History YMMV / CrisisOnInfiniteEarths2019

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: The ''Smallville'' Clark Kent, big time. Was his voluntary relinquishment of his powers to retire and raise a family a fundamentally selfish act, or is he enjoying a well-earned retirement after twenty years of super-heroics?

** Creator/EzraMiller's cameo. Awesome to see, has nothing to do with the main plot.

** Shortly after this event wrapped up, Creator/RubyRose stepped away from being Series/{{Batwoman}} and the creators decided to continue the show with a SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute character instead of casting TheOtherDarrin for Kate, making her entire character arc a ShaggyDogStory in the long run.

*** This is particularly problematic for viewers outside of the US, where The CW airing the special in separate shows becomes problematic due to the handling of distribution rights. For example, in the UK, the shows are split up between channels and subscription services: [[Creator/Channel4 E4]] airs ''Series/{{Batwoman}}'', [[Creator/{{Sky}} Sky One]] airs ''Series/Supergirl2015'', ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'', ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' and ''Series/TheFlash2014'', while the [[RedSkiesCrossover nominally important]] ''Series/BlackLightning''[[note]]a RedSkiesCrossover that explains Jefferson's sudden disappearance and distress for his family in Part 3[[/note]] is exclusively a [[Creator/{{Netflix}} Netflix Original]] in the UK. Not only that, but when Sky finally began airing the crossover in late March/early April, E4 only began airing Batwoman ''the day before'' - so viewers initially thought they would have to wait two months to see the crossover in full. But when the week came to air it, E4 didn't, and ''completely omitted'' the episode fans needed to complete the set from that week of scheduling, with [[https://twitter.com/Geektown/status/1260583598228373512 outlets being told]] that E4 would air the episode OutOfOrder at the '''end''' of the series to maintain the series' main story arc, which would air in around August 2020. A truly baffling move that solves nothing schedule-wise, it made people wait longer for the episode, and it just robs what little context that specific crisis episode would have had in relation to the rest of the Batwoman series. The ending of the whole crossover is ''directly referenced in the very first sentence of the episode''. It also doesn't stop people picking up the boxset of the CrisisCrossover in full, [[LoopholeAbuse completely bypassing E4 and Sky (and without adverts).]]

** Because Barry, the current owner of STAR Labs, doesn't apparently know Gleek existed until it made a ruckus, only one other person comes to mind in regards to where it came from: the lab's "original" [[ComicBook/EobardThawne owner]]. Let that sink in...

** [[ComicBook/TheSpectre Jim Corrigan]] shows up to pass over the mantle of the Spectre to Oliver.

* WhatAnIdiot:
** The Argo City survivors had survived the destruction of their home planet.\\
'''You'd expect:''' They could have foreseen another such incident and prepare ships for something like that.\\
'''Instead:''' They don't, save for one single ship to send a baby.\\
'''As a result:''' The Argo City inhabitants are almost totally wiped by the [[AdvancingWallOfDoom antimatter wave]], and Clark and Lois only survive because Harbinger saved them in time.

** The Anti-Monitor as well. He's either a cool and threatening InvincibleVillain worthy of being the GreaterScopeVillain of the entire Arrowverse or a flat and dull GenericDoomsdayVillain with no motivation to [[OmnicidalManiac destroy the multiverse]] other than ForTheEvulz. It should be noted that this was also a problem in the original Crisis on Infinite Earths as well, with The Anti-Monitor receiving some criticism for being more of a plot device designed to force all heroes to band together to save the multiverse rather than a fully-fledged character.

** The Anti-Monitor as well. He's either a cool and threatening InvincibleVillain worthy of being the GreaterScopeVillain of the entire Arrowverse or he's a flat and dull GenericDoomsdayVillain with no motivation to [[OmnicidalManiac destroy the multiverse]] other than ForTheEvulz. It should be noted that this was also a problem in the original Crisis on Infinite Earths as well, with The Anti-Monitor receiving some criticism for being more of a plot device designed to force all the heroes to join forces to save the multiverse rather than a fully-fledged character.

** The Anti-Monitor as well. He's either a cool and threatening InvincibleVillain worthy of being the GreaterScopeVillain of the entire Arrowverse or he's a boring and flat GenericDoomsdayVillain with no motivation to [[OmnicidalManiac destroy the multiverse]] other than ForTheEvulz. It should be noted that this was also a problem in the original Crisis on Infinite Earths as well, with The Anti-Monitor receiving some criticism for being more of a plot device designed to force all the heroes to join forces to save the multiverse rather than a fully-fledged character.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: The Monitor. Either he's an awesome MagnificentBastard, or an idiot with no idea of what he's doing. For all his planning, foresight and preparations, it becomes clear that he had no idea what he was doing from the very beginning. The previous year's crossover becomes seemingly pointless because the Flash and Supergirl were supposed to die despite the newspaper article saying that Barry would die in the Crisis, which meant that he would've allowed two Paragons (one of whom he had already identified as such) to die, and thus doom the multiverse. For that matter, he goes on and on about how Barry is fated to die, only for it to turn out that it's a different Barry altogether. He was also the one to sent away the Earth-90 Flash, leaving him vulnerable for capture so that the Anti-Monitor could use him as a battery for his anti-matter wave generator. He failed to keep in touch with Harbinger, leaving her vulnerable to be taken over by the Anti-Monitor. And he did nothing to stop Nash Wells from opening the gate that would start the Crisis itself. In fact, he was the one who brought about the existence of the Anti-Monitor due to his "towering ambition." In hindsight, one can't help but think that a lot of trouble and deaths could've been avoided if he had had a better plan than to just toy around with mortals and hope that everything works out. The destruction of Earth-90 and God only knows how many others in the previous crossover seems to be essentially AllForNothing. One wonders just how much of a plan he had at all.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Many ''The Flash'' series fans were disgusted that the Crisis disregards the newspaper announcing that Barry would vanish after a fight with Thawne. There were complaints because that plot was foreshadowed since the beginning of the series and was constantly shown, being important in many ways for the plot of previous seasons excluding the fourth one.

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** Revealing that the ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'' episode featuring Star City in 2046 (which was notoriously tricky to fit into the overall Arrowverse timeline for years) to have happened on another Earth is an ''attempt'' at this, but it instead creates a more major ContinuitySnarl, as Oliver seems far younger than back in the episode and doesn't remember meeting Sara already. Not to mention that his Sara never even survived the ''Queen's Gambit'' sinking in the first place, as the last time he appeared, Oliver seemed to know about the Legends. Plus Sara seems to immediately recognize that Star City 2046 meant Earth-16, despite the fact that there's no way she could possibly know that. And on top of ''that,'' there's never been an indication that the ''Waverider'' could hop parallel universes.
** Iris and Lois get to work together to search the Paragon of Truth, since they did not interact together in [[Series/Elseworlds2018 the previous crossover]] despite being similar characters.
** After many complained about how Earth-90 Flash was basically irrelevant during the ''Series/{{Elseworlds|2018}}'' incident, he gets a shining moment when he ends up being the one to sacrifice himself in place of Earth-1 Barry.
** This is the first crossover in which the world, plot lines, and supporting cast of ''Series/{{Supergirl|2015}}'' play a significant role, as the cast outside of Kara and [[TheLancer her sister Alex]] are never or barely used in the annual crossovers. Of course, the world can't be used in future crossovers because it no longer exists, but it survives in spirit on Earth-Prime.
** Unlike ''Elseworlds'', some of the Legends have roles to play this time around. Also crossing over with ContrivedCoincidence, Sara and Ray happen to have started on ''Series/{{Arrow}}'', still be on the team (and not dead or departed), and not doing recon just in time to be there for Oliver's death. This allows for more emotional impact that the other Legends might not have brought with them.
** After ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'' and the ''[[VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs Inju]][[VideoGame/Injustice2 stice]]'' video games, some fans complained that [[Creator/DCComics DC]] was overusing the idea of Superman turning evil after losing his loved ones. Here, we see that Earth-96 Superman lost friends and family to an attack by the Joker (not ''quite'' the same way as [[StartOfDarkness what sowed the seeds of the One Earth Regime]], but eerily similar), but remains a kindhearted and heroic man. Similarly, they also show an Earth where Batman [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope jumped off the slippery slope]] after breaking his [[ThouShaltNotKill One Rule]] and became an unrepentant murderer, which, for some, was a welcome change considering how often he's often given the role as the leader of a resistance against 'evil Superman' in Elseworlds stories, which, to many, was often touted as part of the character's CharacterShilling tendencies.
** When ''Film/SupermanReturns'' was first released, a common complaint was that Clark/Superman was effectively a deadbeat dad to Jason. Upon seeing the son of his Earth-38 counterpart, Earth-96 Clark comments how much Jonathan looks like his son Jason, showing that he did eventually assume his parental responsibilities.
** Creator/BrandonRouth generally regards the chance to go back to playing Superman as this, given that he was seen by many as too young for the character in ''Film/SupermanReturns'' (he had originally auditioned for what was then a Superman reboot and was up against, [[HilariousInHindsight funnily]] [[Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse enough]], Creator/HenryCavill). Many viewers agree that, with age and experience, he fills Creator/ChristopherReeve's shoes a lot better.
** What does Barry do after the Crisis? Create the Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica, of course!
** After years of fans grumbling about Sara Diggle being blinked out of existence by Barry mucking around with time travel, and everyone hardly ever seeming to care about it, she's back and coexists with John Diggle Jr. in Earth-Prime.
** Part 5 finally confirms that ''Series/Titans2018'' and ''Series/DoomPatrol2019'' take place on separate earths, after a long period of FlipFlopOfGod on the subject.
** After ''Elseworlds'' featured several characters dumping on Oliver Queen and considering him to be a bloodthirsty monster despite his long track record of heroics by then, ''Crisis'' has him getting the praise and respect he's earned, especially after he pulls ''two'' {{Heroic Sacrifice}}s to HoldTheLine on Earth-38 and defeat the Anti-Monitor at the dawn of time, respectively. There's even a televised tribute to him by the President at the end of Hour Five that shows multiple heroes having a moment of silence for him, and of course the private memorial scene at the very end.

** The announcement that Creator/KevinConroy would finally play a live-action version of Batman excited many fans. But having Conroy's Batman turn out to be a twisted murderer who's quickly killed off and making Kate the Paragon of Courage...did not. Not helping things is that Kate Kane and her [[Series/Batwoman2019 series]] is not exactly one of the most well-liked shows in the series, and seeing her come out on top against ''Creator/KevinConroy'' definitely does not please fans.

* TooCoolToLive: Earth-96 Superman is replaced by Lex Luthor at the end of Hour Three, possibly because it would have made defeating the Anti-Monitor and restoring the multiverse all too easy. Luckily, he's resurrected at the multiverse's rebirth.

** ''Series/{{Lucifer}}'' is technically a DC property, but is such an InNameOnly affair that he wasn't on anyone's radar in being involved in ''Crisis''. Rumors first started circulating that Creator/TomEllis had been seen on-set of ''Crisis'' filming, which led said actor to [[BlatantLies make it clear he wasn't involved in the crossover]] in order to keep it a surprise. This also makes him the only TV character involved in the crossover to make canon appearances on ''three'' different networks (the show started on Fox, moved to Creator/{{Netflix}}, and this crossover aired on [=CBS=]).

** In the final montage showing the Multiverse, we have not only new appearances of the ''Titans'', but also the heroes from ''Stargirl'', ''Swamp Thing'' and ''Doom Patrol''.

** Many fans feel that the writers made a huge mistake in introducing Ryan Choi out of nowhere into the crossover to be the Paragon of Humanity, when several other characters who were established at some point in the last ''seven years'' of the Arrowverse could have taken his place. Not only that, but instead of using this as a lead-in to future stories, Ryan has yet to appear in any other Arrowverse episodes, making his appearance seem like a cute one-off.

** The whole idea that Marvel would be the one to have their shows and movies linked together through the MCU while DC kept their film and TV continuities independent is a tad amusing in light of this crossover. ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'', ''Series/AgentCarter'' and ''Series/Daredevil2015'' are the only other Marvel shows to date that have had any crossover with the movies (The former is instrumental to ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'' and gives some more context the film just didn't have time to explain, Wilson Fisk from Daredevil reappears in ''Series/{{Hawkeye|2021}}'' and [[spoiler:Murdock appears in ''Film/SpidermanNoWayHome'']] in 2021 (despite both being from a ''Netflix'' production), while the latter has a post-crossover cancellation of a 70's-era Jarvis in ''Film/AvengersEndgame''). The other shows have referenced the movies' events, but not the reverse[[note]]exception being ''{{Series/Inhumans}}'', which was self-contained, and it was cancelled after one season anyway[[/note]]. [[Series/Runaways2017 Other]] [[Series/CloakAndDagger2018 shows]], especially the other Netflix Originals (''Series/JessicaJones2015'', ''Series/LukeCage2016'', ''Series/IronFist2017'' and ''Series/ThePunisher2017'') haven't been acknowledged by their shared continuity (though that's more to do with Disney's aversion for DarkerAndEdgier shows at the time; Fisk is only brought in because he's a ''very'' prominent villain that would be hard to ignore), the later-released Disney+ shows will be wholly acknowledged. This show, however, saw the Arrowverse's multiverse roping in not only [[Film/Batman1989 the Burton/Schumacher Batman series]] and the [[Film/SupermanTheMovie Christopher Reeve/Brandon Routh]] [[Film/SupermanReturns film series]], but even the ''Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse'', courtesy of Ezra Miller's Barry Allen briefly meeting Grant Gustin's Barry Allen.

** The whole idea that Marvel would be the one to have their shows and movies linked together through the MCU while DC kept their film and TV continuities independent is a tad amusing in light of this crossover. ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'', ''Series/AgentCarter'' and ''Series/Daredevil2015'' are the only other Marvel shows to date that have had any crossover with the movies (The former is instrumental to ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'' and gives some more context the film just didn't have time to explain, Wilson Fisk from Daredevil reappears in ''Series/{{Hawkeye}}'' and [[spoiler:Murdock appears in ''Film/SpidermanNoWayHome'']] in 2021 (despite both being from a ''Netflix'' production), while the latter has a post-crossover cancellation of a 70's-era Jarvis in ''Film/AvengersEndgame''). The other shows have referenced the movies' events, but not the reverse[[note]]exception being ''{{Series/Inhumans}}'', which was self-contained, and it was cancelled after one season anyway[[/note]]. [[Series/Runaways2017 Other]] [[Series/CloakAndDagger2018 shows]], especially the other Netflix Originals (''Series/JessicaJones2015'', ''Series/LukeCage2016'', ''Series/IronFist2017'' and ''Series/ThePunisher2017'') haven't been acknowledged by their shared continuity (though that's more to do with Disney's aversion for DarkerAndEdgier shows at the time; Fisk is only brought in because he's a ''very'' prominent villain that would be hard to ignore), the later-released Disney+ shows will be wholly acknowledged. This show, however, saw the Arrowverse's multiverse roping in not only [[Film/Batman1989 the Burton/Schumacher Batman series]] and the [[Film/SupermanTheMovie Christopher Reeve/Brandon Routh]] [[Film/SupermanReturns film series]], but even the ''Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse'', courtesy of Ezra Miller's Barry Allen briefly meeting Grant Gustin's Barry Allen.

** Kara's "Krypton's not just a place, it's a spirit" speech gets devalued when one realizes that it's a blatantly copied and embellished version of Odin's "Asgard is not a place" speech from Film/ThorRagnarok.
** It's pretty much a given that most DC and Marvel stories will utilize some form of made-up science, and this usually turns out fine. But even by the standards the Big Two have set, this miniseries pushes the envelope with the Monitor requesting that Ray Palmer create a 'paragon detector' so they can find the seven beings who must save the multiverse. At least with other examples of that made-up science, such as the Speed Force or the Super Soldier Serum, it's easy to understand how they're supposed to work. Not so with the Paragon Detectors. It's the lack of explanation as to how this detector works and how Ray was able to build it to find the seven beings that really strains this machine's credibility.
** Additionally, the fact that out of the ''entire multiverse,'' almost all of the paragons come from just two Earths (and most are already on the Waverider) seems a bit contrived.

** The whole idea that Marvel would be the one to have their shows and movies linked together through the MCU while DC kept their film and TV continuities independent is a tad amusing in light of this crossover. ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'', ''Series/AgentCarter'' and ''Series/Daredevil2015'' are the only other Marvel shows to date that have had any crossover with the movies (The former is instrumental to ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'' and gives some more context the film just didn't have time to explain, Wilson Fisk from Daredevil reappears in ''Series/{{Hawkeye}}'' and [[spoiler:Murdock appears in ''Film/SpidermanNoWayHome'']] in 2021 (despite both being from a ''Netflix'' production), while the latter has a post-crossover cancellation of a 70's-era Jarvis in ''Film/AvengersEndgame''). The other shows have referenced the movies' events, but not the reverse[[note]]exception being ''{{Series/Inhumans}}'', which was self-contained, and it was cancelled after one season anyway[[/note]]. [[Series/Runaways2017 Other]] [[Series/CloakAndDagger2018 shows]], especially the other Netflix Originals (''Series/JessicaJones2015'', ''Series/LukeCage2016'', ''Series/IronFist2017'' and ''Series/ThePunisher2017'') haven't been acknowledged by their shared continuity (though that's more to do with Disney's aversion for DarkerAndEdgier shows that they certainly do not want kids to watch; Fisk is only brought in because he's a ''very'' prominent villain that would be hard to ignore), the later-released Disney+ shows will be wholly acknowledged. This show, however, saw the Arrowverse's multiverse roping in not only [[Film/Batman1989 the Burton/Schumacher Batman series]] and the [[Film/SupermanTheMovie Christopher Reeve/Brandon Routh]] [[Film/SupermanReturns film series]], but even the ''Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse'', courtesy of Ezra Miller's Barry Allen briefly meeting Grant Gustin's Barry Allen.

** ''Series/{{Lucifer}}'' is technically a DC property, but is such an InNameOnly affair that he wasn't on anyone's radar. Rumors first started circulating that Creator/TomEllis had been seen on-set of ''Crisis'' filming, which led said actor to [[BlatantLies make it clear he wasn't involved in the crossover]] in order to keep it a surprise. This also makes him a rare TV character to make canon appearances on ''three'' different networks, as the show started on Fox and then moved to Netflix.

** Many fans were hoping to see Lena meet her Smallville counterpart Tess Mercer (who dies in the series finale but comes BackFromTheDead in the sequel comics) and compare notes about their lives and relationships with their respective brothers and superhero acquaintances. These hopes came to naught, as Tess doesn't appear in the crossover.

* NightmareFuel: Earth-99 Bruce Wayne. He broke his ThouShallNotKill rule, began killing his enemies, fell further off the deep end when Earth-99’s Kate Kane became Batwoman to be his RedeemingReplacement, only to be killed, and gives in to [[FantasticRacism bigotry]] and [[BewareTheSuperman paranoia]] enough to kill Earth-99’s Superman. And that’s before he meets Earth-1’s Kate and Supergirl and tries to kill Supergirl! If anybody asks why Bruce sticks to his code so fiercely in most continuities, this is the answer.