CW's Crisis on Infinite Earths episode 2 spoiler review (Batwoman S01 EP09)

The second episode of Crisis was a lot of fun mostly due to the cameos that we got and this was my first real exposure to the Lex Luthor of the CW universe, arguably I've heard people say it was a filler episode but a few important things happened, though I could say nothing that pushed the story forward a great deal. It was still a fantastic episode and a lot went on that I enjoyed.
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Probably the weakest aspect in my mind was the storyline with Barry and Mia seeking out Constantine to help them resurrect Oliver. They bring his body to the last remaining Lazarus pit in the multiverse, an old west planet with its own Jonah Hex that Sara and Mia promptly beat up when he attempted to harass them. In the end, they managed to bring back Oliver, but without his soul as the antimatter is dampening Constantine's powers. Like I mentioned in my episode 1 review, Oliver's super early and surprising death was made better later on, which is them bringing him back for a much bigger role in the Crisis later on instead of dying at the very start. This storyline definitely felt small though in the episode, which is why I'm not giving it as much focus as the other storylines.

The first of the other two I want to talk about is Kara and Kate traveling to Earth-99 in search of the "Bat of the future," as the Monitor calls him. Turns out this is where Kevin Conroy's Batman comes in, though he is a much older, broken version of the bat who needs an exoskeleton in order to move. Seeing Conroy play the role in live action was a fantastic time, the first line he spoke was a dead on for his Batman voice he uses in the other roles, though it seemed after that he went with a more normal voice to match his face. Turns out, this Batman basically became evil after all the years of fighting as Batman. Kara finds out that he not only killed all of his villains, but murdered Clark Kent as well with bloody glasses to show for it. The bloody glasses seem to indicate he caught Clark off guard and murdered him out of the Superman persona as well, and just for having the powers he did according to Conroy's Batman. Evil. Kara finds herself weakened against Conroy who brings out kryptonite, though Kate electrocutes and kills him, deservedly so. Later in the episode it is revealed that Kate is actually the paragon instead of Conroy's Batman, who obviously wasn't one of the paragons since he insisted the multiverse should just be allowed to be wiped out. That wasn't the end of that story though, as Kate secretly kept some of the kryptonite..

The part of the episode I really loved was the parts involving the Superman storyline. The Monitor is revealed to have brought back Lex Luthor for his role in the Crisis and I really enjoyed Jon Cryer's Lex Luthor! He had a lot of charisma and energy in the role, not just a stoic and evil supervillain, but one that seems like he is having fun. I'd love to see him as the big bad as a season in the upcoming Superman tv show! Lex ends up using the book of destiny from last year's crossover (reassembled by Monitor after its destruction) to hop from earth to earth murdering Supermen, ending up on Smallville's earth with an appearance from Tom Welling himself! Definitely one of the biggest actors to play Superman as well! Turns out Smallville gave up his powers to raise a family, disappointing Lex who says that that Superman took "the fun out of it." After taking a punch from Welling after trying his own throw at the big man, Lex leaves Smallville to be killed by the inevitable antimatter wave. Our Superman and Lois end up finding Brandon Routh's Superman's world, and it was a ton of fun seeing him back in the role as an older version of Superman, but still the same one he played back in the early 2000s! In this world, a crazed man from Gotham gassed the daily planet, killing Lois and all of Clark's friends, but he still has remained hopeful and a hero (unlike Batman who went evil eventually). Lex arrives, using the book to unleash Routh's Superman against the CW's Superman in a fun little Superman fight that could definitely preview what we'd see on the Superman tv show! Lois incapacitates Lex, which releases Routh's Superman from his control, and they bring the newly found paragon back to the Waverider which is now being used as their homebase for the Crisis. (Just a side not, I find it a bit odd that they decided to use an alternate world's Heatwave and Waverider instead of ours? For the huge Crisis I would've preferred our versions of characters, not random throw ins like this alternate Heatwave. Why use an alternate Heatwave who is exactly like our Heatwave, instead of our Heatwave?).

Only three more paragons to find after this episode, and the end of the episode saw Lyla being approached by the Anti-Monitor himself in all his villainous glory! The next episode was definitely the best out of the three so far and I'm excited to talk about it next!!