With Crisis on Earth X, having been over for a few weeks, I think it is safe to say it might not have lived up to the reputation of Invasion! The deeper we get into the actual meat of this crossover, the smaller the conflict between the Earth and the Nazi's feel. I hope the writers pull some serious cards out of their sleeves because as a story, this feels like it needed some work.
This episode peaked quite early with the reveal of Prometheus as Tommy Merlyn. And while it is a cool twist, one wonders why the first episode didn't end with that as the cliffhanger instead of the generic reveal of the Dark Archer and Overgirl's identity. However, it was great to see Tommy's original actor, Colin Donnell back in action no matter how briefly. And I will assume this was a nod to the idea surfing the internet during Season 5 that Tommy would have been Prometheus. In way, all those people who said this were right.
Overgirl, (Mellisa Benoist), shows us how Supergirl gone rogue would look without Red Kryptonite.
It is a shame then that is episode struggled after that reveal. One of the biggest problems with this crossover is that the Nazi characters aren't as overwhelming as the Dominators. When you are faced with three meta-humans and an army of dispensable footsoldiers, bringing all these shows together feels a little like overkill. So far with these episodes, the solution to this problem seems to be to keep the collective power of Team Arrow, Flash, Supergirl and Legends down on the threat. The in-universe logic of it all seemed a little questionable as well. While the conclusion went a great way to rectifying things, we are still seeing heroes go through the motions until their combined might can bring the baddies down.
What also didn't help was that this episode seemed to struggle with the interpersonal relationships between all the characters. It was one thing for Part 1 to focus on Barry and Iris but it would have been nice to see Part 2 expand their battle with the Nazi's. If Barry and Iris can move on from the fact that their wedding was ruined, then surely Oliver and Felicity can bottle their problems for a little while?!
Where this episode did succeed was with its humanizing of their baddies. We get to see the relationship between the Dark Archer and Overgirl and we understand why they are doing what they are doing. And it was fun to see Stephen Amell and Mellisa Benoist play different shades of their familiar characters. While Amell is becoming a pro at that, there is a novelty in seeing Benoist doing it too. The pair share some brilliant chemistry, so much so that maybe there should be Supergirl/Arrow crossover episode at some point. But I wish they would stop wearing those stupid voice changing masks. Now we know for certain who they are they are a bit redundant.
Dark Archer, (Stephen Amell), The Reverse Flash, (Tom Cavanagh) and Overgirl, (Mellisa Benoist), look on approvingly at their dasterdly plan!
I also liked how the Reverse Flash is the same one from Season 1 of The Flash, it works at being a lot more meaningful. What impact would there be in learning that Earth X's version of the Reverse Flash would be as evil as ours? However, it would be nice if the writers would leave the Reverse Flash alone, given his fate at the end of Legends of Tomorrow Season 2. Surely it would be better if Barry dealt with the resurgeance of Eobard now?
As cool as this reveal is, it makes you wonder if Earth X has their own version of the evil speedster? Or is Barry Allen the Fuher that everyone keeps refering too? That could be fun to see and it would be nice to see Tyler Hoechlin making a Superman appearence as Overman.
But despite having a fantastic director in the form of James Bamford, Part 2 of Crisis on Earth X is something of a mixed bag on the action front. One has to wonder if there was a bit of a problem going from the martial arts combat in Arrow to the special effects-crazed action thanks to the presence of Metahumans? Bamford's use of wide shots to show all the heroes fighting didn't really do justice to the final sequence in the warehouse. Those wide-shots only obscured the action. Dark Archer's attack on STAR Labs was much more successful as it was more in Arrow's wheelhouse.
Ignoring those little problems though, one can't complain about all the little character pieces. Mick's continued obsession with Killer Frost is hillarious and Oliver unloading a Kryptonite arrow on Overgirl was cool, reminding us that he is the un-designated badass in the Arrowverse. It was also nice to see a new version of Metallo get unleashed too.
I really do hope that things start to click with Part 3 in The Flash. With this episode ending with our heroes trapped on Earth X, it feels like the crossover can really begin. Events occur in this episode which see our heroes' numbers diminished, so surely now there is some sense of danger? While these first two episodes have been amusing, Crisis on Earth X still needs that something more...
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