Crisis on Infinite Arrowverses, part 2

It's time for part 2 of the Crisis on Infinite Arrowverses, covering the "Arrow" and "DC's Legends of Tomorrow" episodes to round out the 5-part crossover event.

There was a comic book with some original Crisis reprints and some new Arrowverse Crisis stories, in "Crisis on Infinite Earths Giant" #1, that took place in between episodes 2 and 3. The second issue of the comic immediately follows issue 1.

The 80-page giant will continue its retelling of the Crisis saga with the 24-page "Crisis on Infinite Earths Part Two" from writers Marv Wolfman and Marc Guggenheim and artists Tom Derenick, Trevor Scott, and Andy Owens.

"The Multiverse is losing its battle against the Anti-Monitor. Felicity Smoak mounts one last effort to find a way to save Oliver Queen, and it will bring the team face to face with an entire corps of new heroes: A Green Lantern Corps!", reads the story description.

Then Wolfman and Guggenheim will team up with artists Tom Grummett and Danny Miki for the 8-page "The Council Part Two".

"Lex Luthor has been captured by a council of Luthors from across the Multiverse, and to stop them from destroying everything, he'll need to team up with people he hates: the council of Supermen."

Crisis Giant #2 will also feature a new cover from Jerry Ordway, and reprints of "A Flash of the Lightning," from Crisis on Infinite Earths #8 (1985); "Aftershock," from Crisis on Infinite Earths #11 (1986), and "Aftermath," from DC Universe: Legacies #6 (2010).

 
The one on the left is the Walmart exclusive (Jan 2020) while the one on the right is coming to comic shops in February. Same interiors, which include the original Crisis #8 and 11 (so there's your Legion reprint).

You'll recall that in a recent Rolling Stone interview with Marc Guggenheim, the co-producer of the Arrowverse, says that “He told the creative teams of all the CW shows (including Black Lightning, whose title character will participate even though Crisis isn’t making an episode for it) to consider Crisis “a magic ticket” that would allow them to make whatever changes, big or small, to their continuity, in the same way that Superman and Wonder Woman got new origin stories and altered supporting casts in the wake of the original comic book Crisis.” This kind of mimicked the finale of the original merged-Earth Crisis. We start to see these changes in Episode 5.

When last we left our heroes, there were only 7 people left at Vanishing Point, all from either Earth-1 or Earth-38; all the other Earths in the Multiverse were gone. Of the ones we had seen in the first three episodes, that included:

• Earth-1: Green Arrow, Flash, Batwoman, and the Legends
• Earth-2: Black Siren, Jesse Quick, Harry Wells, evil versions of Earth-1 heroes
• Earth-9: Hawk & Robin (Teen Titans on DC Universe streaming) 
• Earth-16: an alternate Green Arrow
• Earth-18: an alternate Jonah Hex
• Earth-38: Supergirl, Superman, Martian Manhunter, and the Legion
• Earth-66: the Batman 1966 TV show
• Earth-73: Black Lightning
• Earth-74: an alternate Legends team has retired
• Earth-75: an alternate Superman who was killed by Luthor
• Earth-89: the 1989 Batman movie
• Earth-96: the Christopher Reeve/Brandon Routh Superman movie series
• Earth-99: an alternate Batman who killed Superman and his foes
• Earth-167: the Smallville TV series
• Earth-203: Birds of Prey TV series
• Earth-666: Lucifer TV series
• Earth-X: The Ray

Additionally, in the comic, we saw:

• Earth-12: home of the Guardians and the Green Lanterns
• Earth-76: the Wonder Woman TV series
• Earth-99: as above, also the Council of Luthors
• Earth-D: the Justice Alliance
• Earth-F: the Fleisher animated Superman cartoon
• Earth-N52: the New 52
• Earth-X: as above

Crisis on Infinite Earths, Episode 4 (Arrow, 1/14/20):

Stuck in the Vanishing Point, the Paragons search for a way to escape. The futility of the situation is compounded by The Flash’s disappearance. However, hope appears in the form of Oliver, who reveals that he has become something else. Meanwhile, the origin stories for The Monitor and Anti-Monitor are revealed. 

The Maltus and Speed Force stuff bounced back and forth, but I moved it all around to minimize bullet points. 

• Previously: a wave of anti-matter swept across the multiverse, destroying all Earths and all life. Only seven people made it to Vanishing Point, a place outside of time and space. Six heroes and Lex Luthor. Jim Corrigan told Oliver Queen it was his destiny to become the Spectre.
• On Maltus, 10,000 years ago, Mar Novu is an explorer, looking at the dawn of time with his wife. His suit of armor will protect him from chronal radiation. But his presence there caused him to breach the wall into the anti-matter universe, where he meets his opposite number.
• On Vanishing Point, Ryan Choi and Lex Luthor are trying to repurpose some Time Masters tech to create a teleporter. Kara volunteers Luthor but it doesn’t work, instead it brings back Flash, missing after months. For him, only a few seconds have passed while he tried to escape via the Speed Force.
• In Purgatory, Oliver relives his life, Corrigan says it’s all led him to this point, so he could fight the Anti-Monitor.
• Oliver, as Spectre, appears at Vanishing Point and tells the heroes that he is in tune with the multiverse, and that the Speed Force is the key to saving them. He tells them the multiverse is gone, and the Anti-Monitor is at the dawn of time trying to make it permanent. While some will go to the dawn of time to fight, the rest will go to Maltus and try to prevent Mar Novu from creating the anti-matter universe in the first place. Oliver touches Barry’s forehead and gives him the key to unlock his potential.
• Supergirl, Choi, and Luthor go to Maltus.
• Luthor promptly leaves; Supergirl and Choi follow, but he blasts them (he made some upgrades when he rewrote the Book of Destiny).
• Choi and Supergirl wake up and go after Luthor, who she suspects is trying to change Mar Novu’s experiment to his advantage.
• Luthor finds Mar Novu as he is ready to go back in time. He tells Novu that he’s from the future and he’s willing to share his future knowledge in exchange for Novu’s abilities that he’ll soon have. Luthor calls it “The Brave and the Bald” teamup. Luthor tells him that Novu tore a hole into the anti-matter universe and tells him how to prevent that, then Supergirl shows up. Choi takes Novu aside and tries to warn him not to open the portal while Supergirl fights Luthor. Then Flash grabs Luthor, Choi, and Supergirl.
• Barry ends up in the Speed Force, where he finds Oliver, using part of his essence to contact Barry but he’s lost in the Speed Force. He’s using part of his essence to keep J’onn, Kate, and Sara together, having been quickly defeated on Maltus. Barry needs to find everyone and get them out, by looking at the connections and memories they’ve made.
• Flash meets the DCEU Flash at STAR Labs, at the beginning of his career (he hasn’t picked a name yet).
• TV FLASH MEETS THE DCEU FLASH! ALL THINGS DC LIVE ACTION ARE IN THE SAME MULTIVERSE! Or will be, assuming this universe lives! Note that DCEU Flash is in his universe and taps into the Speed Force, while in Arrowverse Flash's time there is nothing but the Speed Force, which transcends the Multiverse.
• Kate finds herself in PalmerTech with Oliver and Ray.
• J’onn finds himself with Oliver and Kara, during the Invasion crossover. 
• Flash finds himself in the Elseworlds crossover, where Green Arrow and Superman stop Deegan with the Book of Destiny. He makes Oliver realize that he’s really in the Speed Force. Oliver tells Barry that this was when he made a deal with the Monitor to give up himself so that Kara and Barry would live.
• Diggle and Laurel are with a dead Sara, and he tells Laurel to take up her mask and be the Canary. Then Flash appears. This is before they met Flash, so they don't know who he is. Barry touches Sara and wakes her up, then leaves with her.
• Flash grabs J’onn and Kate.
• At the dawn of time in the anti-matter universe, the seven survivors find the Anti-Monitor, who tells them that in the infinite universes, there will always be one Mar Novu whose ambition causes him to go through the portal no matter what anyone says (Supergirl did stop one, but there are an infinite number of others). Oliver as Spectre appears and tells them they’re the Paragons and must hold the line and buy time until the universe can be "rebirthed". The team fights the Shadow Demons while Oliver fights the Anti-Monitor (he tells the Anti-Monitor that “you have failed this universe!”). The Shadow Demons vanish as Oliver gets the upper hand, and the group realizes that by focusing their Paragon “powers” on the fragment of the Book of Destiny that Luthor has, they can bring back the universe. Oliver wins, and appears to be human again, and they see the rebirth of the multiverse. Oliver says he’s at peace with dying, and tells them to keep going. Then he dies again, for good (apparently).

Crisis on Infinite Earths, Episode 5 (DC's Legends of Tomorrow, 1/14/20):

“Worlds lived, worlds died.  Nothing will ever be the same.”

Just like in the finale of the comics, the heroes wake up on the single Earth and learn about what has changed when the multiverse rebooted.

• Kara wakes up in her apartment with Alex, who doesn’t know anything has gone on. Nia calls and reminds her that she’s supposed to be at the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony, and it goes to Lex Luthor. She says it’s so great when it goes to someone who deserves it so much. Luthor winks at Kara. Luthor is now a good guy, and her #1 supporter aside from Lena, and Luthorcorp owns the DEO. She finds J’onn and he tells her that he remembers too, and that some things have changed. She finds Flash, and each think they’re on their own Earth. Marv Wolfman appears and tells them that they’ve always been friends.
• In Central City, workers in a tunnel find Nash Wells, in the spot that used to be the portal to get to the Anti-Monitor.
• In Star City, Sara finds Ray and then J’onn appears, and tells them that only the Paragons know how things used to be, but J'onn can fix that. J’onn restores Ray’s memories, and says he’s been doing that with their other compatriots. Sara goes to the Arrowcave and finds Diggle, Rene, and Dinah, who already know what happened. Rene says that even Felicity can’t find Oliver. 
• Back in Central City, J’onn fills Caitlyn in and tells her that Wells is the one who released the Anti-Monitor, but he got better. J’onn restores Wells' mind and says it was all Wells' fault.
• In Star City, Barry and Kara visit Team Arrow, who learn Oliver sacrificed himself. Then a giant Beebo arrives. Nate and Ava are back in Washington with the ship, but Mick is signing his romance books nearby. Flash, Atom, Supergirl, and Heat Wave try to stop Beebo, but no luck, and then Batwoman shows up. They realize it’s a diversion – Sargon the Sorcerer is robbing a bank nearby. Sara stops him with one punch. Back at the bunker, Wells appears and says he’s detected anti-matter.
• Later that night, Barry finds Sara, reminiscing about Oliver, he was her only link to who she was before. Then the Shadow Demons arrive, they fight off one and rescue Choi. Wells says he detects that the Anti-Monitor is still alive. He, Ryan, and Ray conceive of a plan to shrink the Anti-Monitor into the microverse. 
• The Shadow Demons are converging on Gardner Pier (after Gardner Fox). It’s Wild Dog, Dreamer, Spartan, Flash, White Canary, Supergirl, J’onn J’onzz (in a new costume), Alex, Batwoman, and Superman, but the demons disappear immediately, only to be replaced by the Anti-Monitor. 
• At STAR Labs, Killer Frost and Heat Wave are joined by Black Lightning. 
• The heroes fight Anti-Monitor but nothing gets through his force field. He turns into a giant. Flash runs back to STAR Labs to help finish the shrinking bomb that Ray, Choi, and Cisco are working on. Dinah tells them the shadows are on the move again, at Perez Landing. Flash brings Ray to Anti-Monitor, who tosses the bomb to Supergirl, who throws it at Anti-Monitor, who disappears along with the shadow demons.
• Back watching the President laud the heroes and Oliver, we see that Diggle and Lyla now have both kids, Sara joining her brother JJ. Superman gets a call from Lois, their sons are acting up. 
• Epilogue: the multiverse is back.
• Earth-2: Stargirl, STRIPE, Hourman, Dr Midnight, and Wildcat
• This is a different version of Earth-2, which previously had been mostly evil versions of Earth-1 heroes
• Earth 2012: Green Lanterns (probably the upcoming HBO Max series, not the Ryan Reynolds GL movie)
• However, Ryan Reynolds made a “cameo” via recycled footage of him in flight (you can’t really see him) heading to Oa.
• Earth-19: Swamp Thing
• Earth-9: Titans (Raven, Hawk, Dove, Starfire)
• Previously seen on Earth-9
• Earth-21: Doom Patrol
• Given a different Earth from the Titans, as this team is a different one that appeared early in the Titans series
• Earth-96: Superman (with John Williams theme) – he’s got his yellow “S” background now instead of black
• Brandon Routh gets a Super-sendoff, he'll be leaving the show soon. But with the yellow in the "S" shield instead of black, that suggests that he got a happy ending that reversed the Kingdom Come version
• Earth-Prime: the new merged Earth-1 & 38 & 73 (Black Lightning)
• The heroes gather to eulogize Oliver. The abandoned hangar that they used in the Invasion crossover that used to be a STAR Labs building (and which just happens to look like the Hall of Justice) is the new HQ in case they need to meet again to save the world. This new group consists of Superman, Batwoman, Flash, White Canary, Martian Manhunter, Black Lightning, Supergirl. With one chair left for Green Arrow. Then we hear sounds of a monkey running around, then an empty cage that says Gleek, and then we cut to the outside of the building, which is the Hall of Justice. It’s the new Superfriends!

The finale of "Arrow" showed one more change: a billboard in the background of a shot read "Van Wayne", which was the lead on the 2017 sitcom "Powerless", so that unnamed Earth got folded into Earth-Prime. Here's a list of other changes made to Earth-Prime as seen on Arrow, Supergirl, and Black Lightning.