The Arrowverse Confirms CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS as 2019 Crossover Event

Worlds will live.  Worlds will die.  And the wait for Fall 2019 is going to be excruciating.

Last night's episode of The CW's series Supergirl, "Elseworlds, Part 3", concluded with a major announcement for fans of DC Comics and the CW's Arrowverse shows -- Next year's crossover event will be an adaptation of the classic DC Comics saga Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by George Pérez, Crisis on Infinite Earths was a 12-issue maxiseries that ran from April 1985 to March 1986.  In the story, the Anti-Monitor (the Monitor's evil counterpart) is unleashed on the DC Multiverse and begins to destroy the various Earths that it comprises.  The Monitor tries to recruit heroes from around the Multiverse but is murdered, while Brainiac collaborates with the villains to conquer the remaining Earths.  However, both the heroes and villains are eventually united by the Spectre.  the series concludes with the Earth-2 Superman, Superboy-Prime, and Alexander Luthor Jr. defeating the Anti-Monitor, and the creation of a single Earth in place of the Multiverse.  Crisis on Infinite Earths also featured a high death count, with hundreds of killed DC Comics characters died, including DC icons such as Supergirl and Barry Allen.

As the third part of "Elseworlds" ended, Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) and Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) shared a drink while discussing their latest adventure.  They were soon interrupted by Oliver getting a call from Batwoman (Ruby Rose), who said that Doctor Destiny/John Deegan (Jeremy Davies) had become an inmate at Arkham Asylum and made a new friend, the Psycho-Pirate (Bob Frazer).  Rather ominously, the Psycho-Pirate tells Deegan, "Don't worry, Doctor...Everything is as it should be.  The stage is set.  Worlds will live.  Worlds will die.  And the universe will never be the same."

Old-school DC fans quickly recognized the familiar line from this 1985 DC Comics house ad promoting Crisis on Infinite Earths:

And sure enough, viewers soon saw the stylish worlds "COMING FALL 2019", followed by an equally stylish version of the Crisis on Infinite Earths logo, which confirmed next year's Arrowverse crossover.

The "Elseworlds" crossover introduced LaMonica Garrett as The Monitor/Mar Novu, a very important character in Crisis on Infinite Earths, who revealed that he was testing champions to face a powerful, future threat, hinting at Crisis' big bad cosmic supervillain, the Anti-Monitor.  

The Psycho-Pirate also has a significant role in Crisis as an accomplice to the Anti-Monitor, who manipulates a captive Barry Allen after the Pirate's powers are briefly enhanced so that he can control three alternate Earths—Earth-4, Earth-S, and Earth-X—to provoke their heroes into attacking the teams sent to rescue them.  After the resolution of the Crisis, the Psycho-Pirate is one of the few to have full memories of the event.  Driven mad by these memories, the Psycho-Pirate was shown in the last few panels of Crisis in a straitjacket, as the scene pans out from his eyes to a full view of Earth from space.

Other characters who probably will play a part in next year's Arrowverse crossover are The Flash from Earth-90 (John Wesley Shipp, reprising his character from the 1990-91 TV series The Flash), who was last seen being teleported away by the Monitor in "Elseworlds, Part 2", and John Diggle (David Ramsey)'s wife Harbinger/Lyla Michaels (Audrey Marie Anderson), who served the Monitor in Crisis on Infinite Earths as his assistant and helped him prepare for the battle with the Anti-Monitor.

In the meantime, though, The Flash and Supergirl might want to take care of any necessary arrangements...just in case.