Marc Guggenheim, the co-creator of Arrow and showrunner for The CW‘s upcoming “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover event, will co-write a new comic book tie-in to the show with Marv Wolfman, creator of The Monitor and the writer of the original Crisis on Infinite Earths comics from the ’80s. The two-issue tie-in — Crisis on Infinite Earths 100-Page Giant #1 and #2 — will be available both in the comics direct market and in the mass market, popping up at participating Walmart stores in the U.S. As with all of DC’s recent 100-page giants, the comics will feature a lead story with a lead story made up of original content and about 60-80 pages of reprint material backing it up.
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The comic book tie-in will serve as a companion to the TV event, fleshing out characters and storylines seen on the series. This might also give them an opportunity to touch on some of the characters and concepts that couldn’t make the crossover, like Felicity Smoak, the Earth-1 Huntress, or other characters who might have been nice to see but weren’t around for one reason or another.
Both issues will feature an original 24 page main story and 8 page back up story co-written by Wolfman and Guggenheim. The rest of the books will include reprinted content from connected content like the original 1985 Crisis on Infinite Earths, as well as the DC Universe: Legacies miniseries published in 2010/2011.
Guggenheim and Wolfman co-wrote the Arrow episode of “Crisis on Infinite Earths” for TV, giving Wolfman an opportunity to participate in the TV adaptation of what is probably his best-known story. Meanwhile, Titans on DC Universe is loosely adapting a number of the stories Wolfman told with Crisis collaborator George Perez at the same time.
Wolfman has been pretty visible at DC in the last couple of years; in addition to contributing the main feature for the DC Primal Age 100-Page Giant, which sold exclusively in Target and was tied into the toy line of the same name, his Man and Superman story, which had been shelved for about 20 years, finally saw the light of day. That story — technically titled Man and Superman 100-Page Giant #1 — will be reprinted, along with bonus materials, in a deluxe edition hardcover in December.
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 possibly even Black Lightning to Earth-1, where the rest of the series take place.
“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.
