SPOILER WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for "Starling City," the Arrow Season 8 premiere.


Oliver Queen just got his first taste of "Crisis on Infinite Earths." In "Starling City," the Arrow Season 8 premiere, the Green Arrow completed his first mission for the Monitor on Earth-2 -- and just in time. As the episode drew to a close, the world was completely destroyed, with Oliver, John Diggle and Laurel Lance just barely escaping.

Even though he wasn't on his own Earth, Oliver appeared to save the day when he talked Tommy Merlyn -- now the Dark Archer -- down from executing his own Undertaking. Tommy turned himself to the police and handed the Dwarfstar particles over to Oliver, completing his mission. However, as Oliver and Diggle exited the station with the particles, all of phones began to ring and Laurel ran in, breathless.

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"Oh, good. You're still here. The city is under attack," she informed them.

"By who?" Oliver demanded, but Laurel was unable to answer. The walls turned red, then faded into a blank, white nothingness -- much like the vision of Crisis that Barry just saw on The Flash. Soon, the people inside the station were affected too. Oliver, Dig and Laurel watched with horror as Dinah and Rene were sucked into the void like they were made of dust.

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Laurel insisted they evacuate, but Dig pointed out there was nowhere to go. Oliver yelled at Dig to pull out Cisco's device, which allows travel between dimensions. Dig opened a portal, only for Oliver's mother Moira to stumble into the room. "Oliver!" she cried, extending her hand, but it was too late. She too faded away before his very eyes. He looked on as Tommy also dissolved, another victim of the attack.

"Oliver!" Laurel yelled, shaking him out of his horror. He grabbed her by the arm, and together all three Team Arrow members disappeared through the portal.

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In this way, the destruction of the multiverse mirrors what takes place in Marv Wolfman and George Pérez's Crisis on Infinite Earths. The comic book event series saw the Anti-Monitor attack worlds with an antimatter cannon. The cannon could destroy entire planets and, subsequently, universes. It would strike a world, then eat up everything in sight, leaving only a white void behind. An example of this phenomenon from the comic itself appears below.

According to the Arrow Season 8 premiere, then, Earth-2 has been destroyed. If the crossover event follows the comic, then this is because of the Anti-Monitor, who likely attacked with antimatter. Now, Oliver has witnessed the devastation first-hand, which raises the stakes for him, Team Arrow and the audience.

Airing Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on The CW, Arrow stars Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen, David Ramsey as John Diggle, Rick Gonzalez as Wild Dog, Juliana Harkavy as Black Canary, Katie Cassidy as Black Siren, Katherine McNamara as Mia Smoak, Joseph David-Jones as Connor Hawke and Ben Lewis as William Clayton-Queen.

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