WHEN SUPERHERO WORLDS COLLIDE
The comics crossover trend continues when Supergirl gets a visit from the Flash,
Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s every single comic book superhero ever created comin’ atcha!
Hot on the heels of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice comes television’s latest comic book crossover. On Monday’s Supergirl (CBS and Global at 8 p.m.), The Flash’s Grant Gustin darts away from his own show and teams with Melissa Benoist for an episode titled “World’s Finest.”
The common denominator in this clash of DC Comics titans is executive producer Greg Berlanti. The busy showrunner is considered a show business superhero, juggling six series at once. Most are comic book fantasies, with Arrow and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow also produced under his watch.
“They always spoke to me when I was a kid,” says Berlanti of his lifelong comicbook obsession. Scrumming with press on the Los Angeles sound stage where Supergirl is shot, the 43-year-old New York native gave his theory as to why superheroes are everywhere.
“The technology has finally caught up to our imagination,” he says.
Berlanti also feels that “there’s a real clear distinction between the murky world we live in now” and the “good guys and bad guys” taking over screens big and small. He also feels audiences are drawn toward characters who can “overcome any kind of unforeseen obstacle.”
Still, not everybody can make a crossover episode work. Here are four things Berlanti and his co-executive producers needed to make Monday’s episode happen. Super accommodating stars Benoist, 27, is still in her rookie season and was all smiles in January as she and other cast members spoke with reporters at their Los Angeles studio.
“People were ready to see a strong female heroine,” she says, adding how humbled she is “every time a little girl comes on set” and sees her in that familiar red, yellow and blue costume.
The Texan is on her home court for the crossover. Gustin, on the other hand, had to fly to L.A. from Vancouver where he already puts in 12- to 14-hour days.
“Logistically it’s almost impossible,” Gustin said earlier this year on the Vancouver set of his series. He says the effects-heavy series is tough enough to complete on a TV schedule. The extra five or six days spent working on a crossover means Gustin will work 24 instead of 23 episodes this year.
What makes it worth it, he says, is the fan reaction. Last season, a screening of a Flash/Arrow crossover was held where fans watched both episodes on a big screen then quizzed leads Gustin and Stephen Amell. Watching what amounted to a two-hour feature film “blew their minds,” Gustin says of the fans. Super proximity Crossovers between The Flash and Arrow and even DC’s Legends of Tomorrow are made easier by the fact that all three shows are on neighbouring sound stages in Vancouver. The same is true of Chicago-based Dick Wolf dramas Chicago Fire, Chicago PD and Chicago Med.
The Supergirl/Flash crossover was trickier because of Gustin’s travel, but at least Vancouver and L.A. are in the same time zone. Super storyline While it’s sometimes hard to follow what world or parallel universe Flash is in, the character’s ability to time travel and break dimensional barriers makes him the ultimate crossover companion. On Monday’s show, Flash visits an alternative Earth and helps Supergirl out of her recent funk by taking on two bad girls: Livewire (Brit Morgan) and Siobhan Smythe, now the Silver Banshee (Richmond Hill’s Italia Ricci). The latter has a sonic scream that can crack concrete. Super synergy While Supergirl is on CBS and The Flash is on the CW, this crossover is still all in the family. Both shows are produced by Warner Bros. Television and DC Entertainment. The CW is jointly owned by Warner Bros. and CBS. Berlanti always saw crossover potential. New CBS programming boss Glenn Geller saw it too and, faster than a speeding bullet, a crossover was ordered.
The synergy is a little less super in Canada, where Global has rights to Supergirl and CTV is home to The Flash (Tuesdays at 8 p.m.). Super awkward is the fact that another DC Comics’ import, Gotham, airs opposite Supergirl on CTV. Ratings-wise, that’s the real showdown between Batman and Superman.