity, and Cisco convinces the team to rescue the alien who is being tortured.  E.T. takes off and leaves behind a transponder in case they need to talk later.  They go back to the future and meet the rest of the team only to learn that Cisco’s tampering with the past (the government was supposed to keep the captured alien) has screwed with the future.  Here, folks, is what organic character development looks like.  Cisco is remorseful for what he did, citing that his good intentions had bad effects and starts seeing the situation from Barry’s perspective.  Barry is prepared to surrender himself to the alien menace and is stopped by literally everyone else.  Oliver calls back on Supergirl, realizing that he was stupid and the team prepare to meet the aliens head on.

Here is where Professor Stein’s story arc comes in, as when he meddled with the timeline, he inadvertently made a daughter he doesn’t remember.  She comes in handy as she coincidentally has a background in the nanotechnology they need to fight the aliens.  He struggles with accepting her because everything thing he’s learned thus far about time aberrations I that they are bad.  Over the course of the three episodes he comes to accept her and they in turn develop a weapon they need to fight the aliens.  Through Barry and Kara’s work, they fit the aliens with devices that, when triggered cause them immense pain, driving them off.  There’s a big party and the president reassigns the agent to the Arctic, because Supergirl told her it would be a good idea…and somehow that mattered.  Barry and Oliver find themselves at a bar, two world weary heroes dealing with the consequences of their choices.

So that’s Invasion:  Final Thoughts?

                As cool as the overall idea was, there was some stuff that just didn’t work.  Character arcs, especially in the Arrow segment, fell flat.  Wild Dog had such a fast heel turn it made me dizzy, and in the hallucination Thea wanted to stay in their paradise but then one scene later shows up to escape with everyone else.  There didn’t feel like there was anything in between.  Again, four hours to tell this story.  Well, three, but still there was plenty of time to give us one or two more moments to develop characters.

During the Flash segment everyone finds out about Flashpoint, which okay, that’s all well and good, but some of the characters act completely offended that Barry would travel back in time to save his mother who was murdered in front of him.  Shouldn’t some of them be a little more understanding?  Further, the Waverider crew track time aberations; Why didn’t they find out about Flashpoint earlier?  Seems like Gideon should have shot out a mass text message “Barry Allen altered twenty years of Earth history!”  Something like that.

As for the Cisco/Barry conflict, I thought this was covered earlier in the season when Barry admitted about Flashpoint to Team Flash and Cisco was pissed because he wouldn’t go back and save his brother, but later forgave him.  Admittedly the progression of Cisco’s character felt more organic here, but it felt like closure to a wound that should have already been closed.

Then there are the aliens.  The show calls them “The Dominators” but they don’t feel unique enough to be called anything other than “the aliens”.  There is no history or individuality to the characters, they feel weak by comparison and look very generic.  Their CGI isn’t the best either, especially from what we’ve seen out of these shows within the last few seasons.

I think ultimately the whole thing would have felt better if they were facing more individual foes and villains with actual powers, maybe do something along the lines of the Hyperclan from the JLA books, where white martians took the guise of earth heroes.

                I did have a few favorite lines from the final episode, such as Ray pointing out that Kara looks like his cousin, and Mick and Sara commenting on how the new president was kind of hot.

Chemistry wise, everyone played off each other really well.  It’s clear that these are ensemble casts who are used to working in large groups and know how to give everyone their chance to shine.  If I had to grade it, I’d give it a solid B.  The project was very ambitious but I don’t think they achieved all their goals and had to rush some spots.  It does offer a proof of concept that these kinds of massive crossovers do work and hopefully we’ll see them refine their craft down the road.

Which brings us to Legends of Tomorrow: Invasion where Team Legend splits up and takes Cisco and Felicity into the past to capture an alien.  Leaving the tech support on the ship, the rest go after the alien, which they capture, only for them all to be captured by the men in black.  This leads us back around to the origin of the presidential advisor who was seen all the way back in “The Flash” as he, in the future, sets up Oliver, Barry, and friends to be captured and given over to the aliens.  A couple of things here.  Oliver sidelines Supergirl because he “just wants some normal”…which is stupid because he’s fighting aliens with powers.  You can have normal after Supergirl knocks them out.  Second, we discover that the aliens want Barry surrendered to them because of his time screwery back in Flashpoint which they say proves he’s too dangerous.

The past team is rescued by Cisco and Felicity, and Cisco convinces the team to rescue the alien who is being tortured.  E.T. takes off and leaves behind a transponder in case they need to talk later.  They go back to the future and meet the rest of the team only to learn that Cisco’s tampering with the past (the government was supposed to keep the captured alien) has screwed with the future.  Here, folks, is what organic character development looks like.  Cisco is remorseful for what he did, citing that his good intentions had bad effects and starts seeing the situation from Barry’s perspective.  Barry is prepared to surrender himself to the alien menace and is stopped by literally everyone else.  Oliver calls back on Supergirl, realizing that he was stupid and the team prepare to meet the aliens head on.

Here is where Professor Stein’s story arc comes in, as when he meddled with the timeline, he inadvertently made a daughter he doesn’t remember.  She comes in handy as she coincidentally has a background in the nanotechnology they need to fight the aliens.  He struggles with accepting her because everything thing he’s learned thus far about time aberrations I that they are bad.  Over the course of the three episodes he comes to accept her and they in turn develop a weapon they need to fight the aliens.  Through Barry and Kara’s work, they fit the aliens with devices that, when triggered cause them immense pain, driving them off.  There’s a big party and the president reassigns the agent to the Arctic, because Supergirl told her it would be a good idea…and somehow that mattered.  Barry and Oliver find themselves at a bar, two world weary heroes dealing with the consequences of their choices.

So that’s Invasion:  Final Thoughts?

                As cool as the overall idea was, there was some stuff that just didn’t work.  Character arcs, especially in the Arrow segment, fell flat.  Wild Dog had such a fast heel turn it made me dizzy, and in the hallucination Thea wanted to stay in their paradise but then one scene later shows up to escape with everyone else.  There didn’t feel like there was anything in between.  Again, four hours to tell this story.  Well, three, but still there was plenty of time to give us one or two more moments to develop characters.

During the Flash segment everyone finds out about Flashpoint, which okay, that’s all well and good, but some of the characters act completely offended that Barry would travel back in time to save his mother who was murdered in front of him.  Shouldn’t some of them be a little more understanding?  Further, the Waverider crew track time aberations; Why didn’t they find out about Flashpoint earlier?  Seems like Gideon should have shot out a mass text message “Barry Allen altered twenty years of Earth history!”  Something like that.

As for the Cisco/Barry conflict, I thought this was covered earlier in the season when Barry admitted about Flashpoint to Team Flash and Cisco was pissed because he wouldn’t go back and save his brother, but later forgave him.  Admittedly the progression of Cisco’s character felt more organic here, but it felt like closure to a wound that should have already been closed.

Then there are the aliens.  The show calls them “The Dominators” but they don’t feel unique enough to be called anything other than “the aliens”.  There is no history or individuality to the characters, they feel weak by comparison and look very generic.  Their CGI isn’t the best either, especially from what we’ve seen out of these shows within the last few seasons.

I think ultimately the whole thing would have felt better if they were facing more individual foes and villains with actual powers, maybe do something along the lines of the Hyperclan from the JLA books, where white martians took the guise of earth heroes.

                I did have a few favorite lines from the final episode, such as Ray pointing out that Kara looks like his cousin, and Mick and Sara commenting on how the new president was kind of hot.

Chemistry wise, everyone played off each other really well.  It’s clear that these are ensemble casts who are used to working in large groups and know how to give everyone their chance to shine.  If I had to grade it, I’d give it a solid B.  The project was very ambitious but I don’t think they achieved all their goals and had to rush some spots.  It does offer a proof of concept that these kinds of massive crossovers do work and hopefully we’ll see them refine their craft down the road.