Crisis on Infinite Earths (potential spoilers)

[Kevin M.]

There was much to find really cool and genuinely awesome about the first part of the mini-series/crossover event, and there was much to be critical of. 

The DC universe is really good at crossovers, I feel more so than the Marvel universe, but then again (no disrespect to the late Stan Lee) I typically find DC characters more compelling than Marvel characters. My favorite crossover event in the comics was Kingdom Come, which dynamically explored the future of men and women in capes in an original and poignant way. Crisis does not appear at first glance to be either original or poignant, but part one was fun to watch. 

Not being a regular viewer of the CW shows, there was much I did not know in terms of backstory. That Superman was living off-world with Lois and their baby, for instance, I suspect the result of the last crossover storyline which I neglected to watch. I also don’t know much about the supporting characters on Supergirl, so the tension between two women building a device to help save humans was largely lost on me. But that’s not really the writer’s fault. After all, as some of the guest stars and characters slated to appear in the Crisis series were from decades ago; I suspect younger viewers won’t catch the Easter eggs featuring them either. To wit, Robert Wuhl briefly reprising his role as Knox from the Burton Batman movie was a quick, amusing callback to a film I didn’t even especially like. 

The plot... that there is a thing wiping out all universes... isn’t really a plot. It brings to mind the line from Dr. McCoy in the first Star Trek movie, “Why is any object we don’t understand always called A Thing?” It’s a device to gather the characters, to assemble the team, but it’s nothing we ought to bother investing too much in. After all, they are superheroes, and the actors who play them have signed contracts, so it is likely they will save the day and Earth(s) will survive. 

I’ve watched a couple episodes of Batwoman, and of the DC shows currently on air, it is by far my favorite, mostly because it’s covering a character that hasn’t been explored on TV before. But she didn’t do much in part one. The only hero who got to really act the part of a hero was Green Arrow. Again, I don’t know the story of his daughter or his friendship to the Flash, but it was well acted and told in an interesting way. Batwoman and the “Legends” were just sort of there. 

The biggest struggle in DC crossovers are always the Kyptonians, because they are virtually indestructible, so the writers have to go out of their way to give them something to focus on or the less-super heroes don’t have much to do. Frankly, they should have sent Clark to go after his son with Lois... it felt out of character for him to let his family fend for itself, even in the face of planetary armageddon. Supergirl was always a poorly conceived character to me. Superman was the last son of Krypton, and giving him a cousin made him less unique, and DC has always struggled to make Supergirl not just a female Superman. They certainly flushed out the character on the CW series over the years, but the character still feels like she’s in Superman’s shadow. 

The shadow demons were nothing more than a horrible, hack writing device to give allow the superheroes to kick ass without risking an adults-only TV rating by having them kill anything with a soul. It was, hands down, the worst element of the story, and it made it feel like there really was no story... at least not yet. But it is always fun to see a big group of superheroes fighting alongside each other. 

As for the story, it ended in a sort of Battlestar Galactica sort of way, with a rag-tag fleet of ships filled with humans fleeing the big bad enemy, destination unknown. It’s potentially a good setup, but also has the potential for a big letdown. 

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Kevin M. (RPCV)

[M-D November]

Kevin - I can expand on some of your other points when I have more time, but most of your complaints about the crossover story (the antimatter wave, the Shadow Demons, etc.) come straight out of the comic event of the same name, and are not inventions of Greg Berlanti and his writers. Please address your complaints to DC Comics, circa 1985, New York, NY.

[Kevin M.]

On Wed, Dec 11, 2019 at 10:57 AM M-D November <mdnov...@gmail.com> wrote:

Kevin - I can expand on some of your other points when I have more time, but most of your complaints about the crossover story (the antimatter wave, the Shadow Demons, etc.) come straight out of the comic event of the same name, and are not inventions of Greg Berlanti and his writers.  Please address your complaints to DC Comics, circa 1985, New York, NY.

That’s fair. In which case the comic series storyline wasn’t well-written. It happens. Often.

I’ll write up part two later. Despite the at-times weak storyline, it is still fun to watch. 

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Kevin M. (RPCV)

[Kevin M.]

I’ve now watched through part three. First, a note to the folks at the iTunes Store. Supergirl lists it as “Part 1“, Batwoman lists it as “Pt. 2”, and The Flash lists it as “Part Three”. For someone with mild OCD like me, that makes me want to punch somebody. 

SPOILERS AHEAD...

As with the first part, there are reasons to praise the second and third installments, and reasons to want to punch somebody. I was most looking forward to seeing (not just hearing) Kevin Conroy as Bruce Wayne. He did not disappoint... but his part of the story did. I’d read enough spoilers to know he was not going to put on the cape and cowl, but I still wanted him — to the extent it was possible — to BE Batman. Failing that, I wanted him to be the Bruce Wayne from Batman Beyond. So I was disappointed that his character turned out to be anything but heroic. Contrast that with the part played by John Wesley Shipp, who was The Flash in the largely forgettable 1990s TV series; his “Earth 90” Flash was given a fun character arc, complete with a flashback featuring the always lovely Amanda Pays (familiar to fans of Max Headroom).

A note about Lex Luthor: A little goes a long way. I like Jon Cryer, but the smug-factor of Lex is ratcheted way too high. That said, his interaction with the Smallville Superman was tremendous fun.

Good usage of Black Lightning, though I’m reminded of the Apache Chief episode of Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law when Black Vulcan took umbrage to his race being a part of his name, stating “Maybe we should just call [AquaMan] White Fish!”

The Green Arrow in purgatory storyline seemed like padding, almost like they wound up with a few too many SuperFriends, and had to give a few of them something to do. 

Batwoman has at least remained a constant character. Supergirl acts brave in one installment, puzzled in another, and despondent in another. Batwoman remains resolute, with a chip on her shoulder, but ready to do whatever needs doing. 

I confess that when the musical score incorporated a bit of John Williams’ Superman theme, I choked up a bit. Maybe because Williams has a way with music that transcends all other mortal men, or maybe because it evoked a bit of the positive, bright Superman from my youth, or both. Superman was always intended to exist in a positive, well-lit universe, and although it would be almost sacrilegious to CGI Christopher Reeve or even George Reeves into the Crisis series of episodes, I kind of wish they’d do it.  

I could extrapolate plot-holes and continuity issues, but that’s a more pedantic level of criticism than I’m prepared to share. Ultimately, the Crisis crossover ought to be fun, and despite some issues, it 

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Kevin M. (RPCV)

[Kevin M.]

I’ve now watched all five parts of the crisis crossover. Overall I dug it. The fifth part was probably my favorite of them all because it was fun. Although they can make all kinds of big explosions and other effects now that weren’t possible in the early days of superhero movies and TV shows (I remember back in the ‘90s seeing what it took to make Dean Cain’s yuppie Superman fly... those effects can now be achieved on most mobile devices), something missing from a lot of the recent big budget superhero stories is the fun factor. Yeah, the earth is in danger, yeah grief is hard, but kicking super-villain ass is supposed to be fun, and I think the finale captured that. My only real criticism of the finale is Batwoman had very little to do. If nothing else, watch the last two minutes of the finale; it features two nods to the SuperFriends animated series. 

When Supergirl debuted on CBS, I felt the actress who played her looked way too immature for the role, but Melissa Benoist has definitely grown into the cape... and pants. The crisis series was centered around hope, and Supergirl was the paragon of hope. As hope is in short supply in the real world, it was nice to see it portrayed well on the small screen. 

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Kevin M. (RPCV)