This week, the #DCTV Couch Club is doing something a little different. Since the four CW shows are crossing over, we decided to have our club of #DCTV fans cross over as well. Therefore, each new Couch Club post this week will feature all four members of the club discussing that night’s episode of the crossover. In addition, each Couch Club member has also shot a video sharing their individual thoughts about the crossover. Look for those to go live on the DC Fans YouTube channel the morning after each new episode.

The final night of The CW’s spectacular “Invasion” crossover took a page from the graphic novel that inspired it as the Dominators attempted to eliminate Earth’s metahumans with a “meta-bomb.” Fortunately, our heroes prevailed, packing the episode with thrilling action and hilarious character interactions in the process.

This crossover is based on a DC Comics crossover event that was also called INVASION, written by Keith Giffen and Bill Mantlo and notably drawn by Todd McFarlane. Have any of you read it? Or is this your first exposure to the Dominators?

Matt Ross (Arrow): I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I’ve never actually read Invasion! I have it in trade, but just haven’t gotten around to it yet. That being said, I am familiar with the Dominators in other storylines. Ironically, they had a little role in GREEN LANTERNS last month.  

Also, truth be told, I’m not a big McFarlane art guy...don’t kill me!  

Amy Ratcliffe (Supergirl): Don’t be embarrassed, Matt, I’m right there with you. This was my first time encountering the Dominators—well, aside from looking up basics and what they looked like when I learned what the crossover episodes were going to focus on. I’m definitely curious to check it out after these episodes.

Ashley V. Robinson (The Flash): I have read Invasion and, while there is a lot of good stuff in that crossover, I think this episode was a lot more fun.

There was some touching, but also kind of brain-melting stuff in this episode concerning Martin Stein’s daughter. Clearly it feels like he made the right choice in not wanting to erase her, but that throws the whole maintaining the timeline thing into question again, doesn’t it? Where is the line between acceptable and unacceptable changes?

Meg Downey (DC’s Legends of Tomorrow): Personally, I love that this is the theme the show has kind of taken on because I think it synergizes with this season of Flash so well. When you’ve got the whole timeline as your playground, there’s always going to be that temptation to change things—even little things—to make changes that might look innocent or innocuous enough, but in reality can be absolutely devastating.

I love that it’s happening with Stein too, out of everyone in the crew, because he’s the person who looks least likely to succumb to that form of temptation at first glance. He’s the “professional” in a room full of amateurs, and yet, here he is, the first one to crack under the pressure.

As for where the line is, though, I think that’s kind of a dangerous question. The easiest answer has to be that there isn’t actually a line and that the situation is absolutely binary: no changes, no exceptions. But obviously nothing in life can be that simple...right? Or is time travel an extenuating circumstance?

I’m definitely not wishing any more emotional harm on Stein or anything but I can’t help but feel like Lily might be a time bomb just waiting to blow up in his face.

Matt: Nice points, Meg. We’re on the same wavelength in this regard.

How great was Mick Rory as the Waverider’s pilot?

Meg: Oh my god, I love Mick so much. I came into Legends as a diehard Captain Cold fan, but by the middle of the first season, Mick had got me. Now I’m just hook, line and sinker for him. I hope we see him at the helm more often, if nothing else because the potential physical comedy (and prospective property damage) would definitely be worth it.

Matt: Haha. Big Mick at the wheel was too funny. I didn’t really care for his character at first, but he’s grown on me and he actually has great comedic timing—especially with that gravelly voice adding to the ridiculousness.

Amy: Mick continues to pleasantly surprise me in episode after episode. He has the best lines and attitudes—his interactions with Supergirl were absolutely priceless—and he didn’t disappoint at the wheel of the Waverider. I just picture Gideon rolling her eyes when he sat down in the pilot’s seat.

Ashley: Mick is a terrible pilot. That in mind, I want him and only him to pilot the Waverider from this point forward.

Ultimately, the problem the Dominators have with our heroes are their superpowers. I’m curious, if superpowers were real, do you suspect our world would be a safer place or a less safer one? The Dominators certainly fall into the latter camp!

Meg: Ahhh, this is one of my favorite super hero debates, honestly. I call it the “Batman Argument” in my head—the eternal question as to whether or not Batman’s presence in Gotham caused his rogues gallery to appear or if Batman’s presence is the only thing that’s stopping them. It’s the chicken-or-the-egg hypothetical wearing capes and cowls.

In the Dominators’ case, I feel like their logic was terrible. They weren’t really asking the question for anyone’s benefit but their own; they were attempting to cut their own losses before they happened. It wasn’t just selfish on their part, it was invasive and colonialist, wrapped up in the veneer of some greater good.

So, no, in this case, I definitely don’t think the world would be a safer place without super heroes. There will never be a shortage of evil in the world looking to cast the blame for their actions on the people they’re hurting, you know? That’s basically a universal constant. Sure, if super heroes didn’t exist maybe the threat to Earth wouldn’t have been, you know, aliens with a meta-bomb, but I feel like there would have still been a threat.

How would you rank this crossover event compared to the last two?

Amy: The crossovers have become the highlights of the Berlanti-verse shows for me. I look forward to them, and after watching them on individual nights, I’ll load up the episodes for a marathon. “Invasion” is my favorite of the events so far. It can be tricky to bring so many heroes and personalities together, but the writers found a narrative that gave everyone a chance to play his or her part, and on top of that, they made it work with Arrow’s 100th episode.

As a Supergirl fan, I enjoyed seeing her meeting so many other heroes. They all broadened their horizons in some way. And next time around, I hope the crossover plot reaches across all four episodes because, hey, I’m greedy.

Ashley: I still can hardly believe that we’re getting events like this on television and that they can be this amazing! The “Invasion” storyline is the Berlanti-Kreisberg crew’s most ambitious undertaking to date and one of their greatest successes! It really makes the last two look like cutesy adventures by comparison, but you don’t get a chance to bring Dominators into the world the first time you attempt a crossover.

There were a lot of interactions between characters that I loved throughout these episodes (Mick and Kara have some of my favourite conversations throughout!), that will not happen again until another universe-ending event comes along. This week was a super great week of TV for me!

Meg: I am right there with both of you. If you would have told Meg, aged 14, that someday we would be seeing not just live action super hero shows, but multiple live action super hero shows that all coexisted in a shared universe that just keeps growing? I would have lost my mind. I can’t wait to see how the shared #DCTV universe changes from here on out, and I can’t wait to see what kind of crossovers we get in the future, whether on this scale or smaller. It’s the coolest thing in the world to me.
 

Want more on the crossover? Meg Downey shares her thoughts on this week's Legends tomorrow on the DC Fans YouTube channel.

Click here for more information on the INVASION comic series that inspired this week’s crossover!