The Entire Arrowverse Timeline Explained

On Oct. 10, 2012, the CW premiered the first episode of their new original series, Arrow. Now, almost a decade later, that episode has spawned a shared universe unlike anything television has ever seen. Referred to as the Arrowverse by its legions of fans, this family of shows includes 11 original television series consisting of nearly 40 seasons and over 600 episodes thus far.

With a new show premiering this year and several more rumored to be on the way, the Arrowverse is still going strong — but approaching a universe that would take one month, five days, and three hours of nonstop viewing to finish is an incredibly daunting task for fans, especially since that number grows every week as new episodes air across seven shows. Add on the constant changes to the timelines, the countless alternate universes, and the total reality reboot that was Crisis on Infinite Earths, and many viewers are understandably confused.

That, however, is precisely where this guide comes in. Whether you're a new viewer trying to figure out what on earth, or earths, is going on or a grizzled veteran wanting to refresh your memory, this history of the Arrowverse will help you finally put all of the pieces into place.

To truly understand the history of the Arrowverse, one must start over 10 years before it began with Smallville. The CW's original superhero darling, Smallville spent 10 seasons exploring the adventures of Clark Kent before he became Superman. One of its most popular supporting characters was none other than Oliver Queen, the Green Arrow, played by Justin Hartley. Many fans fell in love with the Emerald Archer and the pseudo-Justice League he led on the show, and as the series neared its end, many wondered if Smallville might live on in a Green Arrow or Justice League spinoff series.

They were half right. Almost a year after Smallville's last episode in 2011, the CW finally announced they were making a Green Arrow television series, but it wasn't going to star Justin Hartley or be set in the Smallville Universe. Instead, Arrow was going to star newcomer Stephen Amell and become something entirely different.

In 2012, Arrow's pilot finally premiered. Oliver Queen was rescued from a deserted island known only as Lian Yu. Oliver told the world that he had been trapped there for five years after his father's yacht, The Queen's Gambit, crashed. Oliver claimed that he was the only survivor, saying that he was just happy to finally be back home in Starling City.

But he'd lied. His father, Robert Queen, gave Oliver a list of names of Starling City's most corrupt white-collar criminals and commanded that he hunt them down when he returned. Robert had been a part of a criminal conspiracy, and it was up to his son to right his wrongs. So Oliver returned to Starling, donned a green hood, and began crossing names off of his father's list with only his bow and his wits to guide him.

In time, Oliver became known as The Hood and defeated villains like Deadshot, China White, Huntress, and The Royal Flush Gang. Despite constantly struggling to repair rifts within his family, he found new friends and allies in his bodyguard, John Diggle, and in tech extraordinaire Felicity Smoak.

The Hood's months of success ended suddenly, however, as Oliver found himself in the crosshairs of a rival bowman known only as The Dark Archer. Within 24 hours, The Dark Archer kidnaps Oliver's stepfather, leaves Oliver in the hospital after nearly killing him in a fight, and is revealed to the viewers as Malcolm Merlyn, the father of Oliver's best friend, Tommy.

After recovering from his fight with The Dark Archer, Oliver resumes his work as The Hood, fighting villains new and old as he continues to investigate The List. Eventually, Oliver makes a series of discoveries that shake him to his core. The List's conspiracy is called The Undertaking. Not only were they responsible for the destruction of his father's yacht, but his mother has also been a member of the conspiracy the entire time.

Rocked by these revelations, Oliver nearly gives up, but rallies in time to discover the true purpose behind The Undertaking: the destruction of the portion of Starling City where Malcolm's wife was murdered. The Hood and John Diggle took the fight to Malcolm Merlyn and, with help from Felicity and police detective Quentin Lance, managed to disable the earthquake machine Merlyn built to level the city.

Unfortunately, however, Merlyn built two, and as the Dark Archer seemingly died, Oliver and Diggle could only watch as half the city crumbled into dust and claimed the life of Malcolm's son, Tommy. Wracked with guilt, Oliver decides to leave Starling City and returns to Lian Yu to atone for his perceived failure to protect both his city and his best friend.

Marketed as the "City of Heroes," Arrow's second season is where the Arrowverse was truly born. Three months after the events of season 1, John Diggle and Felicity Smoak bring Oliver home from Lian Yu to help Starling City recover from the devastating earthquake. With the conspiracy fulfilled and the List now meaningless, Oliver decides to refocus his vigilante efforts on simply helping others, choosing to rebrand himself as The Arrow.

As The Arrow patrols Starling City's broken streets, Oliver's network of allies grows to include the likes of Amanda Waller's Suicide Squad and a young man named Roy Harper, but nothing could prepare Oliver for his most shocking new ally: Sara Lance, aka The Canary. Believed to have died when The Queen's Gambit sank, Sara had actually escaped and joined the infamous League of Assassins. Oliver helped her escape the group, and she became a regular member of his crime-fighting team.

Everything changed, however, when a forensic scientist named Barry Allen came to Starling City in search of the impossible. Investigating news of a man with superhuman strength, Barry accidentally joined Team Arrow as they fought Cyrus Gold, a criminal empowered by Mirakuru, a super-soldier serum that grants both super-strength and super-insanity. This is where superpowers officially enter Arrow's universe, and the year ends rather appropriately with a shot of Barry Allen as he's mysteriously struck by lightning.

As Barry lies in a coma after being struck by lightning, Oliver, Diggle, Felicity, Roy Harper, and Sara Lance form Team Arrow and investigate the Mirakuru super-drug and its connection to The Church of Blood. Eventually, the team discovers that Slade Wilson, aka the Mirakuru-empowered Deathstroke, wants revenge for decisions Oliver made on Lian Yu and has been systematically preparing to destroy Oliver's life.

Slade kills Oliver's mother, steals his family's fortune, raises a Mirakuru army, and prepares to destroy all of Starling City with a nuclear blast. Oliver unites Team Arrow with Starling City's police force and with the League of Assassins to defeat Deathstroke and his army and save the city, but it comes at a heavy price. Sara's forced to rejoin the League, Quentin Lance is hospitalized with a heart condition, and Oliver's half-sister, Thea Queen, leaves the country with Malcolm Merlyn, who survived his fight with Oliver and revealed that he, not Robert, was Thea's father.

Team Arrow lives on, however, and they help the city recover once again as Roy Harper adopts the codename Arsenal and officially becomes Oliver's apprentice.

After a summer spent helping the city, Team Arrow learns that scientist Ray Palmer has bought Queen Industries and discovers Sara Lance's dead body on the streets of Starling City. Bereft of fortune and friendship, Team Arrow begins to change. Oliver investigates Sara's murder, putting him on the radar of Ra's al Ghul and The League of Assassins. Laurel Lance, Sara's sister and Oliver's former lover, begins martial arts training with Ted Grant, aka Wildcat. Felicity begins working for Ray Palmer, and Thea returns to Starling City after training with Malcolm for months.

Meanwhile, in Central City, Barry Allen awakens from his coma in STAR Labs and makes two life-changing discoveries: he now has super-speed, and the accident that gave him his powers also created other metahumans like him. Barry forms Team Flash with the scientists at STAR Labs and works to capture any criminal metahumans while also investigating his mother's murder.

At the same time, NBC premiered the first season of Constantine. Played by Matt Ryan, John Constantine is a working-class occult detective who investigates supernatural mysteries and uses his magic to solve them. Sensing a "rising darkness," John teams up with his longtime friend Chas, an angel named Manny, and a psychic named Zed who can see the future. Together, they investigate the oncoming storm of dark magic and try to survive its powerful threats.

Towards the end of 2014, the Arrowverse had its first official superhero team-up crossover. Beginning in The Flash, Team Arrow travels to Central City to help Team Flash capture Barry after exposure to an emotionally manipulative metahuman sends him into a rage. The Arrow confronts The Flash and just barely manages to keep him still long enough for Team Flash to restore Barry to his right mind.

Then, in Arrow, Team Flash travels to Starling City to return the favor after they track a rogue agent named Captain Boomerang to an ARGUS base within the city. Together, The Flash and Arrow stop the villain and foil his attempts to set off explosives across the city.

The heroes returned to their respective cities in time for their end-of-year midseason finales. In Arrow, Oliver Queen finally confronts Ra's al Ghul but, after an intense duel, is soundly defeated, stabbed through the chest, and thrown off of a cliff. Meanwhile, The Flash finally tracks down The Man in the Yellow Suit, the speedster who killed his mother. Clearly outclassed, Barry manages to escape with his life due to the timely intervention of Ronny Raymond, the nuclear-powered superhero known as Firestorm.

With Oliver missing, Team Arrow is forced to evolve. Laurel Lance joins the team as Black Canary in honor of her sister, and together, they defeat a gang uprising in the city. Once Oliver returns, Ra's begins forcing Oliver to take his place as the head of The League of Assassins, while Ray Palmer finishes work on his ATOM suit. After Ray and Oliver set aside their differences, Oliver pretends to join The League in order to destroy it from the inside, killing Ra's al Ghul in the process. Unfortunately, Roy has to fake his own death to protect Oliver's secret identity and leaves the team, though Thea takes his place as Speedy. Ray is also thought dead after a modification to his ATOM suit causes an explosion in his lab.

Meanwhile, Team Flash discovers that Barry's mentor, Harrison Wells, is actually The Man in the Yellow Suit, now referred to as The Reverse-Flash. Ultimately, The Arrow, Firestorm, and The Flash team up for the first time to defeat the villain. After Wells escapes, his ancestor, Eddie Thawne, commits suicide to ensure Wells is never born, thus erasing him from existence before he can kill the team.

At the same time, Constantine continues to fight the Rising Darkness and its source: La Brujeria, a coven of powerful sorcerers. The series was ultimately canceled, but not before ending on a cliffhanger by revealing that Manny was the leader of La Brujeria the entire time.

After a summer spent recovering from the losses suffered in the spring, both Arrow and The Flash spend the fall setting the stage for a brand-new show named DC's Legends of Tomorrow. A spinoff of both series, Legends would go on to feature minor characters from both Flash and Arrow in its ensemble cast.

In Arrow, Oliver rebrands himself as The Green Arrow, decides to run for mayor, and begins the fight against the magician Damian Darhk as he attempts to take over the newly renamed Star City. Laurel uses the League of Assassin's Lazarus pit to resurrect her sister Sara, and John Constantine officially joins the Arrowverse when Oliver calls him in to help restore Sara's soul to her body. Team Arrow also discovers that Ray Palmer isn't dead, but was instead shrunk down and held captive by Damian Darhk until the team managed to free him.

Meanwhile, in Central City, Firestorm gave his life to close a black hole that formed above Central City after the timeline was altered, and this singularity causes Team Flash to discover the Multiverse and meet Jay Garrick, The Flash of Earth-2. Barry helps Martin Stein reform the Firestorm matrix with the assistance of Jefferson Jackson and battles new metahumans from Earth-2, including their leader, the speedster known only as Zoom.

At the same time over on CBS, Supergirl premiered its very first season. Sent to earth to watch after her cousin Kal-El, Kara Zor-El's ship was knocked off course and landed on earth years after Kal-El had already grown up to become Superman. Now, escaped alien convicts in National City, Kara's home, force her to follow in her cousin's footsteps and become Supergirl.

At the end of the year, the Arrowverse's first proper, single-story crossover premiered, beginning the tradition of the annual DC TV team-up. In the episode, titled "Heroes Join Forces," Green Arrow and The Flash meet Hawkman and Hawkgirl and help them defeat Vandal Savage once and for all...or so they think. Oliver also discovers that he has a son named William who has been hidden from him for years.

Meanwhile, in each show's respective end-of-year midseason finales, the following happens: Damian Darhk lashes out at mayoral candidate Oliver Queen, sending hitmen to open fire on his motorcade and paralyzing Felicity Smoak in the process. In Central City, Barry faces off against several of his deadliest rogues at once, though his one-time villain Captain Cold ultimately helps him survive long enough to meet Wally West, the son that Barry's adoptive father Joe never knew he had. In some other realm, Supergirl comes face-to-face with her Aunt Astra, the person responsible for the escaped alien convicts.

"Heroes Join Forces" wasn't the only crossover that year, however. Green Arrow and The Flash also teamed up to introduce another new hero named Vixen in her self-titled animated series. This show managed several firsts: it was the first animated Arrowverse show, the first to appear online rather than cable, the first to feature a female lead, and the first to feature a Black lead.

Voiced by Megalyn Echikunwoke, Mari McCabe uses her family's totem to channel the powers of the animal kingdom and become the superhero known as Vixen. She discovers her family's history as the bearers of the totem and the protectors of the fictional African nation of Zambesi due to her sister Kuasa's attempt to steal the totem from her. After a pitched battle, Mari earns the right to keep the totem and becomes Detroit's resident superhero.

As Green Arrow, The Flash, and Supergirl continue battling their season-long Big Bads, the CW launched the Arrowverse's fourth show: DC's Legends of Tomorrow. Featuring The Atom, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Sara Lance (aka The White Canary), Firestorm, Captain Cold, and Heat Wave, the Legends were a team of nobodies gathered by Rip Hunter, a Time Master, to battle Vandal Savage across the length of history. Eventually, the ragtag group of wannabe heroes managed to stop the villain thanks to the heroic sacrifice of Captain Cold.

In Star City, Green Arrow and his team bring Vixen to live action to continue the fight against Damian Darhk. After a series of intense battles, Team Arrow eventually manages to kill Darhk, stop his plans, and restore the use of Felicity's legs — but not before Darhk murders Laurel Lance in cold blood and destroys an entire city with a nuclear bomb.

In Central City, Team Flash discovers that Jay Garrick is actually a man named Hunter Zolomon and has been Zoom all along. Zoom murders Barry's father, but The Flash eventually manages to become faster than Zoom and finally defeat him in battle, sending him hurtling into the Speed Force.

In National City, however, Supergirl officially joins the Arrowverse when The Flash accidentally travels through the multiverse to her earth and helps her defeat two of her villains. Supergirl discovers that one of her close allies is secretly an alien named J'onn J'onzz, aka Martian Manhunter. With his help, she defeats her aunt's plan to enslave the earth.

The Arrowverse's 2016 seasons kicked off with a bang. In Star City, a new villain named Prometheus began systematically targeting Mayor Oliver Queen and his alter ego's new team of costumed heroes. In Central City, Barry Allen caused the Arrowverse's first retcons as he inadvertently created a new Flashpoint universe when time-traveling to stop his mother's murder. This event creates new allies and villains for the hero, as two new speedsters, Jesse Quick and Wally West, join Barry in his efforts to stop Dr. Alchemy and his master, a new speedster named Savitar.

Meanwhile, the Legends of Tomorrow face off against Eobard Thawne, The Reverse-Flash from The Flash's first season. The events of Flashpoint have given him a new lease on life, and he isn't interested in wasting it. To combat the time-traveling heroes, Thawne puts together his own team of villains consisting of previous season-long baddies Malcolm Merlyn, Damian Darhk, and Captain Cold.

Released that same fall, Vixen meets The Atom, Firestorm, and Black Canary in the second season of her animated series as she discovers the Fire, Water, and Wind totems of Zambesi and joins forces with her sister Kuasa to fight Zambesi warlord Benatu Eshu. With the help of her fellow heroes, Mari and Kuasa defeat Eshu, but it costs Kuasa her life. At the same time, in National City, Kara teams up with Superman for the first time to fight Metallo, Lillian Luthor, and her new anti-alien organization named Project CADMUS. Kara also meets a new alien named Mon-El, who has powers similar to her own, and begins to train him as her crime-fighting partner.

When an alien spaceship crash-lands outside Central City, it's up to Barry Allen to rally the troops and repel the Dominators. Uniting Supergirl and DC's Legends of Tomorrow alongside The Flash and Arrow for the first time, this was the largest crossover the CW had attempted yet, pulling together dozens of superheroes to help repel the invasion.

Arrow's contribution to the story was especially precious, as it was the show's 100th episode. The show took advantage of the story's science fiction elements to set the episode in a virtual reality world where the cast could freely meet and interact with characters who had previously passed away. Eventually, the heroes discover that the Dominators chose to invade earth due to Barry's history-altering actions during Flashpoint. After working through the interpersonal consequences of those actions, the heroes manage to rally together and send the Dominators packing.

Oliver's battle with Prometheus, now revealed to be Adrian Chase, comes to a head. Chase captures Oliver's closest friends and allies, and the Green Arrow is forced to recruit Deathstroke, Malcolm Merlyn, and Captain Boomerang to help rescue them. After a series of pitched battles, Merlyn and Prometheus are killed, and everybody is injured when Adrian blows up the island.

Meanwhile, in Central City, Team Flash discovers Savitar's real identity: He's a discarded time remnant from the future who never died but was instead rejected by everyone he loved. With the help of Jay Garrick (The Flash of Earth-3), Wally West, and Kid Flash, Team Flash manages to defeat Savitar once and for all, breaking the time loop and forcing him to fade from existence, but trapping Barry Allen in the Speed Force as a result.

On Supergirl's earth, Kara and Mon-El have fallen in love, but when Mon-El's people, the Daxamites, invade earth, Mon-El and Supergirl set off a device that coats all of earth's atmosphere with particles of lead, the Daxamite equivalent of Kryptonite. Mon-El is forced to leave earth behind, and Kara is left heartbroken.

In the timestream, the Legends recruit the Vixen from the 1940s, Amaya Jiwe, and finally manage to defeat the Legion of Doom, preventing them from using the Spear of Destiny to rewrite reality as they see fit. The Reverse-Flash seems to finally be destroyed as the Black Flash, the Speed Force's representation of death, catches up to him.

Mayor Oliver Queen continues his adventures as the Green Arrow in Star City as Team Arrow attempts to recover from the lasting impacts of the explosion on Lian Yu. William, Oliver's son, lost his mother in the explosion, and Oliver struggles to be the single parent he was never prepared to become. Meanwhile, Deathstroke asks Oliver for help as a new team of villains begins to emerge under the leadership of super-hacker Cayden James. In Central City, Team Flash has finally discovered a way to rescue Barry from the speed force, but doing so creates a new batch of metahumans, including the classic Flash ally Ralph Dibny, the superhero known as The Elongated Man. 

Supergirl, meanwhile, struggles to recover from the emotional wounds of losing Mon-El while dealing with a growing Kryptonian cult and its champion, the villainous Reign. Meanwhile, The Legends have been put out of their job by Rip Hunter's Time Bureau, but when anachronisms begin appearing across time, they get the band back together to fix them and eventually discover their source: a resurrected Damian Darhk.

Barry Allen and his longtime love Iris West are ready to get married, and heroes from across the multiverse have come to celebrate their blessed day. Unfortunately, evil versions of the Arrowverse heroes from Earth-X, an alternate earth where Nazi Germany won World War II, decided to crash the party, too. Overgirl, Supergirl's Nazi twin, needs a heart transplant, and Barry's archnemesis, The Reverse-Flash, knew just where they could get one. 

Divided, one group of heroes was taken to Earth-X as Nazi prisoners, while the other remained on Earth-1 to repel the Nazi invaders. The imprisoned heroes were eventually freed by Earth-X's own superhero team, The Freedom Fighters, and the reunited groups repelled the fascists once and for all, killing Overgirl and Oliver Queen's evil doppelganger in the process. Back on Earth-1, Barry and Iris are finally married by John Diggle alongside Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak. The heroes return to their respective earths, and the Legends of Tomorrow mourn their fallen comrade, Martin Stein.

Cayden James' team of villains wreaks havoc across Star City, splintering Team Arrow into two separate groups. Oliver Queen is forced to reveal his secret identity as The Green Arrow to the entire world in order to protect the ones he loves. With James eventually killed and his successor, Ricardo "The Dragon" Diaz, exposed and defeated, Oliver is taken to prison to stand trial for his actions across the history of the show. 

Team Flash, meanwhile, has a similar experience after finally confronting Clifford DeVoe, aka The Thinker, the mastermind behind their recent troubles. Devoe frames Barry as his murderer, placing Barry in jail until his friends manage to clear his name and defeat DeVoe once and for all. 

Supergirl's world is thoroughly rocked when Mon-El reappears with the Legion of Superheroes from the 31st century in tow. Mon-El has been cured of his weakness to lead, but he has also married Saturn Girl of the Legion. Together, they defeat Reign and the Kryptonian Cult, saving the world. In the timestream, the Legends of Tomorrow confront and destroy a demon known as Mallus, defeating Damian Darhk and freeing his daughter Nora. Their actions alter history, saving the village of Zambesi from destruction, and ensuring that Vixen will now grow up knowing her real parents. 

In a new show set on yet another earth, Black Lightning, high school principal Jefferson Pierce becomes Black Lightning once again to fight Tobias Whale and his powerful street gang, The 100, who are threatening to overwhelm the city of Freeland. Armed with his metahuman electrical abilities and backed by longtime friend Peter Gambi, Black Lightning takes the fight to The 100 to save the soul of his city. 

Oliver Queen struggles to survive in prison while Team Arrow continues the fight against Diaz and his assassins, The Longbow Hunters, without their leader, though a mysterious figure emerges as a new Green Arrow. Eventually, the team manages to capture Diaz and thus secures a plea deal to secure Oliver's freedom.

Meanwhile, in Central City, Barry and Iris' daughter from the future, Nora West-Allen, aka XS, travels back in time to meet her father and help Team Flash defeat a new villain called Cicada, but as the battles grow fiercer, viewers learn that Nora has been working with The Reverse-Flash all along.

On Supergirl's earth, anti-alien sentiment reaches a fever pitch as Benjamin Lockwood and his Children of Liberty seek to save America from the extraterrestrial immigrants. She has new allies, however, as Brainiac-5 remained behind in the 21st century to help the Department of Extra-Normal Operations, and Supergirl's team soon meets a new super friend in Nia Nal, the powerful psychic known as Dreamer.

On the Waverider, John Constantine joins the Legends of Tomorrow full time as the demon Neron spreads magical, mystical creatures throughout history to wreak havoc on the timestream. In Freeland, Jefferson Pierce struggles to keep its citizens safe as new metahumans begin appearing all over the city, including his two daughters.

The journey to Crisis on Infinite Earths begins here. Worlds will live, worlds will die, and nothing will ever be the same — but first, the Monitor decides he must test the heroes of two earths to decide if they're ready to face the challenges to come. Oliver Queen and Barry Allen wake up one morning to discover that they've mysteriously traded both lives and powers and have to travel to Supergirl's earth to convince the others that reality has been changed.

United as a team once again, the heroes travel to Gotham City to discover the source of the reality change, tracing the source to a Book of Destiny held by John Deegan inside Arkham Asylum. When a riot breaks out at Arkham, Batwoman arrives to help the heroes put it down and escape with the book. The Monitor takes it back, however, and the heroes recruit Superman and the Martian Manhunter's help to finally defeat Deegan, restore reality to its proper state, and convince the Monitor that they can handle the coming Crisis.

Finally a free man once again, Oliver Queen is deputized by Star City's Police Department as The Green Arrow and discovers that the impostor Green Arrow is his secret half-sister, Emiko Queen. She's also the leader of the Ninth Circle, an evil syndicate plaguing the city. Oliver eventually convinces Emiko to fight for good, and she dies helping Oliver save Star City once again.

Meanwhile, in Central City, The Flash helps Nora see through The Reverse-Flash's lies. Together they defeat both Cicada and the villainous speedster, but not before alterations to the timeline seemingly erase Nora from existence.

Anti-alien sentiments grow in National City until Lex Luthor reveals that he's been behind it all from the start. Intent on stoking tensions to spark a war between the U.S. and Kaznia so that he can swoop in, end it, and become a hero, Lex Luthor underestimates Kara and dies trying to carry out his scheme.

On the Waverider, the Legends defeat the magical fugitives, and with Nora Darhk's help, ultimately beat the demon Neron using the very magical creatures he sought to exploit. In Freeland, Jefferson Pierce works with his daughters to protect the city as Black Lightning, Thunder, and Lightning, taking the fight to The 100 as outside forces begin to target Freeland for their own ends.

With the Crisis looming, Arrow and The Flash spend the first half of their seasons preparing for what's to come. Barry believes he's destined to die during the coming battle and attempts to set his affairs in order, while Oliver is sent on multiple missions by the Monitor to gather what they need to prepare.

Meanwhile, in National City, Martian Manhunter attempts to repair his relationship with his long-lost brother while Supergirl deals with the growing threat of a conspiracy known only as Leviathan. In Freeland, however, Black Lightning and his family struggle with the city's occupation at the hand of the secretive government organization ASA, as conflicting loyalties threaten to pull the family apart.

Having made her debut in 2018's Elseworlds event, Kate Kane received her own Batwoman television series, which followed her journey to take up the Bat's mantle in the wake of her cousin Bruce's disappearance. Kate eventually discovers that her twin sister survived their childhood car crash and has grown up to become the twisted villain known as Alice.

After a year of preparation, the Crisis finally arrives, and the heroes are not ready. A wave of antimatter is spreading across the multiverse, erasing everything in its path from existence. Multiple earths have already been obliterated, and Supergirl's Earth is next. The heroes evacuate everybody they can, but the earth is destroyed, and Oliver Queen dies in its defense.

Back on Earth-1, the Monitor sends the devastated heroes to find the seven Paragons of Virtue, the only beings who have a hope of defeating the Anti-Monitor that controls the flow of antimatter. Eventually, the heroes discover that Supergirl is the Paragon of Hope, White Canary is the Paragon of Destiny, Batwoman is the Paragon of Courage, Flash is the Paragon of Love, Martian Manhunter is the Paragon of Honor, Ryan Choi is the Paragon of Humanity, and Brandon Routh's Superman from the 2006 film Superman Returns is the Paragon of Truth.

With John Constantine's help, Oliver Queen is resurrected as the near-omnipotent being known as the Spectre. United for the first time with Black Lightning, the heroes destroy the antimatter cannon destroying the multiverse, and travel to the dawn of time to defeat the Anti-Monitor once and for all — though it costs Oliver Queen's life a second time.

After Crisis on Infinite Earths ended in the first month of 2020, CW's six superhero television series finished airing the remainder of their seasons. Arrow ended its eighth and final season by offering its viewers a glimpse into a possible future while Oliver — still the Spectre in the present — used his powers to raise all of his deceased loved ones from the grave and grant Felicity and himself the happy-ever-after they were never able to obtain in life.

The rest of the shows, on the other hand, grappled with the aftermath of Crisis and explored the new reality they all now shared. Supergirl continued to battle against the plots of a resurrected Lex Luthor and Leviathan, while The Flash battled against a new Mirror Master and fought to save his wife Iris from her mirror dimension prison. The Legends of Tomorrow battled against the Greek Fates for control of reality, and Batwoman and Black Lightning continued to fight for their cities.

Ultimately, however, a very different kind of crisis soon did what the Anti-Monitor could never have hoped to accomplish. As the COVID-19 virus was officially declared a pandemic, film and television production shut down worldwide, and each Arrowverse show was brought to an early end, with many finales requiring a complete rewrite as the season's remaining plot threads were forcibly shifted to upcoming seasons.

The only new show to air as planned was Stargirl. Jointly produced by the DC Universe streaming service and the CW, the show was already largely finished by the time the pandemic hit and was able to maintain its summer 2020 premiere date. Set on the Arrowverse's new Earth-2, the show followed the adventures of Courtney Whitmore, who discovers Starman's Cosmic Staff, uses it to form a new Justice Society of America, and finally defeats the Injustice Society once and for all.

The Arrowverse changed in much the same way the real world did. A planned Arrow spinoff series titled Green Arrow and the Canaries was pitched and discarded due to the pandemic. The CW announced that both Black Lightning and Supergirl's next seasons would be their last, and Ruby Rose unexpectedly departed the lead role of her show Batwoman, a move that eventually led to the creation of a new, original character named Ryan Wilder (played by Javicia Leslie) to take up the Batwoman mantle. With all this change in the air, it seems rather appropriate that the CW attempted to rebrand their DC offerings as "The CWverse," as its shows seemed to change more and more.

As the pandemic wore on, studios began to create new guidelines and safety measures to allow television production to begin once again, so the CW's heroes got back to work. So far, Black Lightning, Batwoman, Superman & Lois, and The Flash have all begun airing, with Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, and Stargirl set to air later in 2021.

Batwoman's second season saw the premiere of Javicia Leslie's new character, Ryan Wilder, as Batwoman, who attempts to find her predecessor and protect Gotham City at the same time. Superman & Lois, meanwhile, follows Clark Kent and Lois Lane as they move to Smallville after being fired from the Daily Planet by its new owner, Morgan Edge, and seek to uncover what the business mogul's plans are for the small Kansas town.

The CW has confirmed some of their plans for their CWverse in 2022, the year of Arrow's 10th anniversary. The Flash will return for its eighth season, Batwoman and Stargirl will return for their third, Legends for its seventh, and Superman & Lois for its second. Not much is known beyond that, however. Though a number of spinoffs have been turned down for one reason or another, there are still a few projects that might see the light of day.

A pilot has been ordered based on the DC Comics character Naomi, and the Black Lightning character Painkiller is in talks to receive a spinoff series that would continue its parent show's lingering narratives. Additionally, sources have been spreading rumors of a Green Lantern television series starring David Ramsey's John Diggle, who was last seen opening a mysterious green box. Fans will just have to wait and see what's yet to come while they struggle to catch up on the existing 800+ hours of content that have already been released.