Superhero Weekly: The Adventures of Supergirl, Flash’s Paradox and Arrow’s The Recruits

Spoilers will spoil.

It’s time to see how Supergirl flies in the CW universe and I’m glad to say that was a very strong episode of a premiere. Yes, Superman finally has a face. Now, I always had mixed feelings about Superman coming in to save the day in the first season, but this episode actually humanizes him -in comic-style bright colours- and brings him down to Earth. The whole point of this move seems not to bring “new” Superman (Tyler Hoechlin) into Supergirl’s world but Clark Kent into Kara’s. The episode was full of little shoutouts to Richard Donner’s original Superman film and did a brilliant job of setting up a larger stage. Lena Luthor is also introduced as a new character, one that may not share Lex’s penchant for taking over the world. There’s back history between J’onn and Supes and finally, this proved still to be Kara’s show. At the heart, there’s still Kara taking advice from Cat Grant, and lovingly choosing to become a reporter for the best reasons.

You can tell I just want to wait for the highs and lows to discuss the easter eggs of this episode. That was a solid premiere episode for the new Supergirl and gives me hopes that we’re in for a less flaky and more thought out story line.

The Flash has returned to a timeline that is closer to the one he left, but not quite the same. Iris and Joe are not talking. As it turns out they’re just a reconciliation chat away, but the fact that Barry tries to force that conversation just stirs up trouble. Much worse is the dampening of Cisco’s usually cheerful attitude. Turns out his brother Dante died in the retconning. That and the Rival reappearing after regaining his powers from the mysterious Dr. Alchemy would seem too much to handle. However, the real cherry on top is Julian Albert (Tom Felton). I wasn’t much interested in the Rival showing up. Dr. Alchemy seemed more intriguing. Time will tell if he turns out to be Julian, but the idea that he’s making everyone gain their possible inner metahuman abilities is a lot to digest. Barry’s stare at Wally West speaks volumes.

The Rival was a weak villain, but the scene that shone the best was Barry running (literally) into Jay Garrick, aka Earth 2’s The Flash, who is keeping an eye on him somehow. I found it refreshing to hear that the timeline cannot be fixed. It literally means you have to live with the choices you make and you don’t get another do-over.

I’m going to aim right to the center with Arrow this time. It’s hard to get excited about the recruits. I appreciated the more soap-opera-ish elements have been toned down, but the whole Oliver as major now seems to be interfering every single time. What I did like was Ragman. As it turns out the archer that looks like a mesh of Ragman and Green Arrow is our mystery antagonist, Prometheus. The problem is that all three of them look very alike. This automatically is making Arrow’s fights look almost monotone. Everything is green and/or black. Is Prometheus intentionally trying to look like Green Arrow just to correct everyone that he’s not him? Also, in addition to Oliver’s Bratva flashbacks now we also had a parallel storyline for John Diggle as he gets double crossed by his army buddies.

Lukewarm episode made better only by the introduction of Ragman. Then we have to hear Prometheus introduce himself to Tobias Church. Is he going to turn out to be Julian Albert? Oops, wrong show. Sorry. Just not let him be another B-lister character we’ve seen in passing.

Highs/Lows/UpUpAndAway:

“I usually say hi.” “Me too.” Supes and SuperG are just Clark and Kara at heart. They behaved very much like cousins on screen. Can the adorkabliness (it’s a word now) keep them flying every episode?
I had mixed feelings about it, but bringing in Superman finally addresses the Thanagarian Snare Beast in the room. This episodes de-mystified Superman and made him Kara’s cousin. It also didn’t diminished Kara’s stature in her own show which must have been hard to accomplish.
It does however lessen the appearance and relevance of Alex and J’onn. There is a side story with J’onn and the origin of Kryptonite to make up for it, which gave both characters a little bit of history.
John Corbin appears to turn into Metallo courtesy of Project Cadmus. They might just be the (or one) antagonist to beat this season.
In a very strong and ambiguous introduction, Lena Luthor becomes part of Supergirl’s continuity without clearing up if she’s a friend or foe. However, she instantly is on Kara’s good side when she talks about women trying to break apart from their family’s name. Lena might just become another advisor/mentor to Kara. Only time will tell if she’s Obi-Wan or Palpatine.
Richard Donner’s Superman movie and old-time Superman puns were all over the place. Perry White saying “Great Caesar’s Ghost”, Lena talking about hating flying regardless of it being the safest way to fly statistically and then boarding a helicopter, Superman saying “up, up and away” were all great. My favorite is Cat Grant shouting: “Miss Tessmacher!”
The Flash addressed altering the timeline in a less flashy (pardon the pun) and more mature way: you can’t fix it. That was the best part of the show for me.
I didn’t quite see the point of Barry having to talk to Felicity Smoak. It was one of those episodes in which the entire conflict is Barry having to relearn the age-old lesson of telling the truth.
Either Julian Albert is Dr. Alchemy or he somehow becomes Iris’ new love interest just to piss Barry off.
I love the fact that they teased Caitlin Snow gaining her Killer Frost powers back, but… They literally jumped the gun here. That reveal needed a little more build up to be effective.
Arrow had two other timelines to contend with: John’s special ops operation and Oliver’s trials to become part of the Bratva. The fact that the trials were very familiar to Oliver’s initially training test for the recruits doesn’t speak well of their future.
Ragman was the only new character I was interested in this episode. They could do real justice to the character. However, Prometheus kind of spoils the whole mystery angle as he seems to be a mishmash of both GA and Ragman.
Where does that leave Tobias Church? Are we dealing with multiple foes again? Can we strengthen the characters we have before introducing more? Is there hope for Arrow’s new recruits to become something else, someone else?