“Elseworlds”: 10 Questions Raised

With our minds still reeling from the end of the “Elseworlds” crossover and a teaser that “Crisis on Infinite Earths” is coming next year, we have lots of questions about what we are left with moving forward between now and the end of the season — or next fall.

We know a bit — that Lois and Clark are now engaged, she is pregnant, and they are heading to Argo City for the duration of the pregnancy and maybe more; that The Anti-Monitor is coming (even if they don’t use that name); and that the next crossover will be even larger than before.

But that still leaves a lot un-answered.

So…here’s what we’re still left wondering.

Where is Batman?

Batman disappeared without a trace three years ago — but why? What could possibly have taken him away from his city?

Batwoman says that Bruce wouldn’t have left town without a fight, but if nobody knows what happened to him, it seems likely he uprooted abruptly. Is Alfred still around? What about other members of the Bat-family?

Given that Superman hangs up the cape for a while to go raise a family and leaves the world in Supergirl’s hands, it seems possible that Batman’s abrupt departure was a precursor of that.

But why would he leave? 

One theory: he somehow knew about the coming Crisis (world’s greatest detective and all), and is putting together a response team that will be seen in “Crisis on Infinite Earths.”

How Did Nora Fries Wake Up?

During John Deegan’s “Superman” introduction this week, we saw him experimenting on a female patient that looked like it might be Nora Fries.

This could help explain how she came out of her cryo-coma and appears not to be burdened with the illness that turned her husband to a life of crime, although it’s far from a confirmation…and certainly it seems like she played a significant enough role in last night’s installment that it could be a character we see more should Batwoman go to series.

What Happened to the Superman and Supergirl of Earth-1?

This is a question that has been around for a long time, but with the Crisis looming and the idea that someone has been monitoring and potentially manipulating our reality for years, one has to wonder: whatever happened to the Man of Tomorrow…of Earth-1?

Supergirl, Superman, and the like are all MIA in the main Arrowverse continuity, so…what does that mean? Could a version of them show up later? Or were they erased somehow?

Could Krypton still be out there, alive and well?

Could We Eventually See Superboy?

With the revelation that Superman and Lois are going to have a baby — could we see Jonathan Kent, also known as the Rebirth-era Superboy — come out of the story?

It would be a strange evolution to have him pop up as a fully-grown kid, but maybe we could have him born at some point in the next year and then during Crisis he could appear alongisde the Legion of Super-Heroes, implying that the now-baby is destined for greatness, or something along those lines.

Was Time Bureau Agent Gary Green Undercover?

Gary Green, the bartender who fawned over the Trigger Twins, is a part of the Time Bureau on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.

You probably know that already, but what may be slightly less obvious is this: Gary might have been there undercover, checking on the time anomaly.

While he was dressed casually and fawning over supervillains, he was doing so while wearing a number of buttons, including his Time Bureau badge.

That would be a weird thing for a bartender to possess.

What Did Oliver Offer The Monitor?

When Oliver approaches the Monitor about saving Kara and Barry, he pleads their case and seems to move the Monitor…but The Monitor says that destiny demands balance, and asks what Oliver can offer him in exchange.

We never get to see the answer, but Oliver is clearly emotional when he prepares it.

A popular theory already making the rounds is that Oliver may have traded his own destiny for theirs, sealing his fate at a time later to be determined (during Crisis?).

Does Psycho-Pirate Remember the Elseworlds?

Following the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths in the comics, the Psycho-Pirate remembers everything, including the destroyed multiverse, and everyone thinks he’s crazy for it.

Here, we get the Psycho-Pirate predicting Crisis — and one has to wonder whether he remembers more of the Elseworlds than everyone else does.

Does National City Exist on Earth-1?

Does National City actually exist on Earth-1, or were those characters just folded over for plot’s sake?

That’s a question which, again, has been kind of asked over and over again in the years since Supergirl introduced Earth-38, but it is worth asking because the presence of James Olsen and Alex Danvers in a world where John Deegan did not know they were tied to Kara seems odd.

His comments that everyone’s realities got mashed up seemed to indicate that the characters DID exist on Earth-1 but in different capacities, likely closer to their Earth-38 forms, but that is hardly definitive.

What happened to Earth-90’s Flash?

After he was sent away by The Monitor near the end of last night’s episode, we never see or hear from the Earth-90 Flash again.

One hopes that he wasn’t simply wiped from existence, although you have to at least allow for the possibility. That said, after reintroducing that Flash and that timeline, it would seem like a shame not to use it come time for Crisis.

How True to the Comics Will “Crisis on Infinite Earths” Be?

In the comics, Crisis on Infinite Earths involved every universe in DC’s multiverse, eventually destroying all but five and then merging those five into a single Earth.

It seems unlikely that, even with an undertaking as massive as bringing Crisis to TV, The CW will have the authority to impact things like Titans and Krypton or especially the movies…but fans are going to spend the next year speculating about exactly how much like the comics the story will be.