If you read Part I of my recap last week you will remember that although I rarely do spoilers on the Mustache and the Beard, here for Crisis on Infinite Earths, because it is a series of episodes, there WILL be spoilers. Sorry! I have to. It’s the nature of the beast.
When covering a series of episodes, books, movies, etc. it behooves me to provide a spoiler warning. Plot threads continue throughout a series and if the storyteller is any good, one thread should be contingent on a previous one. With that having been said, consider this your SPOILER WARNING!!!!
So the first episode of Crisis is found in Supergirl Episode 509. It ended with the death of Oliver Queen, the Green Arrow, and the introduction of a new character called Pariah. He announces that he is the one who released the Anti-Monitor and in typical Prophet of Doom fashion utters, “All is lost!”
Crisis on Infinite Earths episode 2 is found on Batwoman Episode 109. Crisis episode 3 is found in Flash Episode 609. I will cover both here. The episodes begin with White Canary, Batwoman, and Supergirl imbibing alcohol to commemorate the death of the Green Arrow when they are called to gather by the Monitor who has recruited Lex Luthor because “Everyone has their role to play.”
No sooner does Supergirl see Luthor, than she flips out and says that he can’t be trusted, than he proves Supergirl right. He steals the Book of Destiny from where the Monitor has learned that there are seven Paragons of Virtue necessary to defeat the Anti-Monitor. The first four Paragons are: Hope which is Supergirl; Destiny which is Sara; Truth that is a Superman who “has suffered more loss than any mortal man”; and Courage “the Bat of the Future.”
Harbinger recruits Mick Rory from Earth-74 so that a group of heroes can use the Waverider, which is the vehicle the Legends of Tomorrow use to jump through time and space into parallel Earths. Clark, Lois, and Iris (the Flash’s wife) locate a Superman that has suffered great loss on Earth-96 and get there just as Luthor has gotten there. He uses the Book of Destiny to mentally control Superman until Lois uses a knockout punch to quell Luthor’s manipulations.
In the interim, Supergirl and Batwoman travel to Earth-99 to find the Bat of the Future. They find a hobbled and embittered Bruce Wayne that admits to having broken his code of “No Killing.” Not only that, but one of his most cherished trophies is Clark Kent’s broken glasses. His most enjoyable kill, Superman. Supergirl becomes livid at such a cavalier attitude, and the results are predictable. Batwoman is the Paragon of Courage, the Bat of the Future.
Meanwhile the Flash, White Canary, the Green Arrow’s daughter (Mia), and John Constantine have taken Oliver’s body to a Lazarus Pit on Earth-18 in an attempt to resurrect him. On the Waverider, Ray Palmer (the Atom) is building a Paragon finder which he uses to detect that the Flash is the Paragon of Love and J’onn J’onzz, the Martian Manhunter, is the Paragon of Honor.
The Paragon detector finds the last Paragon to be Ryan Choi, a brilliant scientist from Ivy Town. He is the Paragon of Humanity. Ryan is told by Iris Allen that the Earths are being destroyed, and he tells the heroes that he wants to spend the last moments with his wife. Iris convinces him that he can do more good helping to prevent his family’s imminent demise than actually just waiting to die.
The Monitor tasks Vibe, Frost, and Flash to go to Earth-90. There they find amid the Anti-Monitor’s chamber an anti-matter cannon powered by that world’s version of the Flash. When the Flash is “rescued,” Pariah grabs Black Lightning to try to absorb the energy, but this is just a temporary containment. Just as Flash of Earth-1 is about to sacrifice himself for Earth-90, Flash-90 steps in and makes the ultimate sacrifice.
Constantine, Mia, and John Diggle have managed to revive the Green Arrow by going to purgatory in pursuit of his soul, but the Spectre stops Green Arrow by giving him the opportunity to make a greater sacrifice and by taking on a higher purpose. He says good-bye to Diggle and Mia. Constantine’s team returns to the Waverider without Oliver. Harbinger then arrives and tries to kill the Monitor and hasten the destruction of the Earths. Just as Harbinger summons an anti-matter wave, we witness the destruction of Earth-1. Slowly, the camera pans around the bridge as the wave overtakes the Waverider, there’s a look of horror, resignation, and failure as some of our heroes are consumed.
Pariah grabs all of the Paragons, just before they are consumed and blinks them to the Vanishing Point, a place where the Anti-Monitor can’t reach them, we are told. Suddenly, Superman screams in agony, as he falls. He is consumed, and in his stead is Lex Luthor, who has the Book of Destiny in his hands. He has written himself in as the Paragon of Truth. The episode ends here.
Lex Luthor is the Paragon of Truth? Are you kidding me?
The Mustache and The Beard 