In the early and mid-1990s, big events were regularly published by Marvel and DC, often leading to extra publicity and sales. These events helped fend-off competition from Image Comics, and such events were more likely to become "collector's items." Some events, such as DC's "Zero Hour" and Marvel's "Onslaught saga" spanned a publisher's entire line while others only affected a "family" of interrelated titles. The X-Men and Batman franchises featured crossovers almost annually.
These events led to significant sales boosts and publicity, but many fans began to criticize them as excessive and lacking compelling storytelling. They also complained that monthly series had become inaccessible because one had to follow a number of comics to understand the full storyline. By the end of the 1990s, the number of large crossovers decreased, but they were still launched sporadically.
Crisis on Infinite Earths
Starting in the early 1960s, DC Comics maintained some aspects of its continuity through the use of a multiverse system of parallel Earths. A cosmic event in the 1985 limited seriesCrisis on Infinite Earths merged all of these realities and their respective characters into one universe, allowing writers to rewrite from scratch such long-running characters as Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman and also as an attempt at simplifying the DC Universe. In some ways, this helped revitalize DC's characters, though some fans debated (and continue to debate) whether such changes were necessary to begin with or truly beneficial. Events such as the deaths of Supergirl and Barry Allen augmented debate among many fans.
Since Crisis, the trend of such retconning/revamping of characters' histories has increased in superhero comics, as has such large-scale crossover events. Even DC found cause to revamp its universe again (but on a smaller scale) with 1994's "Zero Hour" crossover storyline. In the late 1990s, the concept of Hypertime was introduced as an attempt to satisfy fans of alternate realities, by stating that all comics published by DC (whether pre- or post-Crisis) had taken place in some corner of reality.
In 2005, the Infinite Crisis series revived the idea of a multiverse. Following the events of the Infinite Crisis series, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman have temporarily retired their costumed identities. The remaining heroes attend a memorial for Superboy in Metropolis. Time traveler Booster Gold attends the memorial, but when Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman do not arrive, the change in history makes his robot sidekick Skeets malfunction. This results in Skeets reporting other incorrect historical data. Booster and Skeets search time traveler Rip Hunter's desert bunker for answers, but find it littered with scrawled notes.
The series continues, exploring many of the changes wrought by the events of "Infinite Crisis", introducing new characters, killing off old ones, and putting others in new situations. The series concludes when Rip Hunter reveals that a new multiverse exists, of exactly 52 universes, from Earth-0/New Earth (The primary Earth in continuity) to Earth-51. The new Multiverse is temporarily threatened by Mr. Mind, who has developed the ability to travel to each universe and "Eat" portions of it, altering its history. Each new universe was initially identical to New Earth, but Mr. Mind's rampage altered the history of each universe, altering them all and restoring the DC Multiverse. Once Mr. Mind is stopped, and 52's World War 3 crossover concludes, it is revealed that new Monitors exist for each of the new universes, making 52 monitors in all. Many of the new universes resemble either popular Elseworlds Earths (Kingdom Come, Batman and Dracula) or are similar to the pre-Crisis Earths 2, X, S, etc.
52, World War 3, 1 Year Later, and Crisis Aftermath indirectly lead into "Countdown to Final Crisis", which is confirmed to be counting down to the next big event, "Final Crisis".
Watchmen
In 1986, DC published two groundbreaking limited series: Watchmen by a British creative team led by writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller. The Watchmen helped usher in the era of anti-heroes. But, more importantly, it was one of the most artistically ambitious and psychologically complex comic book series ever produced. It helped gather respect for the medium and set the bar for subsequent writers.
The book is set in the 21st Century although it seems to retain many elements of the Cold War culture. It is a disturbing world where criminals have run amok in the absence of superheroes. Gotham City is terrorized by a gang of teenage murderers, the Mutants. Bruce Wayne, now 55, has been retired from crime fighting for ten years following the death of the second Robin, Jason Todd. Attempting to bury his guilt over Jason's death, Wayne has turned to alcoholism and near-suicidal recreational activities. In an effort to prove to the world (and himself) that one's personal demons can be bested, Wayne has generously funded the rehabilitation of Harvey Dent (a.k.a. Two-Face).
There are two events that push Wayne back into the identity of Batman. The first instance was a chance meeting with two Mutant gang members on the very spot where his parents were killed years before, while the second was Two-Face's immediate return to crime, despite years of psychological and cosmetic rehabilitation.
The criminals he now faces are not as organized as they had been, rather they are an unfocused band of kids who kill for money, drugs, or just for thrills. Gotham City has also changed. Whereas the public once hailed Batman as a hero standing up for the citizens of Gotham, now there are some who cry out that Batman is violating the villains' civil rights. The media, the Mayor's office, and even police officers start to debate Batman's role in society.
The one change that Batman notices the most is the change in himself. He's older now, not able to leap as easily from roof to roof on as little sleep as he used to. His body takes longer to recover from blows and he gets winded much quicker than he ever remembered in the old days. He has had to accept that he has limitations.
The episodes find Batman foiling a plot by Two-Face to blow up Gotham's twin towers, Joker appearing on a parody of the David Letterman talk show, killing everyone in the audience, and fighting Superman, who works for the President of the United States.
Marvel vs DC
Marvel vs. DC was a 1997 comic book mini-series by DC Comics and Marvel. The plot was that two "Brothers" personify the universes that comics fans know as DC and Marvel. After becoming aware of the other's existence, the brothers challenge each other to a series of duels involving each universe's respective superheroes. The series was four comics in total.
Dan Jurgens (who wrote the Death of Superman) scripted the series and the outcome was determined by votes sent in by readers. Despite Marvel achieving more votes than its rival, and thus winning more matches, the series' storyline opted not to show one side victorious. The authors reserved calling the winner of six of the eleven matches so they could make the outcome seem close regardless of the votes.
As voters voted Marvel the winner in three of the five "open to vote" matches (DC's Superman and Batman won their matches, whereas Marvel's Spider-Man, Storm, and Wolverine won theirs), this proved a prescient move. The outcome was a 6–5 Marvel "victory". After Batman defeated Captain America, it was revealed that the Amalgam universe would be used to settle the dispute, making the Marvel victory an ambiguous one.
Ultimately, the Brothers decided to "settle things in their own way" by temporarily creating a new universe. This new universe, called the Amalgam universe, saw a merging of each company's most popular heroes into new ones: Dark Claw (Batman + Wolverine), Spider-Boy (Spider-Man + Superboy), etc. Each new hero starred in a one-shot comic book, all of which were released prior to the series' fourth and final chapter.
The popularity of Amalgam led to another 12 one-shots the following year. Some of the heroes included: Iron Lantern (Iron Man + Green Lantern), Challengers of the Fantastic (Challengers of the Unknown + Fantastic Four), Lobo the Duck (Lobo + Howard the Duck).
The premise of the "Civil War" storyline is the introduction of a Super-human Registration Act in the United States. The catalyst is based on a battle involving the New Warriors and a group of villains (Nitro, Cobalt Man, Speedfreek, and Coldheart) in Stamford, Connecticut. This battle occurs while filming a reality television show. Nitro explodes, destroying a local school and the surrounding neighborhood and killing all of the New Warriors, except Speedball. The explosion also killed 612 citizens of the town, including the children at the school. The "Stamford Incident" turns public opinion against superheroes, giving momentum to the Superhuman Registration Act. Angry civilians attack Johnny Storm, the Human Torch. A bereaved mother spits on Tony Stark.
The act requires any person in the United States with superhuman abilities to register with the federal government and receive proper training. Those who sign also have the option of working for S.H.I.E.L.D., earning a salary and benefits such as those earned by other American civil servants. Characters within the superhuman community in the Marvel Universe split into two groups: one advocating registration as a responsible obligation, and the other opposing the law on the grounds that it violates privacy rights.
S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Maria Hill attempts to recruit Captain America for a strike force created to track down superhumans in violation of the act. When Captain America refuses, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents attack him (notably before the act goes into effect), but he escapes. However, Iron Man supports the act and mobilizes many registered superhumans, including Mister Fantastic, Henry Pym, and Spider-Man, who unmasks himself to the world press in order to find and redeem the anti-registration heroes.
"Crisis on Infinite Earths" is a 1985–1986 American comic book crossover storyline published by DC Comics. The series, written by Marv Wolfman and pencilled by George Pérez, was first serialized as a 12-issue limited series from April 1985 to March 1986. As the main piece of a crossover event, some plot elements were featured in tie-in issues of other publications. Since its initial publication, the series has been reprinted in various formats and editions.
The Justice League, or Justice League of America (JLA), is a group of superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The team first appeared in The Brave and the Bold #28. The team was conceived by writer Gardner Fox as a revival of the Justice Society of America, a similar team from DC Comics from the 1940s which had been pulled out of print due to a decline in sales.
The DC Universe (DCU) is the shared universe in which most stories in American comic book titles published by DC Comics take place. In context, the term "DC Universe" usually refers to the main DC continuity. It contains such well-known superheroes as Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Green Arrow, Shazam, Martian Manhunter, and Cyborg; as well as teams such as the Justice League, the Justice Society of America, the Suicide Squad, Doom Patrol, and the Teen Titans. It also contains well-known supervillains, including the Joker, Lex Luthor, the Cheetah, the Reverse-Flash, Sinestro, Black Manta, Deathstroke, Black Adam, Brainiac, and Darkseid.
George Pérez was an American comic book artist and writer, who worked primarily as a penciller. He came to prominence in the 1970s penciling Fantastic Four and The Avengers for Marvel Comics. In the 1980s he penciled The New Teen Titans, which became one of DC Comics' top-selling series. He penciled DC's landmark limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths, followed by relaunching Wonder Woman as both writer and penciller for the rebooted series. In the meantime, he worked on other comics published by Marvel, DC, and other companies into the 2010s. He was known for his detailed and realistic rendering, and his facility with complex crowd scenes.
What If, sometimes stylized as What If…?, is a comic book anthology series published by Marvel Comics whose stories explore how the Marvel Universe might have unfolded if key moments in its history had not occurred as they did in mainstream continuity. Since What If debuted in 1977, the comics have been published in 14 series as well as occasional stand-alone issues. In 2024, Marvel announced that What If…? would expand to include alternate explorations of continuity within other non-Marvel Universe properties owned by their parent company The Walt Disney Company from its fifteenth volume onwards, beginning with Aliens: What If…?, based on the Alien franchise.
Ultimate Marvel, later known as Ultimate Comics, was an imprint of comic books published by Marvel Comics, featuring reimagined and modernized versions of the company's superhero characters from the Ultimate Marvel Universe, later known as the Ultimate Universe. Those characters include Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Ultimates, the Fantastic Four, and others. The imprint was launched in 2000 with the publication of the series Ultimate Spider-Man and Ultimate X-Men in 2001, followed by The Ultimates and Ultimate Fantastic Four in 2002 and 2004 respectively providing new origin stories for the characters. The reality of Ultimate Marvel is designated as Earth-1610 as part of the Marvel Comics Multiverse.
Amalgam Comics was a collaborative publishing imprint shared by DC Comics and Marvel Comics, in which the two comic book publishers merged their characters into new ones. These characters first appeared in a series of 12 one-shots which were published in April 1996 between Marvel Comics versus DC #3 and DC versus Marvel Comics #4, the last two issues of the DC vs. Marvel crossover event. A second set of 12 one-shots followed one year later in June 1997, but without the crossover event as a background. All 24 of these one-shots took place between the aforementioned issues of DC vs. Marvel Comics.
Earth Prime is a term sometimes used in works of speculative fiction, most notably in DC Comics, involving parallel universes or a multiverse, and refers either to the universe containing "our" Earth, or to a parallel world with a bare minimum of divergence points from Earth as we know it — often the absence or near-absence of metahumans, or with their existence confined to fictional narratives like comics. The "Earth Prime" of a given fictional setting may or may not have an intrinsic value to or vital connection to the other Earths it exists alongside.
The Bronze Age of Comic Books is an informal name for a period in the history of American superhero comic books, usually said to run from 1970 to 1985. It follows the Silver Age of Comic Books and is followed by the Modern Age of Comic Books.
American comic book tropes are common elements and literary devices related to American comic books.
Earth-Three, or simply Earth-3 or Earth 3, is a “partially-reversed” Earth, where supervillainous counterparts of the mainstream DC superheroes reside. It first appeared in Justice League of America #29, and the concept has been rebooted several times.
The Harbinger is a superheroine appearing in publications by DC Comics. Created by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez, she first appeared in her civilian form in The New Teen Titans Annual #2 before taking on the mantle of Harbinger in Crisis on Infinite Earths #1.
In the field of comic books, a limited series is a comics series with a predetermined number of issues. A limited series differs from an ongoing series in that the number of issues is finite and determined before production, and it differs from a one shot in that it is composed of multiple issues. The term is often used interchangeably with miniseries (mini-series) and maxiseries (maxi-series), usually depending on the length and number of issues. In Dark Horse Comics' definition of a limited series, "this term primarily applies to a connected series of individual comic books. A limited series refers to a comic book series with a clear beginning, middle and end". Dark Horse Comics and DC Comics refer to limited series of two to eleven issues as miniseries and series of twelve issues or more as maxiseries, but other publishers alternate terms.
Discrimination against superheroes is a common theme and plot element in comic books and superhero fiction, usually as a way to explore the issue of superheroes operating in society or as commentary on other social concerns. Often in response to this are Registration Acts, fictional legislative bills that have been plot points used in various comic books and mediums which, when passed into law, enforce the regulation of extra-legal vigilante activity vs. criminal activity, or the mandatory registration of superpowered individuals with the government.
This article lists major events in the field of comics during the 1980s.
In most of the DC Comics media, the Multiverse is a "cosmic construct" composed of the many fictional universes the stories of DC media take place in. The worlds in the multiverse share a space and fate in common, and its structure has changed several times in the history of DC Comics.
The Multiversity is a two-issue limited series combined with seven interrelated one-shots set in the DC Multiverse in The New 52, a collection of universes seen in publications by DC Comics. The one-shots in the series were written by Grant Morrison, each with a different artist. The Multiversity began in August 2014 and ran until April 2015.
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