In the recap for part 1 of “Crisis on Infinite Earths”, the anti-matter wave destroys several worlds as Harbinger arrives to gather the heroes to prepare for battle…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
If there were any questions about the stakes going into the massive “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover, those answers were given in the opening hour during Sunday night’s episode of “Supergirl.”
While it has been teased for the past year that Oliver Queen aka Arrow would die before “Crisis on Infinite Earths” was finished, nobody expected that his death would occur during the opening hour of the series.
But that’s exactly what happened as Oliver desperately tried to save as many people as possible on Earth-38 while waiting for the inevitable wave of anti-matter to sweep across the planet that once served as home to Supergirl and the DEO. Defiant as ever, Oliver made his last stand trying to ensure more people were able to escape the planet before it was destroyed.
In the end, Oliver was harmed beyond repair and his death at the close of the episode set the stage for what has been promised as a true game changer for The CW Arrow-verse.
With that said, let’s get to our recap of “Supergirl” for the first hour of the “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover…
World’s Collide
Crisis has been teased for the better part of a year ever since the Monitor first appeared in the “Elseworlds” crossover as he sought to test the heroes from across the multiverse to see if they were truly ready for the battle ahead. To save his friends Barry and Kara, Oliver Queen agreed to work with the Monitor knowing that when the fight was finished, he would not survive.
As the episode opened tonight, an explanation was given about the start of the universe and the vast multiverse that exploded out of nothing. Now it’s all being threatened by a wave of anti-matter thrashing its way across the multi-verse, destroying world after world until only one is left where the Anti-Monitor hopes to rule.
The wave of anti-matter wipes out several worlds in the opening moments, which include a couple of surprising cameos that had never been teased before.
Alexander Knox (Robert Wuh) popped up on Earth-89 — aka the world where Tim Burton’s “Batman” exists with Michael Keaton in the lead role — and he looks up at the Bat symbol just as the anti-matter wave arrives to wipe out the planet.
On Earth-66, Dick Grayson (Burt Ward) is walking his dog but with a holy crimson wave, the home where “Batman” from 1966 exists has been destroyed.
The Titans are also part of this expansive multiverse where we find Robin and Hawk just before the anti-matter wave comes crashing around Earth-9 where they exist.
Earth-X, previously seen in a past crossover, is also wiped out along with The Ray, who makes a brief appearance just before his world is no more.
Finally we end up on Earth-38, which is the home world to Supergirl and her cast of characters and they are experiencing extreme earthquakes and other unexplainable phenomenon that has everybody up in harms. Some people, including a guest appearance from Wil Wheaton, believe the end is nigh.
As Kara returns to the DEO, she finds out from her old pal J’onn J’onzz that a crisis is coming — he learned after meeting the Monitor last week — and a wave of anti-matter is sweeping across the multiverse. The next stop is Earth-38 but not before the anti-matter gets to Argo — the planet where the remnants of Krypton exist along with Kara’s mother Alura as well as her cousin Clark and his wife Lois after they relocated there to raise a family where he no longer had to be Superman.
Sadly, the anti-matter wave means their happy existence will be dashed and with time running out until Argo is destroyed, Clark and Lois are only concerned with saving their son Jonathan. Thanks to some help from Alura, they are able to put Jonathan on board a pod bound for Earth but that’s the only rescue ship capable of escaping the planet before the anti-matter wave arrives.
So Clark and Lois send their son to be saved before the anti-matter wave crushes the planet. In one fell swoop, Kara loses her mother and her cousin.
As all of this is happening, Lyla assumes her true form as Harbinger — the agent of the Monitor — and her job is to gather heroes from across the multi-verse in order to make a stand against the anti-matter wave bound for Earth-38. She brings Olive Queen and his daughter Mia along with Batwoman, the Flash, the Atom and White Canary from the Legends of Tomorrow.
While she sends a few of them on a reconnaissance mission, the rest of the heroes are tasked with protecting a Quantum Tower — the only weapon that can stop or slow down the anti-matter wave coming for all of them. But the Anti-Monitor has sent his shadow demons to destroy the tower so his work can be completed by destroying this Earth.
When the Monitor finally arrives, he brings Superman and Lois with him. He rescued them just before Argo was destroyed but not before Kara’s mother Alura was lost as part of the anti-matter wave that wiped out several billion people.
There’s no time for grieving because Kara now has to spring into action to protect this Quantum Tower while Brainy helps locate where baby Jonathan disappeared after he was rescued from Argo before the planet was destroyed. It seems Jonathan’s pod slipped off course and went through a wormhole that sent him to Earth-16 in the year 2046. So Lois, Brainy and Sara (White Canary) take a portal to that world while everybody else stays behind to protect the Quantum Tower.
The Wave of Mutilation
Before the fighting begins, Oliver shares a moment with his daughter Mia where he finally helps make her into a hero after making an Arrow costume just for her. Oliver knows his fate is sealed in this upcoming conflict and he believes Star City should always have an Arrow as a protector.
Once the shadow demons arrive, the fighting starts as the heroes attempt to protect the Quantum Tower while Superman and Supergirl rush off to stop the horrific natural disasters that are threatening live all over the planet as a result of the anti-matter wave coming for all of them.
With no guarantee that the Quantum Tower will ward off the anti-matter wave, J’onn helps to orchestrate a Plan B, which involves gathering as many alien ships as possible from the planet to export people to another Earth in case this one doesn’t survive. The only problem is there’s no portal big enough where all of these people could escape on these ships.
That means Alex has to call on Lena Luthor to create the portal but they are barely on speaking terms after she tried to use the Myriad technology to implant mind control on every person on Earth as she attempted to subdue violent tendencies in humanity. The idea may have been noble but it was a highly invasive plan that was eventually thwarted by Supergirl and the DEO. Lena slipped free of the charges after her former assistant took the fall for the crime.
Reluctantly, Lena agrees to help only so she can save all of the people from Earth-38 who will die if the anti-matter wave hits. She creates a portal big enough to send the ships while J’onn and Nia get people on board in order to facilitate the mass evacuation of Earth-38.
Meanwhile, the battle rages on as the heroes do their best to fight back against the Anti-Monitor’s shadow demons but it’s a battle they cannot win, even after Superman, Supergirl and the Flash return to the battle.
On Earth-16, Lois finds baby Jonathan safe and sound but the group also interacts with a future version of Oliver Queen, who is an older and more somber version of Arrow these days. He shares a special moment with Sara, who died on his world after he was unable to save her. It provides some closure for this version of Oliver 27 years into the future before the group takes baby Jonathan and returns to Earth-38.
Unfortunately, the battle is already unwinnable and the Monitor is forced to rescue the heroes in order to fight another day. He pulls them out one by one before bringing them to a different Earth but Oliver refuses to leave until everybody has been evacuated.
He continues to fight while knowing there’s no way he can defeat the shadow demons sent by the Anti-Monitor.
Back on Earth-1, the rest of the heroes have reconvened when the Monitor shows up with Oliver’s beaten and broken body. He’s near death and the team is shocked to see that he’s seconds away from leaving this world. Before dying, Oliver shares a moment with his daughter and reminds Barry that he’s the best of them before he expires.
Oliver Queen is dead.
Before he died, Oliver managed to ensure that 3 billion people from Earth-38 were saved while over 4 billion more died during the anti-matter wave that crushed the planet.
The shocking moment is not lost on the heroes, who are obviously stunned to see their friend die at the very start of this fight for the universe. Nash Wells aka Pariah also makes an appearance at the end of the episode. Throughout this season on “The Flash”, Nash has been searching for the Monitor in order to kill him but his life is eventually spared by the seemingly omnipotent being and in turn he pledges his loyalty to him. Sadly, Nash finds out too late that when he unlocks a chamber where he sought to find the Monitor, he actually unleashed the Anti-Monitor and that’s what set this entire atrocity into motion.
The Monitor is equally as stunned by the events that have just unfolded, He knew that Oliver was going to die during the Crisis but he didn’t foresee that it would happen so suddenly, which means perhaps everything he has predicted will not come true and the multiverse can’t be saved.
“Everything we know, everything there is, and everything there ever was, is doomed.”
The fight to save the multiverse will continue with the next episode of the “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover on Monday night during a special time for “Batwoman” as the heroes seeks to stop the Anti-Monitor before he crushes every planet in his wake.
