Sunday, March 10, 2019

Tulsa-X

This one takes a little setup to explain but I'll try to do it quickly: All the CW superhero shows (The Flash, Supergirl, etc) tend to do a major cross-over story once a year. And to enhance their superhero universe, the network's streaming service "CW Seed" airs original animated series based on some of the various shows' supporting characters.


This brings us to "Freedom Fighters: The Ray," an animated adventure starring The Ray, a superhero with light-based powers.  He was featured in live action in the 2017 cross-over story line, "Crisis on Earth-X." 

One of the conceits of the various CW superhero shows is that there are multiple Earths on which different characters live.  The majority of our heroes live on Earth 1 but in this story the gang discovers "Earth-X," a reality in which the the Nazis won World War II. 

Why am I talking about any of this?  Well, it turns out our boy The Ray lives in Tulsa!  And his movie starts off in the Earth-X version of Tulsa...or, if you will, "Tulsa-X."  Take a look at Nazi Tulsa:


Looks like the animators did a little homework for the visuals (or at least a quick Google image search) because there are a few Tulsa landmarks that are featured...starting with the Centennial Plaza area near the Arkansas River.


It's not a bad likeness but it's definitely better looking in real life (without all the swastikas).  When you think about it, it's weird that a world controlled by Nazis even has a Route 66 tribute...but that's probably one of those things that you shouldn't think about too much. 

And, as far as Tulsa landmarks go, the most famous one makes an appearance in the series as well, this time on Earth 1:



As I was watching, I didn't think for a second that the Golden Driller would make an appearance (cool stuff like that rarely ever happens for me) but after a while there he was.  It shows up in a montage where Ray (his superhero name is "The Ray" and his first name is "Ray" and, yeah, they point out how weird that is) and his boyfriend take in the sights of the town.  The guys also take in some sea life:



OK, so this one is kind of a cheat.  The boys do some shark viewing at the local aquarium which I am just going to go ahead and call the Oklahoma Aquarium in Jenks.  The scene is definitely not designed after the Tulsa area attraction but my personal head canon is that the Earth 1 Oklahoma Aquarium looks a little different from the Oklahoma Aquarium on whatever numbered Earth we live on.  But they both have sharks as you can see from the footage I got awhile back.

Aside from a a semi-accurate skyline shot or two, that's pretty much it for Oklahoma related stuff.  The rest of the story takes place in Detroit, Central City (the Flash's hometown) and Earth-X New York and involves The Ray getting the crap kicked out of him by Nazi Supergirl.  Check it out when you get a chance.



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