Arrow: The Brave and the Bold review.

My last post was about the Flash vs. Arrow episode of "The Flash".  Today it's time to do a quick review of the Arrow's half of the cross over event.  So without further adieu my review of Arrow season 3 episode 8, "The Brave and the Bold".  Though I will try to avoid any major ones.  Be warned, there may be spoilers ahead.

This episode follows Ollie and the crew as they try to track down Captain Boomerang.  Ollie and Roy find out that he is basically hunting Argus (not sure if I got the spelling right, but I'm talking about Amanda Wallers organization) for an unknown reason. 

Where the Flash vs. Arrow episode was the "what would happen if they fight" episode.  This episode shows the drastic difference in each teams approach.  The differences, why they are the way they are and what it is doing to them (particularly Ollie) is the main point of the episode.  The best example of this is during what amounts to raiding a hideout to track down a lead.  While Ollie, Roy and Diggle are getting to their positions you occasionally see Barry running though.  When Ollie reaches the first room which would usually have the "muscle" in it.  Barry has already knocked them out and gives Ollie a joyful "I had eight seconds to spare.  What was that wrong."  Then they move into the inner area with the man they are there to find.  Barry rushes in taking the man off guard and with a smile on his face says "My friend wants to talk to you."  Shortly after the interrogation begins Ollie puts an Arrow into the mans shoulder.  Barry doesn't agree with this and Ollie goes on to explain that Starling City is a much darker place then Central City.  Eventually he reveals that little by little what he is doing is killing Oliver Queen leaving only the Arrow (anyone else seeing another Batman comparison there?).

The final confrontation comes down to the Flash trying to stop a crisis that could once again send the city into complete chaos, while Ollie struggles with his humanity and his oath to not kill anymore. 

As for previews of next week.  Like with the Flash it looks like Fit is going to hit the shan.  With some type of duel or challenge to one with "one of the deadliest men in the world" which I assume to be Ra's, but could be mistaken.

Story:  B

Again it was a good story.  Diggle has a nice moment at the end, Ollie is shown hope for personal growth and that he might be able to be both Oliver Queen and The Arrow.  Nothing spectacular and jaw dropping but defiantly a solid show.

Overall:  B

Just an all around solid episode. 

What did you think of this episode?  Would you rather be the more happy go lucky, boy scoutish Flash?  Or the darker brooding Batman ... I mean Arrow, who admits that what he does chips away little by little at his humanity?

Flash vs Arrow Part 1 (possible spoilers)

As I said in my intro post I'm a card carrying geek/nerd. So it should come as little surprise that I am loving both "The Flash" and "Arrow" series. So when the time came for a pair of cross over episodes the little geek in my heart had flashbacks of watching Hercules and Xena crossovers when I was in school. Needless to say I went into the two day event with high hopes. But did the two day event live up to my expectations? Let's find out and just so that you have been warned, possible spoilers ahead.

First we have "The Flash" season 1 episode 8 "Flash vs Arrow". In this episode Barry and his team are trying to track down a metahuman who can manipulate emotions through eye contact. During a show down where the meta (who Cisco names Prism at the end of the episode, more on the name later).

As you may have guessed early in the episode Batman ... I mean Arrow shows up just in time to keep Barry and Joe for possibly being shot by the enraged cop. We find out that Ollie, Diggle, and Felicity are there in part to have star labs take a look at some evidence they don't have the equipment to fully examine themselves.

Barry seems to idolize Ollie and wants to work with him. Ollie is resistant to the idea, but reluctantly agrees to train and help him out. Ollie being the Bruce Wayne of this universe decides he needs to train Barry. Teach him the important of tactical awareness and knock him down a peg or two. This is done with a typical Ollie lecture and using Barry's arrogance and dependence on his speed against him. Barry leaves the scene a little resentful about being shot in the back with a pair of arrows. But the message to Barry was that he had to be more aware of his surroundings (maybe a play to Batman begins given the Ra's al Ghul story arch happening on Arrow this season).

Eventually Barry gets a lean on where to find Prism. And predictably runs in without a plan and gets "whammed". The effects take longer to hit Barry then they did others. So instead of a drastic sudden turn, Barry gets more and more irritated as time goes on, until he explodes and starts going after people. This leads to the inevitable confrontation between Ollie and Barry.

I saw an interview once where Stan Lee said (I forget the exact quote but I will summarize), anytime you have two heroes fight you want it to end in a draw. This episode takes that advice to heart and Ollie eventually manages (with some help from Diggle, Wells and the others) to calm Barry down.

They then go after Prism, it's probably not much of a spoiler to say that Ollie and Barry win and lock Prism up.

Now back to "Prism". I did a quick search on the DC comics character and the only one who popped up didn't fit. While it is concluded the character in the show uses colors to induce rage and presumably other emotions if he wanted to. The comic character's bio made no mention of controlling emotions. But using light for other effects (that weren't specified). But before they named him in the episode I was thinking this guy fit the bill for a reimagining of Psycho Pirate. A DC villain who uses a "Medusa mask" in control and amplify the emotions of his enemies. I think this is most likely who they based this character after but found the name too hooky of TV so they flipped the names.

From the preview next weeks episode, things are going to start hitting the fan as it looks like Professor Zoom/The Reverse Flash is finally going to have a face to face with Barry.

This being my first attempt that writing a review I figure I will try to work in a score system.

Story: B

It was a good engaging episode and kept my attention throughout. Nothing earth shattering but it worked. Though I thought they may have been able to do a better job playing up Joes mistrust of The Arrow.

Overall: A-

The episode gets a nice boost for working in Ollie, Diggle and Felicity. The fight sequence between Barry and Ollie was really well done, all of which would give it a boost from a B to a B+. The reminder of the jump is simply because we got to see Felicity with her shirt off. ;-)

This ended up being longer then I wanted so I will review the second half of this cross over in another episode. But I would love to hear your thoughts. Did you see the episode? What did you think? What do you think would happen in a full out fight between Flash and Arrow (either the TV or Comic versions)?