It’ll Kick Off The New Seasons
The announcement at the end of “Elseworlds” that “Crisis” was coming blew us all away so much that it might have distracted us from the key point about its release: the title card told us it was airing in fall 2019. If you think about it, that could be telling us more than you think.
Yes, technically speaking, early December is still fall, but it’s not commonly described as such. And all the crossovers have aired at the very end of November or early December. So, does the announcement hint that “Crisis” could air at a much earlier point in the season? This would explain why things have been set in motion so early on, when we usually don’t find out anything about the next crossover until the new year.
But how much earlier in the season would it arrive? Well, maybe the big crossover event could actually kick off the fall season. As I’ll talk about in the rest of this piece, “Crisis” is expected to have major repercussions for the Arrowverse and it would make more sense to unleash it at the beginning of the new batch of episodes rather than at the mid-season point, so the shows can fully explore the new status quo.
Superman Returns… And Dies
It was great seeing Tyler Hoechlin back as Superman in “Elseworlds,” but it did leave us feeling that the Man of Steel might not last much longer in the Arrowverse.
First of all, just when you think the franchise is starting to integrate him better into the lives of our heroes, he announces at the end that he and Lois are going to disappear to Argo for the foreseeable future as they’re having a child and it makes sense to have it born on Kryptonian soil.
Superman feels safe leaving the Earth behind as he’s confident Supergirl can take of it alone, basically naming her his successor. Put that together with his cutesy proposal to Lois in the Fortress of Solitude and it seems like the writers are trying to wrap up Supes’ story as neatly as possible. But he’s got to come back for “Crisis,” right? You can’t have that massive an event without him.
That’s true, but when he does return in the next crossover, it feels like “Elseworlds” was preparing him to meet his maker. This would make sense for the Arrowverse as well. I mean, who’s the biggest name they could kill off to raise the stakes without actually taking out one of their leads? Superman.