TITLE: The Flash Crossover Crisis: Green Arrow’s Perfect Shot
YEAR: August 2019
COMPANY: Amulet Books
By Barry Lyga
When the Green Arrow needs help tracking down a sinister bomber in Star City, speedster Barry Allen is out the door in a flash. But as The Flash saves the day with his friends on Team Arrow, a huge dimensional rift appears over his hometown of Central City—and thousands of refugees with superspeed come pouring out. Can the combined skills of Team Arrow and The Flash’s friends at S.T.A.R. Labs manage the chaos long enough to stop the rift from tearing their universe apart? This exciting first installment in the new crossover trilogy promises to be one of the most action-packed reads of the season. Supergirl, Superman, and the heroes from DC’s Legends of Tomorrow will be joining in on the fun in books two and three of this can’t-miss trilogy.
Author Barry Lyga is known for his novels from “I Hunt Killers”, “Game”, “MARVEL’S Avengers: Infinity War: Thanos: Titan Consumed” and also the “The Flash” novels inspired by the CW television series.
Since 2017, Lyga has written “The Flash: Hocus Pocus”, “The Flash: Johnny Quick” and “The Flash: The Tornado Twins”.
The first featuring a timeline in which Flashpoint never happened and a villain called Hocus Pocus takes control of protagonist Barry Allen (The Flash).
The second featuring the Flash in Earth 27 and coming into contact with the Crime Syndicate and the villainous speedster, Johnny Quick.
While the third concludes the Hocus Pocus storyline and features the team taking on Earthworm.
With the fourth book of the scarlet speedster, “The Flash Crossover Crisis: Green Arrow’s Perfect Shot” features the crossover featuring The Flash, Green Arrow and the Legends of Tomorrow.
It is important to note that I’m reviewing the novel provided to me by Amulet Books.
The novel begins with Madame Xanadu and she is in bad shape. As Barry touches her, he is able to see all 52 Multiverses and one with a blood red sky and black lightning.
Barry realizes that Madame Xanadu is connected to every version of herself in the Multiverse and they each have each other’s memories and experience each other’s reality.
But in one of the Multiverses, Madame Xanadu has died and the Madame Xanadu that Barry is with tells him “He’s Coming”.
As Barry connects with Oliver, a dimensional breach from Earth-27 to Earth 1 is happening in the middle of Star City and Speedsters are everywhere. But not just the Speedsters, the Crime Syndicate are back!
Who or what is causing this dimensional breach?
Before I go into this review, it’s important for me to explain to the comic book fan and the Arrowverse fans that in the comic books, the Crime Syndicate are of Earth-3, in the novels inspired by the CW Series aka Arrowverse, the Crime Syndicate are from Earth-27.
Nevertheless the premise is the same, in that world, the good heroes that we know of, are evil. And the evil villains are the heroes. It’s the exact opposite.
Ultraman, Superwoman, Johnny Quick (Johnny Allen in the comics, in the Arrowverse – Eddie Thawne), Power Ring and Owlman.
In the second novel of the “The Flash”, it featured Earth-1’s Flash taking on Earth-27’s Johnny Quick and establishing the Crime Syndicate in the Arrowverse.
With this fourth book, it’s great to have the various heroes in a major crossover.
Similar to the comic books, the different multiverse provided exciting storylines but also some confusion for fans. In the Arrowverse, Arrow, The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow are of Earth-1, Kara (Supergirl) is from Earth-38.
In the TV series, the “Crisis on Earth-X” crossover was no doubt one of the coolest crossovers to watch on television and to see characters from “Arrow”, “The Flash”, “Supergirl” and “Legends of Tomorrow” all working together to take on an evil Arrow known as Dark Arrow, an evil Supergirl known as Overgirl and Eobard Thawne (known to comic fans as Reverse-Flash).
And here we are, another crossover with a fight against the strongest, evil superhero group from Earth-27, Crime Syndicate.
And for comic book fans, anytime the Crime Syndicate showed up in the comics, you knew you were in for a cool fight between the Justice League and their evil opposite.
But here we are with a story by Barry Lyga, bringing the fight to Star City, as the heroes of the Arrowverse must now take on the Crime Syndicate. But there is a little twist, because as the Dimensional Rift opens up, the Crime Syndicate members are actually fighting each other.
But as there are multiverse, there is also an antiverse and while there is no Earth in the antiverse, who from the antiverse has opened that dimensional breach and how will his presence affect other planets and worlds? Who is this evil that has created problems in multiple worlds?
And I’ll leave it at that.
Overall, this is an exciting book for those who have read Lyga’s previous books, he manages to incorporate many characters into the storyline but also does a great job of incorporating the Crime Syndicate and another villain into this first novel.
I’m guessing that this fourth book, will also be the first book of a trilogy like the previous other Flash storylines.
But the characters are well-written and if only Lyga’s storylines could be incorporated into the actual TV series, that would be magnificent.
For now, if you love the characters from the Arrowverse, then definitely give “The Flash Crossover Crisis: Green Arrow’s Perfect Shot” a try!
I definitely recommend it!