Top 10 “Heroes v Aliens” Moments to Root For

Starting Monday, November 28, The CW will air a four-night crossover event entitled “Heroes v Aliens.” The first part of the crossover begins tonight with Supergirl, followed by The Flash on Tuesday, Arrow on Wednesday and concluding with Legends of Tomorrow on Thursday. The “Heroes v Aliens” storyline is loosely based on Invasion!, a DC Comics crossover event from the late 1980s. This week’s four-part event promises to the most epic storyline yet in the brief history of The CW’s extended superhero universe. With that in mind, I’d like to spotlight 10 moments that I’ll be looking forward to most during this #DCWeek. NOTE: This list is mostly spoiler-free, at least as the CW series themselves are concerned—I do give away a few plot elements for Invasion!, but they’re mainly things you could discover on Wikipedia. 1. Supergirl Meets the CW Long-time fans will recall that Supergirl previously met the Flash during Season 1 of her eponymous series. However, the meeting required the Flash using his super speed to travel to Supergirl’s parallel universe. The segregation between her universe and the universe the other characters occupy remains in place for this crossover, despite Supergirl having moved The CW this season from its previous home at CBS. Indeed, the crossover is initiated when the Flash returns to Supergirl’s world to bring her to his. This will mark her first opportunity to meet Green Arrow and the Legends of Tomorrow, which should be quite the shock to characters who’ve seen many amazing things but have yet to meet an alien. 2. Bring on the Heroes In addition to bringing Supergirl (somewhat) into the CW fold, the “Heroes v Aliens” crossover will present audiences with a wide collection of DC Comics heroes. In addition to the protagonists of the four shows, we’ll also get a glimpse at such secondary stars as Vixen, Citizen Steel and Wild Dog. Even for jaded comics fans used to seeing cosmic crossovers, it’ll be a thrill to see a team-up of such epic proportions on the small screen. 3. Meeting of the Minds Perhaps less exciting, though no less relevant, than the meeting between the costumed heroes will be the one between their respective support teams. It’s always nice to see Team Arrow and Team Flash get together, particularly for those moments when Felicity and Cisco renew their geeky rivalry. But now with Winn of Team Supergirl potentially being thrown into the mix, the potential to see geniuses clash has never been higher. 4. Kickass Dominators As with Invasion!, the main antagonists in “Heroes v Aliens” are the Dominators. From that point forward, however, there appear to be divergences. While the Dominators in the comics mainly plotted behind the scenes, the Dominators in “Heroes v Aliens” are much more physically aggressive; in fact, at one point the Flash compares them to “World War Z zombies” due to their inability to be stopped by conventional firepower. Also, as opposed to their bright yellow hue in the comics, the CW’s version of the Dominators are paler, almost translucent--with that said, they retain the cranial structure and sharp teeth of their comics cousins 5. More Aliens The Merrier One of the notable elements of DC’s Invasion! crossover was that the Dominators led a coalition of alien races who believed that Earth’s metahumans posed a threat to the rest of the galaxy. Incidentally, of the key members in that coalition were the Daxamites, which is the race Mon-El belongs to. Seeing as how Supergirl is the only of the four CW shows to acknowledge and directly deal with the presence of aliens, it would prove a great gateway (so to speak) for more alien baddies to make their acquaintance with the casts of Flash, Arrow, and Legends.  6. The Gene Bomb In addition to the alien alliance, another key plot point from Invasion! was the Gene Bomb, a device developed by the Dominators that causes metahumans to lose control of their powers while inadvertently giving normal people superpowers. (Incidentally, one of those so-called normal people is Max Lord, a character Supergirl audiences will remember from Season 1.) It’ll be interesting to see if the Gene Bomb makes an appearance in “Heroes v Aliens,” even if it could be argued that its presence would be superfluous given the number of formerly non-powered characters in the CW-verse have gained abilities (Caitlin Snow/Killer Frost) or superpowered identities (James Olsen/Guardian) 7. Who Lives, Who Dies? A general pattern of comics crossover events is that it changes the characters involved (even if those changes are later undone by subsequent storylines). Those changes may include someone getting a new costume, new powers…or, as these things sometimes go, dying to save the universe. I wouldn’t expect Supergirl, the Flash, or one of the heavy hitters to go—but could we see a smaller name step into the spotlight and become a hero? 8. 100^th Arrow In addition to serving as the third part of the “Heroes v Aliens” crossover, this Wednesday’s episode of Arrow marks the series’ 100^th episode. Since the show’s launch in October 2012, Arrow has been the standard bearer for the CW-verse, having served as a launching point for The Flash and others to follow. The synopsis for the 100^th episode reveals that Oliver will somehow be transported to a life in which his parents never died and he remained engaged to Laurel. It remains to be seen how this will tie into the overall alien invasion plot, but a It’s a Wonderful Life-style retrospective seems like an appropriate theme for an anniversary episode 9. What Role Do Legends Play? As a time-hopping show in the mold of Sliders, Legends of Tomorrow is something of an odd duck in the CW-verse. The four-part #DCWeek event ends with Legends, which should give the show a higher degree of visibility and allow the showrunners to work time travel into the proceedings somehow. 10. A Fidel Castro Cameo? One of the more surreal moments in the Invasion! crossover occurs when the Flash encounters the Cuban president when aliens attack his island. This past weekend came word that Castro died at the age of 90. Although it seems unlikely that “Heroes v Aliens” would feature the Communist dictator, it would be a wink-and-nod homage to the original source material. And it certainly wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility to meet the younger Castro, given the time-hopping proclivities of the Legends of Tomorrow… What other moments are you most looking forward to seeing during the “Heroes v Aliens” crossover event? Be sure to let us know in the comments below or by tweeting at us. And be sure to catch our episode reviews at Entertainment Fuse!