Nobody expected to hear specific details about November’s four-way CW crossover so early, but we did. The event that brings the casts of Supergirl, Arrow, The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow together is Crisis On Earth-X. Blame it on Barry and Iris’ wedding, because a bunch of Nazis from Earth-X apparently think that’s the best opportunity to pick a fight with Earth-1’s heroes.
At first glance, the title is a play on Crisis On Infinite Earths, an event Flash fans have been waiting to see on the series. But the poster suggests there’s a lot more going on. Series producers Andrew Kreisberg and Marc Guggenheim gave a hint, saying, “We conceived this year’s crossover to be evocative of the annual Justice League / Justice Society crossovers we grew up with and looked forward to as kids.”
The poster is very similar to the cover of Crisis On Earth-Prime (Justice League of America No. 207.) But the storyline pays homeage to Grant Morrison’s 2000 JLA: Earth 2, where the Justice League fights their evil counterparts in the Crime Syndicate of Amerika (or ‘ica,’ depending on the iteration). That storyline is also borrowed from Gardner Fox’s 1964 Crisis On Earth-Three (Justice League of America #29-30). The animated movie, Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths (2010), also reimagines the story and is a good watch if you haven’t already seen it.
In the comics, Earth-X is the home of the Freedom Fighters. That’s not a coincidence. CW Seed is launching a series called Freedom Fighters: The Ray. The animated series will be a part of the Arrowverse in the same way as Vixen. The Freedom Fighters exist in a world where the Nazis won WWII. But the casting of Russell Tovey as the live-action Ray did take fans by surprise. We will be seeing him for the crossover, and maybe some of his friends too -- Phantom Lady, Black Condor and Red Tornado. In the Freedom Fighters: The Ray trailer, it's DCTV's heroes who are evil, just like the crossover event.
The logline for the crossover poster is, “ With all the heroes in town to celebrate Barry and Iris’ wedding, villains from Earth-X crash the festivities with a deadly agenda.” Now we know why Guggenheim previously stated there will be “love in the air” during the crossover. But will this prevent the West-Allen union we’ve all been waiting for?
The poster itself does give us some clues about the crossover. First, it’s clear Mr. Terrific lives. But a lot of main characters are missing from the poster. Where are Kid Flash, Spartan, Martian Manhunter and Guardian? They could be left out because they are more of a supporting cast. Hopefully, we’ll see at least a few of the plainclothes characters, such as Felicity Smoak, Harrison Wells, Joe West and Alex Danvers. It’s hard to tell, but the mysterious archer on the Nazi side could be an evil version of Malcolm Merlyn, who, last we saw, died on Lian Yu in the Arrow finale.
The poster also teases that Killer Frost eventually comes back to the good side, along with Captain Cold’s return to Legends . We also see Vixen and the new Legends character, Zari (played by Tala Ashe). In the comics, she’s known as Isis (named after the Egyptian goddess) and is from the Shazam! family. In the series, she’s a hacktivist from the future.
As for The Ray, not much is known of his origins. That’s presumably why he’s got an entire animated show to himself, like Vixen. In the comics, his name was Raymond Terrill. He was a reporter who was investigating government scientists researching how to turn light into weapons. But the project exposed him to a genetic light bomb, granting him the ability to absorb, store and process light -- meaning he can fly and create bursts of radiation. That’s when he joined the Freedom Fighters.
That’s all the solid facts we know for know. At Salt Lake City Comic Con, Stephen Amell didn’t reveal any details, but he described just how epic he expects this year’s crossover event to be compared to last year.
"When we first did the crossover, I guess back in our third season and The Flash’s first season, it was very much like ‘It’s an episode of The Flash where I show up, and then an episode of Arrow where he shows up.'" Amell explained. "And even last year, it was like ‘You know, Flash showed up on Supergirl, and then it was an episode of The Flash, an episode of Arrow, and an episode of Legends.’ But this year is just a four-hour movie."
Are you excited for this years four-way DCTV crossover event on Nov. 27 and 28? Let us know in the comments. Also be sure to check out Cape Talk's 'News Flash' segement where we discussed what we'd like to see during Crisis on Earth-X.
