Director – Jeff Wamester, Screenplay – Jim Krieg, Based on the Graphic Novel Crisis on Infinite Earths by George Perez & Marv Wolfman, Producers – Jim Krieg & Kimberly S. Moreau, Music – Kevin Riepl, Animation – Maven Image Platform (Supervising Animation Director – Sungchan Lee, Animation Directors – Gyeongho Choi & Jonggeun Kim) & Studio IAM (Animation Directors – Jeong Young Won, Jo Seung Gu, Kim Gwon Il & Shim Byeong Cheong). Production Company – Warner Bros. Animation.
Voices
Meg Donnelly (Supergirl/Harbinger), Geoffrey Arend (Psycho Pirate/Charles Halstead/Hawkman), Jonathan Adams (Monitor), Jensen Ackles (Batman/Bruce Wayne), Darren Criss (Superman), Will Friedle (Kamandi/Batman Beyond), Darin De Paul (Solovar), Ato Essandoh (Mister Terrific/Anti-Monitor), Keith Ferguson (Doctor Fate/Atomic Knight), Stana Katic (Wonder Woman), Erika Ishii (Doctor Light/Dr Hoshi, Huntress), Jennifer Hale (Alura/Hippolyte), Liam McIntyre (Aquaman), Troy Baker (The Joker), Zach Callison (Earth 2 Robin/Damian Wayne Robin), Gideon Adlon (Batgirl), Aldis Hodge (Green Lantern/John Stewart), Lou Diamond Phillips (The Spectre), Matt Ryan (John Constantine), Jamie Gray Hyder (Hawkgirl), Matt Lanter (Blue Beetle), Keesha Sharp (Vixen), Harry Shum Jr. (Brainiac 5), Jimmi Simpson (Green Arrow)
Plot
The team of superheroes assembled by Monitor make all effort to stop the various alternate Earths being destroyed by the anti-matter wave sweeping across the multiverse but the towers that hold back the wave are unstable. At the same time, Charles Halstead aka the Psycho Pirate tells his story of growing up in England and discovering he had the power to reflect the emotions of others back and amplify them. Monitor has also rescued Kara from her capsule while he was observing the destruction of Krypton. He gives her a home aboard his ship before she discovers that her cousin Kal-el is alive on Earth as Superman and elects to join him. Psycho Pirate is given some of Monitor’s lifeforce to be able to influence minds and create cooperation among those fighting the anti-matter wave. Psycho Pirate is then contacted by the being who created the anti-matter wave, which he names Anti-Monitor, who persuades him to use his powers to create disharmony and set people fighting one another instead.
Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985-6) was a twelve issue limited comic-book series released for the fiftieth anniversary of DC Comics. Crisis on Infinite Earths was created the intention of harmonising the multiverses and multiple conflicting continuities that DC had created, bringing everything together into a single universe. The results were hugely successful and DC have conducted several follow-ups. The series was previously adapted to the screen (loosely) in Crisis on Infinite Earths (2020), a five-episode arc stretched out between the various series Arrowverse series’. Crisis on Infinite Earths Part Two was the second of what has been announced as a three-part animated adaptation of the series than began with Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part One (2024).
Crisis on Infinite Earths Part One built up to an epic-sized battle – for not just the fate of the Earth but multiple Earths across the multiverse. After that, Crisis on Infinite Earths Part Two comes as somewhat of a slowdown of pace. The epic battle for the multiverse is still there – it just takes a backseat to everything that is happening. Instead, the focus goes into two story strands – one is the backhistory of Psycho Pirate; the other concerning Monitor and his saving Kara/Supergirl from the destruction of Krypton and raising her aboard his ship. Both the characters of Psycho Pirate and Kara undergo strong and well written arcs after the film introduces Anti-Monitor and they are corrupted to serve its purpose. These dual story strands form the backbone of Part Two.
Bat Family of the multiverse
I was somewhat disappointed that both Crisis on Infinite Earths films so far have not shown us much of the rest of the multiverse. One of the reasons that you suspect Crisis on Infinite Earths was adapted now was because of the prevalence of
We do get occasional glimpses of other Earths – one where the Amazons rule and men are a slave minority; another post-apocalyptic world. This mostly seems to be an opportunity for the film to introduce a bunch of obscure DC characters. There is an appearance of the Bat Family in one timeline, which now includes the Terry McGinnis Batman from tv’s Batman Beyond (1999-2001). Also making an appearance as The Atomic Knights, an obscure team from the 1960s who were revived in the Crisis on Infinite Earths comic; Kamandi, a Jack Kirby creation who appeared in the short-lived 1970s post-apocalyptic comic Kamandi the Last Boy on Earth; and Solovar, the ruler of Gorilla City in various The Flash stories.
The two main story arcs work quite well. Far less interesting for me was about the latter third of the show that has multiple characters in different universes fighting off shadow creatures. The shadow creatures are about as generic a threat as it gets (even though they were a part of the original Crisis on Infinite Earths comics) and there is nothing terribly interesting to these scenes. For a film that dangled the destruction of the multiverse before us in Part One, it feels like only filler material before the big battle.
