'Arrow': Lyla Michaels embraces her destiny as the Harbinger as the Crisis on Infinite Earths begins
With one final mission on Lian Yu, the Monitor’s season-long mission for Oliver has been accomplished. As Team Arrow leaves the island, the lightning flashes, thunder rumbles, and the skies turn red. From a breach in space and time, Lyla Micheals steps out and announces that the moment that fans have been waiting for since the very first episode of ‘The Flash’ is finally here.
The Crisis has begun.
In Season 8 Episode 7 of ‘Arrow,’ Lyla Michaels (Audrey Marie Anderson) accepts a destiny that’s been a long time coming. Appearing for the first time way back in Season 1 of ‘Arrow’, her name was immediately recognized by fans of the comics as belonging to Harbinger, an ally of the Monitor’s in the fight to save the multiverse from the Anti-Monitor. For years, as she went on to become an integral part of the series, fans have kept a close eye for any mentions, or references that tie Lyla to her comic book counterpart but would have to wait until this season for that to happen.
It’s been revealed that Lyla has been working with the Monitor (LaMonica Garrett), but for how long, and how closely was left unanswered until just now. In the comics, Harbinger was adopted by the Monitor as a child and raised in his service. Things worked out a little differently in the Arrowverse - Lyla was saved from an IED blast by the Monitor, who claimed she had a greater destiny. She at first didn’t believe “a grown man in a costume,” but when the Mar Novu showed Lyla her and Diggle’s future completely wiped out of existence, she made a deal with him to work to find the heroes who could face the Crisis.
Throughout this season, Oliver (Stephen Amell) has been running errands for the Monitor, from procuring dwarf star matter from Earth 2 to rescuing a Dr. Wong to create a device whose purpose is to create a weapon that would be able to help with the coming Crisis. It turns out that that device was meant for one person only - Lyla herself. As she picks up the device, calibrated to her specific genetic sequence, there is a flash of light, and Lyla steps through a breach saying that she has to go.
When we next see her, it is as the Harbinger. Her destiny fulfilled, she will be instrumental in the coming Crisis. Besides bringing the heroes together, however, it is uncertain what her new powers are, and how she will wield them. She is the Monitor’s chosen weapon, however, and whatever powers she wields are sure to be formidable indeed.
The first episode of ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’ begins with ‘Supergirl,’ airing December 8 on the CW.
