By Dylan Ashcraft
Welcome to the first edition of the “DC Week in Review” where you and I will take a look at some of the interesting things happening over at DC comics this week and I’ll tell you what I think of them. Let’s start off shall we?
Wrapping Up The CW’s Shows (for now)
(Note: While the end of the CW shows for this season was a few weeks back, I thought it was still worth talking about) The CW network is where the shows, “The Flash”, “Supergirl”, “Arrow”, and “Legends of Tomorrow” air. This last week, was the season finale for the three major CW superhero shows (Legends wrapped up several weeks back), and it was interesting to say the least.
As Supergirl followed the CW trend of having a cliffhanger ending where Supergirl went after the departing Mon-El, it was an effective way to cap off the season. A season which I found to be a lot stronger than the first one. And while I am not particularly a fan of the “super family” (Clark, Kara, Mon-El, etc.), I did find myself enjoying the ongoing events of the show more than I enjoyed some of the other CW shows.
On Tuesday, the finale for the Flash aired and it was...disappointing to say the least. And that consensus holds true for the entirety of season 3, it was disappointing. The intrigue of the Savitar reveal was dragged through the mud for the vast majority of the season, and when the reveal happened, while it was interesting and thematically awesome, it lost it’s luster. The work put in to make Savitar without his mask threatening and ‘cool’ doesn’t have the “oomph” that it should have, as it only had three or four episodes to live and breathe. And with the penultimate moment, where we think we get to see Iris and Barry finally together and happy, it gets snatched away as Barry decides to willingly take Savitar’s place within the speedforce. And you now, because it’s the CW that when Barry is able to leave the speedforce in Season 4, Iris is already going to be with someone else. Because, relationship drama.
Arrow season 5 was a return to form for the emerald archer, as seasons 3 and 4 were not particularly good (especially 4). And boy was it a good season, to the point I think it was the second best of the CW shows this go around (Legends takes first place for those who are wondering). The rebuilding of team Arrow, the fantastic work of Josh Segarra as Prometheus, and all the cameos towards the end helped bring Arrow back into the spotlight. Which is something I’m extremely happy about because Green Arrow is one of my favorite DC Comics characters (although I prefer my Ollie to be less broody and more jokey)The finale was extraordinary and was an awesome moment to see the return of villains from seasons past come back to assist Oliver in taking down Prometheus. The choreography in this episode was also extremely well done. All in all, an awesome showcase of what Arrow could (and should) be.
Injustice 2- Red Hood Release
In the new hit fighting game released by Netherrealm studios, “Injustice 2” we saw the first DLC character get released for the game in the form of Jason Todd aka The Red Hood.
And while Red Hood is a rather fun character to play with his interesting mix of zoning capabilities and incredibly fun combos, I don’t think he’ll make a huge splash in the Injustice fighting meta. His trait (which adds an electricity bonus to his guns which can be used for combos) seems kind of clunky at first but after a few hours of play, it feels a tad more natural.
His gear however is a thing of beauty which is nice as there seems to be a fair amount of variety between different pieces of armor. An aesthetic for the character that I find rather interesting is the fact that different chest pieces will either give the character a hood or a more tactical body armor look. If Red Hood is evidence to the amount of love and care put into the DLC characters, then Injustice 2’s pool of new characters will be one of the best to date.
Wonder Woman Review
So first off, yes the movie released a few weeks back and this isn’t the most timely of reviews but a DC week in review that ignores the first good DCEU movie would be a rather sub par DC Week In Review. So let’s get down to the fun of it. This movie is so much fun, from the comic book aspect of the movie to the action packed scenes. Director Patty Jenkins brings the Amazonian Warrior to life in breathtaking fashion. Sitting down and watching this movie, I had a smile on my face for nearly the entire time. Gal Gadot portrayed Wonder Woman fantastically and as a fan of the character it was more than I could ever hope for. The villain (which was wonderfully kept out of the trailers) was done in such grand fashion, and the bait and switch regarding who it is was rather exceptional.
The action and choreography was spot on and I could not sing higher praises for this film. Now this isn’t the best DC comics movie (the Dark Knight still holds that honor), and there are some problems with a couple of small things, but it hardly effects the movie at all. If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend it because out of the three DCEU movies, this one is definitely the rose between two thorns.
Wonder Woman gets a 8/10
DC Comic of the Week
The inaugural DC Comic of the week is without a doubt the prelude to Scott Snyder’s epic event “Metal”. This book “Dark Days: The Forge” is a roller coaster of a ride. Starting off with a simple yet eloquent quote “There is a feeling you get at the beginning of an adventure...you feel it in your veins, the channels, your heart starts pounding...beating only for discovery..”
Now as this comic released this Wednesday, I’m not going to go too far into spoiler territory as there are a couple massive bombshells in the book (especially one at the end).
Now admittedly, leading up to this book and even going into it initially, I didn’t really care for it. There was no interest I had in the title, I knew I would read it and potentially enjoy it but I wasn’t prepared to be excited for the actual event. And the reason for my disinterest isn’t that I’m not a fan of Snyder’s Batman (it’s actually one of my favorite runs), it’s just that I’m more invested in the main Rebirth storyline with Doctor Manhattan right now.
But boy was this book a thrill, it was slow and plotting but it brought up a lot of interesting aspects of DC and Batman related lore. And it features the first interaction between Duke Thomas (codename still undecided) and Hal Jordan (The Green Lantern). While also serving as the return of a couple characters from DC’s past. If you haven’t yet, I highly recommend grabbing this book at Uncanny! And then adding the upcoming event to your pull list because it seems like a lot is going to go down.
Dark Days: The Forge gets a solid 8.5/10
Doomsday Clock
This is what the Button wraps up into, the announcement of the event written by Geoff Johns himself, that’ll be coming out later this year. The only details we know so far is that Doomsday Clock doesn’t have any crossovers, there is only Doomsday Clock. However we can always take guesses as to what the event will be about, we know Superman will be a big player in it as his crest is shown on the clock. And then we can only assume that the other major player will be Dr. Manhattan, the entity believed to be behind everything that’s been happening to people on a universal level. We can only wait and see if any new details come out before the event releases later this year.
And that is, the DC Week in Review, stay tuned for another installment in the coming week. And let me know down in the comments what you think of Wonder Woman, Red Hood, Dark Days, and if you think Arrow was the best show of the CWverse this season.
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