The Flash's Post-Crisis Changes Missed the Mark
by Jackson HayesThe end of The CW's "Crisis On Infinite Earths" crossover promised major change was on its way to the Arrowverse. Following Oliver Queen's sacrifice to rebirth the multiverse, his superpowered friends found themselves in a new reality, dubbed "Earth-Prime." This planet houses all of the Arrowverse's heroes under one sun but brings with it new challenges.
For most of the series, including Black Lightning, Arrow, Batwoman and Supergirl, "Crisis" changed a variety of things. Dead characters were brought back to life and villains were turned into heroes. For The Flash, however, the end of the multiverse didn't bring about as many shake-ups as one would expect from the Arrowverse show that deals with alternate realities most frequently.
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In The Flash's midseason premiere, "Marathon," fans are thrust into Earth-Prime's Central City. While things seem normal for Team Flash at the start, a conversation between Cisco and Frost starts to unpack how their lives have changed following "Crisis." Cisco seems frustrated at the fact that their timeline has changed, with Supergirl and Superman now having lived on their Earth from the get-go.
It's at this point that fans of The Flash wanted to see how the status quo on their favorite show had been altered. Could Zoom be alive on Earth-Prime? Has Eddie Thawne returned from the dead and is once again part of Team Flash? The possibilities seemed endless. However, the show decided to take a much more tame route with its "Crisis" fallout.
The biggest change to The Flash appears to be to its Rogues Gallery. As Cisco discusses in the episode, some of the team's former villains have returned with "new paint jobs." The first example fans get of this is with the new Dr. Light, who is an assassin for Black Hole, an organization Iris West-Allen is investigating.
While an interesting concept that's sure to get further exploration as this season of The Flash goes on, rehashing old villains falls a little flat when compared to the ways other Arrowverse shows handled "Crisis." On Batwoman, Kate is blindsided when an alternate version of Beth appears following a confrontation with Alice. Meanwhile, on Arrow, nearly every character who had died throughout the series was brought back to life by Oliver's final act.
Of course, as the season goes on, the effects of "Crisis" are sure to continue to rear their head across every Arrowverse series. However, as it stands today, The Flash's new status quo has started off a bit lackluster.
Airing Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/CT on The CW, The Flash stars Grant Gustin, Candice Patton, Carlos Valdes, Danielle Panabaker, Tom Cavanagh, Jesse L. Martin, Danielle Nicolet and Hartley Sawyer.
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