Will Stephen Amell's Arrow or Barry Allen's Flash die in the Crisis on Infinite Earths?
Ahead of season six of 'The Flash' and the season eight of 'Arrow', slated to premiere this fall, only one question remains. Which superhero will die in Crisis On Infinite Earths? In order to stop the crisis and maintain the balance of the universe, one of the superheroes might have to make the supreme sacrifice and by the looks of it, the toss-up is between two formidable characters - The Flash and Arrow. Before we get into the details of which superhero would make the ultimate sacrifice, here's a little about the Crisis is.
Going by the comics, 'Crisis on Infinite Earths' was a 12-issue mini-series that focused on the greatest battle in cosmic history. The Anti-Monitor (the Monitor's evil counterpart) is unleashed on the DC Multiverse and begins to destroy the various Earths that it comprises. This leads the Monitor to build an army of superheroes and villains who team up to save all that existed.
Coming back to the heroes, the most expected death here is that of Arrow, played by Stephen Amell. In the seventh season's final episode, it was shown that Arrow would be no more. Following the death of his half-sister, Emiko Queen (Sea Shmooka) and the ninth circle, Oliver and Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) retire to raise their daughter Mia.
However, that joy and period of bliss is shortlived as they are visited by the Monitor (LaMonica Garrett), the cosmic being first introduced in the 'Elseworlds' event. He shows up so as to collect Oliver who makes a deal with Mar Novu to save the lives of the Flash (Barry Allen played by Grant Gustin) and Supergirl (Kara played by Melissa Benoist)
The Monitor also revealed that Oliver would die in the coming Crisis in order to maintain the balance of the universe. For now, Oliver's fate is unclear and we'll know more only when the final season of 'Arrow' makes its appearance in October. But fans are pretty sure that the Emerald Archer would be the one who would not make it out alive. Fueling this theory was also The CW President, Mark Pedowitz's confirmation that a major character was "highly likely" to die in the event.
If that was pretty much Arrow being the guy to pay the ultimate price, there's Barry Allen's Flash. Things have not been too great for Team Flash. In season 5, they meet Nora (Jessica Parker Kennedy), Barry and Iris' (Candice Patton) daughter from the future. While Iris expresses excitement, Barry is concerned she could alter the timeline based on his own mistakes with time travel.
The season eventually sees Nora get erased after she refuses to re-enter the Speed Force. And in the final few minutes of the episode, the date of the crisis in the future newspaper which reads 2024, changes to 2019, which also states that the Flash has disappeared during the battle - something teased since season 1.
If The CW is to stick to the comic plotlines of 'Crisis', then Flash's death would be pretty sad. The story follows him being imprisoned in the anti-matter universe. But he manages to break free and realizes that the Anti-Monitor was building an anti-matter cannon that would destroy multiple universes in one blow. In an attempt to sabotage and destroy the cannon, the Flash runs at a speed he's never run before to create a vibrational frequency that destabilizes the cannon's core. While the ploy works, it comes at a price and that is Barry's physical form disintegrating leaving only his costume.
Also, we need to remember that Barry has already been saved with Supergirl once by Oliver and he may not get so lucky again. The comics see multiple casualties and Supergirl is one of them as well. But again, the two characters who have lit up the Arrowvserse so far are the duo of Oliver and Barry and it is only fitting that one of them will make the ultimate sacrifice.
However, Pedowitz's statement could also mean that one of the members of the Arrow or Flash team may die rather than the heroes themselves. It would be a tad trivial to kill them on one earth and revive them elsewhere. So if one of them dies, their deaths would be permanent. For now, the odds are heavily stacked against Oliver to make it out of the epic battle. Guess we'll know the fate of the beloved emerald archer and the scarlet speedster this October.
'The Flash' season 6 premieres on The CW October 8, while 'Arrow' season 8 will hit the network October 15.