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Ok, minimal spoilers until I hear something else.   I'm sure you recognized Arkham Asylum's inmates. The only name I didn't get instantly was Mark Guggenheim- writer of Batman Confidential, some of the Arrowverse episodes, and probably that very same one.  

I tried to reserve judgement on Ruby Rose's performance until I saw it.  I already had a partially-lowered opinion of her from previous information (making a professional name out of a cartoon character,  deciding to go into acting with a LOT of tattoos-which limits your role potential,  Australians saying they didn't know why Americans gave her a job acting after she was unable to find work in Australia due to being a bad actress, etc.)  Having seen her in the role, both the Mrs and I think she was a horrible casting choice, and we both have different lists of reasons for it. (I assume they overlap, but I'm unlikely to subject her to a separate discussion about why a bad actress is bad. )

Assuming that "she's a bad actress overall" is not a reason (even though it's enough by itself), let's look at her and that role.  She was a POOR FIT for playing Kate Kane.  They had to rewrite the character to make her work at all- after there was already a vision for the character.   That, to me, is a sign the wrong actor was picked.  Look- the remake of "Clash of the Titans" wanted an actor for Perseus.  He accepted- but wanted major changes in the tone and meaning of the movie for him to play it.  Changing the whole movie to cater to one actor is a bad sign for the movie, and, IMHO, should NEVER be done. It's a sign they have the wrong person for the job.  "I can do it- but you'll need to cater to me first" means we need to screen more applicants!  Things only go downhill from there- ask any supervisor.    But they used that same actor, and made major changes to the script for him.   RR looks nothing like KK-  so they changed the character A LOT to say "and this is what the character looks like."   Assuming she only has one voice she can act in-  otherwise, she was an idiot for not using 2-  RR is a poor choice for ANY character with a secret identity.  In this intro, Kare Kane sounds EXACTLY like Batwoman and like what Batwoman should be expected to sound like.  I don't know if she was a poor choice for someone wearing the Batwoman costume, but she's an awful fit for Kate Kane.  Simply put, they could have found a BETTER actress that fulfilled their list to fill the role. 

 

As far as the crossover goes,  other than that, I liked it. Even there, I appreciated little things like the Shakespeare head.  I felt there was a major loss with a failure to use the line "would you care to step outside" in Part 3. I was expecting it when we got there.   As the crossover began, I asked about characters who were brought into it a bit later.  "The Trigger Twins"?  I'm almost sorry we missed the cowboy hats. 

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I really enjoyed the Smallville scenes.  The location sure LOOKED like the set from "Smallville," and the "Somebody Save Me" song brought a smile.  And, of course, the Gotham music was, I think, from the Tim Burton films.

I suspect that the main reason Ruby Rose was chosen to play Batwoman is that there is a lot of pressure from the gay community to have gays in homosexual roles.  Of course, on the CW network half of the characters are gay or bi.  (And I don't know OR CARE if the actors who portray them are.)

AMAZO looked more like the version from Justice League Unlimited than from the comic books.  I think the idea that he actually has to scan a target for powers before assimilating them makes sense.  It's a good thing J'onn wasn't around.  If AMAZO had his telepathy (not to mention invisibility, shape-shifting, etc.) he would have been tipped to the heroes' plan to take him down.

I have an older TV, and I couldn't make out the names of the Arkham residents.  Who were they?

I assume that John Diggle is either John Stewart on Earth-90 or their Green Lantern is John Diggle.  Cute that Barry Allen-90 asks him about his ring.

More later.

George

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10 hours ago, GeorgeStGeorge said:

I really enjoyed the Smallville scenes.  The location sure LOOKED like the set from "Smallville," and the "Somebody Save Me" song brought a smile.  And, of course, the Gotham music was, I think, from the Tim Burton films.

I suspect that the main reason Ruby Rose was chosen to play Batwoman is that there is a lot of pressure from the gay community to have gays in homosexual roles.  Of course, on the CW network half of the characters are gay or bi.  (And I don't know OR CARE if the actors who portray them are.)

AMAZO looked more like the version from Justice League Unlimited than from the comic books.  I think the idea that he actually has to scan a target for powers before assimilating them makes sense.  It's a good thing J'onn wasn't around.  If AMAZO had his telepathy (not to mention invisibility, shape-shifting, etc.) he would have been tipped to the heroes' plan to take him down.

I have an older TV, and I couldn't make out the names of the Arkham residents.  Who were they?

I assume that John Diggle is either John Stewart on Earth-90 or their Green Lantern is John Diggle.  Cute that Barry Allen-90 asks him about his ring.

More later.

George

The "Smallville" theme was cute.  BTW, I almost never watched that show, but I recognized the theme instantly.  I apparently didn't have the audio up enough to make out Gotham music.

It was announced that the intention was to get a lesbian actress to play this lesbian character.  For the sake of discussion, supposing that was a sensible reason to cast, the absence of a process was offensive.  Really, with all the lesbian actresses out there, this was the one they chose for the role?  She was ill-suited for it other than "She's a lesbian? Ok, she's hired. We don't need to do an audition or anything."   Also, let's keep up on our terms. She more recently announced herself "gender-fluid." When her gender switches to male, then she's heterosexual. By the "logic" used to cast her, she should be rejected because she's not a lesbian part of the time.    If I were gay and looking to see gays playing gays, I'd be offended at the suggestion that this poor fit was the best they could do.   Then again, who cares what I think?   I don't imagine there's anything left to say on that one.  Moving on....

I caught the name "IVO" immediately. Cute that MIRAKURU came up with this Ivo just as in Earth-One, when his ship, "the Amazo", was at Liang-Yu, housing mirakuru experiments.   Mrs Wolf also pointed out that J'onn around would have made the fight unmanageable.  Shapechanging, phasing, invisibility, mind-reading....   

I have trouble picturing a TV still working but unable to render the names.  Ok, let's see.....

Room 341, O. Cobblepot,     Room 342, P. Isley,     Room 343, B. Karlo,    Room 344 E. Nigma (has a riddle scrawled to its right),    Room 345 M. Guggenheim,   then Deegan's "office." 

Yes, John was obvjously a GL on Earth-90, whether as Diggle or Stewart (just as Jay Garrick's Earth-1 counterpart wasn't Jay Garrick.)    

 

The AMAZO fight was needed for the audience's sake. It also looked cooler than a strict depiction of the original Amazo in the comic books.  Later versions had him look more robotic.  Yes, the "scan to copy" thing made a lot of sense and looked cool.  

The only description Flash-90  gave of CoIE was that the Monitor's predicting a crisis, and thinks the Elseworlds "approximates the collision of realities we are facing."  So, Earths will collide, and the Monitor thinks that their collisions will warp what's going on in the Earths that collide, resulting in status quo changes, some of them radical.  

 

I'm suspicious this will be a lot of build-up, and the results will be less than epic.   I don't think they have a cast big enough to begin this, nor enough heavy-hitters, nor will they devote enough episodes to really develop the story.   (I liked "Invasion!" but it fell FAR short of the "Invasion!" comic book storyline- and THAT felt rushed with everything happening.

 

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Riddle me this:  Barry gets back at Oliver for shooting him in the back by doing exactly the same thing.  When Oliver did it to Barry, it was to teach him "situational awareness."  Oliver even asks where the arrow launchers are.  So, why didn't he scan the area at super-speed and FIND them?

George

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My actual answer.... With both of them mindful of how the other worked, I thought that Ollie was trying to be more like Barry and just ACT.  Also, I thought that Barry (being Barry) wouldn't actually put remote launchers in place.  Then again, he WAS trying to be more like Ollie.

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  • 2 weeks later...

For the curious, we finished the episodes to date of "Flash" and "Legends of Tomorrow."  I finished "Arrow", and am working through "Black Lightning", with "Titans" and "Supergirl" to watch afterwards. 

The mid-season for LOT was a lot of fun.  For the record, I think "POT" could totally work as a kids show.   It was even educational- we had someone teaching history, and someone teaching math and science. 

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Gotham starts up again this week (in the US).

WW mentioned "Titans," presumably the DCUniverseOnline (or whatever) streaming Titans show.  I heard from my comic shop manager that it is EXTREMELY violent, with a lot of explicit language, as well.  Not my cup of tea, to be sure.  If WW has seen it, I would be interested in his take.

George

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On 1/2/2019 at 11:17 AM, GeorgeStGeorge said:

Gotham starts up again this week (in the US).

WW mentioned "Titans," presumably the DCUniverseOnline (or whatever) streaming Titans show.  I heard from my comic shop manager that it is EXTREMELY violent, with a lot of explicit language, as well.  Not my cup of tea, to be sure.  If WW has seen it, I would be interested in his take.

George

Ok, caught part of an episode of Titans. Apparently, it's another gritty show.  Man, DC seems to have 2 flavors right now:  extreme grit and violence, and extreme left-wing.   And then there's this season of LOT, which actually has some light stuff in-between some grit and some left-wing.  I hope Flash lightens up a bit more, it was drifting into Arrow territory.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Minimal spoilers:

Supergirl:  the team takes an obvious step to protect Kara's identity, but the unintended consequences (as evidenced by the trailer for next week) were pretty obvious.  I DO like that J'onn has taken the identity "John Jones, Private Eye," harkening back to his original comic book character, although then he was an actual detective.  (For an interesting turn on THAT, take a look at the current Martian Manhunter miniseries by DC.)

Arrow:  The mystery Green Arrow's identity is revealed:  someone from the comic but not hitherto officially introduced on the show.  I am really getting annoyed with the "flash-forward" segments.

George

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  • 1 month later...

The whole purpose of the show gave us a five year arc. That it could go on past that time is truly a credit to the writers. But to be honest, I would have lost interest if Flash hadn't come along.

It's really been a Flashverse more than an Arrowverse, when you think about it. Arrow is the only series that tried to stay grounded in "reality," such as it was.

Not complaining. Just... saying.

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On 1/23/2019 at 1:31 AM, GeorgeStGeorge said:

Flash this week tips the hat to an old Brave and Bold (#81, to be exact).

George

BraveandtheBold81.jpgG

I recognized him from the story (which was reprinted at some point.)   BTW, Bork was written as a one-off villain because the source of his powers was destroyed in the issue in which he was introduced (that one.)   I thought of this cover when Judge Bork was trying to get on the Supreme Court in the 1980s.  Later, he was re-introduced as a member of the Power Company (along with "Manhunter", who had died in an explosion, but actually returned in a sensible fashion.)     Since the Power Company was pretty obscure, he's still fairly forgotten. In fact, I think the surviving members should join the Forgotten Heroes.  ;) 

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On 3/6/2019 at 12:51 AM, GeorgeStGeorge said:

Green Arrow meets Highlander.

George

I'm deliberately behind on Arrow, but I will catch up soon enough.  It's Gotham, then Arrow, then Black Lightning for me, with us watching Flash and LoT together when they air.

BTW, do you know Rob Liefield tried to cross over "Highlander" with the X-titles back in the 90s?   Look up the "externals",  aka the "highlords."  They were supposed to be mutants who became immortal after being fatally wounded.   Apocalypse, Exodus, Gideon and Cannonball were all supposed to be them.  (Gideon thought Sunspot was supposed to be one, which is why he cultivated Sunspot as a student.)

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I know that next year's crossover is Crisis on Infinite Earths.  Maybe that's when Arrow will end.

I'm still looking for a full-on Justice League, pulling Superman from the other Earth, add in GA, Martian Manhunter, Flash, Black Lightning, Black Canary, the Atom, even Batman isn't out of the question.  And of course I'd love to see GL, Aquaman, and Wonder Woman.

George

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1 hour ago, Raf said:

The whole purpose of the show gave us a five year arc. That it could go on past that time is truly a credit to the writers. But to be honest, I would have lost interest if Flash hadn't come along.

It's really been a Flashverse more than an Arrowverse, when you think about it. Arrow is the only series that tried to stay grounded in "reality," such as it was.

Not complaining. Just... saying.

That will probably change if they green-light the "Batwoman" series.   (If they do, I hope they recast the title role.)

Oh, and the Doom Patrol?  More angst, and less coherent than all the others put together. 

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New an the Cartoon Network:  DC's Super-Hero Girls.

Less serious than Justice League Action, not as goofy as Teen Titans, Go!

You just have to get past the premise:  Kara Danvers, Barbara Gordon, Zatanna Zatara, Jessica Cruz, Karen Beecher, and Diana Prince are all students at Metropolis High..  Yes, Metropolis.  And Hal Jordan is around, in some capacity.  And it appears that Barry Allen is a soda jerk at "Sweet Justice."

I'm a bit confused about something, though.  Some sites indicate this as a new show, but IMDb says it's in its fifth season.  I think it may have been licensed outside the US, first.

Anyway, if you haven't already had your fill of simple-minde fun, give it a try.

George 

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I was pretty sure this was around for maybe 2 seasons before now.  I wasn't paying attention.   I think that may work for us. (Gotham Girls didn't.)    The odd thing is, I just looked up Jessica Cruz last week when I was reading about the F-Sharp Bell, and I'd already forgotten she was a Green Lantern by now.  Everybody else I remembered (Karen Beecher- Bumblebee from the 70s Teen Titans, Mal Duncan's main squeeze.)

 

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On 3/7/2019 at 9:45 PM, GeorgeStGeorge said:

I know that next year's crossover is Crisis on Infinite Earths.  Maybe that's when Arrow will end.

I'm still looking for a full-on Justice League, pulling Superman from the other Earth, add in GA, Martian Manhunter, Flash, Black Lightning, Black Canary, the Atom, even Batman isn't out of the question.  And of course I'd love to see GL, Aquaman, and Wonder Woman.

George

Let's see.  We could add Vibe, Gypsy, Flash and Elongated Man from Flash,  Steel and Atom from LoT,  Black Lightning, and either Thunder or Lightning,  SOMEBODY from the Bat-family (there's lots of possibilities who weren't introduced, plus Bats plus Batwoman), Superman or Supergirl, Martian Manhunter,  Green Arrow and Black Canary.  So far, no Aquaman or Wonder Woman, but there's going to be a Crisis of INFINITE Earths, so finding one of each to throw into the mix isn't hard.  Maybe we'll see someone with the power of Shazam, or a magician like Zatanna or Doctor Fate.   It would be neat to see the Phantom Stranger showing up as a Narrator and guide for part of it.  Maybe we'd get Vixen.

From Justice League Detroit, it seems we're missing Aquaman only (Aquaman, Elongated Man, Zatanna, Steel, Vibe, Gypsy, Vixen, MM.)  From the Big 7, we're missing Aquaman, Wonder Woman, and Bats  (Superman, Flash, Green Arrow, Martian Manhunter.)

 

Maybe it will mix CoIE with the JL?   crisis.  Hector Hammond, tricked into doing so by the Advance Man of an alien invasion, tried to get the entire Earth to forget the Justice League of America (with help from the AM's gadget.)  When he realized this was to set the stage for an invasion, HH tried to reverse it. He got as far as "REMEMBER THE JUSTICE LEAGUE OF A" before he got clobbered.    So, Wonder Woman gathered together Zatanna, Big Barda, etc for the Justice League of Amazons.  Superman and Martian Manhunter formed the Justice League of Aliens.  Aquaman got together Tempest, Arion and Power Girl as he formed the Justice League of Atlantis.  Flash formed the Justice League of Adventure, GL/Kyle formed the Justice League of the Air.    (It's not my imagination. Power Girl was in the Amazons and Atlantis, Zatanna was in Atlantis and the Justice League of Apostles with Zauriel and Phantom Stranger.)  Plastic Man had the Justice League of Anarchy.   The oddest one, IMHO, was Batman bringing Nightwing to Arkham Asylum to recruit the Justice League of Arkham

 

If we see teams appearing all over the multiverse to try to stop the Monitors, we may see cameos of a bunch of those before there's casualties, and one Earth emerges, with ONE JLA remaining.

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5 hours ago, GeorgeStGeorge said:

Power Girl.  One of the many revisions after Crisis on Infinite Earths made her not the Earth-2 Superman's cousin but a descendant of Arion of Atlantis.  Then, she and Huntress were like the last two vestiges of Earth-2.  I'm not sure WHAT her current origin is.

George

The characters they have hashed to pieces due to continuity crashes are Power Girl, Donna Troy (Wonder Girl/Troia),  and the Hawks (man and girl.)    They haven't picked any one thing for any of them and stuck with it.   The last one I heard of Power Girl was "she thought she was Atlantean, she was a refugee from another Earth that vanished in one of the Crises.  Then again, some other characters may have fared worse.  They decided to bring Jason Todd back (after being beaten 1/2 to death with a crowbar, then blown up, his body recovered, and having been examined by Batman and buried.  They brought him back (WHY? "Because you could" is not a good reason. His death meant something!)  and the eventual reason they found was stupid and contrived.  "When someone kept changing reality, Jason woke up in his coffin."

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