CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS PART II REVIEW ... SPOILERS

Part Two:

Hey everyone, we are back with the second part of the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover, this time on the Batwoman series. In this episode we see the Monitor’s plan fall into play, as a few new concepts are introduced. So spoilers ahead for the episode, lets recap.

Recap

The Monitor introduces the concept of paragons to the team, who are seven individuals from across the multiverse who will be vital to stop the Anti-Monitor. Iris, Lois, and Clark are sent out to find the paragon of truth, who is a Kryptonian who has suffered a great loss. Meanwhile, Kate and Kara go to Earth-99 to find the paragon of courage, who is the “bat of the future,” Bruce Wayne. Elsewhere, with Oliver Queen dead, Mia, Barry, and Sara enlist the help of John Constantine to find a Lazarus Pit in the Multiverse to revive Oliver.

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Review

   Opening: Meet the paragons

The opening of the episode had a lot of exposition which was really neat to have explained all out, as a quest for the heroes was presented. I feel like at times in the Arrowverse plot points can be often rushed in explanation, and therefore are inconsistently written. I do like how the Monitor is losing his relevance as an omnipotent being, as his opposite, the Anti-Monitor is gaining strength with the spread of anti-matter. This does help give the heroes less power in the quest to save all of existence. 

Although he is losing his power, the Monitor only recovering a couple of the paragon’s names and descriptions felt a little inconsistent at first. I get the point eventually that Kate going to Earth-99 made discover that she is the paragon of courage and that the team going to find Superman-96 helped them confirm that he is the paragon of truth.

   Plot A: The Bat of the Future

For this being the Batwoman episode, Kate did get an extended storyline in the episode. However, because she has only had eight episodes prior to this, there was not a whole of plot threads from her solo series which spilled into this. This is something that I actually appreciated because it felt more like a crossover than the Supergirl episode prior to this. 

Kara and Kate’s friendship in this episode was explored more and was something that I really enjoyed seeing. It was dwelled on too long, it was the right length. The two characters had great chemistry together, with them acting as each other’s guide to finding how they are their respective paragons.

By having a Conroy Batman free of his adapted past from the Animated Series, the episode was able to come up with a clever twist for Conroy’s character. The idea that Batman lost his mind over his years of fighting crime, and murdered his rogue's gallery was so fascinating to watch. In the case of his trophies, there was the Joker’s card, Mr. Freeze’s helmet, and the Penguin’s cane. This means that this Batman murdered all of his greatest foes at some point. 

I mentioned earlier that this Batman was reminiscent of the Kingdom Come Batman, and in that comic story, Batman and Superman were pitted on different sides. So it seems like on Earth-99, that a version of Kingdom Come unfolded, and Batman murdered Superman. In that story, the ideals of vigilantism and justice were pitted against each other. So it's not like Superman went rogue, he was on the side of wanting to serve justice in a more orthodox way. This tells a lot about this Batman, seeing as though at some point he had enough of this debate, and in the final battle, murdered Superman.

   Plot B: Can the Real Superman Please Stand Up?

The concept of Clark, Iris, and Lois going around the multiverse searching for Supermen was so awesome to see unfold. There were a total of three ‘new’ Supermen that we saw. So let’s go through each Superman and their Earth one by one:

         Earth-75: Fallen Superman

On this Earth, Lex Luthor of Earth-38 killed him with the book of destiny. The Superman was identical to Superman of Earth-38, the same with his Lois. The image of the corpse of Superman on the news, with his flag swinging on a pole in the wind, and Lois crying is identical to the death of Superman from the comics. In the comics, Doomsday killed Superman, so things are a little different. It is possible in the future that we see Earth-75 in the future of the Arrowverse, and that we see the four different Supermen who took on the mantle of the death of Kal, appear later on.

         Earth-176: Smallville-verse

This is the Earth where the events of Smallville took place, as we saw TOm Welling’s Superman, with Erica Durance as Lois Lane. The opening shot of this Earth showed framed newspaper reports of Superman’s heroic days. This certifies that after the events of Smallville, this Clark did become a fully-fledged Superman, which we only got a glimpse of in the last episode of Smallville back in 2011.

From visiting this Superman, we also learned that Lex Luthor did become president of the United States, which was teased back in the Smallville series, and is something which has happened in the comics. The big twist which happened when visiting this version of Clark is that he had given up his powers as Superman. There may have been a device from the Smallville series which could have been used to achieve this which I can not remember, by through whatever means, Clark became a regular person, which was a neat twist seeing as though he had become a father. There are a few questions as to how this worked, and whether his children have powers or not.

One of the best things from this scene was when Lex mentioned that this is the only Earth where Clark Kent is Superman. In the comics, the funny thing about Lex Luthor is that he is smart enough to figure that Clark Kent is Superman, however, he is too arrogant to accept that anyone from Smallville could be greater than he is.

         Earth-96: Ree-verse

In 2006, Brandon Routh played Superman in “Superman Returns” which was a continuation of Christopher Reeve’s portrayal of Superman from the time he played Superman. We finally see this version of Superman return portrayed by Brandon Routh once more. 

When meeting this Superman we learn that his version of Lois, Jimmy, and Perry all died in a gas explosion. It appears that in this universe, the Joker gassed the daily planet. The green gas and the mention of the low life from Gotham all point to this. In the comics, Joker did get Lois Lane killed, however, it was in a more sinister way where the Joker mind-controlled Superman to kill Lois who was pregnant at the time. 

The Monitor’s plan to have Lex lead the team to the paragon of truth at first I thought was a weak excuse to include Lex Luthor. However, Lex’s plan to kill the Supermen in the multiverse would have speed up Iris, Lois, and Clark so they could find the paragon of truth quickly. In addition, the Superman vs Superman fight did help confirm that Superman-96 is the paragon of truth as his innate nature to invoke the truth led him to break the curse that Lex placed on him.

   Plot C: Reviving Oliver

Constantine was brought into the fold which was awesome to see. I felt like this whole arch of reviving Oliver with a Lazarus pit was grossly under focused on in the episode. Bringing back someone from the dead is a huge deal, and if Oliver is to be a pivotal part of the crossover, the episode should focus on this plotline. On top of that, I feel like the character dynamics were not explored as much as they could have been. There were really too many scenes with Barry and Sara interacting with Mia and having a meaningful conversation with her. 

   Ending: Meet the Anti-Monitor

Although we have heard of the Anti-Monitor in the series, we have not seen him in action before. In this episode, we get our first glimpse of the character. The character’s plan in this crossover is to inhabit the living multiverse which he is achieving through spreading anti-matter which is coming in the form of a large energy wave. It seems as though the Anti-Monitor wants to use Harbinger to thwart the Monitor’s and the heroes plan to save the multiverse.

The Anti-Monitor’s design looks really neat, and there are a series of small details that help differentiate himself from the Monitor on a visual standpoint which is awesome to see.

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Characters

   Superman Returns

It is incredible to think that Brandon Routh is reprising his role as Kal-El from thirteen years ago. Routh’s portrayal of the same Superman he played which continued from the Christopher Reeves films was amazing to see. He still evoked the same charismatic yet awkward nature of Clark Kent of those films. The continuation of this character, and seeing how he has changed due to the result of a dark past was interesting to watch, as it diverted my expectations for the character and this world that had been adapted.

It appears that in this universe, although Clark has lost everyone, his and Lois' son from Superman returns is still alive, which I suppose is the driving force keeping this version of Clark on Earth. 

One of my favorite scenes in this episode with the character is when he met his doppelganger, Ray Palmer. Brandon Routh’s portrayal of Superman has been teased before in the Arrowverse, and now it has been paid off. Ray and Clark’s personality bouncing off each other is really neat to see as they are both the most polite characters in their respective ways. 

The Kingdom Come Superman suit on Brandon Routh looks amazing. The coloration of the lighter blue, the red underwear, the black, and red emblem all look so amazing in live-action. I love it when suits can be taken right out of the comics and still retain a sleek, modernized, and fashionable look in live-action.

   The Bat of the Future

Kevin Conroy as Bruce Wayne of Earth-99 was brilliant. If you do not know, Conroy was the voice of Batman from “Batman: The Animated Series” (1992-1995). Conroy has also done the voice of Batman in other animated films (some of which tie into the series), and video games. The portrayal of this older Batman is reminiscent of the Kingdom Come Batman, where Bruce Wayne was more beaten up and past his prime.

It was great seeing Conroy portraying a live-action version of Batman, and it was great seeing the twist. At first, I thought that this a live-action adaptation of the Animated Series Batman, however, with the absence of Terry McGennis, it appears that this is not the case.

I really enjoyed this version of Batman on screen, with the twist and all. I am glad that Kevin Conroy got to portray Batman, and I hope that he does come back at some point in the Arrowverse later on as a different, better Batman, maybe with a Terry by his side.

   Jonah Hex

The inclusion of Jonah Hex was surprising. I love the character of Jonah Hex, and it was great that he appeared on an Earth where his Earth-1 counterpart would fit in. Earth-18 in the comics is set in a very Western era. So it was great that there was that reference. I would have liked a more remixed version of Jonah, one who differentiated a little more from his Earth-1 counterpart apart from the scaring. But nevertheless, this was a great surprise.

   Heatwave and the Captain Cold A.I of Earth-74

Earth-74 was an interesting twist to bringing in the Waverider and Heatwave into the fold of the crossover. At first when Sara said “I promised them they didn’t have to do any more crossovers,” I thought this was a weak excuse to not include the entire Legends of Tomorrow cast in most of the crossover. However, I realized that in the last crossover the Legends were involved in, Martin Stein died. So I suppose that trauma would have left the Legends in not wanting to be too involved in crossover.

I do wish that Heatwave was changed a little more. If Mick had his Kronos suit from season one of Legends, we could have seen a distinctly different version of Mick compared to his Earth-1 counterpart. The Captain Cold A.I was such a genius way to bring Wentworth Miller back into the fold of the Arrowverse without him appearing. We have already seen a couple versions of Captain Cold, so it was neat to see a twist with his return.

   Tom Welling’s Superman

Although short-lived, Tom Welling’s return as Superman was amazing to see. It was a shame that he was not bought fully into the fold of the conflict and we did not see him suit up as a fully formed Superman, however, this was still a neat catch up with the character. Within the eight years of the character being Superman, he retired to become a father. I thought this was a really neat twist to the character in the crossover. It gave him a worthy reason to not be involved in the crossover, and for Lex not killing this version of Superman.

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Conclusion

In conclusion, this part of the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover was a joy to watch. The introduction of the concept of the paragon, Superman-96, and the tease of the Anti-Monitor was great to watch. This being a Batwoman episode, there was a focus on her storyline, however, it did find a balance, which was better than the first part. I am really enjoying the crossover so far, and I hope going into the Flash, Legends, and Arrow episodes we explore more of the characters who made the crossovers possible.

   Rating: 8.7/ 10

What did you think of the episode? Comment below your favorite scene and Superman. As always, thanks for reading, take care.