DC TV Recap Round-Up, Week 10: Back From The Break Like Lightning!

22 Jan

Welcome back! With a new year comes aslight change in schedule. With Legends of Tomorrow off until February and Supergirl taking a hiatus in a month or so does throw things off a bit. But luckily we got a full slate with the returns of Supergirl and The Flash, and the premiere of Black Lightning! So let’s jump into things with the newest superhero show on the block…

“The Resurrection”

Jefferson Pierce is the principal of Garfield High School in the city of Freeland, with two daughters (medical student Anissa and high school student Jennifer) and unknown to almost everyone, he was a local superhero known as Black Lightning. But that was nine years ago, and he gave that up to be a principal and raise his kids after his wife got tired of seeing the toll being Black Lightning was taking on him. In that time though, a gang known as The 100 (no, this is not a prequel to that CW post apocalyptic show) has grown in strength and violence on the streets of Freeland.

He uses his electricity powers in very small doses, but the general chaos in town is pushing him back into a place he has tried to avoid being back in. But when his daughters are kidnapped from school by members of the 100, Jefferson decides its time for Black Lightning to return and fight crime once again! And after he recovers his kids (complete with a new super suit, made by his longtime mentor, Gamby), he knows he still has to deal with the gang and their leader, Tobias, who killed Jefferson’s father. Maybe he won’t have to be alone in this fight, as we learn Anissa is starting to develop super strength!

No one notices the guy wearing blue and yellow neon, huh?

–Nothing is mentioned about other DC superheroes, at least not by name, but they do exist apparently. Although, I want this show to really grow into itself before it somehow gets shoved into meeting with the Arrowverse.

–Great soundtrack picks for this show from Nina Simone and Isaac Hayes, among others.

–The videotape of Black Lightning in his earlier outfit was worth a chuckle, if only because the store clerk in it described the suit as some kind of “Parliament Funkadelic outfit”.

–Watching Lala getting shot with that crossbow by Tobias was sweet. Tobias seems to be the only straight up comic book-ish bad guy here, but that’s only from the brief glimpse of him so far.

–“That promise had an expiration date.”

–“We have joint custody, which means half of her attitude is your responsibility.”

“Legion of Superheroes”

Kara is still in that coma she got put in by Reign before the hiatus, and she’s having one of those weird coma dreams where she has to confront her issues regarding being Kryptonian and being human before waking up from the Legion made recovery pod she’s in. But she has some help working through that with someone called Brainiac-5, a resuscitated member of Mon-El’s 31st century buddies, the Legion. Of course, Reign is still out there and she is turning her brutal assault on criminals to attacking people who allow criminals to run free. The Legion is not sure they should help in this case, seeing as how the history in their time is insanely spotty at best, and thanks to some big 31st century evil they were fighting, they have the solution to that problem in their DNA, making their involvement in a life or death fight with Reign a dicey proposition.

But the trio doesn’t have too much of a choice but to intervene when the DEO’s “take down Superman” plan seems to be ineffective, and then afterwards Reign decides to just start killing everyone in the local prison. Kara manages to come out of her mind coma just in time to help stop Reign’s attack on the prison, but Reign still escapes. And even though our heroes are triumphant, there’s Reign now working with that crazy Kryptonian religious nut Coville and the reveal of more evil Kryptonians like Reign are on Earth just waiting to be found! So luckily we got a legion of heroes ready for that.

Help! Kara is trapped in an 80’s music video!

–The Blight is a reference to a group of villains in the Legion comic books that is pretty bad news. Pretty sure that name drop wasn’t just for random sake.

–Streaky the cat is actually a call back to the Superman comics of the 50’s, specifically the superpet cat Streaky. They had a lot of super animals in those books back then.

–J’Onn having to imitate Kara was so hilarious. Pretty sure pretending to care about Lena’s growing relationship with James was not on his plans for that day.

–Using Bon Jovi’s “Living on a Prayer” to lure out an evil Kryptonian zealot is a novel idea.

–“Hey, it’s you! Are you shorter?”

–“Little, little, tiny baby battle.”

–“I just had a conversation about James Olsen’s extraordinary kissing ability. This’ll be a Sunday picnic.”

“The Trial of The Flash”

Barry is facing trial for the murder of Clifford Devoe, or should I say, being framed for the murder of Clifford Devoe by…Clifford Devoe. Clifford’s consciousness is now in a new body, and Barry is facing an almost unbeatable case against him. There’s not much of a defense for Barry, except maybe revealing he’s the Flash, which would open up another massive can of worms. Of course, Team Flash still has other things to worry about besides Barry’s trial, namely a dark matter affected metahuman named Fallout who affects people through radiation.

The bigger problem with Fallout besides poisoning people with radiation, is he has atomic bomb level powers that could be fatal for everyone in the city if it’s not controlled. Good thing they dump all that excess Fallout radiation on a dead Earth, because that would be really bad for everyone. Turns out it’s just bad news for Barry, who gets found guilty and sent to prison for life! And worse, he got his dad’s old cell in Iron Heights! Ouch.

Oh man, I had acne breakout like Barry. Tough break, bro. Also tough you got convicted of a crime you didn’t commit.

–This trial goes by just a wee bit too fast to be believable. Hell, they seem to do closing statements and reach a verdict in THE SAME DAY! Really?

–Ralph turns out to be the voice of reason in stopping Joe from planting evidence on Marlize. And a pretty effective one at that.

–Yeah, Marlize seems really uncomfortable with Clifford in a new body, but she rolls with it, because of her hubby’s big plan, whatever it is.

–Somehow Barry is able to drag people like Iris into his speed and slow time I guess. Even he doesn’t know how.

–“You’re gonna be on a high like Space Mountain…”

–“The puppies are going down because you didn’t want to show up for work!”

NEXT TIME: Black Lightning considers returning to full-time crimefighting, Supergirl considers a deadly alliance to find a way to stop Reign, and Ralph Dibny has to rise up as The Flash is dealing with prison.