The Mega Epic Flash vs. Arrow Crossover Review Spectacular!

Crossover Part 1, The Flash – “Flash vs. Arrow”   

Nate:   Have you been keeping up with Flash live this season?

Alice:  Oh yes.  Me and my entire family.  We’re hooked and watch same night (via DVR) every week.  It’s turned into must see television.  

Nate:  No kidding. I’ve been pleasantly surprised with how entertaining and consistently good the show is.  How’s your impression of show?

Alice:  It’s moving along nicely.  The episodes have focused mainly on Barry and team finding their footing and the stories have been entertaining, but there’s still no clear direction of where this is going.  This episode again was an excellent standalone, probably the best of the season, but it’s not driving any overall story.  

Nate: True. This show has been very much in style of the first: very episodic with little or a faint arc connecting them.

Question #1, What was your favorite moment over all this episode?

Nate:  Being a red-blooded male, I have to agree with Cisco about Felicity without her shirt.  After that, probably the moment Ollie shot Barry in the back during their training.

Alice:  It’s easily the big battle between the infected Flash and The Arrow.  As far epic battles go, that was really intense.  I had to remind myself for a minute that this is a low budget show.  Arrow is very well known for it’s fight choreography and all that special magic and more was worked into this Flash episode.  Crossover fighting for the win!  

Question #2, What was your favorite comic-book moment in this episode?

Nate:  Oh hands down the appearance of Firestorm at the end, he is my favorite superhero.

Alice:  Isn’t is all comic book?  Yes, that’s part of my ignorance of not being an actual comic book reader, but I’ve always thought the whole show has that feeling.  The meeting of the Arrow and Flash geek squads at Star Labs was really fun to watch.  That’s what I imagine happening when fan boys and girls get together in a room.   

Question #3, Your favorite character moment?

Nate:  Diggle’s freakout over seeing what Barry can do.  It was a humorous touch to his character.

Alice:  I would say anything with Barry and Oliver, and that would be true, but Harrison Wells intimidating the crap out of Felicity was really cool.  She wouldn’t tell him Oliver’s identity so I’m sure he just went into his secret room and found out.  When he told Felicity to call Oliver later, I loved her stunned reaction.  Then again, I really like the character of Harrison Wells.   

Question #4, Any least favorite moments of this episode?

Nate:  It still kind of bugs me that Barry doesn’t just snatch bullets out of the air instead of causing property damage in stopping them.

Alice:  I know it’s true comic book and has to be in there, but the whole notion of Iris’ infatuation with The Flash, complete with dewy eyes of hero love every time he whooshes by, doesn’t sell me.  And Oliver Queen is on her list?  What’s wrong with the man she has?  He not giving her enough?  Make a choice woman! 

Question #5, Was there anything you didn’t get to see in this crossover you wish you had?

Nate:  Barry & Felicity finally being together!

Alice:  I would have liked to see more training time between Barry and Oliver.  The little we did get was great, but more of that would have been awesome.  

Question #6, Of course they had to make the showdown/fight a tie (these things always do) but who do YOU think would win between Arrow and Flash?

Nate:  Arrow.  Flash has speed which makes him overconfident and sloppy while Arrow would be fighting with full force and diligence.

Alice:  Arrow.  Oliver is so much more disciplined mentally and has a ton of experience with this.  He’s seen some pretty gnarly shit in his days and he’s learned to anticipate everything.  He’s also very calm under pressure, something Barry really needs to learn.  Barry needs to learn he can’t beat a Zen master!  Not yet anyway.  

Crossover Part 2, Arrow – “The Brave and The Bold” 

Alice:  How often do you catch up with Arrow?  Is this a regular thing, or binge  watching? 

Nate:  Basically as soon as Netflix puts it up on the their site and I get a block of time I devour a season all at once.  Given how little I can stand the minute between loading episodes, I think a week or more between the show bombshells would kill me.

Alice:  What’s your impression of Arrow after this episode?  Do you like it better, worse, or the same?

Nate:  Intrigued.  I haven’t kept up with S3 (trying to avoid spoilers) but I thought it interesting that at this point a lot of the story threads they set up at the end of S2 seemed to be resolved.  I’m curious now whether they were or if the show was deceiving me.

Question #1, What was your favorite moment over all in this episode?

Alice:  I actually loved it when Cisco and Caitlin showed up unexpectedly and excitedly wanted to see the Arrow cave.  “We don’t call it that,” said Felicity.  So there they are, in awe over all the gadgets in the cool Arrow cave and Oliver says sternly, “We don’t call it that.”  You know that’s a shout out to fans like me that are always calling it the Arrow cave.  Second, I loved Barry doing the salmon bar on super speed.  Take that Oliver!  

Nate:  Hmmm… hard to say because Arrow has a consistency in its quality that makes it hard for one moment to stand out.  I guess I would go with any of the scenes where Barry & Ollie are discussing heroics.  They exemplify the extremes of heroism very much like Superman & Batman does so almost any scene between the heroes this episode could be placed easily in the mouths of the big two with little (if any) editing.  Plus the differences in personalities are hilarious to watch, after all: opposites attract.

Question #2, What was your favorite comic-book moment in this episode?

Alice:  Again, I think the whole show is Comic Book, but definitely the showdown between Oliver and the guy with the boomerangs while Barry takes care of defusing the bombs.  I thought it was cool that he was able to quickly transport five people like that.  It all seems like a classic comic book setup to me.  Cheating the no win scenario.  

Nate:  Hmmm… Flash & the bombs problem is very classic comic book, they even made an entire Justice League episode around it (involving the Joker, it was one of the best episodes ever).  On the other hand the final “let’s find out who wins for real” filled this old fanboy with joy.

Question #3, Your favorite character moment?

Alice:  I really liked Roy this time when he was part of the whole geek squad.  I’ve found him to be a very bland character to this point but he was fun with them.  I loved the meeting of the minds, Felicity, Roy, Caitlin and Cisco, over drinks at Verdant.  Even uber geeks of superheroes get to go to the bar after work and unwind!  Roy even got some validation when Barry said he thought the red suit was cool.  Well, it is!  

Nate:  Probably Diggle’s girl (dunno how to spell her name) freaking out over Barry like Diggle did in Flash’s episode.  And then them finally getting married at the end. (again?)

Although Cisco crushing on Thea and then learning “hands off” was definitely the funniest.  (Poor Cisco.  Now if the show REALLY wanted to shock us, they’d have him end up with Iris.)

Question #4, Any least favorite moments of this episode?

Alice:  Nope, Laurel wasn’t in it.  That instantly makes it my most favorite Arrow episode ever.  

Nate:  Because I haven’t kept up with this season, I was disliking the flashbacks.  I was confused during them and thought they were getting in the way of my Justice League-CW.  But that will probably change when I binge watch.

Question #5, Was there anything you didn’t get to see in this crossover you wish you had?

Alice:  Same complaint as The Flash, not enough one on one training time with Barry and Oliver.  That could have been done if they had decided not to show the flashback scenes this week of Oliver in Hong Kong.  The end was really cute, but I would have loved seeing at least one arrow hit Barry and Oliver flash a big smile.  “Gotcha.” 

Nate:  More Firestorm! lol j/k  Seriously… I would probably say Barry & Ollie taking down a real villain together. Not what we got; I mean a team up against Merlin or Slade or someone else where the two of them HAVE to fight together to overcome him/her.

Question #6, Which setting to you prefer, the darker, seedier Starling City or the lighter, less treacherous Central City?  

Alice:  This episode did go out of it’s way to show that contrast between Oliver’s darker style of using torture to get information or Barry’s more “jump in an save the day” approach.  Even in The Flash episode Dr. Wells made it clear that The Arrow had killed people and was considered a vigilante more than a hero.  Starling City is a much rougher place.  I have to say, darker makes for a more compelling and conflicted hero story.  However, Central City doesn’t overwhelm you with doom and gloom.  I’ll call it a tie.  

Nate:  Hah, like Gotham vs Metropolis. (although are you SURE Central City is less treacherous? 😉 ;))  Like apples and oranges I like both for different flavors and don’t mind spending time in either one.  Though because a lot of current works (even in comics) are doing darker and gloomier styles, right now I have a slight preference for the sunnier Flash-town.  It’s joy and fun is refreshing.

So who won?  We all did!  After all, all comic book mashups end in a tie.  Let’s do this again someday TPTB.