How are TV and Cinematic DC related?

Something occurred to me last night with all of the Wonder Woman bruhaha... If the rumor about The Flash being in the picture is true - what does this mean for the DC universe that is forming on the CW? Are the independent, or is something bigger going on here?

I have an off the wall theory, one that DC wouldn't have the stones to go through with, but I like it and so will you. First, I've held that the best direction to go with DC isn't just a JLA picture at all... it’s a Crisis.

In terms of DC history, a Crisis is an event that usually requires the whole DC universe to resolve, not just the JLA. One other key aspect of a Crisis is that it usually heavily involves crossing the multiverse.

If you aren't aware, the multiverse is how DC (and Marvel) keep their lengthy and convoluted continuities from collapsing on themselves - particularly when dealing with things like Elsewhere stories that cannot take place in the regular continuity. They are separate universes, each with their own versions of the DC superhero/villain roster - often with major changes to justify the differing realities.

Some of the most important events in DC history revolve around Crisises, especially the biggest event in comic history: A Crisis on Infinite Earths. To ignore this aspect of the DC universe in the live action realm is a major disservice to the history these stories originated from.

As he was in the comics, The Flash is a key player in establishing and exploring the multiverse, so it makes sense that the first character to be rumored to be in both the CW and Cinematic worlds of DC is The Flash. Flash of Two Worlds is issue #123 of The Flash, published in 1961 it is one of the most important and influential comics since Action #1. This issue not only had the silver age (Earth 1) Barry Allen Flash accidentally leaving his reality and meeting his golden age (Earth 2) counterpart Jay Garrick, but it also featured a fourth-wall obliterating mention of the writer for both Barry and Jay (and the writer of the issue itself) – the prolific and ingenious Gardner Fox.

In the issue the Flashes speculate that the Fox of Earth 1 dreams of Earth 2’s Flash and writes his “fictional” stories from these dreams.

Pretty cool stuff huh?

So, how does this all tie into Man of Steel, Batman vs. Superman, Arrow, the new CW shows, and the films to come? Simple - The CW shows and the current batch of DC films exist in separate but connected universes as do every live-action iteration of DC characters.

Why do this? What is the advantage of multiple realities? For one, the multiverse can do for the films what they did for the comic books – reconcile years of continuity issues. Rather than decades of runs from multiple writers and editors that convolute the history of the comics, the DC films have a problem of multiple reboots. This is fine for the most part – rebooting franchises has become an acceptable practice in the film world, but in an effort to connect multiple franchises a small amount of effort can go into resolving the multiple versions of these characters as well.

But the larger advantage is the stories the multiverse provides, and the mind-bending direction the existence of the multiverse in the live action properties could lead. Not only are you dealing with life and death, but also the very existence of reality. And you can have multiple takes on the same character, for instance:

Superman – Supes is the touchstone for each reality, if you want to know what’s up on this version of Earth, just look at Superman is like. Lets say we end up with a Crisis film, here some potential Supermen:

Kal-El – Current Continuity (Henry Cavill)
Kal-L – Legacy Continuity (Brandon Roth)
El-Kal (Ultraman) – Evil Continuity (Nicolas Cage)
Superboy Prime – Smallville Continuity (Tom Welling)

Of course, legal and other entanglements will never allow this to happen, imagine if it could though. Cavill is younger and inexperienced with his powers, Roth is Reeve’s stand in, and Reeve would be Earth 2’s Kal-L – Older, wiser, less powerful, and a great inspiration to the world’s heroes to step up and defend their planet.

Ultraman and Superboy Prime’s casting are very meta – Cage was almost the star of a terrible adaptation of Superman called Flyby, and Welling would make a great Prime while establishing the Smallville continuity in the larger multiverse.

Similarly, the Flash we see in Batman vs. Superman may not be Barry Allen, but rather a retired Jay Garrick. If at some point the CW Barry is using his powers to do a magic show – watch out he might just meet with Jay and even have a discussion about David Goyer… the mind boggles.