This is...something that I've been meaning to get off my chest for a while. It ties into what made COIE so impactful in the first place, and how it reestablished the DCU as we know it today.
Assuming you who's reading this hasn't read the story, the heroes of the original Crisis come down to six earths in total:
- Earth 1: The Silver Age Universe, home to the Justice League and most of the then-mainstream heroes, including the Teen Titans.
- Earth 2: The Golden Age Universe, home to the Justice Society of America and the golden-age versions of the Trinity.
- Earth 3: The Mirror/Antimatter Universe, home to the Crime Syndicate and morally inverted versions of classic DC Heroes
- Earth 4: The Charlton Universe, home to the likes of Blue Beetle, Captain Atom, Nightshade, Peacemaker, and the Question.
- Earth 5/S: The Marvel Universe – n-no, not that one, home to the Marvel Family of Captain Marvel/Shazam, Jr, and Mary Marvel.
- Earth 10/X: The Quality universe, home to Uncle Sam's freedom fighters and (correct me if I'm wrong) the Nighthawks in present day WW2 against nazis.
- Earth Prime: Our universe, home to Superboy-Prime...definitely fake news, because I haven't seen him flying around recently.
Aside from Earth 3 and Earth-Prime, which were destroyed by the Anti-Monitor, 1, 2, 4, 5, and X were all participants in the crisis. But here's something of note. Earths 4 and S were, while being DC imprints thanks to buyouts, considered to be entirely separate entities from the DC Universe up until this point. Not many had considered that they would appear or even be featured in the story. Effectively, DC was fractured in continuity what with spreading their collection of heroes across 7 different earths, so they decided to bring them all into one universe.
Now, let's look at the current state of DC's attempts to launch a shared media universe.
- The Arrowverse
- The Titansverse
- The DCEU
- Smallville
- Gotham
- Krypton
- Black Lightning
Huh...looks pretty split to me.
So, just so I don't have to stretch this argument out longer than necessary, my ideal TV version of Crisis on Infinite Earths would be in crossing over ALL of these shows and movies, and deciding to merge them into one New Earth, just like in the comics. While I'm sure no one's gonna make a fuss about there being three different Deathstrokes running around in the same way there were two different Supermen, the effort to find a true version of these multiple series would be worth the effort. DC doesn't seem to notice that they have an advantage over Marvel when it comes to executing the Shared Universe in LVA. Where the MCU is more film-focused, DCTV has been accomplishing wonders for their characters by spreading out the narratives and character arcs for longer amounts of time. I know I've said that I personally don't like Arrow for not being too much like the source material, but I appreciate the fact that it's basically become the Iron Man of this initiative. After all, without Arrow siphoning its inner Dark Knight Trilogy, we wouldn't see studios taking risks with Titans, Doom Patrol, Gotham, or even Swamp Thing for a more grounded aesthetic. Without Smallville, we wouldn't see studios leaning back a little and being a little lighthearted, such as with The Flash, Legends, Stargirl, Supergirl. Heck, to push it, without the DCEU there wouldn't be some great takes on DC's more popular characters that have been blocked from TV, like Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Shazam.
Each of the studios have basically adapted each of the DCU's core characters on different shows, and yet DC isn't stepping in and they just AREN'T DOING ANYTHING with it! They had an opportunity, a glorious opportunity, to finally find a way to streamline their continuities under one satisfying umbrella through this crossover. It's already kinda guaranteed with Supergirl and the rest of the Arrow multiverse, but not with the other shows. Sure, it would be atonal and weird for the Flash to play it safe while Doom Patrol cusses every 5 seconds, but I just...can't understand why they, or nobody for that matter, is jumping at this opportunity. There was an entire Hall H panel dedicated to the various DCTV shows, not limited to the CW, so why not act on it?
The original Crisis storyline was not only a literal celebration of DC's 50th anniversary, it was a celebration of the history of the DCU, how far they'd come, how much was valued and how much was on the line. It proved how large this universe – this MULTIVERSE – truly was, and it ended with a satisfying way to finally say "It's all connected".
The advantage of the TV format over the films is that it sorta acknowledges the fact that these characters have been around much longer than most of the Marvel Heroes. I want to see these characters fleshed out because of the sheer amount of legacy behind them. 80+ years of entertainment and inspiration, and they have this one-in-a-lifetime chance to honor that by bringing the characters all together again.
But from what I've seen, it looks like the CW's Crisis on Infinite Earths will be regulated to their own multiverse, which makes me more sad every time I think about it because history was repeating itself, and this was a chance to make good on that.
Now, granted, there are certain thing about this production that look suspicious. A 5-hour event across 2 quarters? No other crossover has been that long before. Maybe they are planning something epic, maybe they are to bring everyone together, but between licensing deals with Fox, Warner Bros, and the guys at the CW themselves...it's looking a little less likely.
Anyway, that's my take on it all. Feel free to post a response.