Earlier today, The CW revealed the title and key art for 2017’s Arrowverse crossover event, “Crisis on Earth-X.”
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“With all of the heroes in town to celebrate Barry and Iris’s wedding, villains from Earth-X crash the festivities with a deadly agenda.”
The heroes and villains of Earth-X will also appear on Freedom Fighters: The Ray, an animated series set on Earth-X and starring The Ray. No word yet on whether or not Uncle Sam, The Ray, and the other Freedom Fighters might show up to aid the superheroes in their battle.
The story will cross over between Supergirl, The Flash, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, and Arrow, and will air on November 27 and 28, starting at 8 p.m. ET/PT each night.
…but taking a look at that just-released key art by comics legend Phil Jimenez, what did we learn?
Well…!
Who’s not there?
We’ll start out easy, pointing out some of the obvious omissions from the poster.
John Diggle and Felicity Smoak are nowhere to be found; ditto Harrison Wells, Joe West, J’Onn J’Onzz, Alex Danvers, James Olsen, etc.
In all likelihood this is a matter of practicality: Jimenez wanted to homage Justice League of America #207, which featured the disembodied heads of various Justice League and Justice Society members reacting to a Nazi supervillain. That eliminates non-costumed folks (Wells, West, Alex, Felicity) from consideration and leaves open the question of why certain charcters were selected for inclusion rather than Guardian, Spartan, and Martian Manhunter.
All in all, the answer could be a number of things. It could, legitimately, be that those characters do not have a major role in the crossover for one reason or another, or it could be simply that they were omitted for space on the poster. One or more of them could plausibly have new costumes coming that the studio didn’t want to spoil this far in advance of the start of the seasons in 3 weeks.
The non-spoilage answer could be used to explain Diggle’s and Felicity’s absence from the poster, except that the rest of Team Arrow are present, including Mr. Terrific, who had not previously been confirmed to have survived the explosion at the end of season 5.
Speedy was in the crossover last year, but fans noted that Willa Holland’s season-regular contract only seemed to have her in 13 or so out of the 23 episodes, and so her absence here could indicate she died on Lian Yu, or it could just be that she’s not in the crossover for practical reasons.
Perhaps the most interesting question — since they tend to get killed a lot in the comics and we saw them take some losses in the trailer for The Ray’s animated series — is where the rest of
Killer Frost
Killer Frost has been an odd character since her emergence.
For years, fans wanted to know how and when Caitlin Snow would become Killer Frost, and wondered if something would drive her to evil.
Instead of being driven there, Killer Frost arrived more or less fully-formed as evil, with a semblance of the character’s personality from Earth-2 seemingly taking her over as soon as she developed powers.
In the “Crisis on Earth-X” poster, we see that she is siding with the heroes against their doppelgangers, which is obviously a welcome move but it begs the question: just how will she be handled on The Flash this season?
We have seen Caitlin tending bar and a scene in a trailer with Killer Frost that suggests she is not interested in being a part of Team Flash…but she does not seem to be bad anymore.
So, what’s her deal?
Captain Cold is Back
…Speaking of cold-themed characters who have a difficult time deciding what side they’re on, Captain Cold is back — and he’s working with the Legends to repel the Nazis.
There has been a lot of buzz about Wentworth Miller being back on Legends of Tomorrow at some point this season, although it was not clear whether his revival would be temporary or permanent, and whether it would be part of a single story or the result of time-travel shenanigans.
What we do know, now, is that he will be appearing in the crossover.
The Ray
The Ray arrives on Earth-1 (we assume, anyway, since Barry and Iris’s wedding is the backdrop for all of this) from Earth-X, presumably to help our heroes fight off the advance of his nemeses.
This will be the character’s live action debut.
“Raymond “Ray” Terrill was a reporter who discovered a group of government scientists working on a secret project to turn light into a weapon of mass destruction. But before he could report on his findings, the project head exposed Ray to a “genetic light bomb.” The bomb failed to kill him and instead gifted Ray with light-based powers.
With these abilities, Ray realized he could go beyond reporting on injustice — he could take action to help stop it. Calling himself The Ray, he was recruited by Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters to fight violence and oppression wherever it exists.”
How long he will stay, now that he has shown up on Earth-1, is anybody’s guess.
The villains
On the poster, our heroes are fighting Earth-X versions of themselves, with Nazi-inspired uniforms and strange masks on each hero.
Given the fact that all of them are wearing those masks, the absence of mind-reader J’Onn J’Onzz might indicate that these heroes are not inherently evil, but somehow controlled — but that is probably a stretch considering that the trailer for The Ray featured the Earth-X versions of the characters without the masks.
What purpose do they serve, then? Hard to say.
Equally difficult to discern is who might be the guy facing off with Vixen at the bottom. is that the Earth-X version of Malcolm Merlyn? Prometheus? Or someone with ties to Vixen’s past?
Fans can find out on November 27 and 28.
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