We’ve already heard that The CW is bringing in some big-name characters for the annual crossover of its DC superhero shows, with Lois Lane and Batwoman both making their CW debuts, but today the network announced that the event itself is getting a big name of its own: Elseworlds. For those who don’t follow comics, that was the name given to an old DC imprint that was used exclusively for stories that existed outside of the main continuity and featured some weird and wacky twists on DC’s core characters—though it was mostly just Batman.
The Elseworlds label has been dead for over a decade, but at its height it was used to tell some legitimately iconic DC stories, like Mark Millar’s Superman: Red Son (where Kal-El’s rocket lands on a Soviet farm) and Mark Waid’s brilliant Kingdom Come (where aging DC heroes stand up against a new generation of reckless vigilantes). There was also some awesomely weird stuff, like a book where Wonder Woman is captured by an overtly misogynistic society led by Jack The Ripper and a trilogy that combined the Justice League with German Expressionist films like Metropolis and The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari.
Basically, The CW is making a bold claim about what this crossover is going to do by using this name (not to mention the original logo, as seen above), and it implies that there might be something much weirder at play here than just the Green Arrow, the Flash, and Supergirl visiting Gotham City for the first time (Legends Of Tomorrow is sitting out this year’s party, unfortunately). As if to underline that point, The CW has announced that yet another big name from the comics is making their CW debut in the three-night event, with Variety reporting that LaMonica Garrett from Designated Survivor will be appearing as The Monitor.
The Monitor was a major player in DC’s Crisis On Infinite Earths, which is basically the crossover event that all other crossover events are modeled after, and in that series he was a godlike figure tasked with defending all of reality (he didn’t end up doing a great job). Variety says that Crisis On Infinite Earths artist George Perez will be drawing a new sketch of Garrett as The Monitor that will “play a prominent role” in the plot of the CW crossover, but that’s all we know about his involvement. Either way, The CW is talking a big game here, and we’ll know how it all works out when three-show crossover kicks off with The Flash on December 9.