By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)
Several rewatches were needed to absorb the semi mid-season finale to CW’s power trio of shows featuring The Dominators from DC Comic’s lore. As many fans have already vocalized on social media, Supergirl was not one of the episodes essential to viewing, and nor does it have to explain Kara’s absence while she is on Earth-1, helping Flash, Arrow and the Legends of Tomorrow team deal with an alien threat.
True to the comics is why this alien race is here, they fear the meta-humans and want to put them six feet under before they become a galactic threat. But does that mean there is further trouble in store for heroes in the future? Somewhere, in all these parallel Earths is an even greater threat. Darkseid is not likely coming, but the Legion of Doom is. This fact has been revealed a while back on DC Comic’s website, and it will be exciting to see Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman), Damien Darhk (Neal McDonough), the Reverse-Flash (Matt Letscher) and Captain Cold (Wentworth Miller) together.
The time-travel will never stop when considering Flash and Vibe can move around the timestream almost as easily as the Legends team, dealing with threats. I’ll be excited to see the Legends of Tomorrow hit prohibition in the upcoming episode, “The Chicago Way.” The Legion will make their debut with this episode and I’m scratching my head at why Vandal Savage is not part of the group. Maybe he is a bit player in the past, but I am still not counting him as completely out of the picture yet. The first season’s storyline is over, but when you are dealing with a series that bounces around time, he is still trouble — and the Legends can work to steer Savage along (much to their chagrin) to his destiny. Now that would make for a compelling story! When considering Stein’s daughter is an aberration, and he is letting it be, what other stories may occur about deciding what to correct and not to can make for great moralistic dilemmas.
Now as for why Jonah Hex is not part of the Legends team (yet) is because he is sticking to his guns and living in one timeline than jumping about. No commentary was provided about his return in the episode “Outlaw Country.” It served very little function for a greater whole. Other than the same old interactions with Amaya taking interest in helping Mick out and the two halves of Firestorm at odds with whether to tell the rest of the test about Old Flash’s warning from the future, the motions are not moving forward fast enough to make some episodes stand out.
The Dominators cross-over was more about giving DC fans the nerd moment they have been wanting since Supergirl became part of the CW. The story arc helps set up how this Kryptonian can return to assist when galactic trouble comes their way. The subplots that were executed were great. It will be good to see Cisco and Barry “be friends” again, Wally West get to be Kid Flash and Oliver Queen put some demons to rest. The Legends of Tomorrow episode, “Invasion!” felt anticlimactic since it neatly gets this alien race to flee. They will be back and maybe they will bring one of their allies along. There is a potential to bring back some ancient mystery to the series. This alien race shares linguistic commonalities with the ancient Hebrew language. While no connections exist between them and say, Captain Marvel, to see him become a future Legend can be fun!
There is a potential to bring back some ancient mystery to the series. This alien race shares linguistic commonalities with the ancient Hebrew language. While no connections exist between them and say, Captain Marvel, to see him become a future Legend can be fun!
Moreever, I do not want the Thanagarian presence from the previous season to be over. While including the war with the Raan will just be copycatting the arc from the animated Justice League series, the look into why rocks were hurdled to Earth (creating Hawkgirl and Hawkman) could have been handled with more detail. The Dominators could have been the Raan, mounting an invasion to thwart and bring Kendra and Carter back, but to have them return the next season might be considered to be too soon. Yes, I admit I’m a Hawkworld fan, and to see them gone had me shedding a tear.
The one big easter egg everybody noticed in this week-long crossover is in how one particular old Star Labs “hanger” resembles the Hall of Justice. No generic building can be constructed like that, and this construct only affirms the heroes of Earth will eventually unite and form the Justice League. Located inside this “warehouse” are parts for building a space station, hinting at the eventual building of the Watchtower.
