‘Elseworlds’ Part 3 – ‘Supergirl’ Review

Wrapping it up superhero style.

The third installment of the ‘Elseworlds‘ crossover moved the storyline forward on a very fitting note. In the past, the Arrow-verse crossovers have made a bad habit out of trying to juggle too many characters at once. It was a good idea to keep the cast of Legends of Tomorrow out of this one because, honestly, aside from that hilarious Gary (Adam Tsekhman) cameo in this episode, what purpose would they have served?

Having too many heroes on screen still seemed to be a bit of a problem in the ‘Elseworlds‘ trilogy, especially in this episode. The writers tried to find fitting roles for the core cast of Supergirl, but like the supporting cast of The Flash and Arrow, they ended up as more half-assed than anything, especially turning Alex (Chyler Leigh) evil. She folded like a deck of cards after less than five minutes of Kara (Melissa Benoist) telling her about Earth 38 Alex. As a whole, Elseworlds didn’t lose sight of the core character dynamics that made it an epic team-up tale in the first place: the Oliver/Barry/Kara trinity.

In this crossover, it seemed that Oliver (Stephen Amell) was the one who benefitted most. The timing couldn’t have been better with what’s currently going on with Arrow. Oliver is at a major crossroads in his life; just released from prison, lost his family, and now having to become a public hero instead of a masked vigilante. His story arch in just these three episodes saw him go from confronting his darkness to seeing the good in Barry (Grant Gustin) and Kara to realizing it’s something he wants himself. Unfortunately, this episode also ended on an ominous note for Oliver seeing that he made some kind of deal with The Monitor (LaMonica Garrett) in return for Barry and Kara’s lives. We’ll just have to wait and see how that pans out going forward with the rest of the season of Arrow.

Superman (Tyler Hoechlin) played a significant role in part 3 of ‘Elseworlds‘, which came as a surprise. Tyler Hoechlin plays a great Man of Steel. In this episode particularly, we got a chance to see a well-rounded portrayal of Clark Kent and Superman. It was good to see a version of Superman that had character flaws and was in some aspects inferior to Supergirl. And it was a bonus to watch Hoechlin switch gears and play an evil version of Superman as well.

The only flaw major flaw with ‘Elseworlds’ was that it didn’t live up to its comic book namesake. Instead of there being a huge amount of interdimensional travel, we only got the traditional Earth 1 and Earth 38 crossover elements. I can understand why. There’s only so much we’ve been exposed to in the Arrow-verse that it makes doing such a large-scale endeavor impossible. Not to mention, we only saw a little of John Wesley Shipp’s Barry Allen in the end. But given that tease for a full-on ‘Crisis On Infinite Earths’ next year, it’s safe to say we probably haven’t seen the last of him.

All in all, this year’s crossover was probably the most enjoyable out of all the crossovers I’ve seen in the past seven years. There was plenty to enjoy with the epic conclusion of ‘Elseworlds‘, from the strong Oliver/Barry/Kara dynamic to those great Supergirl/Superman/Lois Lane scenes. There was something for everyone. This episode did a fantastic job of providing fans with a satisfying conclusion to teasing what the future holds for the Arrow-verse.

Rating: A

Photo Credit: The CW