Marching towards the end of the season, how are Flash and LoT doing?
Legends of Tomorrow 1.14 – River of Time
You know I realize what Vandal Savage’s true power is. Forget immortality, he’s an IQ vampire!
Well maybe not, but it was rather disheartening to see how much the heroes’ intelligence dropped. I mean sure Ray makes a little sense – he’s involved with yet ANOTHER hero’s girl that’s being stolen away from him again so I can buy him not thinking completely. But Rip? The man should know better! (especially when wasn’t it an earlier episode praising his capabilities?) Or he at least should be aware enough to put in a few contingencies – like maybe Mick or Sara on guard duty? Sealing bulkheads to lock down corridors? (might be helpful if there’s a hull breach) Then he’s surprised by the betrayal? Ok, maybe “in league with Vandal” is a bit hard to predict from the Time Council, but considering that they’ve been working so hard to kill him, you think he would at least be prepared to be screwed by them in SOME way. (say… at least have an escape plan for the crew?)
I know not every captain is the same, but I would like SOMETHING more from Rip demonstrating his leadership capabilities – right now Snart demonstrates being more of a “Captain” (even of cold) than Rip. Just look at some of my favorite examples!
- Kirk was the master of brains, able to figure out his way out of anything and ready to fight if he had to.
- Picard was the master of leadership, knowing exactly who to put where he could get the best out of them and getting that best.
- Sisko was the master of heart, able to see what is the best choice and taking everyone there with him.
- Janeway was the master of evil insanity, cowering all before her!
- Reynolds was the master of planning, always ready to get out of a situation even if he had only seconds to come up with something. (ok he’s good at leadership too – really Reynolds is the love child of Kirk & Picard as raised by Han Solo)
Of all that, what makes Rip a captain? Almost heart but he keeps having to conjole the crew into following him and several times his morals is… questionable. Maybe next episode will reveal Rip had a plan all along (but it will probably be Snart who ends up having the plan to save the day and Rip). Heck he can’t even inspire the team to be that selfless. I really hope next season Rip gets his shit together because this is starting to get a bit annoying.
I’m also a bit annoyed that Jax didn’t merge with Stein to become Firestorm while repairing because one of match-head’s abilities (seen earlier in the show) is the ability to absorb explosions and radiation. Though maybe they could get around that by saying temporal radiation is different, I’m also wondering why they didn’t try a merge to let the Firestorm Matrix heal Jax. It’s not a definite (sometimes in the comics it helps, sometimes it doesn’t) but it would have been interesting and allowed the show to utilize the drama inherent in the character (also the irony because originally in the comics it was Stein who had health problems and caused hiccups when merging).
Still it was serviceable as the show goes. About a C+ for a final grade.
The Flash 2.20 – Rupture
So Barry died.
Yeah yeah, a decent episode all around, good acting, etc etc, its… an A for its final grade.
Now the REAL fun will be the comic history lesson! Settle in if you’d like to know more.
See back when the silver age of comics began, DC solved some of the continuity issues of their comics by creating “multiple earths.” The original, first Flash, Jay Garrick (which had been the star of so many comics during the golden age) was placed on Earth 2. The second Flash, Barry Allen (the new star of comics) was placed on Earth 1. This was first established during a Flash2 issue where Barry goes to E2 and meets Jay (as shown on a cover in an earlier review). Of course the comic writers all had fun with this as you can see if you’re watching the series this season with things like traveling to Supergirl’s earth or the alternate E2.
After many years of this, things in the comics got a bit confusing (as they are wont to do). So DC decided to do “Crisis on Infinite Earths” the first major comic issues crossover. In this a villain arose called the “Anti-Monitor” who destroyed many universes one at a time before coming to the attention of the comics’ protagonists proper. By now the multiverse was down to less than half a dozen (you know, the ones that had comics about them) and everyone was teaming up to fight the Anti-Monitor tooth and nail.
DURING all this, at one point the AM built a huge doomsday device (because not even he can escape comic book law) which did… something I forgot. Barry Allen discovered it, and so to shut it down, ran in circles around the thing to reverse its polarity or something. In the process, the device’s plot radiation disintegrated him, but not before he stopped it. ONCE Barry was disintegrated, he then found himself (as pure energy IIRC) in the time stream, where he went to the fateful night and became the lightning bolt that struck him and gave him his speed (or he possibly went to the Marvel universe depending on interpretation). I am making NONE of this up.
So what does this all have to do with this episode?
Let’s see… a threat to multiple worlds causes Barry to attempt something dangerous which results in his disintegration. Oh true he probably won’t go back in time to strike himself (that’s too wacky even for this show) but there WERE two characters running down the hall that was hit by the “protagonist field” generated by Barry’s death: Wally West and Jessie Quick – both characters known as speedsters in the comic (in fact Wally becomes Flash 3). So while Barry didn’t give himself powers with his death, it seems HIGHLY likely that Wally and Jessie will be given powers thanks to Barry’s death.
And now I hope when you watch that scene you have both a smile and a tear just like I did.
