Live For Me: Arrow Crossover 8x08 Review (Crisis On Infinite Earths)

Well I’ve procrastinated long enough on the Crisis review don’t you think? I’m sure you’ve noticed my general lack of enthusiasm seeing as how I didn’t write a lick about over the holiday break and I had a MONTH.  In my defense I was legitimately busy with life, but if you’ve sensed a general “ho hum” attitude about the five hour extravaganza Arrow’s finale season has been building towards then you’d be right.

I feel a little guilty about it because I know how hard these episodes are for production to put together. I very much wanted to enjoy the crossover (and there are parts that I did), but overall Crisis on Infinite Earths felt like something I had to get through. It was like a hoop I had to jump through to get to Arrow’s last episode. It was the final arduous climb over Oliver Queen’s heroism mountain and I was killing five hours just to hit the down slope so I can see how the bloody hell this story ends.

I’ve never felt like the crossovers were for fans like me. And by that I mean a fan that has absolutely zero comic book knowledge. Eight years into this show the dial hasn’t moved up in that department either. I am blissfully ignorant of most of the storylines the Arrowverse plucks from the comic book world to reproduce in a detail  most Arrow episodes would roll their eyes at. 

Yeah, sure Oliver Queen, the Green Arrow, is a comic book character but that always felt like a jumping off point for the show rather than some Bible they were beholden too. And I like it that way. I like that Arrow uses the comics as a guidebook, but they forge their own path with their unique characters and their own Green Arrow canon.

As I result I was never too huffy about an episode a year being devoted to the crossovers and the promotion being geared almost entirely to comic book fans. I had the other 22 episodes in a season and I’d long given up on promotion being about anything I gave a damn about. 

I don’t feel like it always started out this way though. It started out just with Oliver and Barry teaming up. Then we had to launch Legends of Tomorrow. Then we introduced Supergirl and before we knew it… shit be crazy.

For me, the most successful crossover will always be Crisis on Earth X primarily because it marries a comic book storyline (pun intended) with the main emotional thrust of the Arrowverse, Olicity, in a unique, honest, surprising and relatively seamless way.

Everyone gathers together for Barry and Iris’ wedding, a legitimate reason for all the super folk to be in one room, and then a bunch of doppelganger Nazis attack. The sleight of hand was building the will they/won’t they climax of Oliver and Felicity’s love story into a very well known comic book story. Sure, everyone came for Barry and Iris, but it was Oliver and Felicity who garnered all the attention. 

Color this girl happy.

After hitting the pinnacle of crossover perfection like that I was pretty much done with them. That’s just how I’m built. I don’t need Oliver and Felicity to have four weddings (although the Arrow writers apparently do). I take my goodies, I say thank you and then I tap out. 

So, when we cratered to lowest of the low with Elseworlds and their cringe/rage inducing disrespect of Oliver Queen 

and then it was announced Crisis on Infinite Earths would be happening without Felicity Smoak due to Emily Bett Rickard’s early exit… sigh. My crossover patience hit my limit.

The last five hours of story were about survival and I did. I survived it. They gave it their level best to integrate the final leg of Oliver Queen’s story into another famous comic book storyline and it was successful, much to my shock, in some regards. Even more shocking is referencing Oliver Queen as Superhero Jesus, which was 40% metaphor and 60% joke, turned out to be waaaaaay more on the money than I ever expected.

But did the story hit the emotional level I think building an entire final season around warranted? No. Not even close.

FYI: Do not under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES expect me to explain the plot of this thing.

Let’s dig in…