The CW has released a new teaser for “Crisis on Infinite Earths” — this time centering on Black Lightning — and it’s the most spoilery one we’ve seen yet, with a massive revelation coming in the middle of the teaser as well as Cress Williams sharing the screen with a legendary DC TV icon. You can check it out above, via Entertainment Weekly. You can check it out above, but again — be aware that there is at least one potentially huge spoiler in the ad. Still, that spoiler explains very clearly why Jefferson Pierce (Cress Williams) would leave Freeland behind to run to another world and fight a space god.
Ready? Watched it? Or else turned back? Okay, great. Let’s talk about it.
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In the ad above, Jefferson says to The Flash that “you tell me my world is over, and you need my help?” It sounds, then, like the Earth that he and his family live on has been destroyed by the Anti-Monitor and that Jefferson was — much like Laurel Lance of Earth-2 — rescued at the last moment in order to play a specific role in the crossover. The hero will appear on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow during “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” and per EW, his character will be called in to do something only Jefferson can do and will be key to winning the day.
He also, as you can see above, ends up face to face with the Flash of Earth-90, played by John Wesley Shipp. Just two guys, riding some lightning together while everything goes to hell.
“Crisis on Infinite Earths” has loomed over the Arrowverse for years. The series premiere of The Flash featured an allusion to the hero disappearing amid red skies in the year 2024. During the original comics event, red skies were a sign of doom to come to a world during the Crisis. At the end of last season, a couple of things happened: The Monitor (LaMonica Garrett), who had appeared in “Elseworlds,” reappeared and revealed that Oliver Queen was destined to die in the Crisis…and the future newspaper at STAR Labs rolled back the expected date of the Crisis from 2024 to 2019.
In the comics, Crisis on Infinite Earths centered on a battle between the combined superheroes (and even some villains) of the DC multiverse and an immortal, cosmic threat known as the Anti-Monitor. Like The Monitor, the Anti-Monitor will be played by LaMonica Garrett in the Arrowverse. As the Anti-Monitor destroys realities, he replaces their positive matter energy with antimatter, growing his own power and sphere of influence. He was eventually stopped by the sacrifices of several heroes, including The Flash and Supergirl, as well as the merging of multiple universes to save reality by becoming a single, unified timeline. Fans have long wondered whether the events of “Crisis on Infinite Earths” might bring Supergirl and even Black Lightning to Earth-1, where the rest of the series take place. The crossover will also feature guest appearances by Tom Welling as Clark Kent, Erica Durance as Lois Lane, John Wesley Shipp as the Flash of Earth-90, Johnathon Schaech as Jonah Hex, Kevin Conroy as Bruce Wayne, and Ashley Scott as The Huntress.
“Crisis on Infinite Earths” kicks off on Sunday, December 8 on Supergirl, runs through a Monday episode of Batwoman and that Tuesday’s episode of The Flash. That will be the midseason cliffhanger, as the shows go on hiatus for the holidays and return on January 14 to finish out the event with the midseason premiere of Arrow and a “special episode” of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, which launches as a midseason series this year and so will not have an episode on the air before the Crisis.
