The Arrowverse‘s Crisis On Infinite Earths has made DC Comics’ New Gods canon thanks to revealing the real name of the Anti-Monitor (LaMonica Garrett): Mobius. The biggest crossover ever has seen death and destruction on an epic scale; by the conclusion of the first three chapters of the five-part mega-event on Supergirl, Batwoman, and The Flash, every Earth in the Multiverse was destroyed by the cosmic villain’s antimatter wave.
The Anti-Monitor’s wrath was felt by other worlds which are now canonically part of the Arrowverse, such as Earth-89 (home of Michael Keaton’s Batman), Earth-9 (where DC Universe’s Titans resided), and even Earth-167 (the world of Smallville). With untold billions dead, only the seven heroic Paragons – The Flash (Grant Gustin), Supergirl (Melissa Benoist), Batwoman (Ruby Rose), Sara Lance (Caity Lotz), J’onn J’onzz (David Harewood), Ryan Choi (Osric Chau), and Lex Luthor (Jon Cryer) – remain as the last hope of the Multiverse, although a wild card is Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell), who could become The Spectre. The Anti-Monitor’s dominance was greatly helped by taking control of Harbinger (Audrey Anderson), the assistant of his counterpart, the Monitor. Further, the Anti-Monitor manipulated Nash Wells (Tom Cavanagh) and turned him into Pariah, dooming him to witness the destruction of each Earth firsthand.
In Crisis On Infinite Earths Part 3, the Anti-Monitor struck the remaining superheroes on the Waverider just as his antimatter wave claimed the final Earth in the Multiverse, Earth-1. Taking possession of Harbinger’s body, the Anti-Monitor attacked and murdered his nemesis, the Monitor, and absorbed his cosmic energies. However, instead of the codenames that Cisco Ramon (Carlos Valdes) despises so much, the ancient entities called each other by their real names: Mar Novu (the Monitor) and Mobius (the Anti-Monitor). The fact that Anti-Monitor’s name is Mobius in the Arrowverse links him to the New Gods, which means Darkseid, Highfather, Orion, and the rest existed in The CW’s superhero universe, too, because Mobius was the original owner of the Mobius Chair, which now belongs to Metron of the New Gods.
The New Gods are ancient, warring cosmic superpowers from the planets Apokolips and New Genesis; they have been a huge part of the DC Universe since Jack Kirby created them in the 1970s. Darkseid is one of DC’s Big Bads and he’s faced the superheroes multiple times, especially Superman. Darkseid War, the 2015 DC Comics event written by Geoff Johns, pitted Darkseid of the New Gods against the Anti-Monitor, with the Justice League caught in the middle of the galactic despots’ conflict. Darkseid War retconned the Anti-Monitor’s origin so that he was the Mobius Chair’s original rider, which was named after him. Since the Arrowverse is following suit with Mobius being the Anti-Monitor’s real name, it likely means he once owned the Mobius Chair as well, and the New Gods existed somewhere in the Multiverse (before Crisis wiped them out too).
Further, the fact that Smallville is now officially Arrowverse canon as Earth-167 is another means for the New Gods to have existed in the Multiverse. Darkseid was the final adversary of Clark Kent (Tom Welling) in Smallville season 10 before he finally transformed into Superman; in fact, the Man of Steel ended his series by pushing the planet Apokolips away from Earth back into outer space, thereby saving the world in Clark’s first official heroic deed as Superman. Smallville also introduced members of Darkseid’s rogue’s gallery such as DeSaad and Granny Goodness so they are all Arrowverse canon now as well.
How the Arrowverse’s last heroes standing can reverse the effects of Crisis – and what the shared universe will look like afterward -remains to be seen. Although director Ana DuVernay is working on a New Gods movie, since Superman and Lois are set to get their own spinoff, it’s possible that Darkseid could one day face Tyler Hoechlin’s Man of Steel on The CW; if so, the seeds for the New Gods becoming Arrowverse canon were smartly planted in Crisis On Infinite Earths.
Crisis On Infinite Earths Part 4 continues on Arrow on Tuesday, January 14, 2020 @ 8pm on The CW.
