The primetime landscape is about to blowup when The CW heroes are invaded from beyond the stars for this season’s epic 4-night crossover that assembles the biggest cast of heroes on the small screen since last year’s “legendary” launch! What new threat will bring the Green Arrow and The Flash together for the first time with Supergirl.
Ever since The CW hit series Arrow and its premiere spin-off The Flash crossed over into each other for a two-part, two-night event, the stunt which links the casts of these favorite television series based on DC Comics characters, has become one of the more anticipated highlights of the season! The “crossover” is literally one of the comic book publishing industry’s most often used gimmicks used to introduce faithful readers to potentially new characters, serial storylines over multiple titles, or tell more epic adventures that just can’t be confined to a single 22-page issue.
Released in 1988 in 3 distinct 80-page volume editions that tied into several spin-offs “Invasion!” introduced the villainous Dominators into the DC Universe as one of the most dangerous threats not only to Earth’s heroes, but the entire galaxy at large. The villains would also play a role in battles with the Green Lantern Corps.
DC Comics has over the years has effectively maximized the crossover and been able to tell some of the imprint’s best regarded and classic adventures which brought together the brave and bold, world’s finest heroes together under a single banner! From the very first major maxi-series Crisis on Infinite Earths which shook the foundation of the publishing giant’s entire multiverse and restructured its history, to more personal events like Identity Crisis which shook the foundation of the Justice League of America and had a profound impact on team’s line-up.
Whenever DC has brought together its greatest heroes, the effect has been profound and always landmark. Now that The CW has presented the greatest live primetime line-up of characters, it’s a fan’s dream indeed that an unprecedented “maxi-series” is about to come to life when Supergirl, The Flash, Arrow, and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow present a four-night crossover spectacle of galactic proportions, an “Invasion!” with the DC TV universe as its battleground! Originally published in 1988 “Invasion!” was unlike its crossover predecessors and broke new ground.
Co-written by Keith Giffen and Bill Mantlo with art by the legendary Todd McFarlane and Bart Sears, the three-issue comic book expanded the limits of the DC Universe beyond just our own planet Earth and placed us in the crosshairs of an alien alliance threatened by the growing number of metahumans that inhabited the third planet in the Sol system. Under the influence of the dangerously manipulative aliens known as The Dominators, the alliance included Daxamites, the war-mongering Khunds, among others who launch an offensive attack on Earth.
The limited-series was unique in that it was told largely as a “space opera” released in three issues, or three acts in the larger volume 80-page format and continued spinning-off all across the DCU as the adventure played out across all the publishing imprint’s titles at the time. The heroes on Earth, including The Flash (Wally West), Martian Manhunter and the Justice League International, the covert team of super villains Suicide Squad, and several other agents are lead by Superman against the invaders.
Ultimately the aliens are repelled, but the Dominators in a final act of defiance unleash a weapon of mass destruction that strikes our heroes at their core. Having isolated the gene that affects superpowers — the metagene — the aliens detonate a blast in the Earth’s upper atmosphere that seeds the planet with an antigen that reacts with metahumans and renders their abilities inert or uncontrollable. The heroes are able to cure themselves of the weapon’s affect, but not without some longterm consequences.
Although the “Invasion!” crossover didn’t have similar longer-lasting ramifications on the DCU as other mini-series events of its day and on, it still remains one of the more influential storylines to appear in the DC Comics continuity, and The Dominators introduced in the series remain a major alien threat even in present day continuity. Now that these sinister creatures will be coming to life to reign down their menace on our favorite primetime heroes, audiences eagerly have begun to speculate just how the “Invasion!” will unfold over this four-night event.
Of the DC TV Universe series Supergirl (starring Melissa Benoist) has dealt with aliens as a general presence on the planet since day one. Kara — the Last Daughter of Krypton — is after all the cousin of perhaps the most famous extraterrestrial on Earth, and Superman fortunately has chosen to fight on our side defending truth, justice and inspiring hope. The “prime” DC TV universe has come a long way since its current interpretation on Arrow (starring Stephen Amell). The urban street fighting has given way to the mystical and even introduced the first metahumans into cannon when it spun-off The Flash and eventually ignited DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.
How those three series will respond to the knowledge of life beyond our own galaxy remains to be seen, but that this crossover event will also feature the introduction of Supergirl into continuity and finally answer how she fits in exactly into the scheme of things, especially after Barry Allen’s (Grant Gustin) visit to National City last year, will be very exciting indeed. There’s also the potential of this crossover finally laying the foundation for a more permanent and prominent league (or society) of super-humans to come together!
DC’s Legends has established that during World War II the Justice Society of America fought to protect the world from tyranny, and perhaps at the conclusion of this event our heroes after having answered this calling to defend the planet, may be encouraged to unite under a similar banner of their own. Whatever the upcoming “Invasion!” primetime mash-up of “Heroes vs. Aliens” on The CW may have in store for its audience, one thing is for certain — it’s going to be huge!
Look for The CW crossover event to kick things off with Supergirl on Monday, November 28th!
