Copyright The CW
Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) and Green Arrow (Stephen Amell) swapped lives in the first two episodes of “Elseworlds,” which aired Dec. 9-11 on The CW.
Andrew A. Smith
Tribune Content Agency
Taken on its own merits, this year’s annual superhero crossover on The CW was excellent. Titled “Elseworlds,” it put familiar faces in unusual places, featured character-driven humor, introduced several fascinating new characters and wrapped with an intriguing mystery.
Then it turned out to be a prologue.
“Worlds will live, worlds will die” muttered the Psycho-Pirate, from a darkened cell in Arkham Asylum, at the end of the last episode. “And the universe will never be the same.”
Those words are chillingly familiar to longtime comics fans. They were the tagline for the most famous crossover in DC Comics history, its most legendary – and lethal – storyline. Before the audience had a chance to process any possibilities, the point was hammered home:
“Coming Fall 2019: Crisis on Infinite Earths.”
Oh boy. Published in 1985-86, Crisis on Infinite Earths was a 12-issue maxiseries that crossed over into every single superhero title DC published at the time (which was a lot). Discounting Secret Wars and Super Powers – two earlier, major crossover events designed primarily to sell toys – Crisis was the first linewide, story-driven, everybody-into-the-pool crossover, setting a standard that pertains (and is copied) to this day.
But naming next year’s CW crossover “Crisis on Infinite Earths” doesn’t tell comics fans (or anyone else) exactly what’s coming. It creates a Crisis of Infinite Possibilities instead.
Although some of it is a gimmie. In Crisis, the Big Bad was a bruiser named The Anti-Monitor, the evil counterpart of Mar Novu/The Monitor, from a universe composed entirely of antimatter. His chief henchman was Roger “Psycho-Pirate” Hayden, who wears a gold mask that manipulates emotions. The Anti-Monitor’s approach was marked by red skies and lightning storms.
“Elseworlds” gives us all of that. Those atmospheric conditions follow out trio of heroes – Barry Allen, Oliver Queen and Kara Zor-El – throughout the crossover. Both The Monitor and the Psycho-Pirate make their debuts.
And The Monitor seems to establish our villain as well. “a Crisis is coming,” he ominously intones. “Someone is coming, someone far, far more powerful than myself.”
Copyright The CW
The Monitor (LaMonica Garrett) made his debut in "Elseworlds," and will be a major player in next year's "Crisis on Infinite Earths."
But other plot points are less clear. For example, one of the major casualties of Crisis was Barry Allen, the Flash of Earth-1. In an attempt to destroy the Anti-Monitor’s major weapon – the antimatter cannon that was destroying entire universes – the Scarlet Speedster ran so fast that he essentially transformed into sheer energy. He also, almost accidentally, found himself moving backward through time – an opportunity he used to warn his friends and the Justice League about the Crisis, although his message was somewhat garbled by space/time whoop-de-energy yadda yadda.
“Everything that’s ever mattered to me,” Flash thinks as he sacrifices his life, “everything that’s ever been important … the lives of everyone on Earth and throughout the universe … in the present, and in the future … that’s what I’m fighting for now!”
Sniff. This room got dusty all of a sudden
Art by George Perez. Copyright DC Comics Inc.
The Flash was a casualty of Crisis on Infinite Earths, as demonstrated by the cover of the “Absolute” edition. DC Comics keeps the story in print in a variety of formats.
While death is often a revolving door in comics, this one was meant to stick. Barry Allen died, and stayed dead, for more than 20 years. (Weirdly, it was later established that Flash became the lightning bolt that gave Barry Allen super-speed in The Flash’s origin story – becoming, literally, a self-made man.)
Would The CW kill off The Flash? They’ve been hinting at this very thing since the first season, when we saw a newspaper from the future proclaiming that Flash had disappeared in a Crisis. Red skies and the Psycho-Pirate are mentioned in the article. Nora West-Allen, Iris and Barry’s daughter from the future, said recently on “The Flash” that her father never reappears after the Crisis.
And we’ve seen Flash’s garbled warning twice now. The first time was in Batman v Superman, when the movie version of the Crimson Comet (Ezra Miller) tried to warn the Dark Knight of something.The Flash of Earth-90 (John Wesley Shipp) did much the same in the Dec. 9 episode of Supergirl.
But neither of those characters are *our* Flash, played by Grant Gustin. And the newspaper’s date is always 2024, which may give us some breathing space. And we’ve already seen Flash’s sacrifice in “Elseworlds,” when he and Supergirl were going so fast they appeared to be turning into energy – but Green Arrow made a deal with The Monitor to keep them alive. We don’t know the terms of that deal, but obviously Barry (and Kara) missed a bullet. Is he safe now?
Hard to say. It could be that “Elseworlds” sped up the timeline, and Crisis is arriving early. Maybe The Flash needs to be canceled to make room for Batwoman, who was also introduced in this crossover.
Copyright The CW
Kate "Batwoman" Kane made her debut in "Eleseworlds," played by Ruby Rose.
In the comics, former sidekick Wally “Kid Flash” West stepped up to fill his mentor’s boots after “Crisis.” Anybody know what Keiynan Lonsdale is doing now?
Another big death in Crisis was Kara Zor-El, who fell in a one-on-one battle with The Anti-Monitor. Like Barry Allen, Supergirl didn’t return until well into the 21st century, after several non-Kryptonian substitute versions failed. Is the Maid of Steel fated to fall?
As noted, she was given a reprieve from her “Elseworlds” death by Oliver’s deal with The Monitor. But that wasn’t the death the comics promise – which could still happen pretty much as written, once The Anti-Monitor gets here. I haven’t seen the ratings for Supergirl lately, but we have cause to worry.
Or maybe her fate will be reserved for TV’s Superman (Tyler Hoechlin). Back in 1985, Supergirl was deemed superfluous, her back story was thought to be too complicated and there was a movement afoot to eliminate all Kryptonians except the Man of Steel. At least the superfluous part applies to Superman, who keeps getting written out of Supergirl anyway. (He’s currently on Argo City indefinitely, with a pregnant Lois Lane.)
Photo: Katie Yu/The CW
All three of the main heroes of “Elseworlds” are at risk in the upcoming “Crisis on Infinite Earths.” From left: Barry “Flash” Allen (played by Grant Gustin), Oliver “Green Arrow” Queen (Stephen Amell) and Kara “Supergirl” Zor-El (Melissa Benoist).
Green Arrow shouldn’t be reading any continued stories either. Crisis didn’t kill the Oliver Queen of Earth-1 – but it did bump off the Battling Bowman of Earth-2. Given Queen’s mysterious deal with The Monitor, is Green Arrow slated for the choir invisible? They wouldn’t even have to cancel Arrow, since there are a lot of heads available to fill that green hood. Right now Oliver’s half-sister Emiko Queen is subbing for the Emerald Archer, while John “Spartan” Diggle, Thea “Speedy” Queen, Roy “Arsenal” Harper and even Slade “Deathstroke” Wilson can all handle a bow.
Or maybe no one is fated to shuffle off this mortal coil.
The purpose of Crisis in comics was to fold all the parallel earths into one. The editors had decided that having all those different universes, often populated by variants of the Earth-1 superheroes, was too confusing for new customers, and might be driving them away.
Currently The CW has the same problem. The writers have to wrestle to get all the characters in one place for crossovers and guest spots, because Batwoman, Flash, Green Arrow and the Legends of Tomorrow are all on Earth-1; Supergirl, Superman, Martian Manhunter and the Legion of Super-Heroes are on Earth-38; The Ray, Citizen Cold and the Freedom Fighters are on Earth-X; and Black Lightning, Thunder and Lightning appear to have their own universe.
Who besides geeks, nerds and columnists can keep all that straight? Maybe the purpose of TV’s “Crisis” is simply to gather all these characters on one earth, rather than dutifully follow the comics and kill off the headliners.
Or maybe they could combine all those characters into a single program. Call it something like, I dunno, “Justice League.” I think it might have potential.
Find Captain Comics by email (capncomics@aol.com), on his website (captaincomics.ning.com), on Facebook (Captain Comics Round Table) or on Twitter (@CaptainComics).
Copyright DC Comics Inc.
DC Comics created a cover for a non-existent comic book telling the Arrowverse version of "Elseworlds" because, uh ... you know, I don't really know why they bothered.
Replies
I'm certain the point is to put them all on one Earth.
Too bad it won't be in continuity with a movie-and-TV franchise that preserves Gadot Wonder Woman, Momoa Aquaman, and, maybe (I haven't seen it yet), the Teen Titans.