I've been sitting on this post for a while now because when I post this one it will be my 1000th blog post. Nearly 14 years, hundreds, maybe thousands of visitors, at least 1000 comments, a few laughs, some tears and a lot of typing. 1000 posts.
I wouldn't have put money on it back in 2006. It's not putting a satellite in orbit or bringing about world peace, but I am just a little bit "pat myself on the back" proud of this little arbitrary milestone.
So thanks to all the visitors and commenters. And base 10 mathematics.
1000
I held off on posting #1000 as I didn't really want to just post about 1000 posts but it felt like I should post something significant as my 1000th article and I just didn't have anything in hand that fit the bill. Today I finally have something big enough to post about that feels "1000 worthy". The toss up referred to in the title is left to the individual dear reader to decide whether the following content is as important, less important or equally important to the milestone itself.
Warning. If you haven't watched this year's CW superhero crossover mega-event, Crisis on Infinite Earths, many, many spoilers follow. You have been fairly warned.
Seriously. Last chance. Spoiler filled geek rant directly below.
The various CW "Arrowverse" shows (Arrow, Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl, Batwoman, Black Lighting) have crossed over to one degree or another every year for the past four years. Early on, Flash debuted on Arrow and the two characters occasionally guested on their opposite number's show. When Supergirl moved from CBS to the CW, Flash crossed onto her show and soon after that the then four airing shows did the first big multiverse thing, Invasion.
I have been a hardcore DC fan since learning how to read and my most treasured DC Comics memories ALL involve multiverse crossover stories, so Invasion was a huge SQUEEEE moment for me. Each crossover since has had that same effect on me. This year's was the biggest, most over the top, fan servicing six hours of superhero genre tv that is likely EVER going to be done in my lifetime.
There's a TON to unpack here. I mean A TON.
Before I get into all the nuts and bolts, I really hope you've had a chance to see this one. Even if you're not a fan of the CW way of doing superheroes, this one was truly special and if you're not convinced of that, I hope the stuff I'll get into will convince you to hunt this up and spend a night or two checking it all out.
The first and for me MOST important aspect of this year's crossover was something I truly NEVER thought I would see in my lifetime. Warner Bros, the parent corporation of DC Comics literally gave the kids the car keys and FINALLY allowed the Arrowverse creative teams access to pretty much EVERYTHING in the DC film and television library. This crossover was the kind of event that fans like me dreamt of as comic reading kids but never imagined that we would EVER see realized.
Not only did all the currently airing shows crossover with each other, but we got glimpses of characters from a stunningly deep catalog of DC Comics shows and films from as far back as the classic Adam West/Burt Ward Batman tv show to shows like Stargirl that won't air until later this year. 50+ years of film and television appearances that this event basically turned into a single unified, interconnected multiverse. While we'll likely never see it again, this event opened up a reality where Burt Ward's Robin exists a short inter-dimensional shift away from Ben Affleck's Batman.
Mind Blown. Mad, hysterical cackling, ear to ear grinning and fierce hand clapping ensue.
And just who showed up? Every-damn-body. I'll do my best but I might have missed some.
We see earths inhabited by:
Robert Wuhl's Alexander Knox from the 1989 Michael Keaton Batman movie.
The Titans from the currently airing show of the same name.
The Ray who we met a few years back in the Crisis on Earth X crossover.
Burt Ward's (obviously retired) Robin from the classic 1960s Batman show.
Smallville's Superman (Tom Welling) and Lois Lane (Erica Durance). The award for Most Effortless Villain Foiling goes to this vignette.
Batman the Animated Series Batman, Kevin Conroy. Conroy FINALLY gets live action love in a version of the character that he has brought to life for DECADES in animation. While I was thrilled to see him get the chance, this was the one disappointing vignette of the event as I disliked the way they treated his run at the character.
Superman Returns Superman, Brandon Routh who also plays the Atom on Legends of Tomorrow.
A somewhat off model Jonah Hex.
Ashley Scott's Huntress and the voice of Dina Meyer's Oracle from the 1990's Birds of Prey show.
Lucifer from the currently airing show of that name.
John Wesley Shipp's Flash and Amanda Pays' Tina McGee from the 1990 Flash show. A nice throwaway line infers that they got married sometime after the end of the show. A wonderful homage to a LOT of Flash comics lore in this scene and a nice send off for Shipp's Flash, finally.
Ezra Miller's Flash from the modern DC movies (Justice League, Batman V Superman) which was STUNNING!
Marv Wolfman. Not a DC hero but a DC Comics ICON. The guy who wrote THE Crisis comics.
Stargirl and members of the Justice Society from the yet to air Stargirl series.
The Green Lanterns from the upcoming Green Lantern series or the Green Lantern movie.
Swamp Thing from the now cancelled 2019 series. Shame that.
Doom Patrol from the currently airing show of the same name. Made me want to dance.
A shot of the Arrowverse version of the Hall of Justice. We've seen it before but it's shaping up into a real thing. And a shot of the Arrowverse big guns at a round table a la Justice League comics.
Gleek. Seriously. Gleek. From Super Friends. The alien monkey with the ridiculously prehensile tail. We didn't see him but we saw his busted, banana peel filled cage, heard his monkey sounds and the Super Friends theme music played the episode out! Can Jayna and Zan, the Wonder Twins be far behind?
Gobsmacked.
While all those guest spots made me grin like a madman, there was also a pretty awesome version of DC's classic comic event unfolding over one episode of all six of the currently airing CW DC shows. They billed it as only a five show event but it really was a full six episode crossover. When the first crossover happened, the first episode was a Supergirl show that only did the crossover in the last couple of minutes before the credits. The concurrently airing episode of Black Lightning wasn't billed as part of the event but the whole episode was spun directly out of the crossover and had FAR more to do with the event than that first Invasion Supergirl episode four years ago. I really don't understand why they didn't simply bill it that way, but there you go.
So that's insight number one. When you watch the Crisis on Infinite Earths event, include the 9th episode of season 3 of Black Lightning before the Flash episode. It'll make BL's arrival make more sense too. Such an odd omission.
Another well done bit here is the music. Strains of John Williams' Superman theme, the theme from the 90's Flash and a whole bunch of other familiar superhero music weave throughout the event. It's definitely moving to hear these pieces of music from shows and films past ringing out into the mutiverse. At least it was for this old DC fan.
It has been known for a while now that Arrow's Stephen Amell was ready to hang up his quiver and that this season of Arrow would be the last and the Arrowverse team found a way to send off the founding member in grand fashion. Oliver gets not one but TWO big death scenes. Not only that but he's briefly transformed into a version of The Spectre, one of DC's biggest powerhouses, one who also happens to wear a signature green hood. The Green Arrow took a very powerful final bow and saved all of reality in the bargain.
The final two episodes of Arrow have yet to air but the creatives are trying to spin out a new Green Arrow series with the second to last episode. It's a backdoor pilot for a show called "Green Arrow and the Canaries." No firm word on a series order yet but I like the young lady playing Ollie's daughter and another lady-led show really is in order for the CW superhero line up.
We've also just learned that Superman is returning to television full time. The crossover gave us more of Tyler Hoechlin's Man of Steel than we've seen before and he and Elizabeth Tulloch will be leading a new Superman show that's already been ordered to series. I've seen and heard some folks who don't like his version, but I find Hoechlin's Superman refreshing and sunny. While I absolutely LOVE the way Henry Cavill has inhabited Superman on the big screen, he never quite brings the joy that Superman needs to be a complete character. Hoechlin has an infectious smile and does a credible job with the character so far. I look forward to seeing what they do with him once his new series hits. Elizabeth Tulloch's Lois Lane is growing on me. I still say Erica Durance tops the list, but Tulloch plays Lois tough and charmingly snarky, so she's off to a good start.
The one problem that arises now that the multidimensional dust starts to settle is part of why the whole multiverse came to be in the first place. When all these ultra powerful heroes live in one small world, the question of a lack of help comes up a LOT. If Supergirl lives on the west coast of the U.S. and Black Lightning lives in Freeland, somewhere around the Great Lakes, why can't she zip over and help him with his little occupation problem now that they've saved the universe? The comics face similar issues all the time and having various heroes inhabit different dimensions that are difficult (but not impossible) to traverse makes it easy to explain why hero A doesn't help hero B all the time. The CW heroes now all live on one earth and it's gonna be tough to explain why Flash can't head to Gotham and grab up all of Alice's henchmen so Batwoman can take the day off.
If the CW picks up Green Arrow and the Canaries, it will air 7 (!?!) DC shows. The Flash, Supergirl, Superman and Lois, Legends of Tomorrow, Black Lightning, Batwoman and the new Green Arrow show. Personally I hope that what we saw at the end of this year's crossover event, the founding of an unnamed Justice League type group, will mean MORE cross pollination, even if on a small scale. I'd love to see Barry Allen get a call from Batwoman to consult on a case as a forensic scientist or see Kara Danvers show up in Freeland to interview Jefferson Pierce for a piece for her paper. They've set up an interconnected world and it would be lovely if they could follow through.
Finally, I think it's really time for them to try something new and do a bigger budget made for TV movie. Something like the two or three part events like Shogun or The Thornbirds that made television history at the time when the DC comics crossovers were making comic history. A four or six hour Justice League MOVIE using the CW characters is something they could do to really follow up on this new, singular world. Film it in the off season, air it over Christmas/New Year like they have done with the crossovers but rather than have it be spread over various episodes in little chunks, two or three two hour events to make an old fashioned mini-series would be AWESOME!
Follow that with a girl power crossover. I have the script in my head guys. Call me.
There you have it folks. 1000 posts. I'm not sure if I have another 1000 in me but I guess we'll see. I never imagined this blog would live this long back when I started it and while the days of 50 comments on a post have long passed, I still see some traffic here regularly. If you enjoy my work here and would like to see it continue, a couple of comments often fire me up as much or even more than finding a new topic to yammer about.
1000. Dang.
1 comment:
Congratulations on 1000!!!!
Wes B... From the old "Purple Hatch" days...
wesbrz@gmail.com
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