Episode Title: Legends of Yesterday
Original Airdate: 12-2-15
The closest we’ll come to the CW version of the Justice League debuted on Arrow, in a satisfying conclusion to the now annual Arrow/Flash crossover event.
It wasn’t all perfect, this was the one time so much focus on the support staff members like Cisco and Felicity was getting in the way of straight out superhero fight action, but it was a lot of fun.
Thea’s joke on seeing superheroes at a farmhouse referencing Avengers: Age of Ultron was cute.
While time travel is something the showrunners are going to have to be careful not to overdue, I liked how that played out in the Arrow world. Oliver still managed to screw up telling Felicity the truth about the son he just discovered, but he did again remember the importance of teamwork.
I wanted to see more of Arrow, Flash, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Black Canary (and less so Speedy and Diggle) working together, but the episode never managed to explain why Barry and Oliver didn’t call in Ray and Firestorm to help as well.
Vandal Savage couldn’t do a whole lot against their combined might, which made sense, but I definitely would have liked him to have recruited some disposable goons for the not-JL to beat up for a bit.
Anytime we get Oliver and Barry together it’s a treat and Oliver expressing his reluctance to hug was perfectly countered by Barry’s good-natured “I can hug you before you notice it” demeanor.
Carlos Valdes has done some great work with Cisco’s doomed relationship with Kendra. I definitely felt more chemistry with Cisco and Kendra than with Kendra and Carter. I’m glad the show is retaining the tone of more recent comic storyline of the two Justice Society of America: The Return of the Hawkman (JSA)
Merlyn’s role made a lot more sense tonight as he wasn’t just dropping by for random exposition, but was back to his old tricks of manipulating all the players on the board. Since Savage is the main villain for DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Merlyn certainly has plans for Savage’s ashes, but I’m curious if he’ll be a silent partner/enemy in the series.
I hated that demand from Oliver’s baby mama forcing him to keep quiet about his son if he wants to have a relationship with him. That’s a lot to ask considering Oliver didn’t know he was a father until coming to Central City, but he didn’t have to abide by her rules. It’s not like Felicity was gonna stop by. It seemed a needless reason to have yet another secret with Oliver and Felicity.
All in all, this was a fun setup for DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. I’m very interested in where both Arrow and Flash go from this point this season now they’ve sufficiently wrapped up all the spin-off responsibilities.
Channel: Superhero 