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Legends of Tomorrow: Invasion!

“No offense Oliver, but you and what army?”

Here we are. The final installment of our first (but probably not last) four part mega crossover event. How did it fare?

Not bad, all in all. These four episodes were extraordinarily ambitious and tying things up was never going to be neat. The end of the crossover sees Team SuperFlarrowLegends kick the aliens’ butts, leading them to abandon their plans of global destruction and never come back again. Unreasonable? Probably. Their fears about metahumans are fairly well-founded. I mean, isn’t that all they do on The Flash? Try to defeat metahumans? And Barry’s still around with the ability to change time, although he has learned his lesson. Hopefully.

This being Legends, there obviously had to be some time travel. The team travelled back to the 1950s to the first time the Dominators attacked to try to capture one. This lead to them themselves being captured by men in black, leaving it up to Felicity and Cisco to save the day. Felicity and Cisco on the Waverider was super fun. I almost wish they could tag along every week (especially now that Cisco has de-brooded).

Yes, Cisco has finally forgiven Barry and the whole world rejoices. I mean, honestly, it was really starting to drive me crazy. Cisco’s always been one of my favorites but lately every time he’s been onscreen, I’ve had to brace myself for another pout attack.

Also getting over things: Dr. Stein, who has finally accepted that his daughter is real and not an error that needs to be fixed. He kept talking about her like she’s an aberration that the Legends have faced off against but they’re usually facing some evil bad guy with future tech and not a perfectly normal scientist. Could anyone on the team possibly have a problem with letting her exist? It seems to me that going back in time to meet up with young Dr. Stein again would pose a far greater risk to the timeline than letting Lily be.

For me, the best part of the episode came when Barry was preparing to turn himself over to the Dominators to save the planet and Oliver and Company stopped him. It’s been so fun to see these shows and these characters appear and grow from nothing. At first it was one show and one guy doing his avenging. Then he got a friend. Then he got a Felicity. Then - BOOM - the particle accelerator explosion created The Flash. Watching the world develop and seeing here how big it’s become, it’s kind of wonderful. I also loved the way the episode ended. With the two that started it all Oliver and Barry drinking side by side as friends. Kind of a weird way to end a show that neither of them star in but it felt appropriate somehow.

Featuring an unwieldy cast of thirteen main characters, some obviously had to be sidelined, in this case, Jackson and Kara. Kara was benched early on by Oliver because he was trying to hold on to some form of normality (read: she’s too powerful and makes any fight she’s in too easy). As for Jackson, he was…where was he? Dr. Stein was busy with his brand new twenty something daughter, so Firestorm only appeared during the big final fight, but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t have involved Jackson somehow.

Everybody remember where we parked:

Now Supergirl has a way to get back and forth between Earths. Convenient.

There was a blink and you miss it reference to Brandon Routh’s role in Superman Returns.

Quotes

Cisco: “Oh, for real? You’re gonna use Princess Bride against me? Against me?!”

Mick: “You look like a star-spangled idiot.”
--Have to agree.

Felicity: “This looks like a job for Supergirl.”
Barry: “Thanks, Felicity. I’m not the least bit insulted.”
Felicity: “Ah! Sorry! I meant Supergirl and Flash. This is totally a job for both of you, that’s what I meant. Supergirl and Flash.”

Mick: “Hey, Skirt. Call me.”

three and a half out of four group hugs

sunbunny

5 comments:

  1. "SuperFlarrowLegends" is perfect. :) Although I keep wanting to pronounce it "SuperFlowerLegends", which isn't macho at all.

    Loved the references to Princess Bride and Superman Returns. And Felicity noticing that she and Kara looked remarkably alike. Cisco's upset about the timeline and his brother was understandable, but I'm very glad it's over.

    It wasn't like the best crossover ever ever, but I did enjoy it a lot and I'm sure, like you said, sunbunny, that we'll get more. Loved your review. :)

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  2. Soon as Cisco went back in time, I knew that he would end up doing something in the past that would affect the present, and it would lead to him finally forgiving Barry. I'm glad they were able to work the specifics into the story smoothly, and that Cisco was able to draw the parallels himself, without someone having to point it out to him. Mostly I'm just glad we're past that whole thing, it had gotten REALLY irritating.

    I think the only weak thing about this crossover was that they tried to pack so much into three episodes of television that some characters got pushed to the sideline for a while with pretty flimsy excuses, if any. The next time they try to do a crossover, I'd rather see them have fewer of them involved at all, so they aren't fighting as hard for screentime.

    I wonder what they'll do for their next crossover? Will it be another massive undertaking(pardon the pun) like Invasion? Will they so smaller ones with just characters from a pair of shows interacting? Will the action take place on Kara's Earth next time?

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  3. I really enjoyed it all, however, it seemed clear to me that they didn't know how to deal with Supergirl. She has such a specific character... she's not just a super powered being. Plus, she comes from a different universe... plus she's played by Melissa Benoist. I thought that was really a wasted opportunity.

    I do appreciate that these shows are dealing with the real consequences of time travel. And those consequences don't just easily go away.

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  4. Fun episode and crossover. I'm glad Stein didn't erase his daughter.
    Mick flirting with Kara was fun.
    Felicity vomiting and babbling was pretty funny.
    Not enough of Sara this time, and boo at benching Kara and Jax vanishing.

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  5. Star-spangled idiot was the best line ever and pretty much says how I feel about most of the costumes. Comic book purists might throw rotten tomatoes at me, but why do these characters still have to wear things like capes just because someone thought it was cool 50 years ago? Running away now, bye.

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