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TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews Legends Of Tomorrow Season 02 Episode 07: Invasion!

December 2nd, 2016 by Todd Black Comments

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And there you go ladies and gentlemen, the end of Invasion. My thoughts? …it was worth it.

Look, because of the start (via Supergirl) and then the 100th episode of Arrow being more Arrow focused than Invasion focused, we all knew the Legends of Tomorrow portion was going to be rushed. That being said, they did a lot of good here, and set up so many possible smaller crossovers in the future.

One of the best aspects for me in this “Invasion!” episode was that it gave more depth to the Dominators themselves. Because for awhile, they were just aliens. But now, they had a reason to actually invade the Earth. Apparently, they came in 1951 because of the JSA, and wanted to see the potential threat Earth posed to them. Then when Barry made Flashpoint, they realized just how big a threat metahumans were, and wanted to eradicate them before they rose up to kill them instead. Now apparently, there was going to be even more focus on the Dominators and their comic book origins, but sadly it got left on the cutting room floor. However, even this small depth let them shine in a big way.

Also though, we got to see a lot of great team-ups, all of which led to the great novel. From Steel, Vixen, and Mick going back to 1951 to figure out what was really going on. To Barry, Ollie, Sara, and Ray find out the truth behind the invasion itself. To Stein being more or less forced to interact with a daughter he only just found out he had. And even Felicity and Cisco as the former tried to make the latter forgive Barry for making Flashpoint.

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These small moments really lent to making this a true crossover, as it allowed great moments we wouldn’t have gotten any other way. Like Mick hitting on Kara at the end, Ray noting that Kara “kinda looked like his cousin”, Felicity and Cisco geeking out over the Waverider, and more, it was all good fun.

Then of course, there was the final battle itself, which was awesome in many ways. It was clearly a dig at Civil War with the “sides” on each side and then the meetup in the middle. Then with Stein coming up with a device to stun the Dominators if they can get all of them tagged, which led to Supergirl and Flash racing around the country to get them all was really cool.

Now, there was some “down” moments. It’s been really obvious how the filming schedule affected this crossover, as Kara was only a factor in certain scenes. And that sucks, because she is a great character, and I wanted to see her interact with the others more. Maybe next time. Also, Oliver going xenophobic on her and “keeping her at arms length” was very odd.

That being said, seeing them all partying together at the end was good fun, and hopefully will happen more often thanks to Cisco’s gadget.

In the end, “Invasion!” was a good crossover, and it ended very strongly. What’s next for all the shows? The midseason finales. But next crossover? Can we hope for a true Crisis event?

4.5 out of 5 nerds

4.5 out of 5 nerds

Todd Black is reader of comics, a watch of TV (a LOT of TV), and a writer of many different mediums. He's written teleplays, fan-fictions, and currently writes a comic book called Guardians (guardians-comic.com). He dreams of working at Nintendo, writing a SHAZAM! TV series, and working on Guardians for a very long time!