Heroes v Aliens review

So, the 4 DC superhero shows are crossing over this week and they’re fighting the alien despots known as the dominators. This is big, so big I’m coming back for one last review, even reviewing an episode of a season I haven’t been watching.

Part 1 - Supergirl – Medusa

OK, calling this part 1 might be pushing it a little. This episode barely does anything to establish the crossover at all and instead decides to focus on developing what I presume are ongoing battles in Supergirl’s main series.

This is fine for ongoing watchers who have stuck with the series but for newcomers this can be a bit off-putting. And yes, they should expect newcomers in the beginning of a crossover, since gaining new viewership is the purpose of crossovers.

OK, let’s make a note of the story itself. Kara’s blood was taken in a previous episode somehow by CADMUS and Cyborg Superman, CADMUS have used it to enter the fortress of solitude which is now blood controlled (go figure) and holds the secret to ancient Kryptonian virus to wipe out aliens and yes, this is one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard.

“We’re sending our baby to another planet”

“Let’s be sure to give her the secret of wiping out the indigenous population”

Speaking of, since the virus was supposed to wipe out non-kryptonians, why are the humans ok? Did CADMUS modify it? I would like to know how, it’s not exactly human science. And they seem to have confused virus with chemical since viruses are living organisms not chemical sprays. All I know I feel like it could be used for an easy out when it comes to the Dominators, who I don’t think show up in the entire episode as they’re hinting at some other alien threat for another episode.

Meanwhile, they copied a plotline from Young Justice and had Miss Martian save Martian Manhunter’s life through a blood transfusion and something going awry, this case J’onn being poisoned by White Martian DNA. Oh, and we have one of the side characters admitting herself to be gay which would probably have been better in a non-crossover episode because as a newcomer I don’t care.

There is a careful balance to be had when there’s a crossover. This episode should absolutely have been about Supergirl and probably feature her supporting cast more prominently but as the first part of one it also has the duty to set things up for the coming episodes and beyond the Flash and Cisco showing up in the final seconds of the episode, nothing is done to set up anything whatsoever.

As its own story, this would be a decent episode if not without its stupid moments, as the first part of a crossover, however, it’s ultimately an epic fail

Rating 6/10

Part 2 - Invasion!

OK, so whilst I’ve not been fully up to date on the Flash, I only watched where they completely butchered Mirror Master. I have a vague idea of what’s going on since I do read things on the internet and Flash is a show I used to watch, so occasionally I see articles about it.

So in this part of Heroes vs Aliens the heroes don’t really fight the aliens, again. Look, as a crossover this is mind-numbingly tedious pacing. Push your subplots aside or have them develop in the background and don’t make them a major part of the plot and just craft a simple story in which big teams of heroes fight aliens. Of course, we know why from a practical standpoint, the Dominators are entirely cgi creatures and cgi costs money. If you’re not invested in the Flash, it’s likely you’ll be disappointed on how much it focuses on the Flash’s running plot threads.

OK, so let’s get to it. Barry went back and saved his mother, completely undoing any character development from the second season in the process, in doing so he created a universe known as Flashpoint which was OK for a few weeks and then had issues so Barry decided to stop it. In doing so he changed reality in more subtle ways, weirdly specific subtle ways when you think about it.  

So, what’s changed. Diggle’s daughter is now the son we saw earlier in Legends of Tomorrow, Caitlin has killer frost powers and some dormant evil personality taking over when she uses them and Cisco’s brother is dead. Cisco recently found out about his brother’s death being Barry’s fault and there’s some friction there that drives the plot for the majority of the episode. And leads to Cisco doing something really stupid and wrap the entire in personal drama in the middle of a mission. I know secrets and lies is a driving force in all of these series but Oliver was right for once, time and a place! In fact, you know what, screw it, this one’s for you, Cisco

  

So, with the threat of the Dominators explained to them by Nyla, held back by her government stooges working for the now dead president, Barry assembles all the heroes he knows. And it’s an impressive sight to see them together. We spend much of the episode with them fighting each other in a setup that’s eerily similar to last year’s Flash vs Arrow.

The thing is, Flash vs Arrow was the first part of a crossover, this is supposedly the second and did all the setup work it shouldn’t have had to do, and it did it quickly to… spend the rest of the episode dawdling on personal drama.

Speaking of the Dominators, I know very little about their comic counterparts but they don’t seem very well defined beyond ‘evil aliens.’ They also have a very generic look which doesn’t help. Nor does the fact that they have the upper hand on the heroes and seem to do nothing with it.

So, we find out about the message from future Barry in this episode, nice to see we get payoff to something established in a completely different show. Anyway, Barry warns Rip about the consequences of Flashpoint, that’s really it. If you’re expecting something juicier, prepare to be disappointed. Why was this kept a secret from the others again?

OK, so I’ve said before the trope “I’m lying to protect you” needs to die in a fire. A good example of it not being used well is with the Wally West subplot. They don’t want Wally to go out despite being better than the Flash was, so they lie and say he needs some more tests. Clearly Wally is a bit hot-headed and ends up injured in the end of the episode, but still this trope seriously needs to die.

One thing I like is that Ollie is totally on Barry’s side and totally understands and even says he might’ve done the same thing, although it is a little hollow given that Oliver was not affected by the changes.

As a crossover, the pacing is slow but at least there’s actual crossover in this one and the strings are starting to come together. As an episode of the Flash it’s relatively standard affair. I’ve not even mentioned the other Harrison Wells because I just don’t care, no doubt he has some secret that will do something in due course.

Rating 6.5/10

Part 3 - Arrow – Invasion! (again)

So, as well as being the third part of a crossover, this is also Arrow’s 100^th episode and these two big things kinda find themselves at cross-purposes here.

As the 100^th episode, it’s actually pretty good. The human characters (except heatwave, oddly) find themselves in the perfect reality for them. Oliver and Thea both have living parents, Malcolm and Laurel are also still alive, Andy Diggle is still alive, Ray is engaged to Felicity and Sara lacks the baggage that the League left her with.

It’s a demonstration of how far people have come and it’s handled well with some great guest appearances of former cast members. I have a few quibbles. One, why is John Diggle the new Green Arrow? His justification is he has sins to atone for but why would he in his perfect reality? I think it would’ve worked better if he was like a dream guardian like he is in the Batman: The Animated Series episode Perchance to Dream, which this episode resembles a lot, it would’ve been interesting to see them battle themselves as opposed to supervillains, although they were a neat touch. The second minor quibble is the remaining cameos persuading Oliver to go through the portal after he’d made up his mind. It’s a standard plotline but it’s handled well and I have no major complaints about this segment.

I can’t really say too much about the rest of it. I haven’t really been watching Arrow religiously since season 3 (although I have seen episodes of 4 here and there) and I don’t know who half the characters are. Aside from their subplot being a fetch quest which only minimally advances the plot, my major issue is with the “I hate metahumans” *saved by metahuman* “I’m glad you’re on our side” it comes out of nowhere and makes the character look incredibly shallow, and it’s also entirely unnecessary. I like the Flash and Supergirl together. That is all.

OK, I’ve talked about this as Arrow’s 100^th episode but I can’t ignore the fact that as the third part of this “heroes vs aliens” crossover, we’re still setting a mind-numbing pace. Nothing much happens in this episode which is a problem as nothing much happened in the previous 2 either. The 100^th episode should’ve been a separate thing, it could’ve even have followed this plotline, maybe in a manner similar to Perchance to Dream where the heroes walk into a trap. Switch a few characters around and blamo, you get the same story more or less.

Oh and apparently they cut out Artemis who last week was revealed to be a traitor to Prometheus (f*ck you for that by the way)

Overall it’s a solid 100^th episode but a terrible crossover

Rating 7/10

Part 4 - Legends of Tomorrow – Invasion! (seriously?)

Trust legends of Tomorrow to be the one to pick up the slack, when it has the single largest cast of the 4 shows.

So, this was the best episode of the bunch as a part of crossover. Why? Because we actually get what the title promised. Heroes vs Aliens!

Better yet, we get a better indication of what the aliens actually want, that being to wipe out metahumans which could later become a threat. This is more information about the aliens than we got in the last 3 episodes and they really should’ve given us more.

Honestly, until this episode I’d completely forgotten about Vixen (speaking of, where is the present-day version in all this?) but it’s nice to see her back and kicking ass.

Honestly, this episode is probably the least relevant to the series than any of the others. I mean we still have Professor Stein getting the used to the idea of having a daughter he didn’t have before but that’s a plotline that was established in the crossover (something I neglected to mention in the Flash) so I’m far more forgiving of it for that reason, and here we discover that I was wrong when I initially thought this was a consequence of Flashpoint, it was actually his own actions from an episode I didn’t watch) actually, him talking to Caitlin and then to Jefferson was a highlight of the episode.

As Legends casts, Sara, Rory and Ray take a pretty big back seat in this episode, with the case of 2 of them, they had some focus in the Arrow episode so I’m not too worried about that.

OK, issues, the government angle. I feel this was a more a hindrance to the crossover than it was a help. I get that Douchy-McAsshole figure had some connection to the Dominator’s original attack but that really only existed to get a time travel segment on the show, and to get Cisco out of his funk (nice of that to happen not in the Flash)

Then there’s the way the Dominators are ultimately defeated. I dunno, it felt liked they backed away too easily although it does open up a possibility for them to return. I don’t think they have the budget for them to reappear any time soon and I get the moral compassion that heroes have but I’d prefer they’d give a more permanent out to them.

Also, Supergirl seems to disappear and re-appear at random during the fight and Oliver’s beef with her was, at best, forced.

But overall I feel this is the strongest episode of the crossover and honestly the strongest episode of Legends I’ve seen.

Rating 8/10

Images/clips used in this review are from Heroes vs Aliens and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use