Crisis of Infinite Episodes - The Death of Superman

Superman died and it was all Firestorms fault! I guess I didn't realize that killing Superman was a recurring thing, but supposedly this episode took the lead from an out of continuity comic story - though I also picked up some serious Wrath of Khan / Search for Spock vibes, what with photon funeral, secret trance, and the recovery of the undead body,

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - Escape From Space City

"The problem with building kingdoms is that they tend to get taken over." Words of wisdom from Darkseid. Not a lot redeemable about this one which may easily be the worst of what has been a surprisingly strong season - that is except for Aquaman fans as the Atlantean finally made a contribution. By this point, a robot rebellion was a little cliche even if Darkseid was involved. Its not that this was horrible, it was just boring with the team going from one modest peril to the next inside space station. On the plus side, no marriage proposals.

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - The Seeds of Doom

 After single handedly taking down a robot spider piloted by Lex Luthor, Cyborg the teenage tin man got invited to join the Super "Powers" team. Turns out that Cyborg missed being a normal guy but when he was called upon to defend the world against Darkseid, he decided being a member of the team wasn't so bad. At least it was better than living in Apokolips.

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - The Curator

The Friends faced a challenge of "monumental" proportions when an alien stole Earth's monuments including the Hall of Justice. This was actually pretty dull and pointless with Samurai once again proving the MVP where even Batman and Superman fell short. Old "Green Tornado's" combined wind and invisibility has apparently made him quite formidable. Anyways, the villain was forgettable and the plot a rehash so wouldn't you know it was time for some rejiggering.

-----
Episode Count: 0493
Series Count: (14 of 14)

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - Uncle Mxyzptlk

After red kryptonite exposure turned Superman into "Superbrat," the Friends had to babysit when who would you know showed up? Uncle Mxy. Overall this was pretty unremarkable except I got quite angry that Jayna chose to turn into a giant T-Rex. How many times in the past would that have come in handy and yet she always turned into an octopus or eagle. This time, she played her T-Rex card to capture a runaway giraffe? If I were in charge, that along would earn her expulsion from the team. Nevermind the fact that the Twins were the ones that brought the red K to Supes in the first place. Bring back Marvin and Wendy.

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - Reflections In Crime

Something I learned in this episode, the 6th dimension is the land behind mirrors (but what is the 5th? the land of Mxyzptlk?). In spite of the somewhat hokey concept of the mirror dimension, this was a pretty fun adventure with mirrors being basically deadly. And of course a Hall of Mirrors came into play. This was also the first appearance of the Flash rogue Mirror Master. Its a shame there was no Flash in sigh - though I admit, Samurai's invisibility is a good counter to Mirror Masters dangerous reflections. So far, this season has been a hit, can it go 4 for 4?

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - The Video Victims

 Me am always love Bizarro (try and decode that statement :) ) The truth is, having the Friends trapped in a video game was a fun, if not original idea. And man, those graphics were pretty rocking for the 80's! It was nearly "game over" for the Friends after being thrust into the worlds of Asteroids and Pac-Man! Wugga-wugga. This one wasn't great, but after the past several episodes, I will take decent over terrible any day.

-----
Episode Count: 0461
Series Count: (63 of 66)

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - Day of the Dinosaurs

This one started with Samurai checking out Wonder Woman's mysterious crack - which wasn't all that interesting until dinosaurs started coming out of it. We got clashes with a t-rex, triceroptops, and... Morlocks? This was basically a ripoff of the Time Machine as the super duo next met up with an "enlightened" species of weirdos. Surprise! The Morlocks were the good guys and I learned a valuable lesson about prejudice. This was a decent Samurai showcase for his fan club of 10, but this series has long since grown stale.

-----
Episode Count: 0449
Series Count: (51 of 66)

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - The Warlord's Amulet

 

Samurai vs an army of time traveling ghost warriors... now you're talking. In spite of a promising premise, this one was actually awfully dull. Also, if you want to travel through time to conquer Earth, you would think going back in time would be more strategic that trying to conquer a more advanced future. Then again, if you go back in time you could end up being your own grandfather and no one needs that kind of paradox.

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - The Termites From Venus

Oh boy, this was truly dreadful. The giant insects trope is already one that I find to be lame and nerve gas spewing space bugs isn't any better. The worst part of the episode was that the heroes were really beat up a lot by the nearly invincible swarm and Earth nearly destroyed but in the end, Samurai saved the day with a tornado. I basically hate this episode.

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - Journey Into Blackness

Black holes are always fun, especially those lined with Kryptonite. After Superman and Batman failed to destroy the black hole, Earth got sucked into another dimension. As if that level of incompetence wasn't enough, when confronted by a "star creature" Batman tried to stop him with duct tape. Fortunately, Samurai was also along to destroy the black hole with a single sword swipe. There was just so much wrong with this episode including the end where Superman pushed the Earth back into orbit without even a strain. This was just plain lazy.

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - Attack of the Killer Bees

In the spirit of full disclosure I fell asleep within 30 seconds of finishing this one and so my recollection is a little foggy.

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - Volcano

This episode marked the onscreen debut of Samurai, the wind-based, ethnically diverse sub-in for Red Tornado.