Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Multiverse may collapse, and that's a good thing
Contains spoilers for 'Arrow' Season 8 Episode 2
As the Monitor keeps reminding us, a Crisis is coming. The CW's most ambitious crossover event in history, the ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’ is building up across CW’s Arrowverse shows. According to WeGotThisCovered.com, the fallout from the event may just mirror its comics counterpoint by erasing the multiverse and collapsing it into a single Earth. If the latest episode of ‘Arrow’ is anything to go by, the culling of universes has already begun with Earth-2 falling to a wave of anti-matter.
At first glance, this looks like a massive loss for the CW’s storytelling opportunities. 52 distinct Earths, somehow connecting to even more(it is, after all, supposed to be a crisis on INFINITE Earths), all with their own heroes, villains, and stories waiting to be told. The opportunity is not, however, something that the CW has used effectively since Season 2 of 'The Flash'. A singular Earth may be just what the Arrowverse needs to strengthen its storytelling.
Introduced in 'The Flash' Season 2, the Multiverse was introduced with Earth-2, providing a steady source of characters for the show’s villain-of-the-week format - not to mention the season’s main villain, Zoom. Earth-2 was a vibrant part of the show, showing us a new Flash, new villains, and even a new Harrison Wells. It also opened the door to Supergirl’s Earth-38, officially tying her series into the Arrowverse. The Multiverse facilitated for the best Arrowerse crossover yet, in Earth-X. It’s even been responsible for some major story arcs on 'Arrow', most notably, the redemption arc for Laurel Lance of Earth-2. But these examples have become an exception to the rule.
The Multiverse has since become more of a running gag than anything else. It’s given us the bizarre tradition of a new Harrison Wells every season, which stopped being fun even before the multiversal Council of Wells was introduced. While we were introduced to Gypsy, a multiversal bounty hunter, we barely, if ever, got glimpses of what the worlds she visited were like. Over time, it began to feel like the Multiverse was merely something for shows to dip into when they were running out of ideas.
Yes, it’s true that Supergirl, is on a separate universe from the one that the other Arrowverse shows are in, Cisco’s breach device has made travel between the two universes as simple as visiting another city. It would make no functional difference if National City actually was on the same Earth.
What’s more, with all the CW’s shows being set on the same Earth, there is potential for more coherent worldbuilding. The many alien species living normal lives don’t need to be confined to National City, and nor to Central City’s metas. It gives the Arrowverse a better chance to focus on the effect of superheroes in one world rather than splitting their attention between multiple. We could have a consistent Harrison Wells, which would be a welcome break from having to get used to an entirely new one every season of the Flash.
The Multiverse opened up worlds of possibilities, and that brought with it a host of unsatisfying teases and continuity headaches. It’s about time that that genie was put back in the bottle once the Crisis is concluded.
‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’ begins December 8 on The CW, beginning with 'Supergirl'.