The Ultimate Superheroines Forum

So, the next-to-last superhero show to probably run on the CW before Nexstar cuts off all the Paramount/Warner superhero progrmaming
is the 9th and final season of the Flash (only another season of 'Superman and Lois' may run later than that) in what looks like 2023.
No date announced yet, it just says "early 2023" for now.

While it will be proper to bump up this thread once that show begins its final run, in the meantime there is some news, both about the demise of the CW as a whole, and specific occurrences in Flash Season 9.

Here we have an article which outlines how The CW was one of the biggest money losers in television history. It never made a profit since its founding in 2006, despite having some relatively well-watched hit shows, from Supernatural to Vampire Diaries to Arrow. In the end, it wound up losing $2 for every dollar that it generated - one of the biggest failures, and as it delivered more and more examples of ham-fisted social messaging in the past few years and lost more and more money, it became almost emblematic of a certain adage that shall not be uttered. Not only that, Nexstar probably wasn't very happy with the survey which confirmed that rather than being America's premier network for young people and teens, the average age of a CW viewer was actually *58* (and it could be that some of these viewers were actually leaving the TV on in the background and falling asleep! I can't even imagine the average fiftysomething viewer caring about superheroes).

https://www.cbr.com/cw-losing-2-dollars ... ar-earned/

But, for those who somehow missed the appearance of actress Javicia Leslie as the second Batwoman on her own largely unwatched series on the CW (except for the very loyal Maskripper!), never fear: Batwoman returns as a guest star on The Flash Season 9. She's like the sixth or seventh female character (with powers or not) to overshadow Grant Gustin's character and take away screen time from him on his own damn show. Ah, well.
We already said we'd forgive that because all of the actresses look so beautiful on camera, right?

But apparently, all the clamor from the writers in the former Batwoman bullpen (some of them obviously still work for the CW as writers, otherwise why would they be listened to by anyone?) has produced a need to not only give Javicia's character a "proper sendoff" (did anyone else other than these writers care if she got a 'sendoff'? probably not), but also to have her portray a SECOND "mystery character" in Flash Season 9: Red Death.

In the DC Comics, "Red Death" is a character which is Batman fused with Flash, from another universe. So, not only will Javicia become yet *another* speedster in the vast family of speedsters who are not-the-Flash (they've hardly forgotten anyone, in their mad rush to include as many speedster appearances as possible) but Javicia will end her CW career as a double-flipped version of a character from DC Comics (both race and sex). And there's someone here who still doesn't think this is a particularly progressive network?

https://screenrant.com/batwoman-javicia ... -response/

It's also a minor mystery to me what making Chillblaine (John Cor) a regular cast member in the final Flash season is going to do for anyone, other than give him a steady job. Is there a point in having TWO ice-powered characters on the same show? (Or has Danielle Panabaker lost her ice powers after being brought back from the dead? I forget, actually). All I know is that in the previous season, he was crazy enough in love with her (and why not? Killer Frost was super hot) to resurrect her, so there better be some sexy times ahead if they know what's good for them.

OK, that brings us up to date on Flash Season 9 developments. See you in this thread when it actually comes out.

Nobody's checking out this final season of The Flash? OK then.

I ploughed through the first five episodes. Anyone have any comments on them?
I'm really not liking a whole bunch of aspects of the current storyline, but I have my biases. Here are some of my many issues:

-No love affair between Chillblaine (Mark) and Frost. Just Mark pining endlessly, constantly switching sides, and Panabaker plays a lame pale imitation of her character for several f'ing weeks.

- The Red Death is indeed a double flipped version of a character from the 'Metal' version of a Batman comic book from as recently as 2017. They couldn't find any more actual Flash stories to draw from in over 60 years of the history of the character? So all they could think of doing is drawing someone in from another timeline...but didn't the Crisis merge all of the timelines? (Whoops!)

- Three old Rogues from Arrow and Flash recycled and played by new actors? Again, they couldn't think of anyone new from the comics.

- Joe West, the strong cop who was a role model for both Iris and Barry, acts like a quivering sensitive blob most of the time.

- Who is the most powerful? Who ultimately saves the day? Cecile and Batwoman.
(and it also looks like they felt bad that Javicia Leslie lost her job and wanted to give her something to do in order not to look bad)

Anyone find these episodes more interesting and coherent than I did? Practically the only thing I enjoyed was that somehow they made the actress who played Allegra look more beautiful with some nice makeup. She's finally very attractive, but still, neither she nor Cecile have a costume.

That's about it.

I lost interest last season and will probably only watch the Legends of Tomorrow episode since that got canceled after introducing Booster Gold.

It has so any stories to choose from and kept failing. Instead of angsty teens they made them angsty adults.

Yeah, still watching it... was exciting that Batwoman had her appearance to get at least some closure from the abrupt ending of the Batwoman show.
Made a post about her appearance (incl. a video):
https://maskripper.org/the-flash-red-death-and-batwoman

Despite that, I am still watching the show... it's the final season so I won't jump off now even though most episodes now are quite... boring/uninteresting.
Too many people with powers, too many weird powers. Also really bad how frigid the show has become.
In the early season, Iris had some great outfits with skirts, dresses, boots and so on. And now... nothing.
The other women here as well. The "sexiest" outfit that is seemingly allowed is jeans + ankle boots.
But well, perhaps some masked women may appear in the rest of the season, that is motivation enough for me to keep watching.
Hope the season will have an episode or two more ...that will be somehow memorable.

Visitor wrote: ↑

3 years ago

I lost interest last season and will probably only watch the Legends of Tomorrow episode since that got canceled after introducing Booster Gold.
It has so any stories to choose from and kept failing. Instead of angsty teens they made them angsty adults.

Yes, looks like they're wrapping up by concentrating mostly on Barry/Iris.

Besides the Legends returning for the final Flash installment* (Episode 13), they've got Green Arrow, Spartan and Dreamer coming in from the other shows, and characters like Bloodwork, XS, Hazard, Kid Flash, Reverse Flash and Zoom all coming back.

It's one big memberberry bush. Which is OK on a show like Picard Season 3 where everyone is absolute f'ing legends, but not so much on The Flash, where most viewers never got attached to many of these characters in the first place, since they came and went with such frequency, or were tossed in for equity reasons.

Which leads me to one thought: Why didn't they make Roy G. Bivolo (freakin' Rainbow Raider) gay? Too obvious maybe?

* I read that originally they were going to use The Flash to wrap up all the Legends storyline which was left on a cliffhanger, and give Booster another appearance. But when it was revealed that Season 9 would only be 13 episodes instead of 20, they didn't have time to fit it all in.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Addendum, which I'm putting here, since nobody has made a Legends of Tomorrow season thread in quite a while, and the show's over:

By the way, I went back to watch the Legends Season 7 finale, which I never got to see. Horror of horrors: all the Legends of Tomorrow content has been scrubbed from the CW streaming site. ALL OF IT. Aren't the actors pissed about this? Where did the content go? Is it on HBO now, or some other platform? (Luckily, I found an entire archive of Legends on the waves and was easily able to watch S7 E13 without any commercial interruptions!)

As for the big Legends finale..well, we just can't get through it without a bunch of cringe.
The introduction of Donald Faison as "Booster Gold" (although he only reveals himself as that, right at the end) is terrible.

And there's a whole Sara and Ava planning to have a baby subplot where they accidentally engage in parthenogenesis.
Pregnancy by kissing? And Sara's invulnerability gets transferred to the baby *while she is pregnant*? It's cringe.

I'm still not happy about the show being scrubbed from existence, but a terrible finale like this doesn't help.
And of course, the massive cliffhanger which affects everyone in the cast.

No wonder they wanted more resolution time on The Flash!

Watched Season 9 Episode 6 - The Good, the Bad, and the Lucky.

Like I said, they've apparently run out of stories and any ability to introduce new villains, so once, here's a repeat:
Becky Sharpe aka Hazard, with her luck powers. We do get to see her in her casino-dealer uniform again, which is sexy.

But overall, this situation is pretty bad. There are two dudes crying like babies (both Joe and Mark).
And there isn't so much a plot as there is a series of situations which allow the female characters to look 'badass', interspersed with a
constant series of mutual affirmations.

Starting with the previous episode, where Chuck tells Batwoman that her "badassery" is off the scale.
But that's only the tip of the iceberg compared to Episode 6, where...

- Allegra tells Cecile "you're the hero Team Flash needs right now", convincing her to stay in Central City to help the team instead of moving to the countryside with ultra-domesticated Joe.

- Allegra tells Cecile "you're a superwoman."

- Cecile tells the bad guys "the superwoman is back."

- Becky tells Allegra and Cecile "we are three badass bitches."

- Cecile tells Becky and Allegra "we do make a great team."

- Allegra tells Chuck that Cecile "became her usual badass self."

- And just for good measure, Allegra tells Chuck "you're a genius."

And every single one of these quotes are interspersed in a bunch of different scenes. This is just relentlessly poor writing.

The final straw is there isn't really any combat displayed by the superpowered women who dominate the episode (Flash and Iris are barely in it - they leave right at the beginning of the story), or hardly any real meta-power usage, either. Instead, they defeat a bunch of bumbling gunsels with the use of "luck".

I think this is pretty much what we have to look forward to for the final season, which is already half over, and we're not even going to see any of these "badass" women in any tight, shiny or colorful costumes. I'm doubting that Panabaker (who now plays 'Khione') will be back in costume, either.
Which probably means there'll be no masked women, either, I'm sorry to say, Maskripper. (I hope I'm wrong!)

It's a disappointing way to end the legacy of a long-running series starring one of the five most iconic characters in the DC Universe.

Don't watch Episode 7. It's a bottle where almost nothing happens, and there's no antagonist whatsoever, just a voyage of self-discovery and affirmation. The episode exists to give Nicole Maines (Dreamer / Nia Nal) one more gig in the Arrowverse, just like a couple episodes ago did for Javicia Leslie (Batwoman). If you think I'm exaggerating, look at all the affirmations heaped upon Iris by everyone around her:

"great managing"
"congratulations Miss Pulitzer"
"you're incredible"
"you're unstoppable"
"hey boss"
"you're always on the right path"
"we are two badass smart women"

That's pretty much what the purpose of this show is at this point (at least, the filler episodes in the middle of the season).
Then, finally, Mark/Chillblaine, a useless character, leaves the cast. He wasn't there for any reason anyway. And Barry does almost nothing.

The final straw is the "original Dreamer" at the very beginning of Nia's Naltorian lineage is revealed. I will give one guess as to what this Original Dreamer looks like.

Skip it.

After a month break, we're back to Flash episodes with Episodes 8 and 9.

Truthfully, I thought this was going to be another skippable go-nowhere snoozefest.
And for the first half, it definitely was: some kind of time travel crime mystery focusing only on Barry and Iris, which
isn't necessarily a bad thing, except that the four guest actors either didn't really have any good lines or were very one-dimensional.

Then, it happened. A SEXY TRANSFORMATION.
One of the four technicians who came to "inspect" STAR Labs for mold was a plain-looking Chinese woman in a business suit.
As Mr and Mrs Flash discover her ruse, she drops her mundane disguise and transforms into the super-sexy time thief Lady Chronos
(a supervillainess mainly used in comics about the Asian version of The Atom, Ryan Choi - she's one of his implacable enemies).

Yes, this is a full-on nerd-to-hot transformation that you can snip out and play over and over if you want, even post on DeviantArt.
I don't quite have the patience for that, but I did pick out four stills which clearly show the attractiveness of this character,
portrayed quite sexily by Canadian actress Diana Bang (apparently, hotties like her grow on trees in Vancouver).

Bangable, like her name? Yes, quite. Gotta compliment the costume and makeup department. Her face is gorgeous, and she's got the tightest
costume on the series since last season's speedstress Fast Track. Also, for some of the action, she's wearing a mysterious cloak, which enables the camera to offer gradual glimpses of her costume underneath before it's finally revealed. This is smart on the part of whomever directed the episode: Sarah Tarkoff, a veteran of writing many CW shows.

So, I gotta say - sure its gets a bit annoying that the Flash series is utterly dominated by its female characters, but it's hard to really complain when every single one of them is gorgeous. We see a lot of Allegra, too, in this episode, as she grows ever closer to her boyfriend Chester. But still, after al this time, no tight costume on that actress. Oh well.

When "Inspector Tao" first transforms into her superhuman persona, she sweeps her cloak around quite sexily.
Here's a closeup of the character's beautiful face. Very alluring makeup on this one. Is it a "mask"? Ask the Maskripper. Hopefully he'll have the sense to feature this episode on his blog.
Wide angle shot of the costume of Lady Chronos.
Midrange shot of her with the Time McGuffin, or whatever it's called.
Then as Lady Chronos is about to leave through a time portal, we get a final sexy walking sequence. It's here that we notice a compromise in the costuming department - sure, they want her to look hot, but the crotches of their suits are obviously designed differently from the ones in superheroine fetish videos. Normally in a DIY video, the spandex would be tight enough that you'd see the V-shape of the crotch or even a cameltoe. It would draw the eye of the 'male gaze' (or the rare lesbian).
But not here. As with other similar suits on these shows, there's a horizontal crease across the nether region which becomes evident when the actress walks. That means that it was tailored loosely enough to allow that to happen. Call it "woke crotch syndrome" if you like, and the purpose
might *claim* to offer comfort for the actress playing the part, but the effect of the design is clearly to push the eye away the moment you see the crease.

Speaking of "eyes", if you notice closely, you'll see that Candace Patton is clearly checking out Diana Bang's tight ass as she is walking away.
From a couple other angles during that scene, you can see that the costumer definitely didn't mind showcasing the character's cute butt.

Well, anyway, that's my two cents.

This episode is definitely worth stopping and taking a look, and probably grabbing some stills as well. Just don't expect anything interesting to happen until a half-hour in.

----------------------------------------

Same thing applies to Episode 9. All the important stuff happens in the second half, because the first part is Barry's birthday party.
Bloodwork breaks out of Argus and threatens the city, but I've never been impressed by the performance of that actor - it's like watching
my doctor express his love for comic books. (This actually happened when we rented a doctor's office for a scene in Heroineburgh, and I discovered that he was a big fan of Witchblade.)

Not much in the way of sexy, except for Candace's unexpected boob window. Enjoy her luscious cleavage in that purple dress.

But the big deal here is that Oliver Queen returns, both as the universe-supervising godlike Spectre (sorry, they were too lazy to design a costume and hooded cape for him for just one episode, I guess) and a sequence of earthly action as Green Arrow regaining his legendary bow.
It's good to see Stephen Amell back for one final appearance, plus all of the memberberries.

Also, it's revealed in this episode that the DC multiverse is back (although on a different network, we already saw this on Titans when Gar traveled through the Red, encountering different realities and speaking with Grant Morrison). I don't know if they'll capitalize on that idea now that the CW shows are all ending, but maybe it'll pop up on some HBO content again.

Spartan (Diggle) also returns in this episode, as Oliver makes a quip about his "Brightest Days" being ahead of him with his wife Lila and their family.
Diggle had earlier rejected the powers of Green Lantern - get it?

If you're a longtime Arrowverse fanatic, you'll want to see at least the second half of this episode for some nice closure.

The final four episodes of The Flash run, compiled into one last "graphic novel" arc, have been convoluted as fuck, and generally abominable.

Barry's lost in time, or another dimension, and then he comes back. The mystery of who Eddie Thawne really is (in the end, his fake name "Malcolm" provides the clue, if you deep-dive into the Flash's vast cast of speedsters from the comics) stretches out for four episodes, but what viewer really cares about the story arc of Eddie Thawne? I don't see anyone getting excited.

Spoiler

Big revelation - Eddie is COBALT BLUE! What? You have no idea who that is? Neither did I. I'm sure almost nobody does.

From what I understand, the problem with the Flash for the past few seasons has been the showrunner Eric Wallace, who took total control by Season 5 after working his way up as a main writer. Let's put it plainly: he has an agenda, and has been implementing it, almost as heavy-handedly as in Supergirl (the show everyone always complains about), but Wallace gets away with it and not a whole lot of people have said anything.

One part of the agenda is to make sure that women always dominate the cast, and are usually worshipped like goddesses, praised to the high heavens for their intrinsic awesomeness.

This is true even in the final episode, where:

Spoiler

- Iris gets kudos for having a baby and winning a Pulitzer at the same time.
- Nora defeats one of the evil speedsters even after getting stabbed fatally through the middle of her body, and then somehow gets to stick around
cradling herself as a baby without harming the timeline.
- Joe, the hard-nosed cop from the beginning of the series, blathers about "three special women" in his life, and then gets down on his knees and worships (i.e., proposes to) Cecile. She even gets him a pillow so he doesn't hurt his old knees.
- Cecile is clearly shown to be ultra-powerful and essentially unbeatable. She can defeat a speedster god without any peril whatsoever. It's super easy, barely an inconvenience.
- Allegra's presence essentially "resurrects" her boyfriend (yes, I know they come up with a reason, but the scene has that kind of symbolism).
- Mark's bad boy attitude is completely tamed and reformed - apparently all he needed was a roomful of women to fix him.
- Khione literally ascends and *becomes* a goddess, as if Wallace needed to drive the point home anymore. She is cool as a cucumber in maintaining the balance of the universe, while Barry is a distraught man who yells at people and has to be guided and calmed by the almighty Goddess.

This isn't The Flash from the comics.

The reason not a lot of people complain about this is because all of the female cast members are insanely beautiful. That softens the effect.
The average viewer looks at them with awe, and forgets that Wallace has a purpose and a message behind this. He's pretty sneaky that way.

The other part of the agenda is Wallace's relentless DEI. (There are other ways to describe it, sure, but that's what it is)

By the end of the Flash run, he has committed three gingercides (Wally, Cecile, Iris) which might be a record for any single show.
And he never stops virtue signaling, even in the final five minutes.

True, it's insanely encyclopedic how many characters from the Flash comics he has been able to include in the show over the years, and that's not inherently a bad thing, even if keeping track of all of it gets overwhelming.
[Note: in comparison, Superman and Lois doesn't do this. It focuses on a few characters and develops them tightly.]
All of the Easter Egged characters could be quite fun, if its was just about comic book shoutouts. But it's not - most of it serves the agenda.

How does he express this agenda most clearly?
Well, the closest thing to an embodiment of it is Khione. In this final episode, she actually says that people need to "coexist" and "believe in the impossible". Sure, that's 90s California bumper sticker-speak for what eventually became 'woke', but it's quite clear that the goddess proposes the philosophy, and then Barry implements it.

The show already has the diversity and the inclusion, now all it needs is the equity (a word for essentially giving away power to others who intrinsically deserve it more due to their immutable characteristics. No, it doesn't mean charity.).

So, once Khione tells him how the world needs to be changed, Barry does it by "giving his power" to three characters in the Flash universe who represent 'marginalized communities' in our real-world sense.

He just throws his lightning up in the air, and it lands on Avery Ho (the Chinese flash), Max Mercury (a Golden Age character), and Jess Chambers aka Kid Quick (the brand-new nonbinary speedster who is an alternate version of Jesse Quick from DC's recent Future State initiative). Although the original Max Mercury was just a white savior guy who was *given* speed powers randomly by an Indian shaman, this version of Max actually is a Native American (an actor who you may have seen in 'Resident Alien' - he doesn't get a chance to say anything, just to 'represent').

Despite his vain hopes about the Arrowverse continuing (there have been several online articles about this in the past week) and thus keeping the finale open-ended (Team Flash continues to exist, with more or less a full roster) Wallace knows his time in this sandbox is done: Nexstar isn't paying for any more of this overpriced bullshit. But Wallace just can't resist continuing to push his mission, even in the last few minutes of a nine-season run.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All that being said (whew), and you're welcome to argue about it as long as you stay away from ad hominems (please)
there are some nice sexy moments in the Flash series finale.

Although, somebody tell me why it's at all cost-effective to design three new costumes (Khione, Cecile, Allegra) which are only used for one damn episode. How does that even make sense?

First of all, Maskripper is probably going to want to blog this episode, due to its masked female content (Nora and Cecile).

Plus, there is one incident of female peril.
Nora is throatlifted by Savitar (there are three different angles of this) and then shishkabobbed.
Cecile gets a full costume and becomes "Virtue". Yes, she is literally a human Virtue Signal. Wallace isn't at all subtle about this one.
No she never became a costumed heroine in the comics, and in fact, here is what Cecile Horton actually looks like in the comics.
Nonetheless, over the past couple seasons, we have had many opportunities to see actress Danielle Nicollet in tight clothing. Eric Wallace really loves to let the camera linger on her ass, and I haven't heard anyone complain.

So, naturally, he takes the opportunity to pour her into the tightest costume he can manage. How tight? Well, it doesn't have the telltale "horizontal folds" on the crotch, which means that there was no modesty to be considered - it was tailor made for her sexy body.

And she looks amazing in it. Plus Maskripper has some nice fuel for his blog. You'll cover this episode, right, sir?

Meanwhile, Allegra's costume (the one we've been waiting for, literally for years) is not as effective.

It's a drab black number looking like a poor man's Black Widow (some might it's pretty close to Jessica Alba's Dark Angel) with the only real highlights being that she steps up her hair and makeup game while in the suit (a la Kara Danvers, it's part of the superheroine fantasy, even for an enlightened guy like Wallace, for her superpowered version to look hotter).

Plus, she has some nice high-heeled boots, and it's cool to see some close-ups of her shiny gloves. But that's about it.

She's also shown to have incredible range and power in her microwave assaults.
Chuck kisses Allegra in the suit, and the camera does the usual romantic thing where it lingers around the lovers in 360-degree coverage.
Wallace lets us live vicariously through Chuck so we can imagine wrapping our arms around a beautiful superheroine in a tight sexy costume.
I'll give him that. You can tell finally that Wallace loves the ladies and that Chuck is, at least to some extent, a self-insert.
Sorry, but Khione's costume isn't really worth mentioning. It's a black coat, with a few blue streaks in her hair. That's it.

That's pretty much a wrap for this final Flash thread, unless some kind of exciting surprise development takes place. It's been real.

Loved the finale. Nonstop action. It was a wonderful series.

shevek wrote: ↑

3 years ago

Watched Season 9 Episode 6 - The Good, the Bad, and the Lucky.

Like I said, they've apparently run out of stories and any ability to introduce new villains, so once, here's a repeat:
Becky Sharpe aka Hazard, with her luck powers. We do get to see her in her casino-dealer uniform again, which is sexy.

But overall, this situation is pretty bad. There are two dudes crying like babies (both Joe and Mark).
And there isn't so much a plot as there is a series of situations which allow the female characters to look 'badass', interspersed with a
constant series of mutual affirmations.

Starting with the previous episode, where Chuck tells Batwoman that her "badassery" is off the scale.
But that's only the tip of the iceberg compared to Episode 6, where...

- Allegra tells Cecile "you're the hero Team Flash needs right now", convincing her to stay in Central City to help the team instead of moving to the countryside with ultra-domesticated Joe.

- Allegra tells Cecile "you're a superwoman."

- Cecile tells the bad guys "the superwoman is back."

- Becky tells Allegra and Cecile "we are three badass bitches."

- Cecile tells Becky and Allegra "we do make a great team."

- Allegra tells Chuck that Cecile "became her usual badass self."

- And just for good measure, Allegra tells Chuck "you're a genius."

And every single one of these quotes are interspersed in a bunch of different scenes. This is just relentlessly poor writing.

The final straw is there isn't really any combat displayed by the superpowered women who dominate the episode (Flash and Iris are barely in it - they leave right at the beginning of the story), or hardly any real meta-power usage, either. Instead, they defeat a bunch of bumbling gunsels with the use of "luck".

I think this is pretty much what we have to look forward to for the final season, which is already half over, and we're not even going to see any of these "badass" women in any tight, shiny or colorful costumes. I'm doubting that Panabaker (who now plays 'Khione') will be back in costume, either.
Which probably means there'll be no masked women, either, I'm sorry to say, Maskripper. (I hope I'm wrong!)

It's a disappointing way to end the legacy of a long-running series starring one of the five most iconic characters in the DC Universe.

They should have brought back,

Mark Hamill as The Trickster.