With invaders from Earth-X coming to try and force Nazi viewpoints on the heroes of The CW‘s DC Universe this November, one has to wonder: just what kind of forces will The Flash, Supergirl, Green Arrow, and the Legends be up against?
Videos by ComicBook.com
So far, there is not a lot we know — and the poster released last week actually raises as many questions as it answers about just how it will all work.
That said, there are some questions that stand higher than others, and we can do our best to answer them…!
Who’s the Speedster?
Is that Barry Allen? Eobard Thawne? Or someone else entirely?
This question is interesting because during the Freedom Fighters: The Ray trailer footage screened at Comic Con, Grant Gustin certainly seemed to provide the voice for the evil Flash — but he was wearing a black and red costume more in line with the ones seen here on Supergirl and Green Arrow.
Instead, the speedster on the poster seems to ahve adopted a look favored by the Reverse Flash, with the exception of the “SS” lightning bolts.
This could be the byproduct of changes made to the design in the time between when ideas went out the the Freedom Fighters: The Ray animators and when the assignment was given to comics artist Phil Jimenez to draw the poster.
It could be that Jimenez was approximating something that was not final, and that he did this poster quite a while ago.
Or it could be that someone else is the evil speedster in the crossover.
The Flash is a visual effects-heavy character already; it may be difficult to get away with having Barry face off against “himself” in a four-episode arc where there is already so much else going on.
It could be that after season 3 of The Flash, in which an alternate Barry turned out to be the big bad, they did not want to return to that well quite so soon (although it’s debatable whether another speedster is much less redundant).
It could be that they simply wanted to try something different, to give Tom Cavanagh something to do, or various other reasons we can’t begin to guess at.
With no face shown here, though, it remains curious and interesting that his costume looks so much like the Reverse Flash’s.
Who’s the Archer?
No, not that archer, the other one.
Yes, it appears as though two different archers came over from Earth-X to attack Barry and Iris’s special day — and it is difficult to guess who the second one could be.
Based on his placement in the poster and his costume design, one assumes that the “top” speedster on the poster is the Earth-X version of Oliver Queen — but who is the one near the bottom of the poster, squaring off with Vixen?
There have been a lot of archers on Arrow, dark and otherwise, so let’s run down a list of potential candidates really quick, while acknowledging that any or none of these could be the one:
- Arsenal (Roy Harper)
- Speedy (Thea Queen)
- Tommy Merlyn
- Malcolm Merlyn
- Prometheus
Guest appearances by any of the dead and/or gone characters above could be a real boon, while Thea would likely have the largest impact on Oliver, especially if she is still dead or otherwise off the board following the explosion on Lian Yu.
…Of course, if it turned out to be Roy or Tommy who pulled off that hood, that would be quite a moment for Oliver and company, too…!
Will there be more?
Will there be more villains — and if so, will they be new characters, existing ones from the comics, or more Nazi doppelgangers of our heroes?
This question is motivated primarily by the fact that, as far as the poster is concerned, the bad guys are pretty significantly outnumbered.
The absence of any villains “matching” the Legends, and the addition of Earth-X’s own The Ray to the side of the good guys, means that on paper, these jackbooted Justice Leaguers should be sent packing pretty quickly. Yeah, they have an extra archer, but what’s that going to do against Firestorm and The Atom?
The obvious answer seems to be that there will be some other power at play — either members of the heroes’ existing rogues galleries or some other figures from Earth-X or beyond who are not yet depicted on the poster.
Still, “obvious” is not always “correct.”
What are those masks, exactly?
On the poster, our heroes are fighting Earth-X versions of themselves, with Nazi-inspired uniforms and strange masks on each hero.
Given the fact that all of them are wearing those masks, the absence of mind-reader J’Onn J’Onzz might indicate that these heroes are not inherently evil, but somehow controlled — but that is probably a stretch considering that the trailer for The Ray featured the Earth-X versions of the characters without the masks.
Still, the classic comics depicted Earth-X not just as a world where Hitler won the war but one where, after the death of FDR, the US was in a disarray and Germany got the bomb. This created a 25-year stalemate as each of the two nations balked at mutually-assured nuclear destruction…but eventually the Nazis won by developing machinery that would weaken the mental resistance of the Allies and essentially mind-control them into surrendering.
It is difficult to guess at what other purpose they might serve, other than perhaps just being cosmetic to help tell the heroes and villains apart in dark scenes.
Where are the missing heroes?
We’ll start out easy, pointing out some of the obvious omissions from the poster.
John Diggle and Felicity Smoak are nowhere to be found; ditto Harrison Wells, Joe West, J’Onn J’Onzz, Alex Danvers, James Olsen, etc.
In all likelihood this is a matter of practicality: Jimenez wanted to homage Justice League of America #207, which featured the disembodied heads of various Justice League and Justice Society members reacting to a Nazi supervillain. That eliminates non-costumed folks (Wells, West, Alex, Felicity) from consideration and leaves open the question of why certain charcters were selected for inclusion rather than Guardian, Spartan, and Martian Manhunter.
All in all, the answer could be a number of things. It could, legitimately, be that those characters do not have a major role in the crossover for one reason or another, or it could be simply that they were omitted for space on the poster. One or more of them could plausibly have new costumes coming that the studio didn’t want to spoil this far in advance of the start of the seasons in 3 weeks.
There is also the fact that if those masks are in fact some kidn inhibitor or mind-control device, then there is a challenge inherent to having Martian Manhunter around…!
The non-spoilage answer could be used to explain Diggle’s and Felicity’s absence from the poster, except that the rest of Team Arrow are present, including Mr. Terrific, who had not previously been confirmed to have survived the explosion at the end of season 5.
Speedy was in the crossover last year, but fans noted that Willa Holland’s season-regular contract only seemed to have her in 13 or so out of the 23 episodes, and so her absence here could indicate she died on Lian Yu, or it could just be that she’s not in the crossover for practical reasons.
Perhaps the most interesting question — since they tend to get killed a lot in the comics and we saw them take some losses in the trailer for The Ray’s animated series — is where the rest of the Freedom Fighters?
