Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Spectre Reveal Fulfills A Promise Made in the Arrow Pilot

With the release of a new poster for the final night of The CW's "Crisis on Infinite Earths," Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) stands revealed at the center of the action as The Spectre, and it gives a completely different context to the opening monologue that he has delivered in every episode of Arrow so far this season. In order to prevent the Crisis, he has been saying, Oliver needed to become something else...and he, quite literally, has as the show closes in on its final episodes later this month. Yes, it's a part of his monologue that has been there almost every season, but this time...well, it just feels different.

The Spectre is a cosmic entity, powerful enough that writer Marv Wolfman felt the need to clarify in-story that he was significantly de-powered during the Crisis on Infinite Earths comics, likely so that he did not have to get into a larger conversation about whether The Spectre (who is often represented as the personification of God's wrath) is or is not more powerful than the Anti-Monitor. His late entry into the story certainly helped to shift the balance of power away from the Anti-Monitor, though (along with various other things, including a hurting put on the villain by Supergirl and the Earth-2 Superman). In the comics, The Spectre needs a human host to keep the wrath under control -- and while it is usually Jim Corrigan, that character briefly appeared in the third part of "Crisis on Infinite Earths" and recruited Oliver Queen to replace him.

In so doing, he fulfilled the idea that Oliver would -- in a very literal way -- "become something else" in the show's final season. And that's interesting not just because it's in the season eight monologue, but because aside from "my name is Oliver Queen," it is one of the most consistent features of Arrow's monologues since the beginning.

You can check them out below:

Season 1 - My name is Oliver Queen. For five years, I was stranded on an island with only one goal: survive. Now I will fulfill my father's dying wish - to use the list of names he left me and bring down those who are poisoning my city. To do this, I must become someone else. I must become something else.

Season 2 - My name is Oliver Queen. After five years on a hellish island, I have come home with only one goal: To save my city. But to do so, I can't be the killer I once was. To honor my friend's memory, I must be someone else. I must be something else.

Season 3 - My name is Oliver Queen. After five years in hell, I have come home with only one goal: to save my city. Now others have joined my crusade. To them, I'm Oliver Queen. To the rest of Starling City, I am someone else. I am something else.

Season 4 - My name is Oliver Queen. After five years in hell, I returned home with only one goal: To save my city. But my old approach wasn't enough. I had to become someone else. I had to become something else. I had to become the Green Arrow.

Season 5 - My name is Oliver Queen. After five years in hell, I returned home with only one goal: To save my city. Today I fight that war on two fronts. By day, I lead Star City as its mayor. But by night, I am someone else. I am something else. I am the Green Arrow.

Season 6 - My name is Oliver Queen. After 5 years in hell, I have returned home with only one goal, to save my city. But I couldn't honor that commitment and honor the promise I made to the mother of my son. So I asked the best man that I know to help. His name is John Diggle and he is the Green Arrow.

Season 7a - My name is Oliver Queen. After six years of being a vigilante, the only way to achieve my goal and save my city was to confess to being the Green Arrow. Now, my family and friends must carry on my mission without me. I am no longer a hero. I am an Inmate 4587.

Season 7b - My name is Oliver Queen. After six months in hell, I have been released from prison and returned home with only one goal, to save my city, but things have changed. Instead of operating outside the law, I am now working alongside the police. I am no longer Inmate 4587. I am once more the Green Arrow.

Season 8 - My name is Oliver Queen. For 7 years I have fought with only one goal: to save my city. But now a new threat has emerged: a danger so severe, it has forced me to leave my family in order to face it. And it won't be enough for me to just be the Green Arrow. To prevent the Crisis that's coming, I'm going to have to become someone else — I'm going to have to become something else.

So, for the first five seasons -- his five years in "purgatory" -- he had to become "something else." Finally in seasons six and seven, he was relatively secure in who and what he was, and served as the mayor and the Green Arrow as well as serving some time in prison. The "something else" was removed, maybe because he had already become, in those first five seasons, what he needed to be.

But in the final season, that notion returned -- and it went back to being the final thought, with Amell's delivery emphasizing the "something" in "something else." At first it seemed like it was just a nod to the series' decision to return to the show's roots for its final season, revisiting characters and concepts from the series' early days. Following the events of "Crisis on Infinite Earths Part 3," though, and looking ahead at that poster...well, it appears as though the "something else" that Oliver has been building to this year is The Spectre. In retrospect, that makes his journey to "become something else" -- a journey that started with the pilot -- into something cosmic and epic.

Of course, that change happened in purgatory -- both the cosmic realm and, because it's Oliver, on a version of Lian Yu where his soul was briefly trapped. That ties the idea up in a nice bow (no pun intended).

The "Crisis" event brings together the heroes from multiple Earths to battle against the Anti-Monitor (LaMonica Garrett), a godlike villain who threatens to destroy all reality. In the comics, the story ended with the deaths of The Flash and Supergirl, and the destruction of DC's multiverse, leading to a single Earth with a complex history packed with hundreds of heroes. The battle brings together together characters from all six of the current DC Comics adaptations on The CW (Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Batwoman, and Black Lightning), along with characters and actors from Titans, the 1990 version of The Flash, the short-lived Birds of Prey, Smallville, Superman Returns, Tim Burton's Batman, and the iconic 1966 Batman series.

The first three episodes are available now, for free, on The CW app and CW Seed. "Crisis on Infinite Earths" will conclude on January 14.