Title: Supergirl: “Elseworlds Part Three” Review
Release Date: December 11th, 2018
Network: The CW
Genre: Superhero, Drama, Action
(Major Spoilers for the Arrowverse “Elseworlds” crossover ahead)
It’s going to be hard to write about “Elseworlds” Part Three without gushing too much about the amazing teasers at the end.
Yes, “Crisis on Infinite Earths” has now been confirmed to be the next major crossover for the Arrowverse. This is an Endgame level story for this universe (sorry for the Marvel pun).
Seeing as Barry and Kara did not die at the end of “Elseworlds”, I don’t think the plan is to just kill them off next year. The Flash continues to be one of the most successful shows on The CW and Supergirl still seems to have a few great years left in the tank. However, Arrow may be on its last legs. Oliver talked The Monitor into saving Barry and Kara’s lives but at what cost? With Arrow reaching its end, things do not bode well for the Emerald Archer going forward. At least we got to enjoy one more bonding session between him and Barry. It just sucks that this may be the final time we see these two just chilling out at a bar.
I may be reading into things a little too much but it seems like Batwoman and Oliver are on course for another (small) crossover later this year. I’m totally on board with this. I was only disappointed with the Psycho-Pirate reveal at the end. Not because the insane guy turned out to be Psycho-Pirate but because I thought it was going to reveal a more notable Batman rogue. That’s really my own fault though so I won’t hold it against the episode.
Getting the ending out of the way, let’s move on to Supergirl (it was technically her episode after all). In Part One, I talked about how Clark, Lois, and Kara felt like an afterthought in the main story. Luckily, this conclusion put the focus primarily on them.
I’m not going to lie, I don’t watch Supergirl. Part of my reasoning is that I lost some interest after the mid-way point in Season Two and the other part is that I just didn’t have the time to invest in another Arrowverse show. Despite this, I didn’t feel all too lost in Kara’s story. I’ve always been a fan of Melissa Benoist as Supergirl and this episode was her time to outshine the guys. I found myself invested in her relationship with Earth-1 Alex, even though I had no idea what was going on with the two characters outside of the crossover.
Same goes for Tyler Hoechlin’s Superman. He’s underrated in the role and I don’t understand why DC won’t allow The CW to use him more often. It looks like they aren’t using the character in the movies anymore, why not let the boy scout be put to good use in the Arrowverse?
I’m not a big Superman fan. He’s fairly boring to me in most iterations. If this was the DCEU or any other version of the character, I would’ve rooted for the Injustice-like consequences to Lois’ impending death. There’s just something about Hoechlin’s Supes that is just…different. I can’t really put my finger on it.
The only negative here is Jeremy Davies’ John Deegan. It wasn’t even a negative, just weird. Since Deegan changed reality into a world where he was Superman, what was the point in bringing in a well-known actor like Davies as the doctor? It’s not like he got an ample amount of screen time beforehand. Maybe Davies returns next year for “Crisis on Infinite Earths” or in the Batwoman series. It was just something I found strange.
Here are just a few bullet points for some of my observations from Part Three of the “Elseworlds” crossover that didn’t make it in this review:
- Seeing Oliver and Barry play the “villains” was hilarious, as was Barry’s immediate reaction to it
- Where does Oliver keep getting these Kryptonite arrows from? It’s not like he has his own breacher to go to Earth-38
- I really hope Oliver lightens up just a little after this crossover. His character is so dark and brooding all the time. It won’t hurt for him to have some fun on his own show every once in a while
- It was nice that Superman rode off into the sunset with Lois but there’s no way he’s sitting out Crisis next year. I just hope, somehow, DC lets CW use Batman (if only for the crossover)
- The Superman v Superman fight was great. Hearing a civilian call the real Supes “Bizarro” was even better.
- The cameos from Supergirl were fun and, like Kara’s story, weren’t too confusing for a non-Supergirl fan to keep up with. That Brainiac guy was pretty cool
- I’m convinced Carlos Valdes can play any version of Cisco at this point to perfection. He’s been Vibe, Reverb, rich/selfish Cisco, and now Mr. Ramon (who sounded like a Chicago crime boss from the 1920s)
- The Legends did show up in this year’s crossover, just not in any way we would have thought. At this point, it wouldn’t surprise me if the Legends of Tomorrow writers had Gary defeat their big bad all by himself. Wait, I may have just given them the idea and they’re just crazy enough to do it. Forget I wrote that
Verdict: “Elseworlds” concluded by giving us everything we wanted and some. The thing is, they may just out-do themselves next year with “Crisis on Infinite Earths”. This was a character-driven story about Oliver, Barry, Kara, and Clark. Due to this, I was invested in almost every moment of the three-hour event. It had to set up so much. Batwoman. The 1990s Flash coming to Earth-1. Superman and Lois Lane. The Monitor. With all of this setup, I can only recall about 15-minutes of low points in “Elseworlds”. This and last year’s “Crisis on Earth-X” have definitely set the bar for TV superhero crossovers going forward.
What did you think about the ending of “Elseworlds”? Are you excited for “Crisis on Infinite Earths”? Let us know in the comments below!
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