I really don't know where to begin. I guess a plot summary? Yeah, a plot summary is good. Barry & Iris are getting married, which means all the superheroes from across the shows are coming together. However, evil parallel versions of them all crash the wedding, revealed to be from an Earth where the Nazis won, thus, a fight ensues between our heroes and an army of Nazis. Because no matter what, you can always rely on Nazi's to be the definitive evil, awful, no redeeming, no guilt over punching in the face bad guys. In this crossover's case we get to see a group of gay, bi, black and/or Jewish superheroes get to beat up Nazis, so yeah, that's pretty much everything I could ever hope for.One criticism I heard about last year's crossover is that each episode felt very segmented to it's respective TV Show, that is not the case here, apart from maybe the supporting cast of each show appearing briefly, this flows like one continuous narrative, and that each show and cast blend perfectly together. I know it's already a cliche to say this crossover was a better Justice League movie than the actual Justice League movie, but it was. Each episode featured a lot of fantastic action sequences, taking advantage of the different fighting styles of each character. The entire cast got a decent amount of screen time, and that includes the guest stars who only appeared in one or two parts of the crossover. We got to see new interactions between characters we don't normally get to see. We even got some new characters, including The Ray and Citizen Cold, in what is quite possibly the best performance Wentworth Miller's best performance as Leonard Snart, he's still behaving the exact same way, but is a good guy now, the contradiction between script and performance is hilarious. Speaking of performances, Paul Blackthorne, I swear to god this guy has been waiting to play an over the top Nazi his entire life, every line he delivered with such ferocity and pretty much ate the set, that's how much scenery he was chewing.
Thing is, this crossover very much could have gotten away with just being a big fun crossover event, hell, that's what last year's was, and it looked like that's what this one was going to be. Although, they actually went the extra mile by having major plot points occur, some obvious things like Barry & Iris do in fact get married, but so does Oliver & Felicity. But the biggest event was Martin Stein dying, which saddens me, true, we all knew he was leaving because the actor is busy on Broadway, but with the way his character had been written this season, I just assumed he was going to retire so he can spend time with his family, to actually kill him off (Thankfully dying doing something heroic), and getting some great performances from Victor Garber and Franz Drameh, it added a lot more depth and purpose to this crossover than what last year had.
Basically, I look at this crossover event, and I see everything that an event comic should be, but doesn't. It gives itself a purpose in existing, makes good use of it's entire cast, is well paced, has plenty of great moments of action and levity, tells a large scale story, proper impactful moments that will effect the status quo after the events over, give dying characters a heroic sacrifice and emotional goodbye; it is an ideal example of what a good crossover is supposed to be. Sure, there are plenty of things I could nitpick about this, like I'm upset Martian Manhunter wasn't in it, or that Reverse Flash is becoming even more of a confusing paradox with each appearance, or that the explanation for why it's called Earth-X is stupid. However, in terms of actual criticisms? Things that matter, that would be a hindrance on the story? Or one episode being the weak link? No. Also, final note: So many awesome shots of superheroes standing together and looking badass!
Yeah...it was a really friggin' good crossover. 9/10.
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