The Flash – Armageddon Pt 2 review S8 E2

While it’s been entertaining enough so far, Armageddon Part 2 suggested a major part of this mini-event will rely on Barry once again acting like a cluelessly naïve hero.

Team Flash is on high alert for any circumstance that could possibly be the trigger that turns Barry mad enough to destroy Central City, per Despero’s warning. Since this is an issue isolated to Barry it seems like one approach would be to call in Flash’s allies. What’s the harm in letting Killer Frost, Vibe, Supergirl, Martian Manhunter, Spartan, Atom, Ninja Sue or even his kids/not kids Nora and Bart? Or the force heroes we spent all last year developing?

Instead, Barry rushes off to a crime scene where a CCPD officer has reportedly gone mad. Yep. Not the best decision, Barry. That doesn’t matter since Kristen Kramer (where’s Joe again?) tells Barry he’s been suspended for allegedly collaborating with Joseph Carver. Yeah, let’s not revisit anything from the Mirror Monarch season again, OK? 

At seemingly every turn, Despero pops up like the least discreet super stalker ever. While he may be suspended, Barry still decides to visit the affected officer at the hospital. The nearly comatose officer offers up a name — Xotar. 

No time to follow up on that though as some environmental agency at Central City is here to shut STAR Labs down over a massive radiation leak. Apparently there was some legislation created four years ago but has never been called upon despite every year some craziness going down at STAR Labs. That legislation makes sense, but all the timing of this is starting to make Armageddon feel like a pretty awful nightmare for Barry than something actually playing out in reality.

MORE:

• DC Comics reviews 11/23/21 – DC vs Vampires #2, The Flash #776
• Masters of the Universe: Revelation part 2 review
• Mattel reveals WWE Elite 91, Top Pick The Rock

While the officials are confused by Gideon’s holograms, it insists Barry destroy her to preserve all of Team Flash’s secrets. What would those be exactly since Barry is revealing his secret identity to another 5% of Central City’s population on a daily basis?

Despero pops in again to remind Barry he’s watching (while becoming an exhausting foil/adversary who can apparently just threaten menacingly). 

Despite knowing exactly what’s at stake and the potential consequences, Flash races off to stop Xotar (Kandyse McClure, Love, Guaranteed). Shockingly the meta with psychic powers doesn’t sit still and let Barry beat her.

Instead, Flash finds himself facing off with Team Flash. Was there some reason he’d attack a psychic meta without psychic prevention? Did Barry learn anything from The Thinker?

It takes more than dumbing down the hero to make for a good villain, but this episode also seemed intent on justifying Despero’s actions instead of painting him as (gasp) a bad guy. We’re reaching a point here where all villains are just a darker shade of grey and their worst actions can get smoothed over with a tragic backstory.  

In Despero’s case, his home world was destroyed thanks to him showing mercy on a villain. His entire population was wiped out and he was sent to Earth with another chance to save a widespread extinction level event. 

This is the curse of characters like Magneto, Harley Quinn, Deadpool, Juggernaut, Venom, Poison Ivy, Deathstroke, etc. When writers get so invested in the bad guy there’s this weird need to make them understandable enough that they ultimately get portrayed as heroes. That The Flash is taking a classic longtime villain like Despero and essentially making his plans to kill Barry a mission for the greater good makes it feel like the writers are missing the point of the character. 

Chester’s tragic backstory stems from emulating Marvin the Martian’s ray gun was much better than the cliché of the black guy seeing a family member/friend getting gunned down, but it still felt overly dramatic even for The Flash. It was corny, but it allowed for some nice interaction with Chester and Allegra. 

For the rematch, Barry is able to stop Xotar with little trouble, but he seems to have forgotten a major event — Joe died six months ago. Yikes. And now news footage reveals The Flash attacking Central City. That’s all Despero needs to crash through on attack mode. Thankfully, Chester whipped up a device capable of saving Barry (one time) from Despero’s attack.

With concern mounting that he’s actually losing his mind, Barry goes to the one place he can find sanctity — the Hall of Justice. But he’s not alone. Black Lightning is there and ready to help crack the case. Too bad Alex tells the others Supergirl and Martian Manhunter are off planet. Maybe Superman is free? He’d be a somewhat handy guy to have around in a situation of this nature. 

There’s some logistical issues working against Armageddon early on, but it’s been entertaining thanks to the mystery of Barry’s mental well being and the influx of super hero cameos.

And I’m always intrigued with the idea of Black Lightning teaming up with other CW Verse heroes. 

Rating: 8 out of 10

Photo Credit: The CW

Check out the Armageddon series that inspired (?) this event, or at least the title, now on Amazon. 

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.