It's hard to believe the Arrowverse's big Crisis has finally arrived. This is a story The CW has been building towards in some form since 2014, and certainly with great purpose over the past year. Crisis on Infinite Earths is very much the Arrowverse's answer to Avengers: Endgame - the culmination of years of planning and an epic crossover that marks the end of some heroes' journeys and the beginning of others. Even in five episodes, there's a lot of ground to cover. But if "Crisis on Infinite Earths Pt. 1" is any indication, fans needn't worry about this ambitious crossover living up to the hype.

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Crisis on Infinite Earths Crossover Photos 51 IMAGES

Crisis on Infinite Earths: Every Cameo in the Crossover 27 IMAGES

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The first chapter of Crisis unfolds pretty much exactly as fans of the 1985 comic book series (or frequent viewers of the recent Crisis trailer) would expect. Entire universes are being wiped right out of existence by an unstoppable wave of antimatter, and only a crack team of heroes assembled by The Monitor stand a chance of saving existence. The CW isn't necessarily reinventing the wheel with this take on Crisis.Not that it needs to. The plot borrows what's necessary from the source material without getting as bogged down in superfluous characters and details. It's actually pretty impressive how neatly this episode is able to lay out the framework of the crossover and get newcomers up to speed. Watching the current seasons of the Flash, Arrow, and Supergirl will certainly help, but it's not essential.Not only is Crisis Part 1 accessible, it establishes a clear set of stakes for this conflict, both in terms of cosmological scope and the emotional struggles of the main characters. The early scene on Argo City sets the tone nicely. Just as the comic cleverly recreated Superman's origin story using the Earth-3 Luthor family, this episode forces Clark to live out his own parents' nightmare and send his infant son rocketing away from a doomed world.The stakes only grow bigger and more cataclysmic from there. Lois and Clark may have survived, but the other inhabitants of Argo City aren't so lucky. And it isn't long before the main conflict in this episode shifts from saving the planet to merely ushering its inhabitants away before it dies. Very quickly, this crossover establishes itself as the biggest and most destructive in Arrowverse history.More importantly, Crisis Part 1 doesn't lose sight of the personal and emotional stakes of this conflict. This being Supergirl's portion of the crossover, it focuses heavily on exploring how the impending end of the world affects characters like Kara, Clark, Alex, and Lena. Kara and Clark have a great scene involving mutual grief over Argo City that perfectly illustrates why Kara is the stronger and the more resilient of the two (without necessarily taking anything away from Clark in the process). Doubling down on the duo's outsider status is already paying off. I never really understood the decision to introduce Argo City and suddenly transform these two from orphans of a dead world to two survivors among thousands. Just as the Crisis comic worked to return Superman to his role as "Last Son of Krypton," this Crisis seems intent on bringing Supergirl back to basics.The Supergirl supporting cast is utilized well throughout the episode. The Alex/Lena scene helps anchor the story to what's been unfolding in the rest of Season 5 and remind viewers that Crisis is hardly the end of the story. Even if Kara and her friends save the multiverse, she'll still have a vindictive Lena Luthor to worry about. And perhaps this is the show's way of reminding viewers that Leviathan will also be a continuing problem, regardless of what physical state Supergirl's world is in come January.On the other end of the tonal spectrum, Brainiac-5 and The Atom are great at injecting some much-needed comedy into an otherwise grim hour of television. Jesse Rath and Brandon Routh both have impeccable comic timing, and the jokes never get to the point where they undercut the drama.This episode even manages to find a rare few moments of inspiration and hope amid the death of an entire universe. It feels appropriate Supergirl is kicking off the crossover, as the scenes of Earth's alien immigrants responding to the call and helping evacuate the planet build on the long-running human/alien conflict in the series. After seeing how bleak human/alien relations can get in Season 4, watching all earthlings come together in their most desperate hour definitely feels like a necessary and earned moment for the series.For all the focus on Supergirl and her supporting cast, this is also a very critical episode for Arrow fans. In fact, it may well be the last time we see Oliver Queen alive in the Arrowverse. We get the official passing of the torch as Ollie bestows a Green Arrow costume upon Mia, and then the episode culminates in his long-prophesied death. It's a surprising but not unwelcome twist to see Oliver bite the dust so soon. Arrow itself basically said everything it needed to say with the character and his legacy in the first seven episodes of the final season, so Ollie's death plays like a natural outgrowth of the events of "Purgatory." And what better way for the Arrowverse's original hero to go out than fighting off hordes of Shadow Demons and literally saving a billion lives in the process?Is this the true end of Oliver Queen? It does seem unlikely Stephen Amell will only appear in one of the five chapters of Crisis. Not to mention we know Amell has been hard at work shooting the Arrow series finale. No doubt the crossover will find some way of keeping Ollie into the mix, whether that involves a resurrection, Ollie being turned into a slave of the Anti-Monitor, or something else. Let's just hope his return doesn't wind up diminishing his heroic death.The one disappointment amid all the compelling Kara and Ollie drama is that Barry doesn't have a huge role to play in this episode. Barry is weirdly absent in many important scenes, and we never really get any big moments involving all three pillars of the Arrowverse before Ollie meets his end. To be fair, the crossover has to budget its time and space accordingly, and certain sacrifices have to be made in order to prevent the story from becoming too unwieldy. Not to mention the sheer logistical nightmare that is bringing all these actors together. Still, Barry's relative absence in this episode is distracting at times.No Crisis recap is complete without focusing on the various character cameos. Part 1 sets a strong example in that regard, opting for quality and novelty over quantity. Viewers aren't bombarded with a nonstop stream of winks and nods to past DC projects, but just a handful early on to remind us of the cope of the multiverse. It's great seeing a nod to Titans in the form of Alan Ritchson's Hawk and Curran Walters' Jason Todd. And, of course, seeing Burt Ward's Dick Grayson walking Ace the Bat-hound is a real hoot.But easily this episode's most surprising and welcome cameo comes in the form of Robert Wuhl reprising the role of Alexander Knox from 1989's Batman (along with a terrific nod to Danny Elfman's iconic Batman theme). Somehow, knowing that Tim Burton's Bat-verse exists as part of this DC multiverse makes this whole crossover feel that much more grand and special.