There's a lot about the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover spectacular that ultimately
made it a rip-roaring success, but there were plenty of awkward and inexplicable moments
as well.
Let's take a look at the five best and worst moments in Crisis On Infinite Earths.
Turning Oliver Queen into the Spectre, the universe's agent of justice and vengeance,
was a stroke of genius that many viewers never saw coming.
Episode four of Crisis On Infinite Earths had a conclusion similar to the comic.
Oliver channeled the energy of his friends, the Paragons, in order to defeat the Anti-Monitor
and restart the Big Bang.
All of that was less interesting than the smaller, character-driven moments that Spectre-Oliver
spent with his friends in that episode, as he guided them through his memories in order
for them to survive various plot contrivances.
The heart of the Arrowverse has always been Oliver Queen and Barry Allen's unlikely friendship,
as Oliver drew inspiration from Barry's love and Barry drew strength from Oliver's resolve.
The show gave them the closure they needed and deserved.
In the course of the Arrowverse, when crossovers get bigger, the story starts to make less
sense.
In episode one of Crisis, the Monitor tells the heroes that the last stand will be on
Supergirl's Earth-38.
In subsequent episodes, that gets changed to Earth-1, as he suddenly tells everyone
to find the Paragons who would help defeat the Anti-Monitor, who then shows up to destroy
everything, at which point it becomes all about defeating the Anti-Monitor at the beginning
of time.
There's a long digression during which they try to prevent the Monitor from ever traveling
through time; finally, the Anti-Monitor's first defeat doesn't quite stick, so they
need to find a new way to deal with him by sending him to the Microverse.
"Essentially we'd be sending him to the 'Atomverse.'"
"I like to call it the Microverse."
"Oh that's better.
Possible trademark issues, but that's better."
It all adds up to a crossover's worth of MacGuffins, as it was rarely clear as to what was going
on and why other than a vague sense of the universe coming to an end.
With a meandering plot and a villain who barely appeared on the screen, Crisis On Infinite
Earths was saved by the scenery-chewing greatness of Jon Cryer as Lex Luthor.
It's not just that his Luthor is a smarmy know-it-all with a vicious streak that's a
delight to watch.
"Never thought I'd say this, but I'm tired of killing Supermen."
This Luthor is also a plot-generating machine.
Almost every second he's onscreen, he's coming up with schemes to take advantage of the Crisis
and punish his enemies Superman and Supergirl.
When the multiverse was in danger, Lex steals the book of destiny in order to kill Superman
in every reality, leading to some of the best cameos in the crossover, like Lex confronting
the grown-up Clark Kent from Smallville only to find out that he had given up his powers.
When going back in time to prevent the Monitor from accidentally releasing the Anti-Monitor,
Lex tries to manipulate the Monitor instead, and when the multiverse is rewritten, Lex
changes things so he's now a hero.
No matter what he did throughout Crisis, Lex had clear motives, a smart plan, and ruthless
ambition.
The Arrowverse shows have always been known for excellent action set pieces.
What did we get in Crisis On Infinite Earths?
A bunch of shadow minions that disappeared on contact.
Even non-powered, non-combatant Dr. Ryan Choi was able to beat them up with just his two
fists.
The final confrontations with the Anti-Monitor felt anti-climactic, as those battles wrapped
up quickly and with a minimum of spectacular things to look at on screen.
It's enough to make you wish the Anti-Monitor had summoned various supervillains to be his
minions, even if only for a scene or two.
One of the pleasures of the crossover is seeing Kate Kane emerge as a significant hero in
her own right.
In a crossover with a few clever swerves, the best comes after traveling to Gotham City
on Earth-99 in episode two in order to find one of the Paragons needed to defeat the Anti-Monitor.
In this case, it's Kevin Conroy, voice of Batman from the '90s animated series, playing
Batman as an elderly, physically broken and bitter man.
Supergirl and Batwoman are looking for the Paragon of Courage, and for a while, it felt
like their role would be helping Batman regain his courage, but this Batman is an even darker
version of the character from The Dark Knight Returns, a stone-cold killer who'd even slain
Superman.
"Life only makes sense if you force it to!"
The real Paragon of Courage turns out to be Kate Kane herself, who confronts her own demons
by defeating this twisted version of her cousin in one of the best scenes of the crossover.
Tom Cavanagh is usually fun to watch as whatever version of Harrison Wells appears on The Flash.
His most recent multiverse incarnation, Nash Wells, seemed to be no exception while he
was tracking down the Monitor for his own reasons.
Unfortunately, his motivations became increasingly incoherent as he seemed to serve just as the
catalyst who freed the Anti-Monitor.
That was bad enough, but his later transformation into a cosmic being known as the Pariah was
even more confusing.
His purpose and powers were maddeningly vague, and he seemed to be little more than an instrument
to move the plot along.
Even when the world was reset and his memories of his role in all of this were triggered,
his character didn't do much more than act as a reminder that they hadn't won just yet.
Introducing the noble, stubborn Jefferson Pierce, a.k.a. Black Lightning, into the Crisis
On Infinite Earths narrative as more than just a cameo was another smartly-played plot
swerve.
Merging his universe with that of the Flash and Supergirl means that all of the Arrowverse
shows are now operating in the same reality, opening up the possibility of interesting
guest-star appearances and crossovers in the future.
His reactions to the other heroes in the course of the crossover were a highlight.
From his easy chemistry with Barry Allen, to being taken aback by seeing two Supermen,
who were comic book characters in his reality, to his wondering aloud about the necessity
of a base, he was a delight, and in the end, he took his rightful place as part of the
Justice League.
The Anti-Monitor showed no agency or motivations for his actions other than antimatter and
matter being unable to coexist in the same place.
What little dialogue he had was mostly the usual sort of blustery threats from your average
megalomaniacal super-villain.
For someone touted as an evil force surpassing anything the heroes had ever encountered,
his main evil seemed to be sheer boredom.
His shadow minions were about as effective and terrifying as paper ghosts.
Worst of all, he just seemed kind of dumb.
He seemed so certain of his victory that he didn't seem to have any real plans or schemes
that the heroes had to deal with, nor did he care to stop the heroes from doing what
they were doing.
The final scenes of episode five were note-perfect.
Beginning with Barry Allen and Sara Lance eulogizing their friend Oliver Queen and setting
up an eternal flame for him to the old Super Friends theme playing over the final reveal
of the Hall of Justice, the show leaned heavily on DC Universe mythology and nostalgia.
With Oliver gone, it's only right that Barry should be the new catalyst for the heroes,
and it's fitting that for the hero designated as the Paragon of Love, his idea was a big
clubhouse where his friends could hang out.
The sheer look of glee on the actors' faces when they sat at the round table of this new
Justice League was palpable, and it opens up a multitude of storytelling possibilities.
The only character who died in the crossover was Oliver Queen, and it took him a couple
of tries before he finally perished.
The Arrowverse has never been shy about killing characters, so it may seem odd that in an
event as big as this there would be so few permanent casualties, although it's easy to
understand this decision from a storytelling perspective; the writers clearly wanted to
keep as many characters around as possible for the revised realities of their TV shows.
Thematically, it was also clear that they wanted to honor the Green Arrow and actor
Stephen Amell, as Arrow is ending.
Having too many characters sacrificing themselves would have taken away from the focus on Oliver.
That said, it did feel like a cheat that pretty much every significant character wound up
just fine in the end, even if their realities were shuffled with a bit.
The heroes were supposed to be confronting the end of everything, and the outcome didn't
reflect this.
Hopefully, future crossovers will be scaled back a bit.
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more Looper videos about your favorite movies and TV shows are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.