Crisis On Earth-X Highlights

Crisis On Earth-X

This year's crossover event for the CW DC Universe (also known as the Arrowverse) was by far the most spectacular and entertaining of the crossover entries. As we venture through this 4-Episode event of pure comic book TV awesomeness, keep in mind that this list comprises of what I personally consider to be the best of the best highlights and not necessarily every single thing that caught my attention. These are the moments or artistic choices that I'll immediately reference back in my mind years from now whenever someone mentions crossovers within this universe. Until that time comes, let's dive into all of the incredible and geek out worthy highlights in the amazingly titled "Crisis on Earth-X". Oh, and as a friendly warning, aside from obvious spoilers, do bare with me as the words "fan service" will be used quite a bit throughout this list.

1. Opening Title Card & Music Transitions

During the title card presentation, we get to see glimpses of scenes from all of the different series within the Arrowverse. This is accompanied by the different theme songs of each individual series transitioning to fit each sequence shown. It's definitely one of the cooler ideas ever delivered in this franchise artistically speaking despite it obviously taking after the recent Marvel Studios logo for their cinematic universe. Is it similiar? Sure, but with the addition of adding each of the individual show's themes to creatively fit the visuals, this sort of makes the logo presentation its own rewarding gift to the fans as opposed to just showcasing a studio brand.

2. Dark Arrow Vs. Earth-X Guardian

One of the greatest elements of this crossover in particular is the inclusion of the multiverse as a window for unique character counterparts to show up. Being a guy who revels in interesting character designs, I absolutely loved seeing Dark Arrow's absolutely badass attire as well as the surprise introduction of Earth-X's Guardian who took on a more context appropriate patriotic aesthetic with his armor. Character design aside, what's great about this confrontation scene is the sense of history that can be felt within this world regarding the rebels-nazis war and the inclusion of heroes/villains. It's an excellent way to kick off the overall concept and core of the crossover story while delivering a solid action scene and fan service to loyal viewers of the Arrowverse.

3. King Shark Cameo

Any appearance by King Shark, no matter how brief it may be, is always a major win for me.  I'm still baffled at the fact that we get to have such a conceptually crazy character in a live action TV series. That being said, wasn't he locked up in A.R.G.U.S.? Someone's got some explaining to. As a matter of fact, if he's loose, can we assume that other potential Suicide Squad members are freely roaming around somewhere? That's another topic for another time I supposed. For now, let's revel in the fact that the Flash's introduction into the crossover is him having a side mission of sorts taking down none other than King freakin Shark!

4. Kid Flash Moments

During the church battle scene, not only do we see Wally saving civilians via super speed, knocking down Nazi soldiers, and catching one of Dark Arrow's arrows, but we also get a badass moment where he catches a bullet and tosses it back to a soldier's gun causing an explosion. It's by far the coolest moment yet for the sidekick superhero in training. Now, the bar has been slightly raised for The Flash series to start offering up more standout Kid Flash moments in my opinion. Keep in mind that Wally is considered the fastest speedster in the comics even if Kid Flash himself technically isn't.

5. Killer Frost Moments

Despite still not delivering a clear reason as to why having ice powers would suddenly turn a kind hearted soul (give or take a few tragedies) into a cold hearted criminal, I absolutely loved the way in which Killer Frost is utilized here. The moment Caitlin transforms, we get to see her fully unleash her powers in what I believe to be the best Killer Frost scene so far. Watching her form an ice blade around her arm prior to slashing through Nazi soldiers left and right was something that I never would have imagined getting to experience in this franchise. Even more so is seeing her go full on Ice Man from the X-Men by creating an ice bridge elevating her, Vixen, and Zari. Leave it up to the crossovers to really show us how awesome these characters can be when they're able to fully let loose in a visually spectacular fashion.

6. Flash Moments

The church battle sequence is filled with individual superhero moments worthy of picking apart and drooling over, and although given only a couple of scenes, Barry definitely gets to shine here. As waves of Nazi soldiers appear attempting to shoot down everyone in sight, Barry is shown catching bullets as well as causing one soldier to shoot down his own ally. It's a fast scene (no pun intended), but still pretty amazing as a nice little tidbit to enjoy in the midst of all the visual eye candy. It's also a great indication of just how far we've come in visual FX within the CW DC properties. Honestly, some of these shots are downright gorgeous causing me to think that perhaps the producers should actually decrease the amount of episodes if it means that they're able to offer up more jaw dropping money shots for their respected shows.

7. Cisco Strategically Breaching Oliver 

Given arguably the least amount of action screen time during the crossover is Cisco yet he sets up one of the more memorable and cooler moments. During the battle at the wedding, responding to Oliver's quick thinking request, Cisco breaches the vigilante towards the upper level of the church giving him an opportunity to ambush his Earth-X counterpart. This is one of those crowd pleasing fan service moments where one might find themselves jumping out of their seat like a little child. Getting to see superheroes improvise ways in combing their skills during intense situations is always a big win for me. Also, it's Oliver jumping through a portal to deliver a kill shot to his Nazi counterpart. There's simply no words that can describe how insanely awesome of a concept that is.

8. Oliver Deflecting Dark Arrow's Arrow

Much like a lot of the wedding battle's highlights, it's a pretty brief moment, but I love the idea of having Oliver perfectly deflect one of Dark Arrow's arrows. Not only is it a visually awesome reminder of just how skilled our spotlight vigilante archer is, but it's a great set up for his then ongoing battle against his Earth-X doppelgänger. It's also a nice touch seeing that he saves Harrison Wells during that scene.

9. Supergirl's Shockwave Clap

The fight between Supergirl and Overgirl definitely offers up a couple of cool visuals such as heat vision battles and...fly...punching? However, the big highlight here comes during the wedding battle where Kara, out of frustration uses a move that I'm pretty sure was never shown on Supergirl until now. As Overgirl approaches a seemingly downed Kara, the girl of steel quickly turns around and slams her hands together creating a massive glass shattering shockwave that sends everyone in a disorienting state. It gives our heroes the edge over the fight causing their Earth-X counterparts to retreat. It's an awesome looking and quite effective move that I hope makes a grand return on the character's very own solo series.

10. Prometheus Is Tommy

This character reveal was impactful on so many levels, but the best way that I can sum it up would be to describe it as meta fan service for Arrow super fans. Prometheus is still fresh in the minds of viewers of the Star City set vigilante series as being one of the better season villains yet. Not only was it surprising to see his Earth-X counterpart show up, but the idea of making him Tommy Merlyn was one of the biggest fan theories during Season 5 as everyone and their grandmother was dying to see this character make an epic return. Think of this reveal as the ultimate gift for Arrow fans. It may not be a legitimate resurrection of the character as many may have desired, but it's the closest and most realistic way that we can get one...and I loved every second of it.

11. Every Hero's Mode of Transportation

One of the cooler geek out worthy shots of the crossover shows our spotlight heroes from each of their respected series making their way to the wedding with their own unique mode of transportation. You have the Legends riding in on the Wave Rider, Oliver on his motorcycle, and Supergirl flying through Cisco's multiverse portal. It's an awesome visual that I'm pretty sure will be forgotten in the grand scheme of things, but this loyal fan isn't the type to let little gems like these slip by unnoticed.

12. Everything Mick

The title of this entry says it all really. Every scene with Mick, and if you're avid viewers of DC's Legends of Tomorrow then this shouldn't exactly come as a big surprise to you, is a pure comedic gold. The more Mick in our lives, the better. There's simply way too many Mick jokes to mention here, so I'll suggest looking back at the crossover (primarily the Supergirl segment) to get your hilarious Heatwave fix.

13. Citizen Cold

Similiar to the "Tommy is Prometheus" entry, we get another gift to the fans in the form of Citizen Cold aiming towards viewers of the Flash and Legends of Tomorrow series. Leonard Snart has been a favorite amongst fans ever since he made his grand debut during Season 1 of The Flash as sort of a Joker-like antagonist to Barry Allen. The idea of Snart knowing Barry's identity yet keeping it a secret as some bizarre deal to continue committing crime was an interesting concept. More importantly however, Wentworth Miller just excels in the appropriately campy role whenever given the screen time. Having him return here after such a minor role during Legends Season 2 was amazing, and even better, we get to see him sporting an accurate adaptation of his comic book counterpart's eyewear. 

14. Red Tornado Is Visually Redeemed

This is one of those situations where the crossover actually did a major course correction which, as a result, delivered something fantastic. For those of you who may not be aware due to never checking out the series, Red Tornado was a character that actually appeared during Supergirl's first season run on CBS. Suffice it to say, it was arguably one of the worst live action comic book adaptations done on television considering that the character looked as though it was ripped right out of an old episode of Might Morphin Power Rangers. With the Crisis on Earth-X crossover however, we're given a beautifully executed CGI'd version as opposed to the then cheaply thrown together practical costume. Red Tornado not only looks cool here, but the representation of his formidable power level is well executed.

15. Childhood Nostalgia of Superhero Cartoons

Over the past 10 years, it's been a surreal experience getting to witness my childhood dreams of seeing live action versions of the superhero cartoons that I watched brought to life in mostly spectacular ways. One of these profound childhood recollection moments comes in the form of seeing the Flash and the Ray teaming up and pairing up their powers to take down Red Tornado. The Ray is a character that was completely new to me, but the imagery of seeing the Flash running alongside someone that visually reminded me of a Yellow Lantern or perhaps some other cosmic DC character while chasing Red Tornado immediately caused flashbacks to the good old days of Justice League Unlimited. Anyone remembers that series? No? Well, you're seriously missing out.

16. Kryptonite Arrow

The amount of geeking out during this moment went through the roof for me and I'm sure many Arrow fans who were watching at the time experienced. How in the world did Oliver acquire a Kryptonite arrow is beyond me, but the fact that he has one is outrageously badass beyond words. Whether you're excited as a comic book reader due to the fact that a much older Oliver Queen used one to help Batman defeat Superman during their iconic battle or that it compares to the idea that Batman secretely has a counter measure for each Justice League member, this is pure fandom heaven right here. But seriously, where the heck did he find Kryptonite on Earth-1? Is the foreign glowing green mineral even mentioned during the Dominators crossover? So many questions.

17. Metallo Is Fully Realized

In a somewhat similiar course correction villain pull from Supergirl, we have Metallo making his now fully CGI'd return to the Arrowverse. Now, the difference between this and the Red Tornado situation is that Metallo wasn't necessarily wrongly presented during Supergirl even though they took the obviously financially safer route in showing his mostly human form then. What we're offered here instead is a much more fully realized version of the character showing off his Terminator-like endoskeleton in all of its glory. With a glowing kryptonite power core at the center of a threatening looking cybernetic soldier, this comic accurate adaptation of Metallo became yet another character appearance that positively threw me off. Fun fact: I absolutely hate this character, but they do manage to make good use of him here.

18. Superhero Power Frenzy

Whenever there's an ensemble of super powered individuals teaming up to take down one singular threat, I'm always keep an eye out for creative pairings of powers. During the fight against Metallo, we're essentially treated to seeing the majority of the Arrowverse's metahuman heroes aligning their immense powers all at once to take down the arguably over powered metalhead. Visually, it's a pretty awesome moment, and being that I absolutely hate Metallo from previous incarnations, it was nice seeing him get completely obliterated by the team. Now, can we please never see this villain again? Just a personal request from yours truly.

19. The Atom's Awesome Entrance

During what was starting to become a pretty creepy surgery scene with Eobard getting ready to cut out Kara's heart, Ray makes both a hilarious and badass entrance into the crossover by stealthily stopping Thawne's scalpel while hiding in his miniature form. This results in him then transforming back to normal size, and while rescuing Felicity and Kara, expanding the size of his hand in order to smack one of the Nazi soldiers like a mosquito. This scene gave me a similiar impression as Wally's action scenes during the wedding battle which was the feeling that certain characters deserve a lot more badass superhero screen time considering their capabilities.

20. The Reverse Flash's Glowing Eyes

Correct me if I'm wrong, but is this the first time that we've actually seen the Reverse Flash's glowing red eyes without the costume? I know it's not necessarily the greatest thing to spotlight, but I found it interesting seeing Thawne's creepy piercing demonic eyes without the whole mask and face manipulation effect taking place. It actually made the character look 10 times more threatening than before which is why I just had to point it out here.

21. Oliver's Perspective of The Warehouse Battle

It's crazy looking back at the beginning of this now expansive universe where everything exclusively centered around one insanely driven vigilante with a  kill list and a bow and arrow. Now we have superpowers, time travel, and alternate worlds in the mix of things which can be jarring to some who started off this journey in a much more grounded setting. This is why it's always an excellent decision on the writing side to sometimes point out just how insane things have become since Season 1 of Arrow. This is brilliantly presented both dramatically and visually during the warehouse battle where Oliver gets knocked down by Overgirl followed by us seeing though his perspective of just how crazy the situation has gotten.

From costumed heroes, metahumans, aliens, and Nazis from another Earth all battling it out to the death, I found it appropriate that it's through Oliver's point of view that we'd get a now slowed down panning shot of the battle as opposed to the previous quickly paced character highlight reel. It's almost as if the creators are telling us to take the time and soak in how far we've gotten from rooftop building arrow shots and back alley fight scenes as being jaw dropping action sequences to now laser beams and super speed punching being a weekly sight.

22. Oliver Threatens Earth-X Oliver

The scene to where Earth-X Oliver was about to kill Felicity only to be interrupted by our Oliver has got to be one of the most badass yet crazier moments on the show. We're talking about a room full of multidimensional and alien characters interacting with each other, yet what I primarily took out of it was an intense stand-off between a convincingly threatening Oliver (invoking his ruthless Season 1 demeanor) with a knife to Overgirl's neck and a cold hearted Nazi leader version of himself. I'm pretty sure that I'll never be able to use those words again which makes this all the more memorable.

23. Superhero Ensemble Shots

What can I say? There's nothing that seals the deal more during a crossover event with superheroes than epic shots of every single character standing together as if posing for a magazine cover. Whether it's the march to battle or a mission briefing, fans of said properties live for these "dream come true" moments as their minds begin to explode at the sight of these characters standing beside on another. The Crisis on Earth-X event definitely satisfies this itch during the Legends of Tomorrow segment as we see our heroes coming together to fight as one giant formidable force against the forces of Earth-X.

24. The Battle of All Battles

Seeing our heroes gathered from all across the Arrowverse to fight alongside one another was a jaw dropping and nerdgasmic sight to behold. There are several individual awesome moments here that I can dissect, but most importantly, it's the idea of seeing such a visually spectacular and giant scope battle revolving around superheroes and villains take place on a television series that deserves all the praise. This was by far the most massive and ambitious comic book TV action scene yet.

26. Supergirl Vs. Overgirl

Alright, this one's a little bit of a cop out entry as I did promise myself not to include any honorable mentions. However, I just had to throw in some commentary on Supergirl and Overgirl's fight scenes. There are several moments where the CGI could have obviously use some major reworking as it would seem that we're still not 100% on point with delivering flight sequences on even Supergirl's show. However, there are seconds here and there where the visual FX are pretty manageable which, as a result, makes for a few seconds of fantastic imagery between these two powerhouse characters.

25. The Flash Vs. Reverse Flash

I mentioned that there were several moments during the final battle sequence that are worth pinpointing, but the peak of awesomeness without a doubt comes with the fight between the Flash and Reverse Flash. Honestly, if you're talking about "dream come true" moments, I have been dying to see a legitimately massive fight between these two since Season 1 of The Flash. However, I've always had to temper my excitement at the fact that this was indeed a television series, so anything that I might have imagined from previous animated incarnations, comics, etc. were probably off the table here. This is where the crossover battle showing the two fighting through a city as all of our other heroes are perspectively frozen in time blew all of my expectations through the roof.

Overall Thoughts

It's safe to say at this point that the Crisis on Earth-X crossover was a huge success with both fans and critics alike. Many have even praised it to be better than certain superhero ensembles that have recently made it to the big screen which is saying quite a bit for the state of the DC TV universe. As I mentioned before, these were my personal favorite highlights that stood out to me the most in what was already a sea of great character scenes, fun easter eggs, and action tidbits. I look forward to the next crossover event (assuming that there is one hopefully) as I'm curious to see just how the creators attempt to top what can easily be considered the "Avengers" of comic book TV history.