**SPOILER ALERT** The CW's CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS

Today's blog includes SPOILERS for Crisis On Infinite Earths. Don't want to see spoilers? Please read no further. Otherwise? Up, up, and...y'know.



I'm not going to attempt an analysis or critique of the first three parts of Crisis On Infinite Earths, The CW's five-part DC Comics TV superhero event. I prefer to let an awed WHOA...! stand as my review of the story so far.



For those unfamiliar with the event: Crisis On Infinite Earths was originally a twelve-part comic book maxi-series published 1985-1986, designed to simplify the DC universe by destroying everything and starting over. Writer Marv Wolfman and artist George Pérez crafted an epic tale in which the multiverse--the infinite alternate Earths across creation, including Earth-One (home to the contemporary Justice League of America, with the familiar Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, etc.), Earth-Two (home of the original 1940s-era heroes of The Justice Society of America, including the Golden Age Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, etc.), Earth-X (where the Axis won WWII), Earth-S (protected by the original Captain Marvel and friends), and so on--was systematically wiped out by an evil threat called The Anti-Monitor. Red skies heralded the death of each universe. A more benevolent figure called The Monitor assembled heroes from across the multiverse to combat this threat, but the multiverse was ultimately doomed. In its formerly infinite space stood a single new universe with a single new timeline. Worlds lived. World died. And the DC Universe would never be the same. That was the goal, anyway.



Both Supergirl and The Flash perished in Crisis, and although both were eventually revived, the deaths were intended at the time to be permanent. When the success of The CW's Arrow TV series (based in the DC hero The Green Arrow) prompted more CW superhero shows, the very first episode of The Flash in 2014 teased a future newspaper headline: FLASH MISSING, VANISHES IN CRISIS. Crisis was baked into expectations from the show's beginning. As additional DC superhero shows--Supergirl, DC's Legends Of Tomorrow, Black Lightning and Batwoman--formed an Arrowverse, crossovers of some of these shows became an annual event. The current Crisis On Infinite Earths crossover is the biggest yet. 



And man, my inner twelve-year-old is beyond thrilled.

There were so many moments, big and small, scattered throughout the first three parts of this crossover, which concludes with a two-part finale on January 14th, three days before my 60th birthday. No, you grow up. The cameos by actors who've played DC characters in the past have been effective and pleasing, starting with Robert Wuhl as reporter Alexander Knox from 1989's blockbuster film Batman. The cameos of The Ray (from a previous CW crossover, Crisis On Earth-X) and Hawk and Robin (from the DC Universe streaming series Titans) led to a welcome scene of Burt Ward--the Boy Wonder from the 1966 Batman series--looking up at his world's impending fate and exclaiming, "Holy crimson skies of death!"




One of my favorite scenes featured the return of actor Tom Welling, who played a young Clark Kent on the 2001-2011 series Smallville. In that scene, the Arrowverse's Lex Luthor (played magnificently by Jon Cryer) appeared at the Kent farm with the intention of continuing his serial killing of Superman again and again across the universes. But Luthor's Kryptonite had no affect on this Clark, who we learn had given up his super-powers to live a normal life as a husband and father. A disgusted Luthor lashed out, and our Clark clocked him with one human-strength punch. As the evil genius retreated to another universe, Clark's wife Lois Lane (again played by Smallville's Erica Durance) also appeared, and the couple went back into their house to see their daughters. I wish Michael Rosenbaum (Smallville's Lex Luthor) had also been involved, but I can't complain about such a perfect scene as this.



(A random thought occurs to me. Rosenbaum has said that the producers of Crisis did approach him to reprise his role as Luthor, but that he felt the offer was insufficient, so he declined. That is likely true. However...in the rush of publicity, hype, and speculation leading up to Crisis, we were told that characters from Titans would definitely not appear, and that Tom Ellis would definitely not appear as Lucifer [from the Netflix series of the same name, also based on DC Comics], and yet there they were, in Crisis. I don't think we'll see Rosenbaum in Part 4 or 5, but man, it would be cool.)

Two Lex Luthors, Michael Rosenbaum and Jon Cryer

Batwoman (Ruby Rose) meets the alternate Earth version of her cousin Bruce Wayne (Kevin Conroy)

Brandon Routh as an alternate Earth Superman

Brandon Routh, who also plays The Atom on Legends Of Tomorrow, was fantastic in his return to the role of the Man of Steel, whom he previously played in the 2006 film Superman Returns. Kevin Conroy, the voice of The Dark Knight in Batman: The Animated Series, played an older, broken, bitter Bruce Wayne to chilling effect. TV's first Flash John Wesley Shipp (from the 1990 series) was key to perhaps the event's biggest emotional payoff, as he forced The CW's Flash Grant Gustin to the sidelines, perishing in his place. As the Flash of the '90s died to save the sole remaining universe, the scene incorporated a clip from that earlier series, showing actress Amanda Pays as The Flash's love Tina McGee, telling The Flash that she would always believe in him.




Sniff. 'Scuse me a sec.

This is all wonderful superhero storytelling. The cameos and returns of past actors enrich the overall experience. We've been promised more cameos in the two remaining chapters. I hope we'll see Lynda Carter--TV's 1970s Wonder Woman--in some capacity. There are so many others who could still be included, however unlikely they may be: Jackson Bostwick and Billy Gray from the 1970s series Shazam!; Cathy Lee Crosby from the failed '70s TV-movie Wonder Woman; Justin Hartley, who played Green Arrow on Smallville and Aquaman in an unsold pilot; Mark Hamill, who played The Trickster on the '90s Flash, and was the voice of The Joker on Batman: The Animated Series. I hope we'll see more of Robert Wuhl and Burt Ward (even though their characters seem to have been killed by The Anti-Monitor), more of Brandon Routh's Superman, more of Cress Williams as Black Lightning, more of John Wesley Shipp.




We may not get any of that, and if not, that's okay. I'm pretty certain we'll get a satisfying conclusion with Gustin, Cryer, and The CW's Supergirl (Melissa Benoist), Batwoman (Ruby Rose), White Canary (Caity Lotz), Martian Manhunter (David Harewood), and the now-deceased Green Arrow (Stephen Amill), who appears poised to become the ghostly avenger The Spectre. Are things what they seem? Will the multiverse be somehow restored, or will we see a singular universe with a new history? Well...we'll find it January. I'll be watching. 

To be continued....

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Fans of pop music will want to check out Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, a new pop compilation benefiting SPARK! Syracuse, the home of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. TIR'N'RR Allstars--Steve Stoeckel, Bruce Gordon, Joel Tinnel, Stacy Carson, Eytan Mirsky, Teresa Cowles, Dan Pavelich, Irene Peña, Keith Klingensmith, and Rich Firestone--offer a fantastic new version of The Kinks' classic "Waterloo Sunset." That's supplemented by eleven more tracks (plus a hidden bonus track), including previously-unreleased gems from The Click Beetles, Eytan Mirsky, Pop Co-Op, Irene Peña, Michael Slawter (covering The Posies), and The Anderson Council (covering XTC), a new remix of "Infinite Soul" by The Grip Weeds, and familiar TIRnRR Fave Raves by Vegas With Randolph, Gretchen's Wheel, The Armoires, and Pacific Soul Ltd. Oh, and that mystery bonus track? It's exquisite. You need this. You're buying it from Futureman.

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