The Black Siren leads the attack on Central City
What They Say:
Zoom unleashes an army of Earth-2 meta-humans, the leader of which is Black Canary’s doppelganger, Black Siren; Joe worries when Wally goes out to help The Flash.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Zoom has unleashed an army of Earth-2 metahumans on Earth-1. As the episode begins we see hordes of super-powered beings attacking the cops and creating mayhem in the streets of Central City…and then it was over in about two minutes. What looked like it could be an epic episode with dozens of villains unleashing their powers instead boiled down to a rather standard episode of The Flash.
Quite honestly I didn’t recognize any of the villains other than Black Siren, the Earth-2 doppelganger to The Black Canary which gave Katie Cassidy at least one more opportunity to play the role, albeit with a more dangerous edge. And as far as I know Black Siren only appeared in the animated Justice League show and not the comics, but I could be wrong. The good is that Cassidy got to play a character that was much more interesting than Black Canary who had actual super powers for her siren scream as opposed to having to rely on tech. One wonders if this is an opportunity to keep Cassidy in the Arrow cast. But as quickly as the rampaging horde of bad guys appeared they were gone.
After Barry’s trip inside the Speed Force last week he has returned with a level of supreme confidence that the rest of the team finds disconcerting. As usual, Barry’s initial encounter with a new villain, in this case, Black Siren, finds him getting his butt kicked and having to be rescued by Wally who is patrolling the city and wanting to play junior hero. I think it’s a good thing that there is no rush to give Wally or Jessie powers. I would assume it’s coming eventually but there’s no need to have it happen just to happen.
Cisco devises a weapon which can emit a powerful wave of sound that only affects those from Earth-2 and uses it to take down all the villains. Kind of a cheap way out of the situation, though. Zoom, however, escapes by creating a portal back to Earth-2, a power we’ve not seen previously. However the victory is short-lived and tragic but we won’t give that away despite the spoiler alert.
Henry (John Wesley Shipp) and Dr. Tina McGee (Amanda Pays) have a very cute scene where they meet each other in a tip of hat to their roles in the 1990s Flash TV series. Tell me you didn’t love that! Cisco and Caitlin also have a great scene where they dress as their Earth-2 counterparts Reverb and Killer Frost in an effort to fool Black Siren. And Cisco reveals some new powers and has several ominous vibes, the last of which shows Earth-2 suffering a…ahem…crisis.
In Summary
Invincible wasn’t the standout episode you might hope for out of the penultimate season two offering. The Earth-2 villains were tossed in with little impact but it was still overall an enjoyable episode and one in which Cisco, in particular, shined brightly.
Grade: B