MEDUSA – A Five Part Discussion on the CW Superheroes Crossover, Part 5: Wrapping Up

Well folks, here we are with our wall to wall coverage of “Invasion,” the ‘Aliens Vs. Superheroes’ crossover on the CW. Aside from the tagline being silly (because, you know, Supergirl is an alien), this is a genuinely exciting event. Alice and Brian, our usual CW reviewers, will be discussing the crossover, show by show, and then wrapping up by talking about the crossover as a whole. Keep reading for MEDUSA – Multiversity’s Extended Discussion Unto Superhero Action!

Part 5: Wrapping Up

Brian: So, the event is behind us, we’ve seen all four parts, and we have a pretty good idea of where each show is going, at least in the short term, leading away from this event. As a whole, what did you make of “Invasion?”

Alice: In hindsight, I actually really enjoyed ‘Invasion!’. I had no real doubt in my mind that wouldn’t enjoy it, but I feel like each episode did a good job of capturing some of the best aspects of each show and reminding everyone why we tune in each week.

Brian: I’m still a little sore about the lack of Supergirl in the crossover, but aside from that, I’m with you. I know we came down hard on The Flash in particular, but when viewed as a piece of the bigger event, it worked.

One thing that struck me was just how much each show retained its own feel, but also felt apiece with the other shows, which isn’t always the case. Some weeks, Legends of Tomorrow couldn’t feel further from Arrow even if it tried. That wasn’t the case here, and it gave a nice, well-rounded view of what the CW is putting on TV week after week.

Alice: Yeah, I still lament the fact that Supergirl getting a proper mid-season finale came at the expense of really feeling like a part of this crossover. During the episodes, I feel like the writers kind of kept her back in order for her to not simply overpower the other characters (Ollie pretty much admits as much in the Legends episode), but not having any of her supporting characters be a part of it either made her feel pretty isolated in this whole thing.

I mean, how cool would it have been to have Supergirl and Martian Manhunter help these guys against an alien invasion? For Alex to mingle with Sara, Dig and the rest of the non-powers having badasses? For Winn to nerd out with Cisco, Felicity and the others?

I know it would have expanded the logistics of filming exponentially, but Supergirl is currently the odd duck of the CW slate and I feel like this crossover could have helped integrate the show with the others a bit more, but alas.

Brian: I don’t think you’re wrong, but I also think that we will see that next time. It only makes sense that the next time there’s a big crossover, it’ll be Kara coming for help. God, can you imagine seeing Superman, Martian Manhunter, and Supergirl showing these other heroes around their world? Pinch me, Alice…

I was thinking a lot about the mechanics of these shows, as well as the financial reality, and I’m beginning to wonder if Legends of Tomorrow makes it another year, or if it will, instead, only be a tool for these crossovers a few times a year. Like, instead of 16 episodes or whatever, if they were just 8, but all 8 were crossover episodes?

I hope that’s not the case, but I could see it that way.

Can I make a somewhat tangential observation? Remember earlier this year, when Katie Cassidy, John Barrowman, and Wentworth Miller signed their “all over the CW” contracts, which let them appear on all four shows? So far, we’ve only seen Miller on The Flash, and Barrowman and Cassidy on Arrow – I know Miller is popping up on Legends next week, but doesn’t it strike you as odd that this hasn’t been taken advantage of more?

It does make me wonder if these sort of deals, limited as though they are, aren’t the way forward for the Legends if the show doesn’t get a season 3. Not that I have any inside info, I could just see that show being ditched for a more focused show (and, probably, a cheaper, less special effects-heavy production).

Alice: Yeah, I feel like, as much as I enjoyed the concept of the first season and how it directly tied in Vandal Savage, it’s kind of hampered by the fact that it’s now solely a time travel show with a bunch of misfit characters. Like, giving these characters a place to exist outside of the shows they were introduced in allows them to develop without being directly tied to whatever’s going on in whatever show they originated in. I don’t think Firestorm or White Canary or Atom or, hell, even Captain Cold (who was already interesting, admittedly) would be half as interesting without them getting the spotlight in Legends Of Tomorrow.

I think what I’d hope for is less of a cancellation for Legends and more of a rebranding. We’ve mentioned that each episode of this crossover ended with a sense of what’s to come for each show and Legends ended with our heroes assembled in the Hall Of Justice, standing in a line in front of the American flag being thanked by the President for saving the entire world. I can’t be the only one who saw that and finally saw CW’s Justice League.

Now, obviously, there’s a fat chance of them actually calling the show CW’s Justice League what with that little feature film due to drop next year, but I think a show in the formula of Legends‘ first season, with a group of heroes coming together to face a larger than life villain could excel if it wasn’t beholden to the time travel idea.

Brian: To be fair, this season has been a slow burn thus far, but the big bad is the “Legion of Doom,” aka Damien Dark, the Reverse Flash and (supposedly, though not shown yet) Malcolm Merlyn and Captain Cold. It is taking its sweet ass time getting there, but that’s the rumored plan.

I was thinking about this last night though, as we saw the team in the Faux of Justice, there’s a very good chance that Justice League flops, and we wind up with a show in 2-3 years under that name, with many of these characters. Especially if they include Superman and Martian Manhunter – you throw the Flash, Green Arrow, the Atom, Vixen, and Firestorm – shit, that’s a more authentic League than we’re probably going to get in the Zack Snyder film.

But let’s get back on track here: was there anything in the crossover that you thought hurt the shows in any way? Is there going to be any collateral damage – not storyline wise, but from a broader sense – from these episodes?

Alice: Hmm, that’s a good question and I’m honestly quite sure. I feel like most of these shows used this crossover to get themselves back on track. Even though Supergirl‘s episode was largely unrelated, it really felt like a proper return to form after a couple of dreary and bloated episodes that didn’t feel true to the identity of the show. Even though The Flash‘s episode really focused on other characters learning about Flashpoint, by the end of the crossover it felt like a lot of it had been resolved in order for the story to move past it.

I think if there’s one thing, it’s Legends Of Tomorrow. We know that because of this crossover more eyes were on Legends than ever before. However, I don’t know if that episode particularly sold the show as much as the episodes of Flash and Arrow. We got to spend time with Steel and Vixen, sure, and we saw Stein and Jax and Sara, Ray and Mick throughout the crossover, but did we ever really get a sense of who the Legends are as a team?

I think, because most of the team outside of Steel and Vixen ended up drifting back to being supporting characters in their originating shows, like how Sara and Ray were more a part of Arrow‘s episode than Legends, we never really got to see the team operating as a unit. I would have liked to have seen that a bit more and have them sell the concept to viewers who hadn’t checked it out before. Maybe they could have had the whole team go back to the 50s instead of just the three of them taking Cisco and Felicity with them?

What about you? What are your thoughts on this?

Brian: To borrow a baseball metaphor, sometimes a player who doesn’t normally have a lot of power will get on a good streak of hitting home runs, which can lead to them getting ‘home run happy.’ In other words, they change what they do well to seek out the home run, and potentially develop bad habits. I can see these shows relying too much on some of the things that made the crossover successful in the future. The good news is that most of the season is probably shot already, so this won’t really be a problem until next season.

But seeing the ratings for a week of cramming every hero onto the screen could let next crossover be even more of a clusterfuck. What I would rather see is smaller, more focused crossovers during the year, to give us those great character moments and let stories develop, and then let the 4-parter really be the big battle we want, rather than try to cram all of that into 175 or so minutes of television.

Alice: Yeah, I think smaller crossovers throughout the season that focus on one or two characters from one show popping in to another to help deal with a specific threat (“Hey, look! Green Arrow showed up in Supergirl this week! And next week Martian Manhunter is helping out the Legends!) would be cool to see, but I also worry about us hitting crossover fatigue.

This year’s crossover felt pretty special just because of how much larger the world has become since last year’s crossover, which felt special because it was launching a whole new show and a whole new part of the universe. What about next year? How do you top this without it becoming bloated and unfocused.

I worry about CW hitting the same kind of crossover saturation the MCU has hit. While it was cool in the beginning to see Nick Fury talk to Iron Man about the Avengers, by the time Age Of Ultron the novelty has worn off and they could no longer simply capitalise on seeing these characters assembled. It’s become pretty commonplace for citizens of Star and Central to come and go and now Kara can dimension jump like it’s nobody’s business.

I hope if there is another larger crossover next year, it’s focused more on the tackling of a threat than the novelty of seeing these characters come together.

Brian: This would never happen, but do you know what would give them the most insane ratings boost of all time, use inter-dimensional travel to its highest, and be an incredible advertisement? Have Jason Momoa or Ray Fisher show up.

Alice: You’re right. That would never happen, also I’d likely hate it unless it featured a scene of Tyler Hochelin’s Superman lecturing Henry Cavill’s Superman.

So now that we’re pretty much closing out the first half of the seasons for these shows, how do you think things have been shaping up?

Brian: In my mind, that crossover would be all about how they’ve been doing things wrong on Earth-Shit, and how they need to work together more and wear brighter colors.

I said this to you about Arrow a few days ago, but this is the best the show has been since season 2, and it feels like it is finally figuring out what works and what doesn’t. Right now, there are a number of interesting irons in the fire – who is Vigilante? who is Prometheus? Why did Artemis betray Team Arrow? – that will likely begin to resolve with the episodes directly following the holiday break. I’m genuinely excited to watch each week, which is something that hasn’t been true in a long time.

The Flash has been so dark, but hopefully this crossover pulled them back into the light a little. I’m not thrilled at H.R. training Wally, but it gives them both something to do while the other characters deal with the more pressing plot points. I’m not thrilled that Savitar is the big bad, if only because this show has done enough speedsters for a few years, but I still get a jolt (pardon the pun) whenever the show does something amazingly Silver Age-y and cool, so I’m hoping for more of that.

Legends needs to get its big bad(s) in order, and put forth a more compelling plot. While certain episodes are fun, we need to get back to the main story: stopping who killed Rex Tyler, and stopping them from messing with history at every turn. Also, I can’t believe we’re not going to see Rip Hunter soon, as he’s been gone for half the season now and, as far as I know, he’s not written off the show.

What about for Supergirl? And, has any of this made you want to catch up with the other CW shows?

Alice: The downside of this crossover is that Supergirl was a bit of a non-entity in this whole thing. She showed up, she had some pretty cool interactions with some of the gang and was introduced to this Earth, but there wasn’t much for her beyond that.

I think I hope above all that her Earth and supporting cast are able to be in future crossovers so she doesn’t feel so isolated. That being said, that mid-season finale felt a lot more like the Supergirl I’m used to seeing than the previous couple of episodes. I hope the show remembers to parse down it’s plot lines instead of trying to accomplish everything in one episode.

I will say, this crossover did galvanise me to dive back into the other shows. Knowing The Flash digs itself out of the Flashpoint hole eventually will likely make me check out the beginning of the season again. I’m reminded of how fun Legends Of Tomorrow when it’s really on and despite mostly disliking Arrow, that 100th episode reminded me that there’s a good show hidden in there if they just remember to showcase it.

Brian: If it got you interested in all three shows, then this truly was a CW miracle.

Alice: A CW holiday miracle.

I think that’s really the conclusion we’ve both come to about this crossover. It wasn’t perfect, by any stretch, but it did do a lot to showcase what makes these shows worth watching. The connected element isn’t just a crutch or a novelty, but a way to elevate the importance of each show in connection to one another. Arrow wouldn’t be where it is without the response to The Flash. The Flash wouldn’t exist without Arrow. Legends Of Tomorrow takes the side-characters that wouldn’t otherwise get a lot of attention from either show and gives them a grander spotlight. And while Supergirl may be a strange visitor from another network, she’s been wholeheartedly accept by her new family on Earth-CW.

No matter the missteps, the folks behind these shows understand the appeal of superheroes is to make the life feel a little brighter even if it is just for an hour at a time, and these four episodes made this whole week a little brighter.

Brian: See ya next year, Alice! Same CW-time, same CW-channel.