Hey Everyone,

Paul here…

   After almost a year of build up, The CW’s DC Mega-Crossover Crisis On Infinite Earths is about to begin. So I thought this would be the perfect time to post my Crisis Primer, something to give you a little bit of information you might not otherwise have known. Here you’ll find out where and when to watch everything Crisis, as well as some fun little side projects that you may want to take a look at! I hope you like it!

     By far the most ambitious project taken up by The Arrowverse, the 5-part crossover starts Sunday, with Chapter 1 on Supergirl, Chapter 2 on Batwoman, and Chapter 3 on The Flash. Chapter 3 will presumably end on a cliffhanger of some kind when all of the shows go on their annual winter hiatus. The epic story will finish off it’s final 2 chapters, with both installments airing on the same night , January 14th with Arrow at 8pm and Legends of Tomorrow at 9pm. 

  The CW will also be airing a 2-part special, Crisis Aftermath, hosted by mega-fan and frequent Arrowverse director, Kevin Smith (Smith has directed multiple episodes of Supergirl and The Flash, including what is widely considered to be one of the best episodes of The Flash, “The Runaway Dinosaur”). Part 1 of the special will air Sunday night after Supergirl and Part 2 will air after what is sure to a huge cliffhanger installment of The Flash on Tuesday night. The special will include interviews, behind the scenes looks, and more! Including host Kevin Smith, breaking down the big moments and reveals of the crossover along with a panel of guests including various cast members from The Arrowverse shows like Jon Cryer, as well as the series writers and showrunners. Also appearing on the panel, will be the legendary Kevin Conroy, who after playing The Caped Crusader in Batman The Animated Series as well as countless other movies, video games, and TV shows, will be making his live action debut as Bruce Wayne during Crisis (Conroy’s appearance in Crisis is one of the things that has me most excited about the crossover). 

  In one of the most recent trailers for Crisis On Infinite Earths, The Monitor tells the gathered heroes that they must find seven champions throughout time and space, that can help stop The Anti-Monitor and Crisis. I’m sure there will be more to the story than this, but I think that’s a great idea because it’s a cool way to get interesting characters off on missions together who don’t always interact with one another. Watching them find other cool DC character that will certainly be fun to see. So with Crisis coming right up, I thought it might be fun to share my picks (or my guesses) for who exactly“The Seven Paragons” or heroes that The Monitor needs assembled to help save The Multiverse. A group I’m calling… THE MONITOR’S MAGNIFICENT SEVEN! So let’s get started!

1. Kingdom Come Superman –

This one seems like a no brainer. Despite the many flaws of Superman Returns, Brandon Routh was not one of them. If early buzz is to be believed Routh absolutely crushes it in his return to The Man of Steel.

2. Future and/or alternate reality Bruce Wayne (played by Kevin Conroy)

We already know that Brandon Routh Superman is from the classic Mark Waid and Alex Ross story Kingdom Come. From what little we’ve seen of Bruce Wayne in in the trailers he is wearing some sort of exoskeleton from the neck down that helps him move around. In Kingdom Come, Batman wore something very similar. After decades of crime fighting, his body was essentially broken so he wore a full body brace much like the one we see in the promos. Which leads me to believe that this version of Batman/Bruce Wayne is also from the Kingdom Come universe. Bruce Wayne is another sure bad for the seven heroes.

3. Tom Wellings’ Clark Kent (Smallville’s Universe)

This is another obvious one, but it won’t be any less fun to see. I can’t wait to see a scene that has all three superman together in one room.

4. Black Lightening

They kind of give this one away in the trailer. It’s pretty apparent that Black Lightening is very important to the heroes’ plan to stop The Anti-Monitor and the antimatter wave. Another good bet.

5. Lex Luthor

Considering that The Monitor resurrected him from a lethal gunshot wound delivered by his sister and has been keeping him in his own weird, little, pocket dimension where Lex continuously beats him at chess, I think Lex is a strong contender for one of The Seven. As The Monitor says to Lex, this is his chance to prove he’s the hero that he’s always said he is, but will Lex take it?

6. John Wesley Shipp’s Barry Allen

Even though his Earth was seemingly destroyed in Elseworlds last year, he was certainly able to stay one step ahead of The Monitor. He seems like a prime candidate for The Monitor’s Magnificent Seven.

7. Ryan Choi AKA The Atom (Osric Chau)

Sadly this will be Brandon Routh‘s last season on Legends Of Tomorrow. However, that doesn’t mean The Atom will be leaving the team. In the comics, Ray Palmer has a protégé who becomes the second Atom and he will be introduced during Crisis. After the crossover, he’ll be taking up residence with the rest of the crew of The Waverider. I still think they’re going to throw a few surprise characters at us, so this one is a longshot but I figured, what the hell?

  DC and The CW also took the opportunity to drop our first look at the new season of Legends of Tomorrow. Legends typically has a shorter season than the rest of The Arrowverse shows, so the first episode of Legends this season will be in the crossover. However, it’s technically not the season premiere. It’s being billed as a “special episode“ with the official season premiere airing January 21st. Check out the trailer:

    DC is also publishing a 2 issue tie-in comic to go along with the crossover. Usually tie-in comics like these follow characters or events that may have been mentioned in the main story, but weren’t heavily featured or touched upon. They can be a cool look at what some of the other characters may have been up to that we don’t see on screen during the main crossover. The stories are co-written by original Crisis on Infinite Earths writer Marv Wolfman and Arrow showrunner Marc Guggenheim.

The very cool cover was drawn by classic DC artist, Jerry Ordway, who worked on the original Crisis as well. Ordway’s cover features Green Arrow, The Flash, Kid Flash, Supergirl, The Ray, and Felicity Smoak. Kid Flash, The Ray, and Felicity aren’t appearing in Crisis, which shows my point that these tie-in comics typically feature side adventures focusing on characters that aren’t in the spotlight of the main story. I couldn’t find an exact release date for either issue, but they’re expected to hit stands in January and February 2020, 

Finally, we have one last trailer for Crisis before it begins and I think it’s my favorite so far. One of the previous trailers had that fantastic line from Brandon Routh’s Superman, “Hope is the light that leads us through the darkness“, but it is a think this one has it beat with Kevin Conroy‘s Bruce Wayne delivering this killer line: “Battle not with monsters, lest you become a monster.” Hell yeah, Batman. Watch it here:

Thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter @PJWrightWBM or type Worlds Best Media into the search bar, you can also like and follow us on our Facebook page; World’s Best Media. Those likes and follows, as well as iTunes reviews, which go a long way to supporting World’s Best Media. We really appreciate the loyalty and support shown to us by our fans, so thanks again!

-Paul

*Oh! I almost forgot! One last thing, I really think we are going to see Diggle wield a Green Lantern power ring in Crisis. They’ve been teasing it for years and if there’s any place to do it, it’s here. Fingers crossed!