This episode kicks off with a bang as Ollie and Barry have to contend with a fully deranged John Deegan, now Earth-1’s Superman, black suit and all! It’s a pretty terrifying prospect but he also nicks the opening monologue! THE FIEND!

The whole thing has shades of the Injustice video game about it, or the flashforward/dream sequence in Batman v Superman which also ripped off the Injustice aesthetic, but it’s an effective way to show how boned Ollie and Barry are, especially when they learn that everyone they could rely on isn’t going to help them. Unless they do, like Cisco because they kinda need him to jump dimensions so sure, he’ll help them.

Speaking of dimension-hopping, Ollie and Barry come face-to-face with The Monitor and his whole demeanour is great. LaMonica Garrett has been fantastic any time he showed up. Enigmatic to a fault, The Monitor still has a playful lilt to his voice that indicates that this test isn’t meant in malice and he is genuinely surprised at how our heroes adapt.

So much so that he appears to offer Ollie a deal in order to keep Barry and Kara from not dying, as foretold in the Book of Destiny. What that actually means will remain to be seen but I can see it as a way for Stephen Amell to leave Arrow should he wish to.

Can I just give some love to Tyler Hoechlin? Because he’s a great Superman. And a great Clark Kent. And a great Evil Superman. He’s just a really good actor who gets the character and that chin is chiselled as FUCK! What a handsome lad. But yeah, he’s got great bits throughout the 3 nights but his best spots are in this Supergirl episode, where he finally proposes to Lois after learning they’re going to have a child. Good for them!

The Super Friends continue to have a really fun chemistry and it’s gonna be sad when they go back to their own shows and I have to listen to the same tired shit from The Flash again but that’s 2019 Sharp-O’s problem and that bastard deserves it. He knows what he did…

Deegan is defeated, even gaining a brand new skello-face to match his comic book counterpart; Doctor Destiny. Yeah, I didn’t mention that before because he’s kind of a jobber villain, mostly known for his appearances in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comics and the two times he was voiced by William Atherton in the New Batman Adventures and Justice League cartoons.

We also get some parting words from Batwoman about Deegan being incarcerated in Arkham and her concern about his new friend; Psycho-Pirate.

Words have power and there are few words in the DC Universe that inspire both awe and terror like those above. I’ve thrown the word ‘Crisis’ around a lot during this crossover, even capitalised it, that’s how important it is, because Psycho-Pirate’s final words are a portent of doom in the DC universe and foreshadowing for next year’s event which may mean the end for more than one of our heroes.

A Crisis is coming and universes will collide. Worlds will live, worlds will die, and nothing will ever be the same again.

And that’s Elseworlds! A thoroughly enjoyable romp over three nights and probably my favourite of the CW crossovers up to this point. It was funny, intriguing, and set the stage for the biggest name in DC events which will no doubt see Black Lightning come into the fold. And if you’re wondering where the Legends were during this whole escapade; let’s just say there was an incident involving Constantine, a cat, the Puppets of Tomorrow, and time being repeatedly shattered. So that’s why they had to cash in a rain check.

That’s all from Flash Facts until mid-January 2019 so I hope you all have a very merry holiday season and I’ll catch you guys next year!

Welcome back to the second night of Elseworlds everyone and hot damn, this is an episode chock full of easter eggs and references to the wider DCU and I can’t wait to dig in!

First up is the Super Friends throwing shade at Gotham because of course they will. Gotham’s like a shittier Star City but it does have a generally better calibre of bad guy!

Naturally, spending a significant amount of time in Gotham means a trip to Arkham Asylum and that means a whole host of characters that we’re not allowed to show on-screen due to a competing television show; like Oswald Cobblepot, Pamela Isley, Basil Karlo, and Edward Nigma! We also get visual confirmation of the Psycho-Pirate, a character previously referenced in Nora in the article about Barry’s disappearance. More on him later.

There’s also an assortment of villain-themed trinkets scattered around in John Deegan’s office and we get a surprise appearance from nora Fries, somehow not on ice, attacking Caitlin with her husband’s ice cannon.

Not to mention an awesome action scene triggered by Jonathan Crane aka Scarecrow’s fear toxin, which gives us the prerequisiste hero vs. hero fight as Barry and Ollie see each other as their hero identities’ biggest bads; namely Malcolm Merlyn and Eobard Thawne.

There’s a lot of talk about Bruce Wayne and Batman and, naturally, we don’t see even a bat ear of him but I do love this exchange from the Super Friends. Ollie’s already tried to out-alpha Superman and now he’s doing the same with Batman, much to the amusement of Barry and Kara.

This episode is also kind of a backdoor pilot for Ruby Rose’s Kate Kane aka Bat-Woman and I’m digging her performance. She’s a no nonsense, extremely capable fighter in the cape and cowl and strikes a nice balance between business and pleasure in civvies when she flirts with Kara. I hope the proposed series proves successful because I like what I’ve seen of the character so far…

And the prospect of this team-up almost gets me as excited for it as I am for this crossover!

Also, somebody pick-up that phone because I FUCKING CALLED IT! John Diggle is Green Lantern John Stewart! Granted, only on Earth-90 but that’s a hard confirm for me and I am taking the win! BOOSH!

With Deegan’s plan exposed and the mysterious book taken from him, the Super Friends plus Earth-90’s Flash face down The Monitor and are so out-classed, it’s not even funny. They’re nowhere near his level and he, surprisingly, congratulates them for getting the book, a feat not managed by another other world he’s tested.

Yup, my theory on The Monitor testing the various universes is spot-on. He’s handing the Book of Destiny to random people in a given reality to simulate the chaos brought on by a ‘crisis’. The original Crisis on Infinite Earths comic series had the Psycho-Pirate (told you we’d come back to him) become a willing henchman to the Anti-Monitor, a being of immense power that The Monitor alludes to. Given the red skies, the presence of The Monitor and the Psycho-Pirate, and the threat of an oncoming Crisis means bad news for Barry Allen, specifically. We may finally see that headline come to pass, after all.

The episode ends with reality being rewritten again; Barry and Oliver being remade as a criminal pair known as the Trigger Twins, Ollie’s greatest enemies as Central City cops and, worst of all, a black-clad Superman intent on arresting them. Tha’s no’ good.

The second part of Elseworlds is a fantastic middle chapter, giving us more humour but also expanding on the ultimate threat while teasing tougher times to come. I truly can’t wait for the third and final act of this story tomorrow on Supergirl so I hope to see you all then!