Elseworlds #2 / Arrow S07E09 Review: Worlds Will Live

Arrow, Season 7, Episode 9: Elseworlds, Hour Two

Well, holy shit, if the previous episode of Elseworlds isn't hyped-up enough, this one is just one gigantic ball of fanservice. Again, just like the previous hour -- which mostly dealt with the body-swap hijinks and the fight against Amazo -- this one also functions a bit more like a bottle episode. I'm not sure if I like the individual crossover episodes being more standalone with a vaguely overarching storyline, or if I like the "four parts of a bigger story" sequence that Crisis on Earth-X had. Most of me is just still geeking out from all of the geeky Batman (or, well, Batwoman) references that exist in this show. 

I had actually written a version of this review earlier today which was tragically lost... but I feel that I wouldn't do this episode justice if I didn't write as long and thorough a review as I did before. And honestly, the fun in this episode begins all the way from the opening, where the "My name is Oliver Queen" opening is actually read by Barry, with a montage of Arrow scenes with Grant Gustin edited in, which is just utterly hilarious. 

We then open with a pretty unexpected scene. Actual red skies with lightning are happening, in true DC comics fashion, while the ARGUS team is fighting... Kane Wolfman! Joe Wilson! Well, Deathstroke's son, anyway, clad in his daddy's armour sans mask, which is a hilarious way to get Deathstroke to cameo despite the stupid Warner Brothers embargo on the character. I completely forgot Joe Wilson exists in the Arrowverse, by the way... and he gets absolutely owned by Team Main Character. And that's what I'm going to call the team of Green Arrow, Flash and Supergirl. The "Elseworlds" crossover is actually doing a pretty smart thing and focusing almost exclusively on the antics of these three characters, sometimes with a couple of guest stars -- Superman last episode; Caitlin, Cisco and Diggle in this episode -- but it really does end up working pretty well in making the storyline feel more tight. 

I don't really appreciate the silly injection of "Oliver and Felicity are arguing" drama into this episode, though, which honestly just feels forced. It does lead to a neat Oliver/Felicity moment at the end, some hilarious awkward bits at the beginning and a fun Barry/Oliver bro-out, but I really do feel that it definitely feels pretty eye-rolling. 

Thankfully, Felicity is stuck with the Science Team for the most part. Other than a conversation with Caitlin and a bunch of mumbo-jumbo science-speech, this drama gets sort of pushed aside a fair bit. Instead, we jump straight into Oliver and Barry hilariously arguing about whether Batman exists, with Kara holding her giggles next to them. Barry is a huge Batman fanboy (good man) while Oliver insists that Batman is an urban legend, and that he is the OG vigilante. Absolutely fun argument that makes fun of Batman without actually making it into "my hero's better than yours".

Speaking of "my hero's better than yours", I absolutely love the fact that they didn't just write Batman out and go "yeah, our world just has Batwoman and she's better". I appreciate that so much. 

And then we enter Gotham City! I'm just sad that copyright made a Danny Elfman score improbable... but hey. From Oliver-Flash overshooting the rooftop they are in with his superspeed, to Kara and Barry making fun of Oliver's womanizing, it definitely feels like a fun, fun romp between three friends, something that just gives a huge smile on my face. "You cheated on your girlfriend with his sister!" And we jump from that joke to the pretty badass discovery of the Batsignal, and then to a badass shot of Wayne Enterprises with Batwoman perched on top of it. 

Team Main Character get to more hijinks as they discover what a shit city Gotham is, while Barry-Arrow is showing some Oliver Queen-esque tendencies as he threatens some punk with a gun, leading to their arrest. We get a fun little argument between Barry and Oliver -- I'm not sure I really buy into their "I'm becoming more like you" mentality, and thank god for Kara for telling them to shut up and be professional. They are eventually bailed out by Bruce Wayne... who, apparently in the Arrowverse, disappeared around three years ago. (He's probably stranded on an island). Instead, they are brought into the dilapidated Wayne Enterprises building to meet Bruce Wayne's cousin, Kate Kane.

Kate Kane wasn't actually Bruce's cousin in the comics, but I guess it's a way to make Batwoman feel more related to Batman, without making her feel like some usurper? I dunno. What I do know is that, well, I really like Ruby Rose's interpretation of the character! She's kind of flat, sure, but she does give off a nice, confident aura around her that really sells that, yeah, she's Batman. Or rather, Batwoman. Kate offers them the resources of Wayne Enterprises to help out, and tells them that the Wi-Fi password for the building is "Alfred", something I found hilarious. After a bust with Oliver's ex-girlfriend Vesper Fairchild (who is also a Batman easter egg!), we get a fun bit where Kara talks to Kate, and they discuss their respective cousins, with Kara noting that her cousin was buddies to Bruce Wayne (on her Earth... but hey).

Anyway, this conversation leads Team Main Character to locating that Dr. John Deegan... is working in Arkham Asylum For the Criminally Insane. Of course he is.

And as we get to Arkham Asylum and the glorious, glorious sequence of Batman Easter Eggs... I mean, I've seen a lot of these villains before, even portrayed in live-action over in Gotham, but there's just something about Batman's Rogues Gallery that just makes me super excited when I see the names of O. Cobblepot and E. Nigma and P. Isley being listed on the Aslym cell walls. They manage to sneak in with the help of Caitlin masquerading as a patient.

Meanwhile, the Science Team makes this interdimensional anchor magnet to see who the being responsible for the red lightning and red skies are. It's... it's pretty silly and irresponsible, considering that they've met so many evil doppelgangers from other universes (remember Nazi Supergirl?) but it's just a way for them to re-enact the Flash scene from Crisis on Infinite Earth.

Oliver and Diggle confront John Deegan, who apparently did it all because he had a dream to be the Flash but ended up restructuring the world differently... and he pulls a Batman: Arkham Asylum and unleashes all the prisoners. We don't actually get to see any of the A-lister Batman villains, with the only two to get any screentime being Psycho-Pirate and Nora Fries. We do get a badass sequence of Diggle beating up generic orange-shirted dudes, and Oliver-Flash just Flashing all of the villains back into their cells... and, of course, that badass moment when Batwoman makes her entry, slamming down on top of the truck that the Psycho-Pirate was attempting to escape on. 

And that's... that's pretty damn badass, I'm not going to lie. Showing Batwoman crushing that truck with her landing, and then using her batarangs to beat up bad guys? Pretty sweet. She doesn't really do a whole ton of kickassery other than this, but it's still pretty sweet -- it's certainly handled relatively better than the Ray was last year, and that's not bashing the Ray -- Batwoman's just done and integrated a lot better. 

Meanwhile, Caitlin meets Nora Fries and... and it's honestly not a particularly interesting sequence, considering that Caitlin's an ice-based villain and Nora's the wife of another one. Honestly, this is all just a setup to get Barry-Arrow and Oliver-Flash dosed with motherfucking Scarecrow's fear gas, which, again, is pretty unexpected.

And then we get the also-unexpected arrival of John Barrowman's Malcolm Merlyn, as well as Tom Cavanagh's Reverse-Flash! And Oliver is forced to fight Reverse-Flash while Barry is forced to fight Merlyn, in a genuinely badass sequence. Yeah, it's pretty silly that the hallucinogenic Merlyn and Reverse-Flash are just spouting what's essentially a recap of their first seasons, but it does allow Mr. Barrowman and Mr. Cavanagh to ham shit up, and I really, really do enjoy this sequence. Cutting it away to show the reality that it's Flash and Green Arrow fighting each other? Absolutely genius. I do feel that this scene wouldn't have worked better without the long, long history that the shows have. 

Also, this whole scene is just utter fanservice to the long-time fans of the CW shows. As a long-time fan of the CW shows, I feel happy.

And this is where Batwoman shows up again, and quite literally kicks both Barry and Oliver back to their senses. Long story short, our heroes end up recovering the Book, and we get a pretty nice and sweet conversation between Supergirl and Batwoman, re-enacting many a conversation between Superman and Batman. I do feel like the two of them really could've stood to have interacted more, though, and while the fanboy in me is geeking out, the more strict reviewer in me really felt like the conversation Kate and Kara had on the Wayne Enterprises building really earned them this moment. 

Still... hey, it's a nice moment! Also nice is the subsequent moment of bro-ing out over their tragedies that Barry and Oliver had afterwards. It does sort of feel forced, but it does speak to the pretty great chemistry between Grant Gustin and Stephen Amell that they actually manage to make the scene work. 

And then... 90's Flash shows up, and we get a fun gag of "Are you Jay Garrick? Are you Henry Allen?" in reference to the many, many characters John Wesley Schnipp has played in this series. Nope. This is his original DC character. Barry Allen, the Flash. From the 90's show. He introduces himself as from Earth-90, delivers one hell of a bombshell for the fate of John Diggle in another universe in what is easily the best and most low-key AAAAAAAAAAAA inducing Easter Egg in the entirety of Elseworlds. 

And then we get the power walk of the two Flashes, Green Arrow and Supergirl as they confront the Monitor... who claims that all of this is being done to test our heroes for a subsequent crisis. Okay? I mean, I'm just happy that they actually got the Monitor looking pretty spot-on, like he just walked out of the pages of a comic book. Which... yeah, it's not the best motivation, but far from the worst either. An elder being with a madman sidekick trying to fuck with our heroes for some vaguely-defined test is definitely a fun excuse to romp into alternate realities or whatever.

Monitor gives the book back to Deegan, who then rewrites reality and turns Oliver and Barry into the Trigger Twins (obscure villains ahoy!), Ricardo Diaz into a policeman (maybe this Diaz won't suck?), and they have to face... black-suited Superman! It's as much of a "yeah, why not" continuation of the plotline, but at this point the writing staff is clearly just using Dr. Destiny's book of reality-warping as an excuse for whatever they want to do.

Anyway, a huge part of this episode is just the huge "holy shit, Batwoman" element. And honestly? This crossover just keeps giving. From action scenes to DC Easter Eggs to comedy to genuinely enteratining moments between our heroes, it really shows just how fun and well-done the CW stuff can be if they aren't mired in their own mediocrity all the time. Had fun with this, stay tuned for my coverage of the final part of Elseworlds soon!

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Batwoman, a.k.a. Katherine "Kate" Kane, is an... interesting superhero. While Batwoman existed from relatively early on in Batman's publication, running from 1956 through 1979, she was a member of Batman's supporting cast, but was eventually phased out in favour for the more popular Batgirl. Batwoman herself had less and less appearances until she was completely written out, and only appeared later to die at the hands of the Bronze Tiger.
• The appearance of CW's Batwoman is based on the 2006 version of Batwoman, where, thanks to the reality-altering events of Infinite Crisis, a new Batwoman was created. Also Katherine Kane, this new Batwoman was the spoiled rich child of one of Gotham's elites that was inspired by Batman, and became an active superhero at that time. The rebooted Batwoman was also notably introduced as lesbian. 
• The costume used here is basically 100% identical to the post-rebooted Batwoman. 
• Batwoman in the comics isn't actually Batman's cousin. 
• Monitor, a.k.a. Mar Novu, is a member of a race of super-powerful beings (also called the Monitors) that are able to perceive the multiverse and the various Earths, and was introduced during the Crisis of Infinite Earths, which brought all the various Earths of DC comics' multiverse together. He played a major part in that role, acting as the ultimate 'big good' in assembling the various superheroes from various earths to fight against a rogue Monitor, the Anti-Monitor.
• Monitor's first appearance included him sending one of his agents, the Harbinger (adapted by CW into Lyla Michaels, ARGUS director... yeah, one of the weirder adaptations), to fight various heroes to see which of Earth's champions are the most worthy. 
• Monitor outright tells our heroes that he's preparing them for a "Crisis".
• Batman, a.k.a. Bruce Wayne, is... well, everyone knows who Batman is. He is one of the few heroes to be uniquely established to exist in both Earth-1 (Arrow/Flash/Legends) and Earth-38 (Supergirl), with various references to Bruce Wayne and Wayne Enterprises being made in Earth-1, and both Supergirl and Superman making oblique references to Batman in their show. 
• The Batsignal is shown briefly; Barry makes a gag about the Batmbile, while both the Wayne Enterprises building and Arkham Asylum play huge setting places in the episode.
• Vesper Fairchild, is Bruce Wayne's love interest in the 90's run, and her role as a radio host show is accurate to the comics. Fairchild's most memorable story, ironically, came when she was found dead at Wayne Manor, with evidence pointing to Bruce Wayne as the possible murderer, leading to the "Batman: Murderer" storyline.
• Psycho-Pirate, a.k.a. Roger Hayden, is a dying and troubled criminal who found a powerful artifact known as the Medusa Mask in the comics. Initially introduced as an enemy of Hourman and Doctor Fate, Psycho-Pirate would rise to prominence battling first Batman and later the combined forces of the JLA and JSA... but would be most memorable as one of the secondary antagonists in the Crisis on Infinite Earths maxi-series and is one of the few characters after that Crisis to remember what happened. 
• Nora Fries is the wife of famous Batman villain, Mr. Freeze. She's famously remembered as the tragic motivation behind Mr. Freeze's criminal activities, being struck ill with a terminal disease and being kept in cryogenic stasis. This is the first time Nora's been shown to have any sort of metahuman abilities, though.
• Nora Fries uses her husband's freeze gun when fighting against Caitlin.
• Nora Fries is actually played by Stephen Ammell's (Green Arrow) wife!
• The Trigger Twins, a.k.a. Tom and Tad Trigger, are a pair of minor Batman enemies that emulated cowboys and unleashed a crime spree in Gotham City during the period of time when Azrael took over for Batman. 
• Diggle briefly rants about "immortal Egyptians, aliens and parallel Earth Nazis", which, of course, are the villains of the past couple of crossovers -- Vandal Savage, the Dominators and the Nazis of Earth-X.
• Red skies with lightning! That's the trademark of the huge universal fuckery in the DC universe, with all of the DC comics titles, no matter how relevant, being obligated to have a scene where they comment on how there are "red skies" before sometimes just ignoring it completely and going on with their stories. 
• Team Main Character is arrested at a street called "Nolan and Burton", which, of course, is a reference to Christopher Nolan (director of Batman Begins, Dark Knight and Dark Knight Rises) and Tim Burton (director of Batman and Batman Returns).
• The Wi-Fi password for the Wayne enterprises building is Alfred, which, of course, is a reference to Batman's butler and supporting character of the same name.
• Kara making a gag about a bust of William Shakespeare is a reference to the old 60's Batman TV show where that bust hides the button that allows Batman and Robin to access the Batcave.
• (A) Flash warning a group of other characters while struggling to maintain his form as he's calling from beyond space-time is famously a huge part of Crisis on Infinite Earths, and has been homaged in various pieces of media, most recently in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
• ARKHAM ASYLUM INMATES! Not going to go too deep into any of these.
• Among the names on the doors are O. Cobblepot (The Penguin), P. Isley (Poison Ivy), B. Karlo (the first Clayface) and E. Nigma (The Riddler), complete with a riddle on the wall. The last name that we can see clearly is M. Guggenheim, a reference to Marc Guggenheim, one of the directors of the Arrowverse.
• We get to get a brief nod to Mr. Freeze, what with his wife and his gun being shown, and the staff noting that they have some ice-themed metahumans in their ranks.
• A bunch of hallucinogens belonging to J. Crane, a.k.a. the Scarecrow, is a major plot point.
• Captain Boomerang's boomerang is seen on the floor of the Asylum at one point.
• Bane's iconic mask from The Dark Knight Rises is seen among the objects that Nora Fries was looking through. Next to it is a set of dentures, which may or may not be a reference to the Joker.
• "World's Finest", what Batwoman notes a team-up between her and Supergirl would be, is a title of a long-running DC comics title that features Superman and Batman teaming up. 
• Supergirl X-Ray visioning Batwoman's identity, while Batwoman figuring out Supergirl's identity with detective tricks, is a reference to how Batman and Superman first met each other -- specifically the DCAU version. 
• Superman wore a black suit with silver rim after his resurrection in the comics, and various other "evil" or "dark" Supermen tend to wore the same sort of suit as well. 
• And finally, 90's Flash noting that "John" doesn't have "his ring" is a reference to the long-standing theory that John Diggle is actually the Arrowverse's version of John Stewart, the fourth Green Lantern. Apparently, in Earth-90, this popular theory is actually true!