This year’s four-part Arrowverse crossover kicks off with Barry and Iris’ wedding… hidden inside a Supergirl episode…
Last year’s Arrowverse crossover got a lot of flack from fans for only tangentially relating to Supergirl. This time, there is no such hesitation – the Girl of Steel’s show is proudly kicking off the event, titled “Crisis on Earth-X”. In fact, it’s so much a part of the crossover that it’s hardly a Supergirl episode at all. I’ve no idea what those who don’t watch the rest of the Arrowverse made of it, but for the rest of us it was a blast.
With a whole extra episode to play with this time around, “Crisis on Earth-X” doesn’t rush to get to the actual “Crisis” and is happy just to spend the majority of the runtime smushing the characters together in a non-combative setting – namely, Barry’s and Iris’ wedding. Through this, several ongoing Arrowverse romances are touched on. There are bits about Kara and Mon-El’s troubles, Martin Stein wanting to leave Firestorm and get back to his family and Oliver proposes to Felicity with little success. Best of all, though, was Alex and Sara’s hook-up. The couple’s different attitudes to their one-night stand was a lot of fun.
And then just as Barry and Iris are due to say their ‘I do’s’ the wedding is crashed by… Nazis from another Earth! The fight in the church was just as thrilling as you would hope a battle between a bunch of heroes and a troupe of Nazis would be. The only problem is the decision to keep the reveal of who the evil Supergirl and Arrow really are to the end of the episode. Even if you had missed all the marketing, it doesn’t take a genius to to work out that these are Nazi doppelgangers of our heroes. It just made the characters seem a little dim.
Overall, though, that’s a minor niggle in a hugely entertaining episode. Sure, this first part definitely leaned heavily into The CW’s love of soap opera romance, but it had a lot of fun character interactions and laid the groundwork for some great comic book-y stuff to come. Roll on “Crisis On Earth-X (Part Two)”, continuing over on Arrow.
Krypto-Notes:
- The opening check-in on the various heroes mid-adventure was epic – including welcome cameos from King Shark and a Dominator. Kara’s “so last year” comment is obviously a nod to the aliens being the villains of 2016’s crossover.
- Nice seeing James Olsen as Earth-X’s Guardian, decked out in a Captain America-esque red, white and blue paintjob. A shame that Martian Manhunter wasn’t involved in the crossover, though.
- Melissa Benoist singing “Running Home to You.” That is all.
- So let’s talk about that overly-excited waitress at the wedding. Could she be Dawn Allen, Barry and Iris’ daughter from the future? Or maybe she’s Cecile and Joe’s daughter?
- I can’t go without mentioning the episode’s MVP: Mr Mick Rory. He’s always great comedic value in these team-ups and he was on fire (heh) in this episode.
Rating:
Fandom Factory 