If you’re at all familiar with Marv Wolfman and George Perez’s comic book storyline from the 1980s, then you know how its ultimate goal was to streamline DC Comics continuity down to one coherent universe. Given that, we fully expect for The CW’s “Crisis on Infinite Earths” adaptation to do likewise with the Arrowverse. In other words, we may not be using terms like “Earth-2” or “Earth-38” in 2020.
Thanks to a quote coming out of San Diego Comic-Con, we can now confirm that some parallel universes are going to get seriously wrecked, most likely by the formidable Anti-Monitor, who’ll be played by LaMonica Garrett. Here’s what executive producer Marc Guggenheim told ComicBook.com about the crossover’s opening moments:
“Basically, we’re gonna begin — this is an exclusive — we’re gonna begin the way Crisis on Infinite Earths the comic begins, which is the destruction of various parallel universes. And the goal is for us to adapt key moments from the comic, those seminal moments.”
One possibility that springs to mind is that the Kingdom Come universe finds itself destroyed, thereby forcing the hand of the version of Superman being played by Brandon Routh during the prime time extravaganza. But whether or not that serves as his motivation for getting in the game, Guggenheim did say comic book readers are in for some familiar treats:
“In fact, yesterday I pitched to the network what the story was going to be and the best part of the pitch, we have a board that DC made up for me, which is covers from key issues of Crisis on Infinite Earths. And we’re like, ‘We’re gonna do our version of this, we’re gonna do our version of this, we’re gonna do our version of this.’ Our goal is, the thing we’ve been saying, is we’re going to make a list of a 100 cool things that we want to do. And even if we only get to do 50, we’re still doing 50 cool things.”
Considering how the most arguably iconic cover from “Crisis on Infinite Earths” shows Superman holding a dead Supergirl in his arms, I’m not so sure everything can be replicated. Then again, Kal-El could merely wind up clutching his cousin in an unconscious state to satisfy those who get the reference.
Either way, Guggenheim knows the pressure, saying, “This needs to be special. This is the Holy Grail of DC comic book stories, in my opinion, and we cannot screw this up.” Given the track record of he and his cohorts, I have faith they’ll pull it off.
