ANI-MOVIES, *Justice League: Crisis On Infinite Earths-Part One

Being the first in an ambitious trilogy, Crisis On Infinite Earths-Part One takes the existing Tomorrowverse which only got started three years ago and merges it into its own multiverse. The second Tomorrowverse film, Justice Society: World War II already established that parallel universes were as commonplace as sliced bread, so the fact that there were other realities in this shared timeline isn't hard to grasp. The original maxi-series from 1985 was meant to set up an entirely new status quo for DC Comice merging all the universe into a single one, of which there has already been a take on within the Arrowverse to most credits succeeded in its version. This is the first time that the original Crisis has been done in animated format offering no limit to which licensed characters could star in the sprawling saga. As part of the Tomorrowverse, this happens right after Justice League: Warworld where Earth-1 Superman and Batman along with Earth-2 Wonder Woman are taken in by a mysterious girl called Harbinger after Martian Manhunter sacrifices himself to save the heroes. Each part of this trilogy is longer than the average DC Universe animated movies, so there is more room to focus on some of the individual characters, most specifically on the Flash going back and forth to moments in his life.

John Constantine fresh from his DC Showcase limbo in the House of Mystery has spent several lifetimes acting as the Pariah for this version of Crisis, going from one Earth to another witnessing them being destroyed by a wave of anti-matter. The main target of the story is Barry Allen as the Flash at different points in his own timeline from when he helps form the Justice League to thwart Lex Luthor's attempt to take down metahumans with the power-stealing android Amazo, to his trips to other realities like Earth-3 run by evil superheroes that he sees getting wiped out by the anti-matter wave. A being known as the Monitor sends his agent Harbinger(who it turns out is really Supergirl from the Legion of Super-Heroes future)to collect heroes and other people with the skills and smarts to discover how to counter the anti-matter from covering all the remaining universes. The heroic eggheads come to the conclusion that setting up a special giant tuning fork on each of the still-existing Earths would save them, even though Flash gets caught up in his own Earth's destruction just as the anti-matter hits it. Barry grabs his wife Iris and seals themselves off in a time envelope while the rest of the world is slowed down to a near stop as the two of them spend the next few decades perfecting their own tuning fork along with help from the head of Amazo that Flash befriended. Flash finishes his project just after Iris dies of old age to sync up the other heroes' efforts and save their universes. This act somehow effects the future as Supergirl finds out that the Legion of Super-Heroes history comes to a premature end leaving the Monitor to consult with the mysterious Spectre.

The first chapter of Crisis enters a whole new world that only occasionally goes back to incidents in the Tomorrowverse, so you don't necessarily need to see the other installments to watch this trilogy. In fact, the movie goes between so many realities and timelines that brushing up on other DC titles is almost irrelevant. The animation style matches those of the current Tomorrowverse movies, nevertheless you still feel nostalgic for the style of the Bruce Timm animated productions. As far as adapting the original comic book story, Part One covers most of the subplots, even though it leaves out original characters like Alexander Luthor or Lady Quark who might get featured in the sequels. There is also no reveal of the mastermind behind the whole universal termination scheme, meaning that the animated trilogy might takes a different approach to the original comic's villain. It is difficult to see how the entire story arc with fold out in the next two movies, but Part One is enticing enough to at least begin with.