Elseworlds

OK, it’s been a week since the Elseworlds crossover event for the CW’s Arrowverse shows. We waited until this weekend to watch the whole thing in one epic throwdown. And it's taken me until now to wrap my thoughts around it.  

The event started off with a very fun premise, a body swap (or life swap if you will) between Barry Allen and Oliver Queen. Oliver wakes up in Barry’s bed with everyone convinced he’s Barry Allen even though he still looks like Stephen Amell but with the powers of the Flash.  Meanwhile, a very Grant Gustin looking Oliver Queen is suiting up and slinging arrows in Star City. Both Barry and Oliver are the only ones who see what’s wrong with this, that everyone on Earth sees each of them as the other.

Well, everyone on this Earth. A quick vibe trip to Earth 38 shows that Supergirl can still tell the difference and recognizes Oliver as Oliver and Barry as Barry.

(Plot hole? While the identity mix-up seems limited to Earth 1, the power and skill swap still holds up on Earth 38 where Oliver still has Flash powers and Barry is an ace with the bow and arrow.)

Ongoing point of debate throughout this series: is what's going on with Barry and Oliver more Freaky Friday or Quantum Leap?    

The visit with Supergirl takes place on the Kent farm where Kara is helping Clark and Lois clean up the place for Ma Kent.

(The Kent farm set is the same one used for the Smallville TV series including accompaniment by Smallville theme music.) 

Tyler Hoechlin is back as Clark Kent/Superman which is cool by me. Tyler should be the official Superman for all things live action, TV and movies. And we meet for the  Arrowverse Lois Lane for the first time, played by Elizabeth Tulloch with a deft merging of flinty edge and playful irreverence that recalls Margot Kidder’s turn as Lois in the Superman movies of the 1970’s. 

 

So the super cousins join Barry/Green Arrow and Oliver/Flash back to Earth 1 where they battle Amazo, an android that absorbs powers. Superman heads back to Earth 38 while Supergirl sticks around to help Barry and Oliver.

 

Thanks to an extremely helpful plot specific vision Cisco Ramone had while “vibing”, our heroes get a lead on a mysterious dude with a cape, armor and  mutton chop sideburns (The Monitor) who has given a mysterious book of mysterious power to some scrawny dude named John Deegan for some mysterious purpose. 

(The name “John Deegan” is not far removed from “John Dee” which was the real name of Doctor Destiny, a villain from the comic books with a skull for a head and penchant for trying to take over the world using dreams.)    

And it seems John Deegan is in Gotham City. Barry’s excited to go to the hometown of the infamous Batman while Oliver insists the Batman is an urban myth created by the Gotham Police.  

(If Batman were not real, that would make Green Arrow the first costumed urban vigilante. But I’m sure that has no bearing on Oliver’s perspective.)   

A bat is watching over Gotham but it ain’t the Batman who hasn’t been seen in Gotham City in 3 years.  Nope, Gotham’ guardian bat is Batwoman, AKA Kate Kane, Bruce Wayne’s cousin. Her attitude towards super hero interlopers in her city isn’t any more benign than her cousin’s. Our trio of heroes find themselves in a swirl of chaos at (where else) arkham Asylum. Batwoman crashes the party in fierce style and effectively rounds up a whole mess of escaping inmates.   

(Among the inmates is a dude with a gold face mask, like the one worn in the comics by the super villain Psycho-Pirate. This will be relevant much, much later.) 

Barry asks for a ride in the Batmobile which is greeted with a grimace and a growl from Batwoman (the answer is “no”, Barry). Still, she gets along great with Supergirl who quickly susses out that Batwoman is Kate Kane (x-ray vision, you know) while Batwoman shows off she knows Supergirl is Kara Danvers (because, duh!). Kudos to Ruby Rose for making a forminable impact in her brief appearances as Kate Kane and Batwoman. I hope the forthcoming solo project turns out well enough for the CW to pick Batwoman as a new series.  

 

Also appearing in Elseworlds is John Wesley Shipp who is no stranger to the current Flash TV series, appearing previously as Jay Garrick, the Flash of Earth 2. But here, Shipp is Barry Allen, the Flash of Earth 90. Back in 1990, Shipp starred in a Flash TV series that aired for a single season on CBS. Here, Shipp reprises that role as a refugee from an alternate Earth devastated by the chaos unleashed by the Monitor.

 

Our heroes are able to procure the great big book of everything. Barry and Oliver are restored to who they are supposed to be but only to have the Monitor hand wave the book back to John Deegan who uses the book to make himself Superman!

 

(OK, it appears the book only works for the Earth it is on. Earth 1 has no info on Superman but it does have info on Supergirl who has been to this world for at least 2 prior crossover events. So technically speaking, John turns himself into Supergirl but as a man. Maybe because, as Kara put it, he’s too scared to become a woman? Ooh, sick burn, Kara!) 

 

Superman pops back over from Earth 38 and super powered ass kicking ensues. Even Martian Manhunter, Braniac 5 and Lois Lane (with Thor’s hammer?) joins in the fun.

 

But Deegan’s use of the book is creating chaos at a dangerous, potentially world ending rate. The only way to save the day is for Flash and Supergirl to fly around real fast to slow down time. But Superman caught a glimpse of the book and the future that it foretold: Flash and Supergirl will die.

 

Meanwhile, Green Arrow confronts the Monitor that all of what’s going is bullshit. The Monitor sees a great danger coming that only the best heroes can hope defeat. The Monitor is looking for heroes strong enough to face the coming crisis. Oliver points out there are no better heroes that Barry and Kara and if they die in this kerfluffle John Deegan’s conjuring out of the big book, what chance do we have?

 

Monitor says Flash and Supergirl can be spared but the universe demands balance. What does Green Arrow offer in return?

 

While Flash and Supergirl push past their mortal limits to slow down time and save the world, Green Arrow shows up with a blue glowing arrow that he shoots at John Deegan and the great big book of everything which goes ka-blooey, taking out Deegan as Superman as the book falls to the ground a charred relic.  

 

Everything is normal again! Yaaaaaayyyyyyyyy!!!!!

 

Back on Earth 38, Superman tells Supergirl he trusts her to look after the Earth because he and Lois are heading back to Argo City. It seems Lois is pregnant and having the baby on Argo City where the baby won’t be super powered and possibly kill Lois. 

 

Back on Earth 1, Barry and Oliver are sharing a beer and commiserating about what they’ve learned about each other and themselves while they swapped lives. Then Oliver gets a phone call… from Batwoman.

 

Seens John Deegan (whose head is emaciated nearly down to his skull) has made a friend.

 

In the cell next to him is Psycho-Pirate who tells John that things are happening that they should be. There’s a crisis coming, worlds will live, worlds will die and the universe will never be the same.

 

Cue the graphic…

 

Coming in Fall 2019.  

Crisis on Infinite Earths!

 

Cue this aged fan boy going….

 

Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!

As much as I enjoyed the sheer comic book thrill of last year's Crisis on Earth X, Elseworlds was even more fun. The interplay between Stephen Amell and Grant Gustin as they have to portray versions of each other is a lot of fun to watch and provided a very strong character arc though the event.

Kara, Oliver and Barry are a engaging team to watch. After a few of these events, there's a sense of familiarity between the three that is engaging. Kara notes at one point that this sort of thing seems to happen every year.  

But the big story at the end is what Elseworlds is building to, an Arrowverse version of the first, biggest and best comic book event series, Crisis on Infinite Earths!

I am so stoked!