CRISIS O'BSERVATIONS 3 - WIL WHEATON

CRISIS VS. TOOBWORLD
O’BSERVATIONS ON WIL WHEATON

There are still two episodes to go in the CW/DC crossover event “Crisis On Infinite Earths” – ‘Arrow’ and ‘Legends of Tomorrow’.  When the story first arrived in the DC comic books, the goal was to streamline their massive empire down to one manageable Earth for all of their characters.  One result was that many superheroes and villains and other characters were wiped out or combined into one character.

I don’t follow comics anymore, so I can’t say if there is still only the one universe… for them.  But at the time, it was mostly unspoken, but if those multiverses contained comic book versions of all of us, then we’re all dead in those various dimensions as well.

But it was only the fictional characters we saw get erased from existence.  (The most graphic were the deaths of the Huntress from Earth-203 and the Clark Kent/Superman from Earth-96.)   While televersions of real-world people have showed up in TV series on a regular basis, so far in the Crisis Crossover, that hasn’t happened.

Or has it?

In the first chapter, taking over the ‘Supergirl’ slot, the introduction to Earth-38 for newcomers was a “Doomsday Protester” played by Wil Wheaton (in a nod to the Christopher Reeve movie “Superman II”.  Supergirl – whom the protester was denouncing – saves him from the fiery breath of Spike the dragon, last seen in Season 4 of ‘Supergirl’.  (I’m assuming the poor big lug perished with the planet.)

It was only a minor cameo for Wheaton, but he notched another role in the major genre shows of the last twenty years.  (Eventually we might see him in an episode of ‘Doctor Who’ perhaps.)  Not bad for the guy who played Wesley Crusher.

But who was the Doomsday Protester?

O’Bviously he should be the Earth-38 version of some other character played by Wheaton.  It will be the ruling of Toobworld Central that he can’t be the actual, original depiction of such characters because for the most part they belong on Earth Prime-Time.  Yeah, I’m greedy that way.

These characters would especially include:

• Isaac Parrish (‘Eureka’)
• Colin Mason (‘Leverage’)

And plenty of one-shot guest roles on the following TV series:

• ‘CSI’
• ‘Criminal Minds’
• ‘Numb3rs’
• ‘Diagnosis Murder’
• ‘Sirens’
• ‘Love Boat: The Next Wave’

But there are at least three characters played by Wheaton who have to be in a different dimension than Earth Prime-Time:

• Conrad Moody of ‘Powers’ as it’s a world where super-powers are natural to all.
• Bryan (no last name known) in an episode of the anthology series ‘Perversions of Science’ (a lot of freedom from the rules with anthology shows.)
• “Sharknado 2” – NO way could the “Sharknado” franchise could be happening in the main Toobworld.  I think the dimension of Disaster Toobworld would be a better fit.  But the main reason that Wheaton’s character has to be considered from some other Toobworld than Earth Prime-Time or Earth-38 can be summed up by his listing in the credits on the IMDb:

“Dead Passenger”.  (But he has to be the Wil Wheaton of Disaster Toobworld.)

Here’s who I’d like that protester to be – the Earth-38 televersion of Wil Wheaton himself, a member of the League of Themselves who will eventually be inducted into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame.

Wheaton has a firmly established televersion in Earth Prime-Time, thanks to 17 episodes of ‘The Big Bang Theory’. I think there will more in time.

Even if Earth-38 Wil Wheaton survived the destruction of the planet by boarding one of those ships, he’ll only be making it to Earth-1 (their designation, not mine.)  So there would be no Zonk in having them exist on separate Toobworlds.

That same argument could apply to any of his other characters, but I just like the idea that on Earth-38, Wil Wheaton became a doomsday conspiracy nutjob.

BCnU!