In the newly-released Crisis on Infinite Earths: Paragons Rising Deluxe Edition hardcover comic, backmatter runs the gamut from script pages and pencil art for the comic to concept art from the TV event the story ties into. And whether it’s multiple aborted looks for Oliver Queen as The Spectre, or a quick Easter egg of Michael Keaton in the costume eventually occupied by Kevin Conroy as the Batman of Earth-99, there is some interesting stuff there. Among those images? Shots of Harbinger (Audrey Marie Anderson) with her more comics-accurate headpiece, which never made an appearance in the TV adaptation.
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Anderson’s Harbinger didn’t have the strange cuts and one-of-a-kind helmet that Harbinger did in the comics, but was the most comics-accurate version you could get within the world of the Arrowverse (and without making Anderson look a little out of place, or even a bit ridiculous, as some things are really only ever meant to exist on the comics page). The skirt and some of the design work is very reminiscent of the comics version, although the more practical top (and her lack of a helmet) would make her harder to identify quickly as Harbinger, if we hadn’t already had more than half a decade of Anderson’s take on Lyla Michaels.
“Lyla Michaels as Harbinger is a key component of the original Crisis on Infinite Earths that we were determined to honor in our crossover,” executive producer Marc Guggenheim told ComicBook.com when we unveiled her TV look. “What makes this particularly satisfying for us is that we introduced Lyla Michaels and her Harbinger codename all the way back in Arrow Season 1.”
Lyla was originally introduced as John Diggle’s ex-wife, but the two reconciled and had a daughter, whom they named after the then-recently-deceased Sara Lance. Not long after that, Barry Allen accidentally broke reality in the “Flashpoint” storyline and one of the ripple effects that remained in place even after he fixed it was that Sara had been transformed into John Diggle, Jr., one of the stars of the flash-forwards which are the setting for a planned Arrow spinoff after the series is done.
You can see the (helmeted) Harbinger concept art below — dated a week ago last Sunday, with art by Keith Lau and a costume design by Brie Thorpe.
Before it finally came, “Crisis on Infinite Earths” 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 was 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 the same world where the rest of the series take place — something that happened in the fifth and final hour of the event. The crossover also featured 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.
