The battle between Superman and Darkseid threatens to destroy not only the damned world of Apokolips but thousands of worlds around it! As Orion acts to stop the battle and Batman approaches Highfather to warn of the alliance between Ares and Darkseid, both The Regime and The Insurgency regroup. And as The United Nations consider launching a nuclear strike upon The Greek Gods, Harley Quinn gives Billy Batson a ride home.


Quite a lot happens in this episode and it is to Brian Buccellato's credit that he is able to balance all the on-going subplots with the skill of a plate-spinner. Yet despite some truly epic battles and literal world-shaking events, what really sells this story is the brief character moments. From Alfred's pep-talk to those still following Batman to the strange sweetness of Harley's crush on Shazam and her totally platonic (but no less creepy) feelings regarding Billy, there are many scenes that elicit a strong emotional response.


The artwork by Xermanico is similarly varied but more uneven. Largely the artwork looks good, particularly in the slower, more touching moments. But Xermanico's pencils get sloppy during some of the action sequences and there are some moments - particularly the fight with Darkseid - where the inking seems to obscure the details more than they enhance them.

Many years and a few regenerations ago, The Doctor once told a companion named Ace about how there were worlds with "people made of smoke and cities made of song." Today, The Doctor has taken his companion Gabby to the world of Wupatki, where the reverse is true - where the people are songs and the cities are made of air! Wupatki is also unique in that it is one of the few worlds where human colonists live alongside the native Shan'tee in peace and harmony. But a strange plague threatens that peace, as well as all the life on the planet and it will fall to The Doctor to make things better.


Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor returns with style and proves to be as grand as ever. As in the book's first year, the scripts by Nick Abadzis continue to amaze and delight. Abadzis' greatest gift as a writer remains a prodigious imagination. In the opening pages of this issue, Abadzis throws out several complex concepts in his development of the world of Wupatki - any one of which could be the basis for one whole episode of the television series!


Also returning to the series is artist Eleonora Carlini.  Carlini's streamlined style proves a good fit for this story and she perfectly captures the beautiful weirdness of the Shan'tee. It should be impossible for an artist to depict invisible beings who manifest only as an abstract representation of another character's perspective but damned if Carlini doesn't manage to draw something that fits the bill!

All in all, this series continues to be a perfect simulation of the David Tennant era of Doctor Who and a must read for all Whovians!

The multiverse is ending! Destiny turns toward the last page of his book as Death provides final moments of comfort to all those that perish. Yet Dream of The Endless - now sailing an impossible ship with a crew of improbable beings - seeks a way to save all that is.


Trying to describe this book seems a folly to me, as I review this, the last issue If you haven't been reading it, nothing I can say is likely to sway you now. And if you have been reading it, you are probably - like me - an avid fan of the creators involved and well aware of how indescribably good this book has been.


No words I write can do justice to the glory of this series. If you have yet to experience the wonder that is The Sandman, speed thee hence to the closest library or bookshop and correct that misfortune at once. Because if you haven't read the original series, nothing I can say about Overture will be of any help to you. Except, perhaps, this.

Neil Gaiman, J.H. Williams III and Dave Stewart have crafted the perfect conclusion to The Sandman. As well as the perfect beginning. And if that doesn't make sense to you, believe me when I say that it is a most worthy continuation of the original saga, wherever one places it.

Rick and Morty #6 is proof of the truism that some things are best left to the imagination. The whole issue is devoted towards depicting an episode of Ball Fondlers - an extra-dimensional TV show that - from what little we've seen - is a glorious parody of 1980s action shows like The A-Team and Airwolf. That's it. There's no Rick and Morty until the final panel.


Writer Zac Gorman has no way of living up to the impossible concept of the series as depicted on the show. By giving names, dialogue and motivations (however rudimentary) to characters who haven't ever spoken, Gorman has killed the joke of how shallow and mindless Ball Fondlers is meant to be. The amateurish artwork by Andrew MacLean doesn't help matters.


To describe Rick and Morty #6 as a disappointment would be an understatement. To describe it further would require my hiring Christophe The Insultor. And I don't have that kind of budget.

Ice continues to plague the mysterious island that Jungle Girl calls home. Only the mystic Heart of the Mountain can repair the damage done by Mistress Hel and her ice wyrm. And only Jana and Red Sonja can guide the witchworker Bel'lok to its resting place.

Alas, what started out as a promising mini-series falls apart in this final chapter. Curiously, Sonja and Jana have no real function in this chapter other than to protect the male protagonist who knows what is going on and must be the one to use his magic to fix everything. This is a decidedly curious message for a series that was meant to be centered on pulp heroines!

Marguerite Bennett's script also goes a bit too far in hanging the lampshade on the silliness of the whole affair, with Sonja praying to "the gods of this absurd island of incongruous mystery" at one point. What is worse, the Sonja and Jana we see in this issue seem to act differently from the characters we saw in the first issue, with Sonja playing matchmaker to her companions and Jana acting, at times, like a teenage bimbo.


The artwork doesn't aid in this impression, with Mirka Andolfo's style leaving everyone looking like teenagers. Still, the artwork is competently rendered and the action sequences are good. Yet I can't help but wonder how this series might have looked with a more traditional pulp artist handling it. Such speculation is pointless, however, and the artwork is good for what it is, though I may question how well it matches the setting.

Superman's secret identity has been revealed to the world and Clark Kent's life is falling apart. A new Royal Flush gang is out for his head and a collective of his worst enemies have taken the staff of The Daily Planet hostage! And the police are more interested in arresting him than they are in helping Superman save lives!

I want to believe that Gene Luen Yang is building to something grand with this story but I'm just not seeing it anymore. The speed with which people turn on Clark Kent seems more appropriate to a story set in the Marvel Universe. I defended the idea that Lois Lane could ever see fit to betray Clark's trust in the face of a greater good but I'm hard pressed to believe Perry White would attack Clark as he does here. While one might argue that White's commitment to The Truth as a newsman could lead him to see any kind of lying to your editor as a betrayal of the job of a journalist, it still seems a bit incongruous for him to chew out Superman for endangering people and thinking he could protect them. Nearly as incongruous as Clark, in the fact of such hostility, declaring he shall inflict a thousand-times as much pain on anyone who tries to hurt his friends.


It's oddly fitting that John Romita Jr. should be the artist on this book because this sure feels like a Spider-Man story rather than a Superman one. Romita and his usual inker Klaus Janson are in fine form. And the colors by Dean White and Leonardo Olea are skilfully applied, with no indication that there is more than one color artist at work.

Things between Travis and his girlfriend Melissa have never been worse. She's laid into him for not discussing his therapy with her or mentioning a woman named Jenny who claimed to be Travis' half-sister. But Travis hasn't been alone in keeping secrets and the bombshell Melissa has been hiding may be the straw that breaks the camel's back and ends their relationship forever.


There's no small irony that Travis finally seems to be moving forward in his life just in time for Brian Buccellato to declare a six-month hiatus before the next issue comes out. Still, it is gratifying that the reason for the hiatus is to ensure Toni Infante is available to work on the book, in order to maintain the series' visual continuity. I'm optimistic it will prove worth the wait.


If you haven't been reading Sons of The Devil before now, you've been missing out on a slow-boiling drama with a likable protagonist, a number of intriguing mysteries and some damn fine artwork. If you can't track down the back-issues, check out the upcoming trade. This series reads even better in one go than it does month-to-month and the TP will include a bonus story starring the mysterious Jenny.

When a strange craft destroys the International Space Station and vaporizes Lake Windermere, the call goes out for The Doctor. But UNIT can't get a hold of him and their soldiers are utterly helpless as more spaceships surround the Earth, saying only two words - Hyperios Rises.  Little do they know that The Doctor is already in the thick of it, coping with twitchy townsfolk and zombies made of ash!

One can't accuse Robbie Morrison of thinking small with his scripts for this series. When the destruction of a space-station is just the pre-credits sequence, you know we're in for something big. Yet despite the global scale of this story and the intense action, the best moments are those in which The Doctor and Clara play off of each other or interact with other characters.


Daniel Indro and Slamet Mujiono were partnered together for Robbie Morrison's turn on Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor. They do the same stellar job here that they did there. Indro has a highly detailed style, which suffers somewhat in the long-shots but looks utterly amazing in the short distance and close-ups. And Mujiono's colors prove well-chosen.

What remains of Superman's Regime storms Themyscira with one goal in mind - defeat the Greek Gods now laying siege to the world! They receive some unexpected help from Batman's Insurgency. But that will not help them against the nuclear missiles The United Nations have just launched!


Mike S. Miller is a fine artist but this is not his best issue. There are several points where the poses are awkward and the pencils seemed rushed. Still, there are some scenes we see what Miller is truly capable of and J. Nanjan's colors are fantastic throughout.


Brian Buccalleto remains on point with the script. This issue is largely one big action sequence but it proves to be a well-paced one. And the final page will leave you hungry for next week's issue.

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

It's been six months since the defeat of The Reverse Flash and much has changed in Central City. The Flash now operates openly but he also works alone, determined to keep any other people in Barry Allen's life from dying while working to rebuild the city at night, one broken building at a time. Joe West and Cisco Ramon are hard at work too, developing a special police task force capable of fighting metahuman criminals and the the tools to do the job.  They will all find themselves tested shortly, as a new metahuman with murder on his mind seeks out The Flash.


Influences

The JSA comics of David Goyer, James Robinson and Geoff Johns (details regarding Atom Smasher) and The Flash comics of Geoff Johns (references to The Flash: Rebirth and the general tone of the writing.)


Goofs 

Al Rothstein was one of the names on Harrison Wells' list of people who died during the particle accelerator explosion in 107, so how can he be turning up dead some 21 months later or have been on his honeymoon in Hawaii at the time of The Particle Accelerator Explosion?  (Possibly there is more than one Al Rothstein in Central City?)

How can The Reverse Flash's video confession to Nora Allen's murder still exist when Eobard Thawne never existed?

Henry Allen's leaving Central City - while not a goof - is rather sloppily written.  A man has been in jail for the better part of two decades and wants to get out of town so as not to step on the toes of his devoted son?  There's a LOT better reasons Henry might want to get out of Central City for a while - see the world and revel in his newfound freedom by traveling?  Go to the places he dreamed of seeing while he was in prison?  Maybe visit the places he and his wife talked about going but never had the chance?


Performances

Candice Patton gets a nice silent moment, as Iris looks at Eddie Thawne's picture on the memorial wall at the police station.

Jesse L. Martin and Carlos Valdes play off of each other beautifully and the partnership between Joe and Cisco leads to some of the funnier moments of the episode. The two actors had an amazing chemistry in their few moments alone last season and its good to see that continuing this year.

Another good dialogue occurs between Grant Gustin and Danielle Panabaker. Barry and Caitlin are the two characters who have lost the most respectively due to Eobard Thawne's schemes, with Caitlin having lost the man she loves twice as well as her job and Barry - at this moment - feeling like he's accomplished nothing with his heroism except getting his friends killed.  It's good to see the two of them get to unload on one another and both actors play the moment well.


Artistry

The set design on The Flash Day ceremony is brilliant.

There's a nice symmetry in the script, with the flashback depicting a depressed Barry some six months after his mother died and Barry's state of mind some six months after Ronnie Raymond died saving him and Joe giving him an inspiring speech each time.


Flash Facts

In the comics, Al Rothstein was the name of a metahuman who was primarily known as The Atom Smasher. Originally known as Nuklon, he was one of the founding members of Infinity Inc. - a superhero team made up of the children and heirs apparent of The Justice Society of America. In Al's case, he was the godson and namesake of Al Pratt - the original Atom. Rothstein later joined the JSA under the name Atom Smasher and adopted a costume that utilized the same blue mask as Al Pratt's costume.

Atom Smasher's costume on the show is similar to his costume from the comics, save that the comic version wore a cloth mask  rather than the retracting armored helmet we see in this episode.

In the comics, Atom Smasher's powers were a legacy from his grandfather - an atomic scientist turned reluctant supervillain called Cyclotron. Atom Smasher's chief power was the ability to increase his size up to a height of 60 feet. This in turn gave him increased strength and durability, which increased proportionately with his size. At his maximum height, he was capable of hurting Power Girl with a single punch

In the show, Atom Smasher draws upon ambient radiation to fuel his powers.  The comics version of Atom Smasher had no need to do this.

Interestingly, this version of Atom Smasher shares his comic book counterpart's tendency for making questionable moral decisions. During his time in The Justice Society, Atom Smasher bent the laws of time to save his mother from dying in a plane crash and left a super-villain for dead at the same point in time. He later killed a brutal dictator to help his friend Black Adam retake his homeland.

Superheroes being awarded the key to their city and having a day devoted to them with a ceremony that is disrupted by a super-villain attack is a long-standing tradition in superhero comics. It seems to happen with particular frequency to The Flash. So much so that one episode of Justice League United - Flash And Substance - was devoted to that exact storyline.

The Flash performing construction as super-speed to help clean up after a disaster is another long-running gag from the classic comics.  Superman also does this a fair bit.

In his speech at The Flash Day ceremony, Mayor Bellows says that The Flash restores hope as well as protecting the people of Central City. In the Blackest Night event, Barry Allen was the one person on Earth judged most worthy of temporarily wielding the Power Ring of a Blue Lantern, who draw power from Hope as Green Lanterns draw power from their Will.

Barry carries a handkerchief. This is a nod to the comics where Barry is somewhat old-fashioned, being the sort who still wears bow-ties to formal occasions.

Caitlin's plan to take down Atom Smasher by feeding him more radiation than his powers can cope with is another classic comic-book cliche for dealing with  energy-absorbing villains and monsters.

The spotlight with The Flash symbol on it used to lure Atom Smasher out into the open is, of course, a nod to The Bat Signal from the Batman comics, which is used by the Gotham Police Department to summon Batman to Police Headquarters.


Technobabble

Al Rothstein had petechiae on his face and the whites of his eyes and bruising around his neck. This indicated he was strangled to death by someone very strong and very large.

Cisco constructs a device that he dubs The Boot as the CCPD's first special anti-metahuman weapon. In essence, The Boot is a rifle that fires a metal circlet. This circlet attaches itself around the ankle or lower leg of a metahuman and administers a non-lethal but incapacitating electric shock. It fails to work on Atom Smasher, however, due to his high level of invulnerability and his being able to outgrow the circlet.

In the flashback to the day of The Singularity, we see that The Flash was able to contain and stabalize The Singularity by adding to its angular momentum.  In order to close it, the inner and outer event horizons had to be merged. To do this, Firestorm had to separate in the eye of The Singularity. Professor Stein theorized that the energy of the fission should do the trick. He was right, but Ronnie Raymond was seemingly lost in the resulting explosion.

Iris discovers that the hospital next to the site of The Flash Day ceremony had all of their X-Ray and CT machines go dead at the same time Atom Smasher grew bigger.  Cisco investigates this further, determining the same thing happened at every hospital with a one mile radius. This leads to the conclusion that Atom Smasher absorbs radiation to fuel his powers.

Cisco is impressed that Mercury Labs owns a 6K Proton Splicer.

All humans contain small amounts of radiation due to contact with cel phones, microwaves, and televisions. Human bodies are natural conductors.


Dialogue Triumphs

(As Ronnie and Caitlin kiss)
Prof. Stein: Thank you for NOT doing that when I was inside you.
Ronnie: That happened one time!  Let it go.

Barry: My name is Barry Allen and I'm the fastest man alive. When I was a child I saw my mother killed by something impossible. My father went to prison for her murder. Then an accident made me the impossible. And I became The Flash. I used my powers to find the man responsible for my mother's death. I thought i wound finally get justice for my family. But I failed. It's been six months since The Singularity. I'm on my own now. Decided it's better that way.  Keeps the people I care about safe. There's only one thing I can do now. I run.

(Talking about trying to get Barry to attend the Flash Day ceremony)
Iris: Someone should try to get through to him.
Joe: Maybe his best friend?
Cisco: Joe, believe me, I've tried!
Joe: I meant her.

Mayor Bellows: Our wounds run deep and I know many of you are afraid of what threats tomorrow may bring. But The Flash doesn't just protect us - he restores hope where it was lost! That's why I'm honored to present The Key to the man who saved Central City - The Flash!

(Team Flash discover a three-block radioactive dead-zone around a hazardous waste reclamation plant)
Professor Stein: That's where you'll find your atom smasher!
(Iris and Cisco just look at Professor Stein strangely)
Professor Stein: (laughs nervously) Because he absorbs atomic power. And he... well, smashes!
Cisco: Come here.
(Cisco hugs Professor Stein)
Cisco: That's a great name. Welcome to the team.
Professor Stein: Thank you.

"Harrison Wells": Hello Barry. If you're watching this, that means something has gone horribly wrong. I'm dead. And the last 15 years have been for nothing. Bummer. 15 years. You know... when I realize in all those years helping raise you, we were never truly enemies, Barry. I'm not the thing you hate. And so I'm going to give you the thing that you want most. It won't matter.You'll never be truly happy, Barry Allen. Trust me. I know you.  Now (clears throat) Erase everything I said up to this point. Give the following message to the police. (pauses) My name is Harrison Wells. Being of sound mind and body, I freely confess to the murder of Nora Allen, in her home, on the night of March 18th, in the year 2000...


Continuity

Barry makes reference to Gorilla Grodd, last seen in 121.  Reference is once again made to Joe West's fear of gorillas.

Jay Garrick is first seen taking a picture of Barry while he's at work, investigating the Rothstein murder.

Captain Singh, last seen in 123, has grown a goatee.  He has also granted Joe's request to establish an anti-metahuman task force, with Cisco as his scientific adviser.

As the episode opens, Cisco does not have a police badge. By the episode's end, he does, though it is unclear if he is considered a full police officer or if he serves in a capacity similar to a CSI like Barry.

Caitlin is said to be working at Mercury Labs, which was last mentioned in 118.

Eddie Thawne's picture is seen hanging on a memorial wall at the CCPD police station.

We see the events at the end of 123 through one of Barry's flashbacks.  While being able to hold the singularity in check by running around its interior at super-speed, he was not able to reverse it. Firestorm was able to close The Singularity by separating in The Singularity's eye.  This resulted in Ronnie Raymond's apparent death.

Mayor Bellows is seen for the first time since 117.

Jay Garrick is also seen in the crowd at the Flash Day ceremony, standing a bit behind Iris.

During the fight with Atom Smasher at The Flash Day ceremony, Cisco has another vision as in 120. He sees Atom Smasher speaking to a figure covered in blue-lightning - presumably Zoom.

Caitlin mentions Dr. Tina McGee, head scientist at Mercury Labs, last seen in 119.

Barry was given STAR Labs as part of Harrison Wells' living trust, but Barry's ownership of the property was contingent upon him watching a video message from Wells on a flash drive given to him by Wells' law firm. He refuses to watch it until Caitlin offers to watch it with him.

For the first time, Professor Stein names a metahuman criminal.

Cisco is now capable enough as a hacker than he can break into security camera feeds.

During their second fight, Atom Smasher says that "he" said Barry was some kind of big hero. The "he" turns out to be Zoom.

Comic books exist in the DCTVU and (unsurprisingly) Cisco is a fan. He credits his idea for The Flash Signal to some comic he read once.

As Barry lures Atom Smasher into their trap, Joe West says "Run, Barry, Run." - the catchphrase of Harrison Wells during Season One.

Before he dies, Atom Smasher tells Barry that he was trying to kill Barry because someone called Zoom promised to take him back to his home if he did so.

Henry Allen is cleared on all charges thanks to Wells' confession.  Rather than stay in Central City, however, he elects to travel for a bit, though he promises to be there should Barry ever need him.

At the end of the episode, Cisco alters The Flash costume so that the lighting bolt symbol has a white circle backing it, as they saw on the future newspaper in 120.

Jay Garrick reveals himself to Team Flash, not yet revealing how he got through STAR Labs new and improved security, but saying only that their world is in danger.


The Fridge Factor

Averted in that it is Caitlin who comes up with the plan to stop Atom Smasher by feeding him more radiation than he can absorb.


The Bottom Line

The Flash is back and as good as ever. There are some nagging questions about just how the laws of time work in this universe, given how little things have changed compared to what did and should have changed.  Presumably some kind of explanation is coming up and I'd be willing to be part of that explanation comes next week along with an explanation of just who Jay Garrick is.

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.


Plot

Several months have passed since Oliver Queen defeated Ra's Al Ghul and saved Starling City from The League of Assassins and much has changed.  Starling City has changed its name to Star City, in honor of Ray Palmer, presumed dead after a lab accident.  John Diggle now leads Laurel Lance and Thea Queen in protecting the city. And Oliver Queen has happily retired to a life of suburban bliss with Felicity Smoak. Alas, it can't last, and when a new threat proves too much for what is left of Team Arrow to cope with, Oliver Queen must once again become someone else.


Influences

The comics of Dennis O'Neil, Mike Grell and Kevin Smith (Ollie as a stay-at-home husband), the Titans comics of Devin Grayson (character of Damian Darhk) and the general theme of redemption that dominates so many classic Green Arrow stories.


Goofs

Everyone seems somewhat skeptical of Oliver's claims that the supernatural is real and that he's seen things when he says that Damien Darhk's powers are mystic in nature... considering that they all saw Thea come back from the dead six months earlier after being exposed to The Lazarus Pit.


Performances

Stephen Amell and Emily Bett Rickards play Oliver and Felicity as two clearly different characters. It is clear the time away from Starling City has done wonders for both characters, with Oliver being happier and Felicity being more confident. The chemistry between both actors is incredible.

David Ramsey has often had a thankless job in playing the under-utilized John Diggle.  This episode, however, almost makes up for every episode where he had nothing to do but stand in the background and glare at Oliver in silent disapproval until the two of them were alone and he could let him have it. Diggle is front and center with his resentment of Oliver's actions against his family and every moment - from the quiet one with his wife and daughter - to his finally putting all his cards on the table with Oliver as they search for a bomb - is good stuff.


Artistry

The action scene of Laurel, Diggle and Thea chasing after the HIVE thugs in the Kord Industries truck is a good one.

The script for this episode is strong in one particular theme - redemption. Throughout the episode, Oliver is forced to confront his past mistakes (what Thea has become, how he destroyed his friendship with John Diggle, etc.) and seek a way to move past who he was to become someone else. Someone better. That idea - that someone can become a better person - is the defining characteristic of Oliver Queen's character in all of his various incarnations. And that transformation in this episode is handled beautifully.


Trivia

Ollie being a fantastic chef is a direct nod to the comics. While he's primarily famous for his chili recipe, Oliver was frequently depicted experimenting in the kitchen in his spare time in the comics by Dennis O'Neil, Mike Grell and Kevin Smith.

Ollie living as a house-husband is also a nod to the Mike Grell comics.  While nominally employed by Dinah Lance as a delivery man and assistant at her floral business after the two moved in together, Ollie mostly concerned himself with tending to their home when he wasn't playing vigilante.

In the original comics, Damian Darhk was an enemy of The Titans, making his first appearance in the first issue of the Devin Grayson run on that series. A mysterious figure and something of a tech-guru, Darhk was a major player in the criminal underworld and had connections with H.I.V.E. Curiously, he had the appearance of a 20-year-old man despite his apparent connections and experience. He was seemingly killed by Vandal Savage, but apparently gained immortality after his blood merged with that of the HIVE Mistress.

The DCTVU version of Damian Darhk is a decidedly different character, apart from being definitively identified as the leader of HIVE and a former member of The League of Assassins who was enlisted at the same time as Ra's Al Ghul. Darhk is a magician rather than a tech-based villain, capable of telekinesis (he stops the arrows Ollie shoots at him), teleportation (he disappears off the train after Diggle shoots him) and he possess some kind of ability to drain the life out of people with a touch. We see Darhk performing some kind of ritual that requires spilling his own blood before an idol near the episode's end.

HIVE - the organization that Damian Darhk runs - is a reference to another villain group that fought The Teen Titans and Superman in the comics.  HIVE stands for Hierarchy of International Vengeance and Extermination and the group was involved in various criminal schemes with an ultimate goal of world domination. In the DCTVU reality, they apparently hired Deadshot to kill Andy Diggle, John's brother.

In the New 52 comics, HIVE stands for Holistic Integration for Viral Equality. Otherwise, they are much the same as the original HIVE.  The group formed an uneasy alliance with the psychic villain Hector Hammond and were responsible for the lab accident that turned Dr. Caitlin Snow into the villain Killer Frost.

Kord Industries - the company HIVE steals the cluster-bombs from - is a reference to the company of DC Comics hero Ted Kord a.k.a. The Blue Beetle. The truck HIVE steals is decorated in light blue with dark blue piping - the same colors as Ted Kord's costume in the comics.

Thea is still referred to by the code-name Speedy in the field. At one point she asks to be called The Red Arrow. In the original comics, Speedy was the first code-name used by Roy Harper, who later became known as The Red Arrow when he joined The Justice League.

The scene where Amanda Waller takes Oliver to a bar opens on a shot of a leather aviator jacket with the name Jordan sewn onto the chest. This is a reference to the signature jacket of Hal Jordan, who was Oliver Queen's best friend in the comics and also the first Earthling to become a member of The Green Lantern Corps.

It's also worth noting that Oliver and Amanda Waller were in Coast City - Hal Jordan's home town in the comics.

It is revealed near the end of the episode that the suburb Ollie and Felicity moved into is called Ivy Town.  In the comics, Ivy Town was Ray Palmer's home town and he was employed as a college professor at Ivy University.


Technobabble

The weapons stolen from Kord Industries by HIVE are cluster bombs with built-in GPS unites. These bombs are censor-fused and high-yield - the most powerful non-nuclear bombs in the world.

Oliver is given a backpack with AES-Encrypted Communication Gear before he is dropped back on Lian Yu, in the Five Years Ago flashback.


Dialogue Triumphs

Oliver: (To Felicity) You're uncharacteristically quiet.
Felicity: What should I say? Our friends need our help. We should be in the car.

Oliver: I don't need a therapist.
Waller: The hood and eye make-up suggest otherwise.

(As they drive past a row of closed down businesses and boarded up homes)
Oliver: Jeez. It's tough not to look out this window and wonder.
Felicity: Wonder what?
Oliver: What did we really accomplish?

Diggle: That's pretty forgiving considering he kidnapped you six months ago.
Lyla: You know why he did. You have to let go of it sometime. I did.
Diggle: That's because you're better than me. That's one of the reasons why I love you.
Lyla: It was war, John. Maybe not against a country, but it was war. And in times of war, we do what we have to do.
Diggle: Really, Lyla? I mean, that include lying to me? Lying to Felicity? What was the point?
Lyla: Oliver did what he thought he had to do to defeat Ra's. I'm not saying he made the right choice. But if Oliver Queen always made the right choice, he wouldn't need you.

Oliver: Saw that you took my advice on the identity concealment...
Diggle: (sighs) Oliver, man - what are we doing? Pretending everything's normal? That we are normal?
Oliver; I'm looking for a way in.
Diggle: I was furious with you that you trusted Malcolm Merlyn more than you trusted me. But then I realized that I'm not angry at you. I'm angry at myself for thinking that you're someone that you clearly aren't.
Oliver: I don't know what that means.
Diggle: Oliver, after everything that we've been through, man, I couldn't fathom why you didn't trust me. But then I realized that you couldn't. That's not who you are. You don't trust. You don't love. You were able to fool Ra's and join The League because inside you are every bit as dark as they are.

Lance: The prodigal arrow returns.
Oliver: Captain Lance.
Lance: I thought that was you last night, some mask over your head. Felt like old times.
Oliver: I was only trying to help. 
Lance: If that were true, you wouldn't have come back. This town started going to crap the moment you put on that hood. You brought madness into all our lives and the monster you were inspired monsters.
Oliver: Maybe. But I'm not a monster anymore.
Lance: Then what are you?!

Felicity: I love our new home. And I love you. But I also love it here and you can't honestly tell me that you don't.
Oliver: Yeah, no, of course! I miss aspects of it. The sense of purpose. The idea of helping people. But Lance was right.
Felicity: About what?
Oliver: A few months ago he told me that all I brought back from the island was pain, misery and darkness. And of course I knew that the moment we came back here that darkness would be waiting for me.
Felicity:  Well, he's wrong. Dead wrong. You didn't bring the darkness back with you from Lian Yu!
Oliver: But, Felicity, I'm telling you that the only way I know to fight the darkness is to be darkness. That is why I left!  I don't want to be that type of person anymore!
Felicity: Well, maybe you need to be a different kind of person.  And you're not doing this alone anymore.

Damien Darhk: You can't be The Arrow. He died. So who are you?
Ollie: You're about to find out.

The Green Arrow: Six months ago, The Arrow died. But what he stood for didn't. It lived on in the heroes who took up his mantle. People who believe that this city should never descend into hopelessness. Who believe although life is filled with darkness, that darkness can be the key to find light. And tonight, I am declaring my intention to stand with them - to fight for this city! To be the symbol of hope that The Arrow never was. I am... The Green Arrow!


Dialogue Disasters

Thea: I thought I told you you guys to call me Red Arrow!
Diggle: A red arrow just means you can't make a left turn.


Continuity

Five years ago, Oliver operated as a vigilante in Coast City, targeting drug dealers who dealt to children. He was discovered by Amanda Waller, who drugged him and arranged for him to be dropped onto Lian Yu as part of a reconnaissance mission, where he was almost immediately captured by a man in camouflage.

Waller makes reference to Oliver's bloody killing of General Shrieve in 323.

As the episode opens, Ollie and Felicity have settled in the suburbs of Ivy Town. Ollie is a house-husband and Felicity is the Acting CEO In Absentia of Palmer Technologies, though she is trying to convince the Tech Board that she can take over the position permanently.

Ollie has become a brilliant chef in the past five months. Felicity is not so gifted.

Ollie had the dragon tattoo on his shoulder surgically removed, saying he didn't need it anymore. The tattoo was originally forced onto Oliver in 217 by Slade Wilson as a reminder of Shado's death.

Diggle now wears a helmet that obscures and protects his face along with black tactical gear and a black leather jacket as a costume.

According to Diggle and Thea, Kord Industries are one of the largest weapons manufacturers in the DCTVU. They also manufacture consumer goods, including "awesome cel phones."

Walter Steele - Oliver and Thea's step-father, last seen at Moira Queen's funeral in 221 - was apparently approached about running for Mayor of Star City. He declined.

Captain Lance notes that Star City has lost three mayors and one mayoral candidate in the last three years. We witnessed these events in 201(Mayor Altman was killed by The Hoods), 220 (Moira Queen murdered by Slade Wilson), 222 (Mayor Sebastian Blood killed by Isabel Rochev) and 317 (Mayor Castle killed by League of Assasins to frame The Arrow for murder).

The foot-soldiers of HIVE are dubbed "ghosts" by the press, due to how quickly they disappear after committing a crime. They are all equipped with cyanide pills and will kill themselves rather than talk.

Captain Lance describes some of Star City's attempts to improve the image of their city in the wake of three disasters in as many years. Apart from changing their name (in honor of the presumed dead Ray Palmer), they've also begun a new tourism program and constructed a high-speed railway between Star City and Central City.

Captain Lance makes a reference to Central City holding a Flash Day event.  We saw this in episode F201.

All of the city leaders except for Captain Lance are killed by HIVE. These include the District Attorney, The Comptroller and Head of Emergency Services.

Ollie attempts to propose to Felicity twice over the course of the episode, using his mother's engagement ring that belonged to his mother. One attempt is thwarted by the sudden arrival of Thea and Laurel. The other is abandoned in the middle of moving into Thea's old loft.

Cisco Ramon made Oliver a new costume six months earlier.  Ollie dons this new costume to become The Green Arrow.

Thea Queen has become a much more aggressive fighter, nearly killing one HIVE agent before Ollie stops her during Team Arrow's raid on The HIVE Hideout they discover. Presumably this is a side-effect of her resurrection in The Lazarus Pit in 320.

Oliver identifies Damien Darhk's powers as magical and says that he has seen mystical things in his past without elaborating.

By the episode's end, Ollie and Felicity have moved into Thea's loft. We learn that Thea has apparently been living with Laurel, not wanting to stay in her old loft as she was killed by Ra's Al Ghul there.

When Ollie says that Ra's Al Ghul specifically identified Damien Darhk's organization as "a hive", this triggers a flashback in Diggle, who remembers Deadshot's words in 206 regarding HIVE - the group that hired him to kill John's brother, Andy.  He does not share this information with the rest of Team Arrow.

It is also revealed that Captain Lance is working with Damien Darhk.

In the final scene of the episode, we see a flash-forward six months. Ollie is seen at a graveside alone and is briefly joined by Barry Allen, who apologizes for missing the funeral, saying that he was busy dealing with Zoom. We do not see who the grave belongs to.


Location

Ivy Town.


Untelevised Adventures

Felicity apparently helped Diggle, Laurel and Thea with several cases during the five months she and Oliver were away from Star City.

At some point in his past, Oliver Queen has seen proof that magic is real.


The Fridge Factor

Laurel sucks at keeping her highly illegal vigilante lifestyle under wraps. She's abandoned any pretense of disguising her hair with a wig.

When the D.A. starts dying beside her, Laurel shouts for someone else to call 911 while she is getting on her own phone out.  She then begins talking on the phone, with several people in earshot, about Diggle and Thea needing to check on the other city leaders. Nobody finds the assistant DA's lack of concern for her boss at all suspicious.

Later on, after she's saved her father from the HIVE assassins who came after him, Laurel casually talks to her father, in costume, in front of several cops, who think nothing is odd about their vigilante-hating boss NOT shouting for someone to help him cuff the woman in the mask.

Thea's shooting a smoke arrow into the middle of a crowd before trying to evacuate them is an incredibly stupid move.


The Winick Factor

I was hard pressed on where to put the examples of Laurel and Thea's incompetence. Ultimately, I decided to put them in The Fridge Factor above instead of The Winick Factor simply because none of the male characters exhibited such issues.


The Bottom Line

A solid start with a lot of mysteries for the viewers to consider and an interesting wrinkle as magic is introduced into the DCTVU. Unfortunately, the show is still struggling to give Laurel anything useful to do and Thea is barely any better. Still, Darhk has a strong first appearance as the big-bad for the season and the chemistry between Stephen Amell and Emily Bett Rickards saves a lot of scenes that might otherwise have fallen flat.

Before they continue the second leg of their world tour, Motherfather have stopped off in France to do a bit of writing and recording.  They set up shop in a chateau that has a built-in recording studio and is also reportedly haunted. Of course between the drugs and the documentary camera crew everyone is already feeling like they're being watched.  But could there really be something in the chateau's shadows?

Paul Cornell continues to balance the humor and the horror of this story masterfully. There's a good bit of honest drama as well, with a subplot involving the marital difficulties between Kev and his wife Alice meriting special attention. It's moving stuff, yet there's also a few scenes that are likely to inspire readers to laugh out loud.
 

The artwork is equally marvelous and balanced. Tony Parker's designs for the characters are particularly noteworthy, with no member of the extensive cast looking at all alike. The colors by Lovern Kindzierski are vivid and well-chosen, matching the 1970s aesthetic of the story quite well.

In which continue to explore the alternate pathways through Act III and Act IV, find out how things are different if Lucy and Gordo are replicants, break into the Tyrell Building to steal DNA files and see how the game ends if you decide to kill Guzza before Clovis does.

As Zeus stands poised to destroy Superman once and for all, Highfather of The New Gods intervenes.Will the clash between Man and Superman end in a battle between Old Gods and New Gods? Or will peace of a kind be preserved... for now?


This final chapter of Year Four of Injustice proves a satisfying conclusion. Brian Buccellato ties up all of the loose ends, including the depowering of Billy Batson and Harley Qunn's crush on his alter ego. Yet he also introduces some new complications for the upcoming Year Five series.


Of all the fine artists to work on this book, I think Bruno Redondo is my favorite.There is a unique clarity to his work, even among the fine details that lesser artists might lose in the background. I particularly like the soft smirk on Shazam's face as Harley Quinn tackle hugs him. His art is well enhanced by Juan Albarran's inks and Rex Lokus's colors.

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

Jay Garrick has revealed himself to the STAR Labs team, telling a tall tale of how The Singularity was a portal to another Earth. An Earth where he is a hero called The Flash! And where a villain named Zoom seeks to destroy every other being in the universe with super-speed powers.

Meanwhile, Joe West has sidelined his Metahuman Task Force as nobody was interested in joining it. Nobody, that is, except a rookie officer named Patty Spivot, who has a mind for science and her own reasons for fighting metahuman criminals. She'll get her chance sooner than she thinks, as Zoom recruits another villain from another world - Sand Demon - to kill The Flash and Spivot becomes an unwitting hostage.


Influences

The Flash Vol. 1 #123 (the comic which established the idea of multiple Earths when Jay Garrick and Barry Allen met for the first time), The Fury of Firestorm #51 (the character of Sand Demon) and The Flash comics of Gardner Fox (backstory of Jay Garrick) and Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato (New 52 Patty Spivot)


Goofs

Just how did Jay Garrick get through STAR Labs new and improved security without the benefit of super speed powers?

Barry's sudden suspicion and jealousy of Jay Garrick seems horribly out of character, even granting Barry's increased paranoia over the past few months. (Thankfully, Iris calls him out on it...)

The face Carlos Valdes makes when he has a Vibe Vision just plain looks silly.

For the second week in a row, Barry seems to semi-accidentally kill a super-villain!


Performances

Teddy Sears all but steals the episode as Jay Garrick. Sears is reminiscent of a young Scott Bakula, playing the down-to-earth, intelligent man-of-action masterfully. His chemistry with Danielle Panabaker is quite good and the two of them play off of each other well enough to make some potentially embarrassing dialogue work.

By the same token, Shantel VanSanten has similarly good chemistry with Grant Gustin during their brief moments flirting with one another. She also manages not to seem weak, needy or submissive once in the episode, despite spending most of the episode trying to get Joe to give her a job on his task force and being taken hostage purely so Barry has someone to rescue from Sand Demon in the final act.


Artistry

The special effects in this episode are top-notch - from Barry's first encounter with Sand Demon to his rescue of Patty Spivot near the end of the episode.


Flash Facts

The show opens with a new "My name is Barry Allen..." sequence to reflect the new season.

The title of this episode is a reference to The Flash Vol. 1 #123 (September 1961), which was also titled Flash of Two Worlds.

Zoom is the code-name used by the Flash villain Hunter Zolomon. However, this Zoom does not seem to bare any relation to that character as of yet.

Zoom manifests blue lightning when he moves. This energy is reminiscent of the villain Cobalt Blue, who - in the comics - was Barry Allen's long-lost evil twin.

The vision of Zoom we see in Jay's flashback (no pun intended) bares a slight resembelance to The Black Flash - a manifestation of The Speed Force that attempts to lure speedsters to their death in the comics.

Jason "Jay" Garrick was the first superhero to be known as The Flash. First appearing in Flash Comics #1 (January 1940), Jay was a double-major in physics and chemistry as well as a college football star. He developed super-speed powers after a lab accident, knocking over his equipment as he was trying to purify hard water using a cyclotron to remove the residual radiation.

The background of the DCTVU version of Jay Garrick seems to mirror that of his comics counterpart. He also has a background in chemistry and physics and he says he gained his powers in a lab accident that involved purifying hard water without leaving behind any residual radiation.

Jay Garrick's distinctive helmet is a petasos. The petasos was originally a hat developed by the Ancient Greeks and was usually made of wool, felt, leather or straw. It was a precursor to the modern fedora, with its broad, floppy brim making it ideal for rural life as it protected both the back of the neck and shaded the eyes. Metal petasi were part of the uniform for the Athenian cavalry.

A modified metal petasos with wings was the symbolic helmet of the Greek god Hermes - the messenger of the gods, who was said to be gifted with amazing speed thanks to a pair of winged sandals. It was for this reason that Jay Garrick adopted a metal winged petasos as part of his costume as The Flash.

Jay Garrick's Flash went on to become one of the founding members of The Justice Society of America - the first superhero team in history.

In Showcase #4 - the first comic Barry Allen appeared it - it was revealed that Barry Allen was a comic reader and that he took the name of The Flash in honor of his favorite superhero since he was a boy - a superhero who looked like the Jay Garrick version of The Flash!

This incongruity - in an effort to answer fan questions as to whatever happened to Jay Garrick - was explained The Flash Vol. 1 #123 (September 1961). This comic had Barry Allen accidentally run so fast that he traveled between realities, winding up in the world where Jay Garrick was The Flash!  It was explained that there were multiple Earths that occupied the same position in time and space but were separated by a fifth dimension that could be passed through by vibrating at a specific frequency.

Coincidentally, this general description perfectly fits Hugh Everett's relative state formulation of quantum mechanics - a.k.a. The Many Worlds Interpretation. Everett published this paper just four years before The Flash Vol. 1 #123 came out. As far as we know writer Gardner Fox didn't read it! But Professor Stein cites the theory when attempting to explain what Jay Garrick has told them to Joe West.

Professor Stein also mentions the idea of a multi-verse - multiple universes - which has been cited in both numerous DC Comic books to explain away the various alternate realities making up their comic line and by physicists.

Professor Stein also labels Barry's Earth as Earth 1 and Jay Garrick's world as Earth 2. These are the exact designations used in the comics to label the respective Earths of Barry Allen and Jay Garrick.

It was theorized that the writers on Earth 1 who wrote the comics featuring heroes from Earth 2 had a psychic gift to see between realities that caused them to envision the adventures of Jay Garrick and his friends as daydreams, which they transposed into comics. This is similar to the ability that Cisco has begun to manifest in the DCTVU.

Patty Spivot is a character in The Flash comics. She was originally Barry Allen's lab assistant in the pre-Crisis comics and later became head of the Blood Analysis department of the Central City Police Department. In the New 52 Flash comics, she was Barry Allen's co-worker and girlfriend for a time.

Apart from being an attractive blonde woman with an interest in science, the DCTVU version of Patty Spivot doesn't have much in common with any of her comic book counterparts.  The DCTVU version is a beat cop turned detective who has no interest in working in a lab despite her scientific background (triple major in biology, chemistry and physics). The comics versions were scientists, through and through.

Sand Demon was a minor villain and enemy of Firestorm, who first appeared in The Fury of Firestorm #51. A crooked wrestling manager known as Eddie Slick, one of his wrestlers - King Crusher - mutated into a giant monster. Firestorm saved the day but also exposed Slick's providing illegal steroids to his wrestlers. The Las Vegas gangsters Eddie worked for weren't pleased and buried him alive in the desert. It was here that Eddie developed an ability to meld with the earth around him and reshape it and himself. He later went on a rampage and was easily defeated by Firestorm after being transformed into glass and then broken.

The DCTVU version of Sand Demon is also named Eddie Slick and has the exact same powers as his comic book counterpart, though we do not discover his background before he was recruited by Zoom. We do know that the Earth 1 version of Eddie Slick is a career criminal, like his comic book counterpart and the Earth 2 version has demolitions training.

Cisco's visions in this episode seem to be a form of clairvoyance - the power to perceive information about an object, person, location or event through extrasensory perception. In this case, Cisco is able to see what Sand Demon was doing at early points in time just after he touched the sample of Sand Demon's cells.

Joe notes that Iron Heights is now equipped to handle metahuman criminals.  In the original comics, Iron Heights was a prison specifically built to handle metahuman criminals and many of The Flash's enemies were kept there.

Earth 1 Eddie Slick claims that he was in Blackgate Penitentiary at the time of The Particle Accelerator explosion in December 2013.  In the comics, Blackgate Penitentiary is the largest prison in Gotham City and where most of the non-insane and non-powered enemies of Batman are locked up.

Both Barry and Patty are Monty Python fans and make reference to The Bridge Keeper from Monty Python and The Holy Grail. Perhaps not coincidentally, this episode originally aired on the 40th anniversary of the release of that movie, on the same day that a special edition was rereleased in theaters.

Sand Demon makes his hideout in the abandoned Woodrue Grow House. This is likely a reference to Jason Woodrue - a scientist who later became the half-man/half-plant super-villain known as The Floronic Man.

Jay teaches Barry a new trick - how to harness his speed to create targeted electrical bursts, effectively generating ball lightning and throwing lightning bolts. This is a power that The Flash has used before in the comics.

The DCTVU version of Sand Demon is defeated in the same manner as his comic book counterpart, with Barry transforming him into glass with a controlled lightning strike and shattering him.

Sand Demon is a fairly obvious rip-off of The Sandman - a Spider-Man villain created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

The scene where Patty calls out for The Flash, both Barry and Jay yell "Coming!", and they run to her along opposite sides of a brick wall is a visual reference to the cover of The Flash #123.

Jay and Barry compare their respective nicknames - The Scarlet Speedster and The Crimson Comet. These were indeed the alliterative nicknames they were given in their respective comics.

Cisco drops the name of his comic-book counterpart's superhero identity, talking about the "vibe" that he gets before having a vision of something that happened in the pat.

Professor Stein and Cisco detect 52 separate breaches in Central City. This is yet another nod to the significance of the number 52 in the DC Comics Universe.


Technobabble

In a nod to the comics, Jay Garrick he says he gained his powers in a lab accident that involved purifying hard water without leaving behind any residual radiation. 

Professor Stein citesHugh Everett's relative state formulation of quantum mechanics - a.k.a. The Many Worlds Interpretation when attempting to explain the ideal of parallel universes and multiple Earths to Joe West.

Caitlin determines that Jay Garrick's heart rate and blood pressure are both lower than normal, the oxygen levels in his blood are impressive and that he does have regenerative capabilities but there's no other evidence of The Speed Force in his system. She also measured his autonomic reactions while asking him about his past - i.e. giving him a lie detector test - and determined he was telling the truth about being from another Earth.

Barry notes that the walls of the building Sand Demon first confronted him is too porous to take fingerprints from.

Barry determines the fire in the building where he first fought Sand Demon was caused by arson, based on the random gasoline burns as well as the fact that the sprinkler system did not go off.

Patty Spivot determines that the fire was started by someone cutting through a gas pipe using a sand-blaster. She theorizes, however, that a metahuman was responsible since there's no commercial sand-blaster that she knows of that is capable of such precision. She also takes fingerprint samples off the pipe and a sample of the sand left behind.

Jay Garrick identifies the "sand" that Sand Demon transforms into as human cells whose myosin II protein have emigrated into the cell's periphery.  These cells have the ability to rearrange and harden, given them the appearance of sand.

Professor Stein theorizes that they can detect the breaches caused by The Singularity through tracking exotic matter or trans-dimensional energy. Theoretically, this energy should leak from one universe to the other. This means that they can use an electro-photography program and the STAR Labs satellite to take pictures of the whole city and locate the breaches.

The Earth 1 Eddie Slick says he prefers using substances that are hard to trace like acetone to set a fire.

Sand Demon requires exposure to high humidity in order to maintain his composure. This requires him to make his hideouts in greenhouses or grow rooms. Failure to stay hydrated will cause his body to dry out and collapse, like dry sand.

Jay's plan to stop Sand Demon depends upon Barry focusing the electrical energy he generates when he run and focusing it into a bolt that will fuse Sand Demon into glass, like lightning striking a beach.

Sand Demon constructs a concussive bomb as a distraction, as his body can absorb the force whereas The Flash would be affected by it the force normally despite his speed.

Professor Stein describes the "breaches" as pockets of time and space folded into and upon themselves.


Dialogue Triumphs

Barry: My name is Barry Allen and I'm the fastest man alive! To the outside world, I'm an ordinary forensic scientist. But secretly, with the help of my friends at STAR Labs, I fight crime and find other metahumans like me. I hunted down the man who killed my mother but in doing so I opened up our world to new threats. And I am the only one fast enough to stop them. I am The Flash!

Barry: Okay, so... Jay? How exactly do you know all of this?
Jay: Where I came from, I was a speedster like you. They called me The Flash.

Jay: Look, Barry I don't what else I can do to prove to you I'm on your side.  I've been poked, prodded - I even subjected myself to a full body scan!
Caitlin: (defensively) I was being thorough!

Iris: What has happened to you?
Barry: Are you - me?
Iris: Yes, you.  The you that I grew up with. The you that is my best friend. The you that became The Flash. I haven't seen that you in a very long time.
Barry: A lot has changed, Iris.
Iris: Yeah, it sure has. You have learned how to not trust people. What is it about Jay that you don't like? (pauses) It's because he reminds you of Harrison Wells.
Barry: I trusted that man. For months. We all did. (pauses) And you know what? Eddie is dead. Ronnie is dead. And a whole lot of other people in this city?  They are dead. Because we trusted him. I'm not going to let us make that mistake again.
Iris: Barry, not everyone is Harrison Wells. Besides, you defeated him because you trusted in people. Because you believed in them. This team that you have here? They will follow your lead. They will do what you say. But if they think that you don't believe in them, it won't be long before they don't believe in you.

(Upon hearing the crackling lightning of The Flash running)
Sand Demon: Is that you, Flash? Found your way here?
(Sand Demon turns around to see Jay Garrick standing there.)
Jay: I came quite a distance.

(Jay Garrick tries, without success, to punch Sand Demon several times are regular speed)
Sand Demon: Quite a bit slower on this Earth, aren't you, Flash?
(Jay lets loose with one upper-cut that tags Sand Demon and sends dust flying out of his jaw)

Jay: This is a lot harder than I thought. Losing something that was such a big part of who I was for so long.
Caitlin: I lost something that was a part of me too. It's hard. But it gets easier every day. You just have to find a new way to live.(pauses) Just because it's a different life doesn't mean its a worse one. And, speed or no speed, in my book you were still a hero today.

Jay: What is it with alliteration and nicknames?

(After telling Joe the story of her her father was killed by The Mardon Brothers)
Patty: Two murderers got super powers. So, that's why I'm here, sir. That's why I'm so hell-bent on being on your task force. Because there's some bad people out there and they can do... anything. And I may not have powers, but I want to stop them. And you're the only person I know who wants to do that too.

Cisco: Something's happening to me. I'm starting to perceive things. Horrible things. It started after Wells killed me in the other timeline. It came back when Atom Smasher attacked on Flash Day. And then again when Sand Demon showed up. I get a vibe... and then a vision of something that already happened... and then it's gone. That's how I knew where Slick was.
Stein: Cisco, this is amazing! We have to study this. Figure out just what to do
Cisco: No, no, no! We're not doing any of that and we're certainly not telling anybody, either!
Stein: Cisco, I would think you would be the one most intrigued with knowing exactly what this is and how it works!
Cisco: I'm seeing things I don't want to see and knowing things I don't want to know! I just want it to stop! Professor, I don't want anyone to know about this. Not yet.
Stein: It's okay to be afraid, you know.
Cisco: Wells told me this was in my future. That he gave me this power. But everything he did was evil. That's what scares me, Professor. You have to promise me... you won't tell anyone about this.
Stein: I promise.


Continuity

It is revealed that the dead Al Rothstein from 201 was the Earth 1 version of Al Rothstein and that Atom Smasher was the Earth 2 version of Al Rothstein.

Jay reveals that he has been trapped on Earth 1 and powerless for six months, since The Singularity opened.

Jay has been The Flash for about two years on his world, yet he seems to be far more experienced than Barry and has manifested powers Barry hasn't, such as the ability to throw lightning bolts. He was also much faster than Barry, being capable of almost reaching the speed of light.

Patty Spigot has been with the CCPD for seven months. She was a triple major at Hudson University (biology, chemistry and physics), is in peak physical condition and she rated at the top of her class in marksmanship.

Barry extinguishes the fire that Sand Demon started using the vaccum-generation trick he mastered back in 120.

Joe notes that Iron Heights - the large prison between Central City and Star City - is now equipped to handle metahumans.

This episode takes place one day after The Green Arrow first announced himself to the people of Star City in A401.

Jay Garrick says that the helmet from his costume belonged to his father, who wore it when he fought in the War of the Americas.

Jay Garrick says that Zoom first appeared shortly after he got his speed powers and that he killed a lot of people on Earth 2. Garrick says it took him two years to track Zoom down.  He claims Zoom is obsessed with destroying him and that he is determined to make sure he is the only speedster in any world.

Patty Spigot's father was killed by Mark Mardon -a.k.a. The Weather Wizard. Her father ran a shoe shop and was killed during one of The Mardon Brothers' bank robberies several months before they got super powers. She says she wants to join Joe's taskforce not out of revenge but because someone has to stop the bad metahumans and Joe is the only person who seems interested in doing so.

Patty Spigot is promoted to Detective and joins Joe's taskforce as his partner.

Joe West's wife is revealed to not be dead, though she is not named in this episode.

Cisco refers to his previous visions from 120 and 201.

Cisco tells Professor Stein about his newfound power.  Stein agrees to keep Cisco's secret.

Professor Stein and Cisco detect 52 separate breaches around Central City, with the largest one being located within STAR Labs. Stein is about to describe what lies beyond that breach before he collapses.

The end-of-episode stinger gives us a vision of what seems to be an alternate version of Central City. Here, we see a school group touring STAR Labs, which we are told was founded in 1991 and specializes in artificial intelligence, genetics and metahuman studies. It has the motto "Bringing You Tomorrow's World Today" and was founded by Harrison Wells, who is introduced to the students as the Savior of Central City.


Location

We see a scene on Jay Garrick's Earth in his unnamed home town, where he fights Zoom before being sucked through The Singularity.

The end-of-show stinger seems to take place on yet another alternate Earth, where Harrison Wells is a respected scientist and is described as the Savior of Central City.


The Bottom Line

An intriguing episode where the quality of writing shows in the research and the world-building rather than the dialogue. Still, the new cast prove themselves worthy of joining the ensemble and the special effects work in the action sequences is some of the best yet. The last ten minutes make this episode truly magical.

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

When an old friend of their mother decides to run for mayor of Star City, Ollie and Thea decide to go beyond offering their endorsement and make it their business to protect her personally as The Green Arrow and Speedy. But Thea has been changed by The Lazarus Pit and that change is becoming more pronounced the more Thea throws herself into battle.  Can she hold it together in the face of a kidnapping plot orchestrated by a would-be minion of Damian Darhk?

At the same time, Felicity takes over Palmer Technologies only to find that the Board of Directors is less concerned about her ideas for saving the company and more concerned about letting go enough people to balance out their own high salaries.  But Felicity may be able to save more than jobs with the help of a brilliant young genius named Curtis Holt...

In the flashbacks, Ollie is back on Lian Yu, charged with infiltrating a new gang that has taken over the island and turned it into a poppy farm.


Influences

Green Arrow: Year One (Ollie infiltrating an island being used by a drug cartel to farm poppies for heroin), the Green Arrow comics of Elliot S! Maggin and Dennis O'Neil (the theme of public figures needing to be examples as well as superheroes and the idea of Ollie running for mayor) and the Mister Terrific comics of Eric Wallace.


Goofs

Despite Ollie's apparently sticking to his guns about not killing, there are several moments in the fight scenes where it looks like he fatally shoots people in the chest and Laurel seems to throw one man off a building to his death.

While chasing after Machin, Ollie is hit by a car, cracks the windshield and is thrown off of the car again with no apparent ill effects. Not even so much as a bruise.

Why would Machin go through the trouble of resewing his fingerprints onto his hands in a mixed up fashion after cutting them off when burning them off would have been a far easier way of accomplishing the same ends?


Trivia

The episode opens with another new variant of the "My name is Oliver Queen..." opening.

Team Arrow fight The Ghosts to save the city's water supply in the opening fight scene. This is perhaps one of the most time-honored cliches in superhero comics - stopping villains from contaminating a water supply.

Jessica Danforth is an original character made for the show Arrow.  Her name may, however, be a reference to Daniel Danforth Dickerson III, who was briefly mayor of Gotham City following the Batman: No Man's Land storyline.  In this story, Gotham City was abandoned by the United States following a series of disasters including the release of a plague and an earthquake that leveled most of the city - not unlike what has happened with Star City on Arrow. Dickerson was the first mayor to try and rebuild after Gotham City was reclaimed by the USA.

Anarky was originally an anti-hero created by writer Alan Grant and artist Norm Breyfogle in Detective Comics #608 (November 1989) as an antagonist for Batman. An idealistic child prodigy named Lonnie Machin, Anarky discovered philosophy at a young age and became concerned about the state of the world and the increasing influence of corporations and the idle rich. Creating a costume that increased his height, Lonnie embarked on a campaign of terror, beating up CEOs, encouraging homeless people to riot and hacking the accounts of evil companies and transferring their funds to various third-world relief charities.

Reaction to Anarky has been mixed, to put it mildly. Alan Grant has been accused of plagiarizing the base concept of an anarchist superhero from Alan Moore's V for Vendetta and Anarky's costume appears to be modeled on that of V - the anti-hero protagonist of that book.  The Anarky stories written by Grant have been said to be thinly-veiled, one-sided political screeds that use Anarky as a mouthpiece for Grant's own philosophy. Anarky himself is a Gary Stu, being a super-genius scientist and master martial artist who created his own style before he hit puberty, with a secret base under Washington DC and technology that rivals that of Batman! He even won the respect of Darkseid and was given a Boomtube!

Anarky encountered Green Arrow twice in the comics. They first crossed paths in Green Arrow Vol. 2 #89 (read my review of that issue here.), and Anarky professed an admiration for Green Arrow while wondering what happened to his idealism after Oliver Queen refused to help him blow up a gun factory. They next met in Green Arrow Vol. 3 #51, where Anarky was portrayed as more of a mad bomber, though he still spoke of admiring Green Arrow and decried that The Emerald Archer had "sold out".

Anarky's weapon of choice in the comics is a stylized taser staff. We see the DCTVU version of Anarky making use of a similar weapon in this episode.

The DCTVU version of Anarky is quite different. This Lonnie Machin is an adult and a career criminal, who worked for both The Triads and The Bertinelli crime family. Apart from utilizing a taser-staff weapon and the name, there is no apparent connection to the Alan Grant character, as this Anarky seems to be more of a mad bomber and a sadist than the super-genius chessmaster from the comics

Curtis Holt is the DCTVU version of Michael Holt aka Mister Terrific. In the comics, Michael Holt was a man "with a natural aptitude for having natural aptitudes". He was a Gold-medal winning Olympic decathlete, held 14 doctorates along with an assortment of Master's and Bachelor's degrees and ran his own technology firm - Holt Holdings. Left suicidal after a drunk driver killed his beloved wife, Holt was visited by the angelic being known as The Spectre, who told him the story of another gifted man named Terry Sloane who devoted himself to heroism under the guise of Mister Terrific, after contemplating suicide himself. Inspired by Sloane's example, Holt became the second Mister Terrific, and devoted himself toward helping the needy however he could and fighting crime with his fortune.

Curtis Holt is quite different from Michael Holt in several key respects.  Curtis Holt is gay and happily married. Michael Holt was straight and a widower. Thus far, Curtis does not seem to be the athletic type whereas Michael was a peak-human athlete in addition to being a super-genius.

The executive pushing Felicity to fire more people is named Mr. Dennis.  This could be a nod to legendary Green Arrow writer Dennis O'Neil.

Damien Darhk and Oliver both make reference to a gangster named Rick Pinzolo. This was the name of a gangster, played by Stanley Tucci, on the show Wiseguy.

The exact power of the shock delivered by Anarky's staff is revealed to be 5000 volts. Ironically - given how the fight with Anarky ends - 5000 Volts is also the name of a British Disco group, whose biggest hit was a song called "I'm On Fire!".

The leader of the group running the poppy farm on Lian Yu is introduced to Oliver as Baron Reiter. This is a nod to the super-villain Baron Blitzkreig, though writer Marc Guggenheim has already said this character will not be a Nazi and the focus will be upon Reiter's ties to the organized crime group Shadowspire, which first appeared in Deathstroke #53.

The idea of Oliver Queen running for mayor was first suggested in the story "What Can One Man Do?" by Elliot S! Maggin, in Green Lantern/Green Arrow #87.  It was his first professionally published story and one of many stories he wrote that explored the idea of superheroes as agents for social justice as well as crime-fighters.


Technobabble

Curtis Holt developed an algorithm using a specialized AI to determine maximum profits with a minimum amount of workforce reduction. However, he had originally designed it to develop a value matrix, to argue for company-wide pay increases and raises.  Mr. Dennis had him turn it around to figure out who to get rid of.

Anarky's taser-staff administers a 5,000 volt shock.


Dialogue Triumphs

Ollie: My name is Oliver Queen. After five years in hell, I returned home with only one goal - to save my city. But my old approach wasn't enough. I had to become someone else. I had to become... something else. I had to become... The Green Arrow.

(After explaining that he developed an algorithm to determine maximum profits with a minimum of work-force reduction)
Curtis: Sorry. I probably could have explained that better.
Felicity: No, I got the gist. You came up with a list of people that you'd like me to fire.
Curtis: (weakly) Work-Force Reduction has a nicer sound to it?

(As Ollie reveals the windshield which has a sample of Lonnie Machin's fingerprints)
Laurel: How did you get the owner to part with his windshield?
Ollie: I bought his truck.
(Everyone just stares at him)
Ollie: One of the benefits of your girlfriend inheriting a multi-billon dollar conglomerate. We have money now.

Quentin: You've been gone.  You don't know what this city is facing. Now, I'm not saying it doesn't need saving. But a guy hiding behind a mask isn't gonna get it done. What this city needs is someone willing to stand up in the light of day - not a guy lurking around in the shadows. You say you're going to be different this time, huh?  How?

Jessica Danforth: Yes, The Green Arrow risked his life to keep the people of this city safe. But who inspires them? Who works to make sure that there's a city worth saving? Who's there to make Star City a place my daughter wants to call home?

Ollie: Thank you for rescuing me.
Baron: (chuckles) I'm sorry, but we're not rescuing you. First thing you do once you get home is tell people what we're doing here.
Ollie:.I - I don't know what you're doing here.
Baron: Be that as it may, I can't send you home. Not right now. Good news, though. I have no reason to kill you.
Ollie: So what are you going to do with me?
Baron: Good question. You survived three years here all alone. That requires fortitude, intelligence - qualities that are of use to me. As it happens, one of my men stepped on a land mine. How would you like his job?

Damien Darhk: Now I see why Rick Pinzolo banished you. You're unaware that there are lines one does not cross.
Lonnie Machin: I met one of your "ghosts". After I took his tooth, we had an interesting conversation about HIVE. I wasn't led to believe you respected lines.
Damien Darhk: I respect Order, Mr. Machin. Discipline. Precision. You are sloppy. All you represent is anarchy.

Ollie: Nothing worthwhile ever comes easy.

Ollie: Both Lance and Jessica Danforth said something to me about this city needing something that Green Arrow can't offer.
Felicity: Decent Sushi restrautant?
Ollie: Hope. Inspiration. Someone who can do things in the light who isn't afraid... someone who can protect themselves.  Felicity?
Felicity: Umm-hmm?
Ollie: I'm going to run for mayor.


Continuity

Diggle and Felicity do not have code names yet.

Ollie gives Felicity a fern for her first day at work. This is a nod to the fern she got him in 301.

In her candidacy announcement, Jessica Danforth refers to the death of Moira Queen in220.

Lonnie Machin cut off his own fingerprints and restitched them onto his fingers in mis-matched patterns as a means of remaining unidentified.

Diggle tells Laurel about how his brother was killed by a group called HIVE and how he has spent two years looking for them, theorizing a connection go The Ghosts they are fighting, but not telling Felicity or Ollie about it because he considers it a family affair.

Thea is capable of breaking a man's arm with one hand.

Ollie makes reference to Malcolm Merlyn's warning in 320 that those who are resurrected by The Lazarus Pit do not come back as the same person they once were.

Laurel learns about The Lazarus Pit being used to resurrect Thea and immediately begins plotting a way to use it to bring back Sara Lance.

Thea makes a reference to her kidnapping at the hands of Slade Wilson in 216, watching Jessica Danforth on the news after her daughter was kidnapped and wondering if that's what it was like for Moira Queen.

Lonnie Machin escapes en route to the hospital after being set on fire by Thea. He leaves behind an anarchy symbol painted in blood as a calling card.

In the flashback, Ollie has his hair cut after joining The Baron's men.

At the end of the episode, Oliver decides to run for mayor himself in the wake of Jessica Danforth dropping out of the race.


The Fridge Factor

Laurel is back to her usual hypocritical self, chewing Diggle out for hiding information from Oliver and Felicity regarding HIVE but then going on to hide her trip to Nanda Parbat with Thea from Oliver.

Jessica Danforth is presented as a strong, confident independent woman only to immediately collapse into a helpless victim once her daughter is kidnapped. Jeri Ryan was completely wasted in this role and it's shameful that her casting on this show was built up for such a weak payoff.


The Winick Factor

Ollie's fighting skills seem to be nerfed severely when he goes up against Anarky, purely so Thea can have an opportunity to come in and accidentally set him on fire.


The Bottom Line

A lackluster episode that is reminiscent of the first season villain-of-the-week stories for all the wrong reasons. Anarky is such a one-note joke of a villain you actually feel upset that he wasn't killed off. Virtually all the progress the characters have made over the past year has been jettisoned as everyone is still keeping secrets from everyone else for the sake of prolonging the drama. It's telling that the best parts of the episode are the ones that introduce new information and characters rather than rehashing the same old tropes.

Red Sonja/Conan #3 is a truly awful comic book.  And yet, it is the strongest chapter of this mini-series to date. It would be unfair to say that this follow-up to the excellent Conan/Red Sonja series by Jim Zub and Gail Simone has gone off the rails. This book was never put on the rails in the first place!

The artwork by Roberto Castro somehow manages to look sketchy and unfinished while somehow being over-inked. His characters are misshapen hunks of random muscles, save for Red Sonja herself, who looks more like a bikini model than a warrior woman. The one nice thing I can say is that, unlike the previous issues, Castro remembered to draw bra the straps of Sonja's costume this month.

The script by Victor Gischler reads like the sort of story Roy Thomas might have written back in the 1970s when he was racing to meet a deadline... and hungover. The humor and romance of the earlier mini-series is completely absent. It's the worst kind of generic sword-and-sorcery with the focus firmly on Conan and Sonja reduced to the role of a sidekick.

Ignoring this, Sonja seems horribly out of character. She is seemingly surprised at Conan's sense of honor when he refuses to kill a man who surrendered. Later, she suggests that she and Conan could just not get involved as they prepare to storm the evil wizard's lair but then says she expected nothing less when Conan refuses to abandon their quest. Sonja is not one to waste words thus when there is evil that needs smiting. Indeed, she has a better track record of being more hero than mercenary than Conan.

Some people are haunted by their old loves. In John Constantine's case, it's no metaphor. His first love Veronica has been transformed into something else, having become unstuck between worlds. And if John is going to put her to rest he'll need the help of the one person he least wants to deal with - Georgina, the prim and proper wizard whom Veronica dumped for John back in their misspent youth.


In a few short issues, Ming Doyle and James Tynion IV have captured the essence of John Constantine in a way that no other comic writers have managed in recent memory. This issue proves a fitting capstone for an opening arc that may be the best introduction to John as a character ever written.

Riley Rossmo is a good artist but I think Ming Doyle, Chris Visions and Vanesa Del Rey are better suited to the material stylistically. That's just a matter of personal preference, mind you. The artwork on this issue does look good. Yet I keep thinking of Astro Boy when I see John's hair in some of Rossmo's work!

The final battle is begun! And as the Traveller and her chosen defend themselves against an army of the dreadful Shard-Men, the trio of Red Sonja, Dejah Thoris and Vampirella move to strike down Prince Charming himself. But how will the prophecy be fulfilled when a cowardly attack by Purgatori sees Vampirella staked and near death?!


Sergio Davila's artwork on this series has been nothing short of phenomenal. Given that many of the heroines involved in this series were born of the 1990's bad-girl movement and served little purpose other than providing wanking material for boys too young to buy Penthouse, it is gratifying to see them rendered with realistic proportions. The action flows smoothly and their are no impossible poses or Escher-Spines to be had!


I must say with all honesty that this final chapter of Swords of Sorrow is not Gail Simone's greatest work. Simone is wildly successful in keeping the plot moving and tries to give all of the large cast of characters at least a panel or two to showcase their skills. But I fear that it is all too much, too quickly.

Had this been a 12-issue mini-series rather than a 6-issue one, maybe it could have handled the sheer scope of what Simone has tried to convey. In the end, I think this series - much like the original Secret Wars - will be remembered for what it set-up rather than for the story that it told. But that is not a bad thing when what it sets-up is a shared universe that will allow other writers to freely team these heroines in the future.

There was a battle. Cities and their chosen champions, plucked from time and space and pitted against one another for the right to exist. But some of those heroes united during this so-called Convergence and in doing so defeated their captor - a future version of the artificial intelligence known as Brainiac. And leading the charge, as usual, was Brainiac's greatest enemy - Superman!

But now The Convergence is ended. And the Clark Kent and Lois Lane of an older Earth - who married and had a son named Jonathan together - find themselves in another world. A world that is darker and more suspicious than their own. A world in need of heroes. But this world has a Lois Lane and a Clark Kent of their own, who have their own destinies to fulfill. So Lois and Clark go into hiding, disguised as an ordinary farm couple, while still doing what they do best.

As the years pass, Lois becomes a famous yet anonymous author of books that expose government corruption. And Clark continues to do what good he can, subtly, when he isn't tending to their farm. It is a good life but it is about to become far more complicated than even they could have imagined!

Attention DC Comics fans who have been displeased by recent events in the Superman books or just generally unhappy with The New 52 universe in general! Our prayers have been answered! They have delivered unto us the Superman/Lois Lane comic we've always wanted! And it is good!

Hyperbolic Old Testament prophet dialogue aside, this truly is a great issue. Dan Jurgens sets up the new status quo and explains away Convergence with economy while delivering a well-placed jab at the reality of the new Earth Prime of The 52 Universe. Jurgens calls it a place without faith, which is an interesting and accurate description of the darker new DC Comics Universe and one senses we're going to see something special here.

It's too soon to tell if this series may be Jurgens'Kingdom Come - the first canon shot against a movement against the increasing cynicism in modern superhero stories. But this issue offers plenty of reasons to be hopeful. If nothing else it's nice to see Lois Lane being treated as an equal to Clark and that she gets her own subplot showcasing how she too has become a different kind of hero in facing a new world.


The artwork perfectly matches Jurgens' script. Lee Weeks' characters look wonderful and are perfectly enhanced by Scott Hanna's inks. Of particular note is the coloration by Brad Anderson, who depicts most of the world in muted tones save for the superheroes, who are vibrant and colorful figures that stand out all the stronger for that. Many of the pages depicting Lois' story have a Film Noir aspect fitting of the darker, mystery-filled world that Lois inhabits.