Warning: Superman & Lois season 2, episode 14
Superman & Lois season 2’s penultimate episode is making the show’s lack of Arrowverse crossovers even worse. Throughout the series, there’s been a glaring absence of Arrowverse connections. The Arrowverse is full of powerful superheroes, but none have ever fought beside Tyler Hoechlin’s Superman within the story of his own show.
So far, Superman & Lois’ biggest Arrowverse link thus far has been Arrow’s John Diggle. The character made a guest appearance in a season 1 episode and is confirmed to show up again in the season 2 finale. But as far as superhero team-ups go, Superman & Lois has limited Clark’s allies to characters from the show itself, such as Steel. Even though he lives on Earth-Prime now and should be able to call on his fellow heroes for help, that scenario has never come to pass. But since each Arrowverse show naturally has to let its characters solve their own problems, that approach has made sense – to a point.
Superman & Lois season 2, episode 14, titled “Worlds War Bizarre", drew attention to the show’s decision to avoid appearances from characters like Supergirl and Flash. There was a great sense of desperation among the main characters when it was discovered that Superman had lost his powers. Superman being out of commission has seemingly stripped the planet of its hopes of surviving Ally Allston’s plan, even though the Arrowverse boasts all sorts of heroes who could up step while Clark recovers from his current predicament. Theoretically, Supergirl and Team Flash should both be able to lend a hand, but neither was mentioned.
Considering that Earth-Prime is facing an incident that affects literally everyone on the planet, Superman & Lois season 2’s Ally Allston story certainly has the feel of a crossover-worthy event. The show only touched on how the people of Smallville are being impacted by the merging with Bizarro World, when in fact this is a catastrophe on a global scale. Clark trying to reassure a gathering of Smallville residents was striking, especially when the whole world could benefit from one of Superman’s speeches right now. After all, people all over the world must be witnessing the merging – not just his friends and family members.
What all this means is that other Arrowverse superheroes must be experiencing the same phenomena offscreen, which provides a good reason for at least some of them to be acknowledged in Superman & Lois or for the event to be recognized on The Flash, the only other ongoing Arrowverse show. There was a time when Arrow and The Flash would periodically reference each other’s events, but it remains to be seen if Superman & Lois will ever go down the same road. Superman & Lois showrunner Todd Helbing has promised an explanation for the show’s shortage of Arrowverse connections, but what reason could possibly account for Supergirl and Team Flash not showing up to stop the merging remains a mystery for the time being.
Superman & Lois releases new episodes on Tuesdays on The CW.