WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Crisis on Infinite Earths: Paragons Rising by Marv Wolfman, Marc Guggenheim, Tom Derenick, Tom Grummett, Trevor Scott, Danny Miki, Andy Owens, John Kalisz, Chris Sotomayor, Hi-Fi and Wes Abbott, available now.
Last year's Arrowverse crossover "Crisis on Infinite Earths" was The CW's biggest and most ambitious superhero television event yet. It stretched over five parts and involved characters from Supergirl, Arrow, The Flash, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Batwoman, Black Lightning and numerous other characters from DC's movie and TV history. In the crossover, the superheroes of the Arrowverse had to band together to prevent the destruction of the Multiverse at the hands of the all-powerful Anti-Monitor. The event took viewers to multiple parallel Earths, introduced new superheroes, brought old ones back and united more masked characters than ever before.
And now, it turns out the event was even bigger than that. In fact, the Crisis on Infinite Earths: Paragons Rising tie-in comic shows events and characters that the televised event didn't have the time to include.
Felicity Smoak was one of the most important characters in Arrow, but she wasn't seen in the crossover due to actor Emily Bett Rickards' departure prior to the last season of the series. However, Felicity was all kinds of busy during "Crisis on Infinite Earths" because, as Paragons Rising reveals, she was crucial in the search for the Paragons in a search that led her right to the home of the Green Lanterns.
Although Felicity wasn't involved in the televised events of "Crisis on Infinite Earths," the Paragons Rising comic revealed that she had been recruited by the Monitor to help in his search for the seven Paragons destined to save the Multiverse from the Anti-Monitor. The events of the comic take place concurrently with Part 1 of the crossover. When we first catch up with Felicity, she doesn't even know that her husband, Oliver Queen has died, after sacrificing himself to save as many people as he possibly could.
When she learns of this terrible loss, Felicity becomes even more resolved to complete her mission. But she doesn't just want to find the Paragons -- she also wants to find a way to bring Oliver back to life. This quest leads her to team-up with Earth-X's The Ray as well as Nyssa Al Ghul and Felicity is transported to Earth-12 with help from Earth-85's Phantom Stranger.
Earth-12, as we see in the comic, is the home of Oa and the Guardians of the Universe as they appeared in the 2011 film, Green Lantern. Felicity seeks the Book of Oa, a keeper of cosmic knowledge that she believes holds the key to everything she needs to know. Therefore, in order to gain access to it, she faces the Guardians of the Universe themselves.
The comic book makes it clear that this is the same universe as the Green Lantern film. In fact, the design of the Guardians, as well as their throne and long red robes, look exactly like they did in the film.
What's more, when the Anti-Monitor's Shadow Demons appear to go after Felicity, Ray and Nyssa, Green Lantern Corps members Sinestro, Tomar-Re and Kilowog show up to push back the invading monsters. The designs of the Lanterns' power ring-generated costumes are also exactly like in the film.
Given Sinestro's status as a Green Lantern and the absence of Hal Jordan, it looks like the events of the comic take place before the start of the infamous Ryan Reynolds-starring movie. As fans know, Hal Jordan became the latest Green Lantern in the film, while Sinestro would embrace his villainous destiny as a Yellow Lantern in the film's after-credits scene.
While the Guardians have no interest in helping Felicity in Paragons Rising, the fan-favorite Guardian known as Ganthet arrives late to the meeting to change that. With Ganthet's help, Felicity reaches the Book of Oa, and she gets the answers she seeks about who the Paragons might actually be. Eventually, she is transported back to her Earth, where she tells the Monitor what she has learned about the Paragons.
As for the home of the Green Lanterns, we would see Earth-12 briefly at the end of the crossover event, after the Paragons are successful in rebooting the entire Multiverse.