Our SUPERGIRL, THE FLASH, ARROW and LEGENDS OF TOMORROW Writers Review the Crossover Event


The CW's mega crossover involving SUPERGIRL, THE FLASH, ARROW and LEGENDS OF TOMORROW has come and gone. The DailySuperHero.com beat writers took a moment to reflect and write a few words on the television event.



DC’s super four-episode crossover began on Monday with SUPERGIRL. Sadly, the episode of SUPERGIRL didn't have much to do in the way of the crossover. But she certainly had a present through the other three episodes. With her only being previously introduced to Barry, she definitely proved herself to the other characters.

The characters all interacted with each other with a ease. Although I enjoyed Curtis, Cisco and Felicity’s scenes' flow better. It was nice to see the Arrowverse characters all come together at least once. Especially newcomers like Supergirl (with Sara and Mick hilariously hitting on her), Nate and Amaya. It gives more leeway for singular characters to crossover.

It was nice that Barry finally had to be held responsible for messing with the timeline and affecting everyone , but with most of the team getting trapped in the alternate universe by the aliens in Arrow’s episode and part of the team changing history in 1951 they seemed to understand better what Barry was feeling.

The whole season of ARROW has felt stale. They're going back to Season 1 and not in a good way. They need to move forward. I felt that the 100th episode represented it reverting back to Season 1. I'm sure they wanted to take a cue from THE FLASH to show a "what if" storyline but I felt it could've gone better. The 100th episode should've been standalone from the crossover. However, it worked for the storyline and gives hope that Arrow improved.

However, overall, the crossover wrapped up nicely. The ending episode in LEGENDS OF TOMORROW was by far the best with a great use of the Waverider and having the teams between the 1950’s and present day. The Legends team and Supergirl got a send off and a party, with the latter being given a device to open up portals. As a whole the crossover was exciting and action packed as we got to see all the characters come together to kick alien butt. Here's hoping for more super crossovers like this.



With every year it seems the annual DCTV crossovers keep on getting bigger and bigger in scale. And in a lot of ways this makes sense — new shows and new characters keep on getting added to the roster, meaning that there’s more balls in the air than ever. There’s certainly no arguing with the fact that there’s an undeniable cool factor in getting as many heroes on-screen together as you can. But the set-up of these crossovers — splitting them into different parts that air as episodes of each individual show — doesn’t lend itself that well to making the most of these team-ups. THE FLASH episode will inevitably focus mostly on Barry, the ARROW episode will focus on Ollie and so on and so forth.

Instead of focusing on building the team dynamic or exploring the overarching storyline, the episode feels obligated to keep the titular character’s conflicts front and center depending on whose series it is. This doesn’t always mean the episode bad; the second half of the crossover was the strongest thing Arrow’s produced in quite a while. But it was very focused on Ollie and his inner circle, and none of the non-Arrow characters really had anything to do (with the exception of Sara and Ray, who were both originally ARROW characters). You’d hope that when you get a crossover, especially one that’s been hyped as much as this one was, that the characters from other shows would have something to contribute, and it wouldn’t just feel like a typical episode of the show with some more colorful background characters. It wasn’t until the final installment in LEGENDS OF TOMORROW that the screen time began to be more evenly divided, perhaps because it’s an ensemble piece and used to not having on focal character. There not only did we finally get some back story and motivation for the Dominators, but the team actually got to properly go into battle and come together in a significant way. And while that was certainly enjoyable, it felt too little too late in some ways.

I’m not sure if changing the format of these crossovers to a miniseries or TV movie is feasible or even if it would end up working out any better in the long run. But I do think if the network wants to keep doing these events annually, they need to seriously think about the characters they choose to include. What’s the point of bringing over Supergirl if she’s mostly going to sit in the corner while Barry broods? I know I for one would find the stories far more rewarding if the cast was smaller, but each hero was given something meaningful to do.



The DC crossover episodes have always been some of my favorite moments, and this week was no exception. With two universes to bring together, and a slew of characters in the throes of their own major problems, the writers had a giant task before them, but I think in the end they managed to bring everyone together while staying true to the feel of each show.

While I was disappointed that we didn’t get a full crossover episode out of Supergirl (I yelled, "Is it happening now?!" a lot while I waited), I was happy to see that once everyone got together they worked to create different melds of the team throughout the rest of the week. As the Legends girl, this meant I got to see the original crew members of the Waverider return to their old teammates for a bit. Heartfelt moments between Caitlin and Stein, just kill me this is so painful moments for Sara and Ollie (especially in that AU simulation), and pretty much everyone getting a chance to be mad at Barry (even if it wasn’t always warranted). And while the newbies, Nate and Amaya, didn’t really get to join us until the Legends episode, it worked to keep Thursday night feeling like it was centered around the Legends while playing to the crossover as a whole.

Overall, I loved the excitement of DC Week. The core of the Invasion storyline was there, the Dominators looked wicked, and there were so many amazing fangirl / fanboy moments it was hard not to scream with excitement (no seriously, I’ve had to re-watch every episode to hear what I missed from screaming). If this was the precedent we’re setting for building our DCTV version of the Justice League, then sign me up because I’m ready to pledge my allegiance to the squad.



Overall I enjoyed the crossover and hope they do it more than once a season, though twice a year might me asking for too much. I thought it was a shame the SUPERGIRL episode wasn't actually part of the main crossover, though I did enjoy that Barry and Cisco trying to reach her with their breach portals played into Supergirl's story. The introduction of the portal device in the final episode seems to mean crossovers with Supergirl should be a little more streamlined in future — which is great because I think she's my favourite of The CW heroes.

THE FLASH episode was my favourite of the crossover, with all the heroes meeting each other and having to deal with the wider issues beyond their villain of the week, such as their entire world coming under threat and the revelation that Barry changed the timeline, especially affecting Diggle and his family which was mind-bending. In the past I've said of movies like THE AVENGERS that I could spend two hours just watching these characters talk and interact and that holds true here, seeing them

I feel the fact the ARROW episode was also its 100th episode was to its weakness rather than its strength as it wasn't really a crossover episode but more an isolated ARROW special, which was a shame. The LEGENDS OF TOMORROW finale felt a little rushed but I loved that it dealt with the prospect of humanity growing and dealing with the consequences of the emergence of meta-humans, a theme I've loved in the past when explored in comics. Also the ending, with Barry and Oliver sharing a beer was simply beautiful, ending on a real hopeful tone showing that its the human characters that make these stories, not necessarily the powers.


Related Posts:
The CW Mega Crossover Event, Part 1 of 4: SUPERGIRL

The CW Mega Crossover Event, Part 2 of 4: THE FLASH

The CW Mega Crossover Event, Part 3 of 4: ARROW

The CW Mega Crossover Event, Part 4 of 4: LEGENDS OF TOMORROW