der Fuhrer himself, Oliver Queen.
Welcome back to Strange Times & Places, where I’ve decided that the whole month of December will be spent looking at Elseworlds, Alternate Timelines, and the Infinite Earths. We’re kicking it off by examining the Earth X introduced in last week’s DCTV Arrowverse crossover, Crisis on Earth X.
How’s It Different?
It’s a For Want of a Nail Earth, 100%. While the mainstream DCU’s Earth 10 diverges when Superman’s pod lands in Nazi Germany, the CW’s Earth X diverges when the Nazis get the A-Bomb. They take out Allied capitols (and New York City) and invade, achieving global conquest.
Overgirl and Metallo
What’s The Story?
Overgirl, wife of the New Reich’s Fuhrer Oliver Queen, is dying from an overdose of solar radiation. Her husband leads his most elite SS super soldiers (Overgirl, Metallo, Prometheus, and Reverse Flash) in an invasion of Earth 1 to retrieve one of her multiversal doppelgangers for a forced heart transplant – bringing them into conflict with that world’s combined heroes.
As I said in our last installment, this is a pretty bog standard crossover with the alternate universe plot. Doesn’t mean it isn’t good, but it isn’t unique.
Best of Differences
- Fuhrer Queen and Overgirl make for a great team, both carrying the same level of skill and competence as their heroic counterparts. What does them in, however, is their arrogance and refusal of partners in favor of soldiers.
- Paul Blackthorne, an Arrow series regular who usually plays Team Arrow ally Quentin Lance, turns in an excellent performance as a concentration camp commandant. However, he’s jarringly the ONLY Earth-X doppelganger to have a German accent.
Somehow the only German on Nazi Earth
- It was cool to see Arrow season one regular Colin Donnell return five seasons after his character, Tommy Merlyn (son of the Dark Archer), was killed off to kick some ass in a costume…even if it was for a cameo as a Nazi.
- There was just something very pleasant about watching the Arrowverse’s diverse slate of characters (count on the final battle is two Hispanic heroes, one Jewish hero, one Arab/Muslim hero, two black heroes, and five LGBT heroes – with some overlap between categories) beat the hell out of an army of Nazis.
Worst of Differences
Nazi Prometheus
Mostly unanswered questions or illogical points – how was 32 year old guy dictator of the entire world? Where was Nazi Flash, since Reverse Flash is from Earth 1? How does the grandchild of Holocaust survivors have an Earth-X counterpart? Why does Metallo even exist on a world where a Kryptonian is his commanding officer? Hopefully, some of them will get answers when the prequel animated series, Freedom Fighters: The Ray, starts airing Friday on CW Seed.
Come Back Next Week For Even More Strange Times & Places!
