Flash vs Arrow/The Brave and the Bold

Epic Crossover

So, this happened this week.  I have to admit that I came into the two episodes with a lot of apprehension.  Flash has been amazing, one of my favorite shows of the year at this point, but Arrow has been disappointing.  I didn't even finish "Draw Back Your Bow" (the episode previous to The Brave and the Bold) and I read some of the reviews online and they weren't favorable.  Needless to say I was expecting Arrow to drag down the greatness of Flash and create kind of a muddy mess.

  Well, I was wrong.  I actually quite enjoyed this block of television.  Probably top three or five Flash episodes and, I'd say, the best Arrow episode of the season.  There is no doubt they take some heavy handed jabs at a couple of subjects they have no business taking, namely the very thin theme of torture, but overall it's the best of both worlds.
 
Starting out I was ready to hate but when that Arrow-esque music sting hit with it's own Flash score twist I totally popped.  Follow that by the Arrow tinged opening credits and I was all in.  I also popped thinking that we were seeing the debut of Psycho Pirate but it turned out to be jabroni scrub Prism.  Eh, I'll let that one go.  The Flash side of this is it's usual light hearted, colorful fare with a couple drops of Arrow darkness to grunge it up.  Seeing angry Barry was great as Grant Gustin proved he can be truly intimidating as a heavy.  The Arrow/Flash conflicts were great showing Ollie's ability to think faster than Barry can move and keeping the duo on pretty even footing.  The final conflict between Ollie and Barry was a really solid fight, not only a top tier TV fight but something that could go up on the big screen.  Obviously not as a main event but a page 20 action beat definitely.  The episode is solid just not as "meaty" as The Brave and the Bold, but it's fun and engaging.

Arrow: Escape from Lian Yu (2012, PS3)

The Arrow game in question.

Rating: 4 out of 5 People Who Have Failed This Island

Plot Synopsis:  Oliver Queen is a rich, entitled frat boy on vacation with his brothers and friends when they skydive onto an island filled with pirates, drugs and human traffickers.  This game follows a young Oliver Queen as he transitions from rich asshole to plain bad-ass.

This Season in Comic based TV

I wanted to touch on this season of shows just briefly.

This just hasn't done a lot to grab me.  The first episode was a little overwhelming with how many concepts and characters they were trying to establish.  It was good though, despite that it was a relatively solid premiere.  Since then the series has totally dropped off my radar.  The baddie-of-the-week premise is kind of lame and the overall story arc isn't very interesting.  Some of the characters are good while others tip the scale towards the bad.  Penguin is interesting, as is Bullock, Nygma is intriguing but doesn't get enough screen time.  Young Bruce is on a slow boil and Catwoman is a highlight.  Meanwhile I HATE Fish Mooney, I don't care about Falcone or Maroni, Gordon is boring and Barbara has been given a bi-sexual past for no real reason I can see.  If it serves a purpose I can see doing it but it just seems meaningless and is rarely used for anything interesting.  I haven't made this a priority to watch so I'm a little behind, maybe when I get caught up something will change, right now I'm on the fence.

Agents of SHIELD, Arrow and Random Thoughts

I haven't said much about Marvel Agent's of SHIELD, at least I don't remember saying much.  After kind of a slow start things started to pick up with the episode TRACKS but mostly I want to talk about last weeks episode Turn, Turn, Turn which tied into the Captain America sequel.

First off I've enjoyed MAOS for the most part but good god it felt slow, Hulu, which is where I watch all my TV now, only has the last few episodes so I'm unable to go back and revisit the earlier episodes to see how my memory holds up but I don't remember most of the episodes.  I remember the pilot because that was a really solid episode.  Then there was something in South America, Peter MacNicol had a good cameo as a refugee Asgardian in a pretty solid episode following the Thor sequel.  There was a rogue agent at some point... what I'm getting at is that there have been 13 episodes, up to TRACKS, and I remember maybe 6 of those.  Graviton and Blizzard also come to mind and the big Coulson reveal.  After TRACKS the pace picked up and there were some great stories that built on each other and made you want to come back.  Since TRACKS I've been anticipating MAOS more than any other show (those shows being Arrow, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Community and Parks and Rec).  We've gotten the reveal and evolution of Deathlok, more follow up about Coulson, Lorelei and Sif cameo and some expansion of the characters.

Arrow season finale "Sacrifice"

  The series finale of Arrow aired this week and I just got around to watching it on Hulu+.  I want to talk about the episode but also the series as I've become quite a fan of it as it progressed.

  The episode itself was great.  Both the main story and the island flashback had satisfying conclusions while still leaving things wide open for season two.  We got to see a complete arc in both cases that set up future events.  At this point we know the fate of "The Undertaking", we know what happened to The Dark Archer, we're in good spots with the characters relationships (with one tragic turn creating possible friction for the next season).  We have the start of possible another vigilante or even a pair of vigilantes.  Thea goes after Roy in the Glades and when Roy saves someone from being robbed he is confronted by a gun wielding thug who is thwarted by a thrown bottle from Thea.  When Roy asks how she did it she responds "I must have wicked aim.".  Awesome.  On the B side, in the island flashback, we see a conclusion to what the mercenary group was doing there.  We see what their plan was, we seen them thwarted and we end on Ollie's first well shot arrow.  Of course the episode ends on a cliffhanger which is what this series is best at.  I can't wait for season two.

Random Thoughts: the Deadpool reboot, Thunderbolts #1 and more Arrow thoughts

  I just felt like talking about some of the things I've been consuming lately.  First off is the Deadpool reboot.  My original idea was to get a paper subscription and review the first year of the reboot issue by issue.  I've already missed a couple of issues so it seems pointless now, but I've been getting them thanks to Marvels wonderful Digital Subscription Service.  Having an iPhone really makes being a comic book fan easy, especially with the Marvel app.

Arrow (TV Series) Ep. 102

Series: Arrow

Episode: 102, Honor Thy Father

Rating: 4 out 5 billionaire playboys turned vigilante arrow slingers

Review:  First off I don't intend to review EVERY episode of Arrow but after watching this weeks episode I wanted to comment on a few things.  In pretty much every way this episode is better than the pilot.  We get more time with Detective Lance and Dinah Lance and they really deliver on their characters.  They manage to make Dinah a relevant character again after pretty much neutering her in the pilot.  It could be argued that the sudden change that bring Dinah back as a love interest is a result of sloppy writing and an attempt on the part of the writers to unwrite the corner they wrote themselves into.  But the way they bring about the change makes sense both in the context of the story and in the context of the character.  Plus I'm just happy that they made her relevant and she wasn't going to be this barnacle of a character holding on to the show because they may need her later or because fans want someone with Black Canary's name.

  The episode really gels and is fun to watch.  The action is good, Oliver becomes more interesting and we see him kick a huge amount of ass.  We get a super villain (in the form of China White, I believe).  We see the return of the trick arrow.  Pretty much everything that was missing from the pilot was here in this episode.  It had that "thing" that was missing from the pilot.  This made me want to break out the action figures and boot up Justice League: Heroes on PS2 so I could play as Green Arrow.  This episode made me excited about the character and really excited about the future of the show.  The last 20 minutes are the best.  Oliver Queen makes an awesome speech trying to destroy his own legacy and another shock ending.  Plus the next episode preview shows Deadshot!  If you didn't like the pilot you might want to give the show another shot.

Arrow (2012) TV Series

Rating: 3 out of 5 arrows to the knee which stopped you from being an adventurer like me

Review:  Well, they got me.  They hooked me into seeing where they're going with this thing.  The strong cast really makes the premise soar in the new series on the CW.  I wasn't really expecting too much, superhero TV series have a pretty poor track record.  Not really a track record of being bad, more like a track record of mediocrity but this was anything but mediocre.  That being said it still only gets a solid 3 out 5.