YMMV / Batwoman 2019 S 1 E 9 Crisis On Infinite Earths Hour Two

• Alternative Character Interpretation: The Smallville Clark Kent big time. Was his voluntary relinquishment of his powers to raise family a fundamentally selfish act, or is he enjoying a well-earned retirement after twenty years of super heroics? Alternatively, did he retire while Lex Luthor is still the President on his world, or did he succeed in defeating him years ago and his use of Lex's title was an example of ironically used Ambiguous Syntax? And if Lex is President, is he still evil?
• Catharsis Factor: After Lex went on a killing spree of alternate Supermen, when confronted by the Clark of Smallville, Luthor is thrown out of his game and Clark easily outsmarts him. And he even decks Lex for good measure. But it doesn't stop there. After sending two Supermen to fight each other all Lois had to do was knock him out with a broom and his spree is over.
• Crack Ship: It didn't go unnoticed by fans that in their brief interaction that Iris was checking Smallville Clark out and caused a lot of them to latch onto the ship, despite both characters being happily married. Candice Patton openly admitting that she had a Celeb Crush on Tom Welling also overlaps this with Actor Shipping for some fans.
• He Really Can Act:
  • For nearly 30 years, Kevin Conroy portrayed Batman only with voice, not body. Fans were excited to see him in live action, and certain spoilers aside, nearly everyone praised his performance.
  • After Superman Returns bombed, Brandon Routh was left struggling to live it down. He bounced back with a decent career as a character actor, eventually leading to his role as Ray Palmer on Legends of Tomorrow. Thusly fans were stunned to see him back as Clark Kent, and that surprise gave way to praise as with the wisdom he picked up over thirteen years, Routh managed to channel Christopher Reeve arguably better than in Returns.
• Moral Event Horizon: At first, it appears like Earth-99 Batman had only come close to crossing this when it's revealed he has been murdering his Rogues Gallery. Then, it's revealed he did cross it by killing Earth-99 Superman, with intent on doing the same to Kara if not for Kate's intervention.
• Nightmare Fuel: Earth-99 Bruce Wayne. He broke his Thou Shall Not Kill rule, began killing his enemies, fell further off the deep end when Earth-99’s Kate Kane became Batwoman to be his Redeeming Replacement, only to be killed, and gives in to bigotry and 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, leading to his accidental death! If anybody asks why Bruce sticks to his code so fiercely in most continuities, this is the answer.
• Older Than They Think: An evil, Alternate Universe counterpart to Batman had already been referenced on an episode on The Flash, itself taken from a 2017 DC storyline.
• One-Scene Wonder: Clark Kent and Lois Lane from Smallville only appear in a single scene, but it is one of the most fondly remembered in the Crossover.
• Out of Order: In the United Kingdom, E4 has the rights to air Batwoman (the rest of the relevant series' are with Sky One), with E4 deciding to not air this episode until the end of the series, not in the original placement. According to reports,all E4 said was that this was done to "maintain the current story arc" of the show, which was a very weird reason to give, considering the following episode opens with a spoiler to Crisis, and Batwoman constantly references it. It's a truly baffling move that solved nothing schedule-wise, made people wait more, and just robs what little context the Crisis episode would have had to viewers in relation to the rest of the series.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Ever since he first took up the role, Kevin Conroy's Batman had been a hero with the possible exception of the Justice Lord Batman. There were quite a few people who didn't like that this incarnation of Batman was an amoral killer, especially since it was his first (and tragically, only) live-action appearance.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Some fans approved the happy ending of the Clark Kent of Smallville, having voluntarily lost his powers to have a normal and happy life with Lois and his daughters. However, many other fans found it disappointing that Tom Welling only appeared in a short scene, and didn't have time to wear the uniform or even interact with Brandon Routh's Superman.
  • When it was announced that Kevin Conroy would finally play a live-action version of Batman, all the fans cheered. But having Conroy's Batman turn out to be a twisted murderer who's quickly killed off and making Kate the Paragon of Courage elicited a passionate response by some on certain fan boards and websites. And with Conroy's passing in 2022, this marks his only turn as the character in live-action.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Despite Earth-99 Batman being clearly based on The Dark Knight Returns and Batman V Superman incarnations, the murder of Jason Todd goes completely unmentioned here. This feels like a wasted opportunity because it would've given the Earth-99 Batman an actual reason for falling off the deep end, but also would've contrasted him with Earth-96's Superman (they both lost loved ones to the Joker but dealt with the grief different ways).