After two months of airing, five special episodes, five hours of stories, trillions of lives at risk and dozens of heroes in action, CW ends this season's Arrowverse event, the biggest transmedia crossover ever, in Crisis on Infinite Earths. While the performance has its shortcomings there, it is undeniable that the attraction has become a milestone in entertainment history and has also worked to establish the DC Comics Multiverse on TV and in the movies, better defining Warner Bros properties in the market.
PLEASE NOTE: There are a lot of spoilers about the final episodes, so if you haven't seen it, you better come back to read later.
Before we talk about the conclusion and consequences of this for the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) going forward, we need to remember a little about the recent history of DC Films and the previous episodes of Crisis on Infinite Earth – duly commented. here in this matter.
Well, everyone knows that the first phase of the DCEU movies was unsuccessful, with Green Lantern, Batman vs. Superman: The Origin of Justice and Justice League embittering failures. The desire to transform DCEU into a shared universe synchronized with comics and TV, as Marvel Studios succeeded with the Marvel Cinematographic Universe, delayed the realization of the DC Universe outside magazines.
Behold, at the 2018 San Diego Comic-Con, Warner Bros, which had already changed the direction of DC Films, quietly showed a change in its DCEU concept as well, with the panels being tagged “Worlds of DC”. At that moment, the company embraced what DC Comics is different from Marvel: its Multiverse. Thus, she was discouraged from wanting to align all her creations and assumed that each of her films, cartoons, games and comics could interact on the same tab, but on parallel lands.
To establish this, nothing better than the event that did the same things in comics. Thus, Infinite Earth Crisis was not just the crossover of the season for Arrowverse: it became a strategic move to redefine DCEU for years to come.
Crisis has similar history
Well, in late 2019, we had three special chapters, which basically introduced the first segment of the conflict between Arrowverse heroes against the threat of Antimonitor, who intends to take over all the Multiverse Lands with their antimatter wave. Unlike comics, to beat the villain, seven “prototypes” were chosen, which are like avatars.
They are: Batwoman (Courage), Supergirl (Hope), White Canary (Destiny), Kingdom of Tomorrow Superman (Truth) – who took his place by Lex Luthor – Mars Hunter (Honor), Atom Ryan Choi (Humanity) ) and Flash (Love). In the final two episodes, featured in Arrow and DC's Legends of Tomorrow, the heroes manage to beat the Antimonitor with the sacrifice of Oliver Queen, who is no longer the Green Arrow to become the Spectrum.
- Amazon Prime, Netflix's largest global competitor, has arrived in Brazil. Try it free for 30 days!
WTF Moments
The big draw of Crisis in the Endless Lands was to bet on the affective memory of the fans and bring dozens of references from several years of DC Comics in Warner. Already in the first wave of episodes, we could see Batman's easter eggs, a Tim Burton movie screened in the 1990s and Robin in the 1960s series; from the 1990s Smallville and Flash series, as well as Titans, Lucifer and Black Ray; and the Kingdom of Tomorrow comic miniseries. All of these appearances were a lot of fun, but not functional for the story – that is, they were just there to do the fan service and didn't interfere much with the plot.
Already in the final episodes, we see more breathtaking moments, but this time, with greater impact on history and DCEU. In the episode of Arrow, we have the sensational encounter of Grant Gustin's Barry Allen, the Flash series, and Ezra Miller's Barry Allen, Justice League, and the upcoming Scarlet Sprinter.
In the final chapter, in DC's Legends of Tomorrow, we see everything from mentioning all the Earths, including Green Lantern (yes, from the terrible movie starring Ryan Reynolds), to the clumsiness that DC Comics usually has with some villains and classic stories; The Justice League was also made effective, with the right to a car seat and everything and, amazingly, Gleek, the monkey of the Supergemini, who did not appear, but left the suspense in the air, including the same soundtrack and the Justice Room of Super Friends .
Execution left to be desired
Well, while the plan to be the biggest transmedia crossover of all time has come to fruition, it was not, say, executed with excellence. The plot itself sounds very confusing to anyone who has not read the comics or accompanied each of the series. At one point, the heroes revisit episodes of Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, and DC's Legends of Tomorrow, similar to what Avengers: Ultimatum did with his movies during time travel.
In addition, there is a clear lack of balance in the participations and heroic moments of each character. This causes unnecessary and boring dialogue. Not to mention the action scenes: many of them are completely uncoordinated, and you can see that on the fastest supporting appearances, things were recorded without much care – some actors don't even pretend to be acting with virtual monsters in front of a green screen. . The villain's own interpreter doesn't help much.
The special effects, while having good times, also leave a lot to be desired, especially in the fiercest fights. The action is limited to a lot of people hitting ghosts and exchanging lightning for their hands or eyes. They lacked creativity, better direction of fight sequences, and of course money.
What has been established from now on in the DCEU?
Well, even with all these limitations, Crisis in Endless Lands ends with a positive balance and reposition DCEU's main current creations on the small screen and big screen. Starting with Arrowverse, which now has no different lands for the Green Arrow, Flash, Supergirl, Batwoman, and DC's Legends of Tomorrow gangs. From now on, everyone coexists on the same Earth, called the Primordial Earth.
Primordial Earth now has Lex Luthor as its greatest benefactor – one of the aftermath of the Crisis, as the villain takes advantage of the event to change some things in the world during the recreation of the Multiverse Lands. This will greatly change the dynamics of everyone at Arrowverse and CW itself has confirmed a new series of Superman and Lois, which will deal with this situation and two children. Earlier, the station had said that Arrow is continuing this year under a new name, Green Arrow and the Canaries (as you can see, the focus is on the group of heroines).
Stargirl's upcoming series was lined up on Earth-2, where the characters of the Justice Society old-school group should be. Earth-12 is where the first DCEU movie, Green Lantern, took place. Swamp Monster, a series prematurely canceled on DC Universe streaming, stayed on Earth-19. Titans is already on Earth-9, while the Destiny Patrol was positioned on Earth-21. Earth-96 became the home of Brandon Routh's Superman (from that movie back in 2006, directed by Bryan Singer), who became something close to Tomorrow's Kingdom of Steel Man.
And finally, in Primordial Land, this is where everything will happen at Arrowverse, which now has a Justice League featuring Ajax, Batwoman, White Canary, Supergirl, Flash, Black Lightning and Superman. The Earth where Justice League, Wonder Woman, Shazam, and Flash events unfold must be the same, but for now it has not been confirmed – apparently it is not the Primordial Earth. Nor can you tell which Earth the Joaquin Phoenix Joker is on.
Anyway, Crisis in Infinite Earth was not that event with high marks, but managed to bring with dignity the stories of comics to the TV, with moments of great fun and humor in the best DC style. The hope now is that the future will be even better for these heroes and villains.