"Armageddon, Part 1"
Well guys, here it is. It’s finally time to talk about a brand new season of The Flash (which feels like last season ended merely a couple weeks ago). If you’ve followed my Flash Season 7 episode reviews, you’ve probably picked up on the fact that I’ve felt a bit sour towards the show’s quality dip and wasn’t particularly optimistic about Season 8. I say that to say that it brings me both joy and relief to say that I actually didn’t hate this episode. As a matter of fact, I pretty much admired it quite a bit seeing it as a fresh new starting point for fans like myself who started to lose faith in the show now finding new ground to explore.
What’s interesting and new about this season already is that these first few episodes will be the first time that an Arrowverse series has started off with a crossover event. Now yes, admittedly I wasn’t too excited with the Armageddon trailer that they released at DC Fandome, but I must say that this episode got rid of those pessimistic thoughts rather quickly. But, before we get into the crossover elements, let’s talk about everything surrounding the Flash series itself first. Here are my personal highlights.
1. A Constant Theme of Leveling Up
The major theme with this premiere is the idea of “leveling up” as it’s being repeated in the episode just as much as the Halloween Kills movie repeats the line “Evil Dies Tonight” or Season 4 of Arrow repeating the word “Darkness”. Alright, maybe it’s not that comically overused, but it does feel like a statement being hammered in regarding characters moving up in some fashion. And you know what? I actually do like the character upgrades being presented here.
Iris having the most prominent sense of evolution here shows her now as the manager of her own news company, Central City Media, which I think is fantastic. This feels not only well earned for her character but fitting as she’s always been both a reporter and a figure head forged for leadership (just not Team Flash lead missions which the writers eventually understood). This is the Iris West that I was hoping we’d see more of with scenes of her interviewing prominent figures in the Arrowverse mythos and slowly but surely becoming a known individual much like Lois Lane. I think this premiere sets up just enough of her as a “leveled up” reporter-now company manager to make me feel optimistic of at least some of the character writing to come.
That being said, as much as I liked the idea of Iris trying to build up Allegra as a major player in said company storyline, I still find it challenging to really care about Allegra’s position on the show. This is a side character that has always felt like an afterthought with everything else going on that whenever we’d get a subplot or extensive scene focusing on her, I’d immediately find myself losing interest. There’s just something about the way that they’ve written her that has never really connected with me as being a pivotal part of the Team Flash ventures. Maybe this season will help that? The scenes with her being challenged with leading other reporters wasn’t necessarily bad or overly distracting, but instead simply didn’t catch my interest. At least not when I have the return of Ray Palmer and a powerful alien threat from the future wanting to kill Barry on my mind. So yeah, honestly speaking, I can already tell that this will be something of an uphill battle for the show to undergo.
Alright, now for the more fun and interesting stuff. During the beginning of the episode (following the Armageddon opening which I’ll get to later), we see Barry and Caitlin hanging out at CC Jitters speaking about Caitlin possibly dating again. Putting Killer Frost and Chillblaine references aside (cuz I can care less about those characters), we get an awesome scene with Barry showing off his new “leveled up” speed. One of the CC Jitters TV monitors brings up a breaking news event involving two derailing bullet trains that are about to collide which sparks up quite the entertaining superhero rescue. So, let’s break this down shall we?
In what is revealed to be merely 12 seconds, Barry is able to suit up, run 50 miles south of Keystone City, rescue hundreds of passengers individually from both trains while they’re still in motion (bullet trains people), run back to CC Jitters, and still have time to get oat milk for Caitlin’s coffee without anyone noticing. Wow, just wow. These are the types of spectacular feats that I miss from the series back when it used to glorify Barry’s learning of his speed force powered potential. If the show is teasing the fans here in the episode of what the sensibilities of this season will be entertainment-wise, then consider me even more optimistic than ever before in a very long time.
The visual direction of Barry zooming everyone out of the train as the camera follows along showing the other train arriving in the distance leading to him punching through cockpit was awesome cinematically speaking. It’s sadly easy to retrospectively think back on the show regarding Barry using his powers without remembering him questionably slipping up while fighting villains of the week. So to counter that, it’s nice to offer more scenes like these showing the more badass and competent side of our hero. Much like Iris “leveling up”, they make sure the viewers are reminded that Barry is indeed supposedly faster now after the whole “cosmic force family” story.
2. Royal Flush Gang Returns
Speaking of villains of the week, we have the Arrowverse bringing back the Royal Flush Gang which I admittedly completely forgot was in both first seasons of Arrow and The Flash. Considering that they appeared twice back in the day on different shows and were merely thieves with card themed motorcycle helmets, it brings to question this new meta gang iteration. Of course the easy answer is “Crisis changed things” which the show does reference when Kramer asks Barry about his history with the gang. We briefly see what I’m assuming is a new post-Crisis memory of the gang being Central City’s first meta attack during the time Barry was in his pre-Flash coma. Back in Season 6, Cisco opened up the idea of past villains having new Crisis makeovers of sorts, so it’s cool that we get to see that concept followed up on here.
Now, I have to be honest…I thought they were pretty lame here. Admittedly, I’ve never really been a huge fan of them prior to the CW versions, but I do remember loving their designs and appearances on Batman Beyond back in the day. They’re a gimmick themed criminal gang and nothing beyond that but they’ve always been fun to watch in action. Even the initial heavily grounded versions on Arrow and Flash back then was decent enough as this basic criminal family angle. Here, Season 8 decides to play up the goofy nature of their gimmick by constantly giving them awfully cringey card puns (anyone remembers the much hated Bumble Bee Bandit?) and over the top performances all around. Now I will give credit where credit is do and say that I admire them for sort of going all out on the costume designs considering the previous iteration, but their scenes felt like the cheesier episodes of past Flash seasons coming back into full force. Thankfully, they’re discarded rather quickly which actually brings me to a huge positive.
I mentioned earlier that the Flash show needed to show Barry being a competent superhero more and this episode did exactly that with the gang plot. Instead of dragging out their presence to illogical lengths coming up with absurd reasons why Barry couldn’t just swiftly take them down, instead…well…Barry just swiftly takes them down. Wow, how ‘bout that? Talk about progress. Not only do we get to see him use his CIA forensics background to help identify their goals and connections with everything quickly, but the first and only time that he confronts them is a quick and easy victory. It’s as if the writers finally heard the outcries of many fans all at once and decided to finally act on it. If you wanna talk about progression and leveling up, I’d say this wasn’t so much just about Barry showing off his power, but the show itself finally "leveling up" its character writing.
Barry finds them in the act of committing another crime, and after the leader confidently sends her partners after him, he uses Flashtime to spectacularly make them look like incompetent trash. Now THAT’S how you show off this character! He reveals that his speed thinking completely countered the leader's mind reading allowing him to easily best them which gave me a satisfying sense of justice served. For years, we’ve been complaining about the show doing a terrible job at trying to balance what the Flash should be able to do to what the villains end up managing to do to him as a result. This episode is the first in a very long time that finally turns the tides towards character logic. If this is any indication of what we can expect for the rest of the season, then consider me happily optimistic.
3. Ray Palmer’s Back!
As a Legends fan, I was both surprised and highly delighted to see Ray Palmer return in the Arrowverse via this particular series (I know he makes a brief cameo on Legends recently but that was re-worked flashback stuff). I’m not entirely sure how extensive his character will be on the show this season, but considering that he was written off of Legends of Tomorrow to many fans’ (including me) disappointment, any guest appearances are more than welcomed now. Ray shows up to bunk out at Barry and Iris’s home to their utter surprise (due to the unexpected and inconvenient timing of them wanting to…uhhh…kickstart their lives as parents). We get some nice comedic moments with Barry and Iris trying to avoid drinking Ray’s health smoothie (a gag brought over from Legends of Tomorrow) as well as reacting to his abrupt presence in their home. Whenever the Flash series gets to be genuinely funny through the actors’ performances and the use of situational comedy over cringey music choices and occasionally face palming pop culture references, you get extra points from me.
On a slightly more serious note, I love that Ray gets to talk about the Legends a little bit in this episode allowing for fans of that series to be given something of an extensive epilogue of sorts. We learn that he sometimes meets up with Nate for a drink night every now and then but the time traveling makes things difficult for meet ups (cool detail considering their strong friendship). He also talks about how hard it was to leave the Legends but the decision benefitted him and Nora’s marriage which may or may not be a reference to Brandon Routh’s actual relationship with his wife who plays Nora.
Ray’s return to Central City also isn’t just some randomly inserted excuse for a character return but Ray deciding to get back into scientific research since being the Atom took time away from his passion. I absolutely loved this little detail considering that Ray was introduced in the Arrowverse initially as a tech company guru on Season 3 of Arrow who eventually became a superhero prior to his transition to Legends. Where some people might see this as a step backwards, I think the episode does a great job at solidifying and justifying it as an upgrade for the character’s personal life. It adds a sense of maturity to the underlying question in these shows regarding what the “superhero life” means for some people who already had personal goals outside of their costumed personas.
With Ray showing up in Central City as a legacy honoree for a huge tech conference, we start to see more layers of a character arc forming. Chester being a consultant and assistant of sorts giving him scheduled events after geeking out as a fan (typical Chester trait now), there’s a moment where Ray respectfully rejects a group of young scientists wanting to collaborate with him. Him putting time with his wife first as opposed to just leaping into “the next big thing” despite his return to science research was refreshing to see. There’s also a nice tease where he decides to remain open minded about his future in science while looking at the new generation of scientists in the crowd as opposed to just shutting them down entirely. Perhaps this can lead up to him opening his doors to Ryan Choi?
Now all this talk of putting the Atom suit to the side and pursuing other passions is great and all, but let’s not get things twisted here. This is a crossover event after all so you better believe that having Ray onboard means getting to see the Atom in action. This leads me to the main highlight of the episode.
4. Introducing Despero
I remembered in my Armageddon trailer reaction saying that I wasn’t the slightest bit of excited for the villain due to his underwhelming design. Considering the trailer only showed off his human form (to my ignorance), I was positively shocked to see Despero presented here as something more than just “some dude that looks like he’s originally supposed to be a Supergirl villain of the week". But before we talk about the design, I must say that I'm also pleasantly surprised with the character motivation here being a little more layered than what we’ve seen in recent Flash seasons and Arrowverse crossovers. Despero reveals to be in a future where apparently the Flash destroys the planet somehow 10 years from now resulting in him traveling back to save their world by killing him. Instead of just having some big alien show up to destroy the world or take over because he’s power hungry, we actually have a mission that feels personal but also mysterious.
There are intriguing questions posed here such as what Despero means when he says “saving our world”. This could be just him being a result of the Crisis merging of Supergirl’s Earth allowing for the history of aliens coexisting on Earth to be canon to The Flash. It could also mean something else entirely. There’s also the glaring question of how and why Barry destroys the planet. Is it indeed Barry or another speedster? Did Barry get mind controlled or turned for some reason? There are so many speculations to be had. So story wise, I’m actually intrigued to see this crossover event unfold. I felt the previous ones delivered with their epic sense of scope and superhero entertainment value but lacked in storytelling. Perhaps Armageddon will be the one to change this. I guess a “leveling up” of crossover storytelling can also be considered in the episode’s theme. Honestly, as early as we are in this, it’s already a better villain set up than what we got with Godspeed, the Cosmic Forces, and Mirror Monarch.
I also like that Despero feels more three dimensional than one might expect from his presentation since he actually gives Barry an opportunity to plead his case of innocence. He even admits that he respects the Flash as a powerful warrior who he could’ve seen himself fighting alongside as allies. Little bits of dialogue like this makes Despero a bit more interesting in that he’s not just some “evil entity” trying to kill Barry or just some vengeful foe but someone who looks at the Flash as someone with great potential but struggles to see pass the larger conflict that he brings to his life. So, now that I can say that I’m surprisingly sold on seeing this villain all the way through to the end as far as character writing goes, let’s talk about the presentation aspect.
As I mentioned earlier, Despero’s human form looks quite dull and nothing worthy of a crossover event of today's standards visually speaking. However, once he reveals his true alien aesthetics, we see this hulking red brute with a fin on his head and a third eye that all looks great in execution. Noteworthy not so much in design (it’s a decent design but nothing to yell out in hype for) but more so in visual FX. The CGI on Despero’s body and clothing alongside his movement is what I’d like to call “peaked Arrowverse CGI”. Everything from the facial animation to the rendering of his skin and hair looks pretty solid and right up there (if not better) with the likes of King Shark and Grodd. I also like how formidable he comes across without having the heroes come off as incompetent. Well…I supposed that’s kinda debatable.
Flash runs around him in circles doing that one move that, for years, I never understood the idea behind since he never attacks while doing it to suggest a disorienting tactic. I do love that Despero effectively counters with a seismic wave ground attack to blast Barry away stating that he was born amongst the stars thereby making him immune to Barry’s “vacuum maneuver”. There's a little sprinkle of Bane from the Dark Knight Rises there during his first fight with Batman saying "You think darkness is your ally, I was born in it." Here enters Ray as the Atom giving us arguably the coolest Atom scene in the Arrowverse yet. After Despero uses a mind trick illusion causing them to fire in the wrong direction, Despero tosses a taxi cab at them from behind where Atom shrinks both him and Barry down to slip through the flipping car unscathed. The visuals here are also noteworthy by Arrowverse standards making me even more impressed with what they’re presenting here spectacle-wise.
With Crisis on Infinite Earths, I was highly disappointed by the horrendously lacking visual direction behind the action scenes. And that event was essentially supposed to be the franchise’s Infinity War/Endgame counterparts. Here Armageddon, in just its first episode alone, redeems the track record with a much better executed villain presentation so far (Anti-Monitor looks great in some shots but heavily cosplay-like in others) as well as standout action packed moments. The Flash eventually uses a speed mirage to try to distract Despero only for him to successfully identify and counter it due to his mental capacity (again showing off his formidability). Chester describes Despero as being a cross between Grodd’s psychic abilities and the brute force of Fuerza (though I do feel that that line undermines Grodd’s natural strength). We know that he has teleportation and time traveling abilities thanks to his tech giving him a nice sense of well rounded variety. My hopes is that we haven’t seen all that he’s capable of yet and that there are more fun surprises to come.
Bonus Thoughts & Easter Eggs
1. DC Comics New 52 Reference
The news channel that broadcasts the train collision situation is called “Channel 52” which of course is a nod to the DC Comics’ New 52 relaunch series as well as the news network introduced in that series.
2. Sue Reference (No Ralph)
The Central City Citizen Media building that Iris runs her company in was a building purchased by Sue Dearborn making this our first and only reference to Sue. By proxy, it also invokes Ralph’s presence who is yet to [fully] show up on the show since Season 6. I...still feel off about the way they handled him making a visually embarrassing appearance in Season 7.
3. The Cosmic Forces
Barry mentions that Deon is still aiding Iris with her “temporal sickness” with regular treatments making this and Fuerza's earlier name drop our cosmic forces reminder. I’m 100% fine if we never revisit these characters unless they have something legitimately good planned for them. The less I need to be reminded of Season 7's storytelling and character writing, the better. That being said, one cannot just ignore that Barry has powerful people existing in the speed force who can aid him and also makes him faster by simply existing there.
4. Bart & Nora West-Allen Reference
Barry and Iris mentions Nora and Bart visiting at various times from 2049. Will we see these future characters again or was this scene a way for us to leave them in the backdrop and have them enter back into the story more…ummm…naturally so to speak. I am curious when the series will actually start getting into the actual Barry-Iris parenting stuff. Being too lazy to do the math here, is it too early to start expecting babies to show up next season? Will there be a time jump to rush things to that point?
5. Reference to Nora's Magical Role
Ray mentions that his wife is saving the world one kid at a time which I imagine is a nod to her being a fairy godmother (yes Legends is a weird show but it’s a good weird). I wonder if we'll get to see her show up on an episode this season if we're keeping Ray along.
6. The Flash Season 8 Arkham City-like Story That Almost Was
Barry manages to bring a 1,000 inmates back into their cells at Iron Heights after a power shut down took place. Considering my plea for the series to tackle an all-out rogues gallery assault on Barry and the city to be a season villain conflict, I honestly got excited during this scene. I was almost certain that they were setting up an Arkham City (talking about the popular Batman game where his villains take over the city in sections) situation for Season 8. Oh well, perhaps another time.
7. DC/Arrowverse Easter Eggs
During the tech conference, we see some familiar names show up with their various displays such as Kord Industries (Ted Kord aka Blue Beetle’s company who’s name has shown up since Arrow but never made an appearance yet). There’s also Mercury Labs, Tannhauser Cryotherapy (Caitlin’s mother’s company who may or may not have an upcoming metahuman storyline considering her previous tease of having an ice persona), Ivo Laboratories (where Amazo came from in the Elseworlds crossover event), Opal Thermo Labs (Opal City is home to various DC characters but most notably is Starman which could be a tease for the Stargirl series to eventually crossover).
8. A Running Gag Finally Catches Up To Barry
Barry feeling noxious after Atom shrinks him down and saying that he now knows how Diggle feels is a fun reference to the several times in which Barry transported Diggle somewhere giving him extreme motion sickness.
9. Kryptonian+Kryptonite Reference
Ray suggests that team Flash figures out what type of alien Despero is in order to find his weakness. Chester says “like Kryptonians” to which Ray finishes “and Kryptonite”. This is a nice nod to Brandon Routh playing Superman in both Superman Returns and Crisis on Infinite Earths. It’s also a nice way for the Flash series to make a direct reference to both the Supergirl and Superman & Lois shows. Caitlin leaves the room with the intent to call Alex in National City further solidifying the shared universe utilization.
10. Is Embiggens A Word?
In one scene Ray says “The Atom will embiggen” as a working catch phrase to which Chester and Barry doesn't respond too excitingly. The only reference I can think of here is that I believe Ms. Marvel uses the phrase frequently and that the Flash series also used it with one of their weekly villains back in Season 4.
Episode Rating: 9/10
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