It’s that time of the year again: the Arrowverse crossover. Each year it gets bigger and bigger! The first crossover, "Flash vs. Arrow" event pitted Barry and Oliver facing off against each other. The next crossover event “Heroes Join Forces” introducing us to Vandal Savage (remember him?) and helped set up the Legends of Tomorrow as well. The following crossover, “Invasion!” had the key players of The Flash, Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, and even Supergirl joining to face off against an alien invasion of the Dominators (real deep cut for DC fans). Last year’s crossover the “Crisis on Earth-X” in which there was an earth where the Nazis won World War II, and heroes from the Arrowverse faced off against their Nazi Earth-X counterparts.
Each year, the crossover events were getting bigger and bigger. So how would this year’s “Elseworlds” stack up?
It was very interesting taking the title “Elseworlds” for the crossover event. Comic fans know that Elseworlds was a publication imprint for stories that exist outside of the DC canon. It kinda functioned as a “What If” comic like “Batman: In Darkest Knight,” where Batman became Green Lantern, or “Daredevil/Batman: Eye for an Eye,” where Batman and his Marvel counterpart Daredevil and he team up to take on their different nemesis Two-Face and Mr. Hyde. So perhaps this crossover even was going to be just a non-canon adventure that has nothing to do the current events going on in the Arrowverse?
Nope, Elseworlds just sounds like a cool name!
The entire crossover consists of the concept of “something’s wrong with reality.” And it quickly shows that by having Barry Allen and Oliver Queen have seemingly swapped identities and everyone they know thinks they are the opposite. Oliver wakes up in bed with Iris with her thinking that he’s Barry Allen. The same goes for Barry as he’s sparing with Diggle and then realizing that he’s being called Oliver and now has the fighting skill of the Green Arrow. Realizing something is wrong (and they don’t want the other to end up sleeping with their wives), the two head to STAR Labs to see if they can get to the bottom of what’s going on. The problem is, everyone thinks they are crazy and quickly knock them out. Soon enough, they realize that there might be some truth and Iris lets them leave. Barry thinks that this might be a multiverse problem. To put that theory to the test, he and Oliver breach to Earth-38 to visit Kara.
While everything seems to be fine on Earth-38, an android with the ability to copy metahuman powers on Earth-1 has escaped. Cisco and Caitlin try and stop it with no success as it quickly copies their powers and defeats them. Barry and Oliver are called back to Earth-1 to deal with the android Cisco named AMAZO (for Anti-Metahuman Adaptive Zootomic Organism). Because it has the ability to replicate powers, this is going to need to be a team effort. Oliver uses his new Speed Force powers in conjunction with Clark and Kara’s Kryptonian powers to subdue the android in a clever way. This sets up for Barry to pull out his arrow and utter Oliver’s famous line “You Have Failed This City,” meaning that Barry/Oliver are starting to bleed into each other, even their personalities. Needing to figure out what’s really going on, Cisco had Barry and Oliver vibe where they saw a vision of Deegan and the mysterious person, and they happen to be in Gotham City…
On Arrow, Barry, Oliver and Kara head to Gotham City (that’s a first of the Arrowverse). The red lightning that was happening in Central City previously has followed them to Gotham. Turns out the red lightning was Earth-90 Barry trying to breach through and warn them of everything. While we are used to how Gotham City is on the show Gotham, the Arrowverse’s version is just a little different (still corrupt, just brighter). Oliver doesn’t believe in Batman and considers him an urban legend. It’s a little tongue-in-cheek that he is the only urban vigilante there is. They quickly find out that Gotham City is a little rough on the edges as a group of people start a fight with them, only for all of them to quickly get arrested by the police. They are bailed out by a mysterious benefactor, who then sends for a limo to pick them up. The person is revealed to be Kate Kane (played by Ruby Rose), who DC fans know as Batwoman. She knows Oliver Queen’s reputation as the Green Arrow and tells them to hurry up with their business in Gotham City as the city has enough problems and doesn’t need the Green Arrow making things worse.
There, they run into Earth-90’s Flash, who tells them about the man behind the curtain. The mysterious character is known as “The Monitor” and he is a dangerous person threating all of reality. They then head off to face against The Monitor, who then tells them that he is doing all this. He is doing all this in order to “test” each world for an upcoming crisis. They each try and face off against The Monitor, but he’s way too powerful and continues to teleport them out of harm's way. The Monitor then leaves and takes the book with him. He gives it back to Deegan and tells him that he’s thinking too small and to “think bigger.” Deegan then opens the book, and reality is rewritten once again. Barry and Oliver wake up without their abilities and see a news headline describing the two of them as the “Trigger Twins” (another great DC reference), two wanted criminals. Just then they are chased down, by a black-suited Superman!
Barry and Oliver realize that this reality is upside down, make a correct guess that Cisco is not going to be the friendly member of Team Flash is normally is. Instead, they find out that he’s a criminal kingpin. They head to a bar in search of him. One of his goons turns out to be James Olson and the bartender is none other than Gary from Legends of Tomorrow. Cisco at first, has no time for them and orders James to kill them. It’s only when Barry mentions his brother, Cisco realizes that something’s going on. He uses his Breach powers to head to Earth-38 and tells Clark about Earth-1 and that they can’t find Kara. Kara meanwhile, has been hidden in STAR Labs’ prison under guard of an Earth-1 new version of her sister Alex, just to taunt her even more.
In the aftermath, it looks like reality has been corrected and all is well. However, Kate Kane contacts the team telling them that Deegan is now a patient at Arkham Asylum and he has made a new friend. While we don’t see who it us under the mask, DC fans know it’s Psycho-Pirate. But the more important thing is what he says: “worlds will live, worlds will die and the universe will never be the same." We are then treated to a graphic that says the 2019 crossover event will be “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” which is a major event in DC comics. DC has always labeled events “Pre-Crisis” and “Post-Crisis” and the DC universe fundamentally changed, including the changing of the multiverse. Don’t be surprised that next year we will see all the characters (even from Black Lightning) all fighting the Anti-Monitor, the villain that The Monitor was teasing during Elseworlds, and we may even see the multiverse streamlined into just one earth in the aftermath. Don’t be surprised if we see either solo series for Batwoman or Superman, as they both did a great job! Either way, this was a great crossover!
