The Clock Tower: What A New Poster Tells Us About The Conclusion To 'Crisis On Infinite Earths'

(Welcome to The Clock Tower, where we'll break down the goings on of the The CW network's Arrowverse. We'll touch on things like themes, cultural impact, lead-ins to major events, ships, and more every week! Warning: this Clock Tower is filled with spoilers. Proceed at your own risk.)This is it, folks. One last Clock Tower before Crisis on Infinite Earths returns with its two-part finale via Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow. That's Tuesday, January 14 if you haven't been paying attention! We left our heroes in a bit of a sticky situation, as is the custom of any television narrative with a break in the middle. We'll start off there. Then we'll take a little peak at the details we can glean from that fancy new poster they put out a couple of days ago.

Sorry, wrong show? There's still plenty of time for Sam and Dean to show up before this is all said and done! There are infinite earths, after all. Well... there were at least. When things closed out on part three, the entirety of known existence had been wiped out by the Anti-Monitor's antimatter. The exception to this being The Vanishing Point, a small blip that exists outside of space and time, and the Paragons.  Before everything our heroes know was wiped out, Lex Luthor used the Book of Destiny to switch places with Brandon Routh's Superman. Honestly? That might be the only thing that happened before the break that actually sticks. Which would be incredibly unfortunate. 

There's a lot going on here. Some of it's mundane, but other parts of it tell a story. Love to see our World's Finest ladies front and center! But, like The Flash, the other Paragons, and the majority of the rest of the poster, there's not a whole lot to be told from their inclusion. There's also cool stuff, like Black Lightning getting decent placement. Let's hope they do a little bit more with him in the closing episodes. The interesting bits are spattered throughout, but let's start with Oliver Queen. It is his last crossover, after all. After Jim Corrigan's visit in Purgatory, it felt like a safe assumption that Oliver would be taking on the role of Spectre. His costume here pretty much confirms that will end up being his role in the universe his show sparked once Arrow comes to a close. It's also noteworthy that Spectre straight up dukes it out with the Anti-Monitor after Crisis comes to a close, so here's hoping we get that action next week! Next notable costume change is Nash Wells, who seems to have shed his Pariah getup. If we're lucky, he'll have dropped the melancholy a well. It seems unlikely that we'll see such a thing before Crisis is resolved, but a girl can dream! We theorized a bit about Allegra Garcia's relevance to the overall story while discussing Pariah's backstory several weeks ago. Though she's notably absent, I imagine they're not showing all of their cards before the episodes air. Finally, there's John Diggle. He's saved for last both because a Green Lantern moment would be the coolest, and because it's the biggest stretch. We've had John Stewart references in the past, but it still feels like a big reach for DCTV. That said, that outfit of his has a whole lot of green. Could it be in homage to his fallen brother? Sure. But having hope is fun! 

The good news is, things can't get worse! The bad news is, that big cliffhanger rings a little hollow when you know all of the characters from every single Arrowverse show aren't going to remain dead. Their recent renewal notwithstanding, there's still a lot of season to go for all of them. With that in mind, there's still a lot of questions as we look ahead to Tuesday's episode.Harbinger's role is the biggest question mark for the time being. Previews confirmed she still has a role to play in the latter half, and Lyla Michaels is technically free game with Arrow coming to an end. Since Mar Novu's proven himself to be largely useless so far in the event proper and Pariah seems to have returned to his more human roots, she may be our only cosmic hope against Mobius and his antimatter.There's also the question of just how many earths Supergirl's going to be able to bring back with the Book of Destiny. Will Black Lightning officially be brought into the Arrowverse family for good? How many people from the infinite earths destroyed are they going to zap back into existence, and just where is it that they're going to live? The answer to both of these is likely going to be "however many Supergirl can bring back before the Book of Destiny makes her go insane", but it does all make you wonder! 

As of next Tuesday, Legends of Tomorrow's season officially begins. With that new beginning comes the countdown to Arrow's end, so plenty of mixed emotions there. When our heroes return, The Flash will consult the Speedforce (who takes the form of Oliver this go around), we'll learn just what taking on the role of Spectre means for Oliver in this iteration of Crisis on Infinite Earths, and we'll watch The Arrowverse's biggest crossover yet come to a (hopefully epic) close.