Brandon Routh’s is returning to the role of Superman in the CW’s “Crisis on Infinite Earths”. The crossover series kicks off on Sunday, December 8 on Supergirl, runs through a Monday episode of Batwoman and that Tuesday’s episode of The Flash. That will be the midseason cliffhanger, as the shows go on hiatus for the holidays and return on January 14 to finish out the event with the midseason premiere of Arrow and a “special episode” of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.
In the comics, Crisis on Infinite Earths centered on a battle between the combined superheroes (and even some villains) of the DC multiverse and an immortal, cosmic threat known as the Anti-Monitor. The Anti-Monitor destroys realities and multiple universes but is eventually stopped by the sacrifices of several heroes, including The Flash and Supergirl, as well as the merging of multiple universes to save reality by becoming a single, unified timeline.
We can only wonder if it is the CW’s intention to join the many earths that exist in the so-called Arrowverse created by the writers. The crossover will also feature guest appearances by Tom Welling as Clark Kent, Erica Durance as Lois Lane, John Wesley Shipp as the Flash of Earth-90, Johnathon Schaech as Jonah Hex, Kevin Conroy as Bruce Wayne, and Ashley Scott as The Huntress.
When Brandon Routh’s return to the role of Superman was first revealed, the actor took to Instagram to share the second look at him in costume. He took time out to thank the costumers, producers, and other people who helped bring together his new Superman look, including Alex Ross, the co-writer and artist of Kingdom Come. The CW draws direct inspiration from Ross’s design for Kingdom Come directly from a specific Alex Ross comic book cover, Justice Society of America #10 from 2007.
Routh, who first played Superman in the 2006 film Superman Returns, is well-liked by fans and was generally regarded as the best part of a movie that disappointed audiences with a poor story not living up to the Richard Donner’s vision for the character. I for one am excited to hear he would suit up again in “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” and hope it is a significant role for the character.
The cover below was part of a storyline in Justice Society of America by Ross and writer Geoff Johns, in which the Kingdom Come Superman came to the main DC Comics timeline and hung out with the JSA for a while. It was not the first follow-up to Kingdom Come, but it was the first one that involved Ross.
