The Great Darkness Saga
It all starts here. 1982.
DC Comics released a multi-issue event called "The Great Darkness Saga" - which, honestly, is a rather cool and interesting event title. It started in this issue of The Legion of Super-Heroes.
"The Great Darkness Saga" chronicles the fight between the Legion of Super-Heroes against the newly-risen Darkseid, the New God of Apokolips. The storyarc spans the issues of Legion of Super-Heroes #290-#294. Darkseid is a major player in the DC Universe. He first appeared in Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #134 (November 1970) and was created by writer-artist the famous Jack Kirby.
The writer for this issue was Paul Levitz; the artists were: Keith Giffen, Carl Gafford, and Frank Giacoia.
Following the events of the Zero Hour miniseries event, this storyline and all other Legion stories predating October 1994 were removed from continuity. However, a new incarnation of the original Legion was introduced in 2007, in "The Lightning Saga" storyline in the Justice League of America and Justice Society of America titles. DC writer Geoff Johns later stated that this incarnation of the Legion shares the same history as the original Legion up to the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths, including the events of "The Great Darkness Saga". Further, when DC released its post-Infinite Crisis version of Darkseid's origin in 2008, "The Great Darkness Saga" was listed as one of the character's "essential storylines,"which strongly suggests that the events of this tale are included in current DC continuity.
Regardless of what the continuity might be, its necessary to start here. Hello, Darkseid.
DC Comics released a multi-issue event called "The Great Darkness Saga" - which, honestly, is a rather cool and interesting event title. It started in this issue of The Legion of Super-Heroes.
"The Great Darkness Saga" chronicles the fight between the Legion of Super-Heroes against the newly-risen Darkseid, the New God of Apokolips. The storyarc spans the issues of Legion of Super-Heroes #290-#294. Darkseid is a major player in the DC Universe. He first appeared in Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #134 (November 1970) and was created by writer-artist the famous Jack Kirby.
The writer for this issue was Paul Levitz; the artists were: Keith Giffen, Carl Gafford, and Frank Giacoia.
Following the events of the Zero Hour miniseries event, this storyline and all other Legion stories predating October 1994 were removed from continuity. However, a new incarnation of the original Legion was introduced in 2007, in "The Lightning Saga" storyline in the Justice League of America and Justice Society of America titles. DC writer Geoff Johns later stated that this incarnation of the Legion shares the same history as the original Legion up to the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths, including the events of "The Great Darkness Saga". Further, when DC released its post-Infinite Crisis version of Darkseid's origin in 2008, "The Great Darkness Saga" was listed as one of the character's "essential storylines,"which strongly suggests that the events of this tale are included in current DC continuity.
Regardless of what the continuity might be, its necessary to start here. Hello, Darkseid.
Crisis on Infinite Earths
Prior to Crisis on Infinite Earths, DC titles were notorious for continuity problems. No character's back story within the comic books was entirely self-consistent and reliable.
Crisis on Infinite Earths was a 12-issue event released in 1985 in order to simplify its then 50-year-old continuity. The series was written by Marv Wolfman and illustrated mainly by George Pérez.. The series removed the concept of the Multiverse in the DC Universe, and depicted the deaths of such long-standing superheroes as Supergirl and the Barry Allen incarnation of the Flash. As such, it is one of the most important events in the DC Universe, and continuity in the DCU is typically divided into "pre-Crisis" and" post-Crisis" periods.
The story introduces readers to two near-omnipotent beings, the good Monitor and the evil Anti-Monitor, who had been created as a result of the same experiment that created the Multiverse. The Monitor made cameo appearances in various DC comic book series for two years preceding the publication of the series. At first, he appeared to be a new supervillain, but with the onset of the Crisis, he was revealed to be working on a desperate plan to save the entire Multiverse from destruction at the hands of the Anti-Monitor. The Crisis series highlighted the efforts of DC Comics' superheroes to stop the Anti-Monitor's plan. Under the initial guidance of the Monitor, a select group of heroes was assigned to protect massive "tuning forks" designed to merge the surviving Earths into one that could be protected from the antimatter that had already annihilated untold numbers of alternate Earths. Eventually, the conflict grew and nearly every DC hero became involved in the battle.
After the Crisis, Wally West took over the mantle of his predecessor, the Flash. The JSA member Wildcat was briefly replaced by his god-daughter, Yolanda Montez. The Green Lantern Corps was reorganized, with Hal Jordan leading a team of Green Lanterns based on Earth.
Crisis on Infinite Earths was a 12-issue event released in 1985 in order to simplify its then 50-year-old continuity. The series was written by Marv Wolfman and illustrated mainly by George Pérez.. The series removed the concept of the Multiverse in the DC Universe, and depicted the deaths of such long-standing superheroes as Supergirl and the Barry Allen incarnation of the Flash. As such, it is one of the most important events in the DC Universe, and continuity in the DCU is typically divided into "pre-Crisis" and" post-Crisis" periods.
The story introduces readers to two near-omnipotent beings, the good Monitor and the evil Anti-Monitor, who had been created as a result of the same experiment that created the Multiverse. The Monitor made cameo appearances in various DC comic book series for two years preceding the publication of the series. At first, he appeared to be a new supervillain, but with the onset of the Crisis, he was revealed to be working on a desperate plan to save the entire Multiverse from destruction at the hands of the Anti-Monitor. The Crisis series highlighted the efforts of DC Comics' superheroes to stop the Anti-Monitor's plan. Under the initial guidance of the Monitor, a select group of heroes was assigned to protect massive "tuning forks" designed to merge the surviving Earths into one that could be protected from the antimatter that had already annihilated untold numbers of alternate Earths. Eventually, the conflict grew and nearly every DC hero became involved in the battle.
After the Crisis, Wally West took over the mantle of his predecessor, the Flash. The JSA member Wildcat was briefly replaced by his god-daughter, Yolanda Montez. The Green Lantern Corps was reorganized, with Hal Jordan leading a team of Green Lanterns based on Earth.
Zero Hour
Zero Hour: Crisis in Time is a five-issue storyline published in 1994. In it, the former hero Hal Jordan, who had until then been a member of the intergalactic police force known as the Green Lantern Corps, mad with grief after the destruction of his home town of Coast City and having obtained immense power as Parallax, attempted to destroy, and then remake, the DC Universe. The crossover involved almost every DC Universe monthly series published at the time. The issues of the series itself were numbered in reverse order, beginning with issue #4 and ending with #0 (i.e., Counting Down To Zero). The series was written and penciled by Dan Jurgens, with inks by Jerry Ordway.
Each ongoing series at the time was given an opportunity to retell (or clarify) the origin of its hero(es) to establish the official version in this revised continuity, in a "#0" issue published in the subsequent weeks after Zero Hour. They resumed their previous numbering or went on to #1, for new series, the following month. Several series took new directions following Zero Hour; for example, new teams were formed in the Justice League books, Oliver Queen's son Connor Hawke was introduced in Green Arrow, and Guy "Warrior" Gardner discovered an alien heritage which gave him different powers.
The apparent villain of the story presented in the miniseries was a character named Extant. Extant had acquired temporal powers, using them to unravel the DC Universe's timeline. In a confrontation with members of the Justice Society of America, Extant aged several of them, leaving them either feeble or dead. However, the true power behind the destruction of the universe — caused by temporal rifts of entropy — turned out to be Hal Jordan, who had been widely regarded as the most distinguished Green Lantern in history. Calling himself Parallax, Jordan had gone insane, and was now trying to remake the universe, undoing the events which had caused his breakdown and his own murderous actions following it. The collective efforts of the other superheroes managed to stop Jordan/Parallax from imposing his vision of a new universe, and the timeline was recreated anew, albeit with subtle differences compared to the previous one.
Each ongoing series at the time was given an opportunity to retell (or clarify) the origin of its hero(es) to establish the official version in this revised continuity, in a "#0" issue published in the subsequent weeks after Zero Hour. They resumed their previous numbering or went on to #1, for new series, the following month. Several series took new directions following Zero Hour; for example, new teams were formed in the Justice League books, Oliver Queen's son Connor Hawke was introduced in Green Arrow, and Guy "Warrior" Gardner discovered an alien heritage which gave him different powers.
The apparent villain of the story presented in the miniseries was a character named Extant. Extant had acquired temporal powers, using them to unravel the DC Universe's timeline. In a confrontation with members of the Justice Society of America, Extant aged several of them, leaving them either feeble or dead. However, the true power behind the destruction of the universe — caused by temporal rifts of entropy — turned out to be Hal Jordan, who had been widely regarded as the most distinguished Green Lantern in history. Calling himself Parallax, Jordan had gone insane, and was now trying to remake the universe, undoing the events which had caused his breakdown and his own murderous actions following it. The collective efforts of the other superheroes managed to stop Jordan/Parallax from imposing his vision of a new universe, and the timeline was recreated anew, albeit with subtle differences compared to the previous one.
Countdown to Infinite Crisis
Countdown to Infinite Crisis, was a one-shot serving as the official start of the Infinite Crisis storyline. It was released 30 March 2005. When this comic was first published, the cover showed Batman holding a shadowed corpse, so as not to ruin the surprise of who dies. The script was co-written by Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka, and Judd Winick, while the artwork was divided up, generally on a chapter by chapter basis.
The main plot concerns Ted Kord, the former Justice League member known as the Blue Beetle, investigating the theft of funds from his company that has left him nearly bankrupt. Most of the other DC heroes dismiss Kord's concerns, either politely or outright. Only Booster Gold, Kord's best friend, eventually decides to help complete the investigation, but before he can, he is seriously injured by an explosive trap.
Maxwell Lord shoots Blue Beetle. Alone and unaided, Blue Beetle continues to follow the clues to Switzerland where he infiltrates the castle base of the Checkmate organization. There, he confronts Maxwell Lord, who is revealed to be using his Justice League files and Batman's satellite, the Brother MK I, to keep an eye on the superhero community, which he considers a threat to the human race. After Beetle refuses to join Lord, Lord shoots him in the head, killing him.
Four miniseries spawn from this story: Day of Vengeance, in which Shadowpact is formed to defend magic from the Spectre; Rann-Thanagar War; Villains United, in which the Secret Six is formed to fight the Secret Society of Supervillains; and The OMAC Project, in which Batman's mistrust of his fellow heroes leads to the creation of an army of cyborgs.
The main plot concerns Ted Kord, the former Justice League member known as the Blue Beetle, investigating the theft of funds from his company that has left him nearly bankrupt. Most of the other DC heroes dismiss Kord's concerns, either politely or outright. Only Booster Gold, Kord's best friend, eventually decides to help complete the investigation, but before he can, he is seriously injured by an explosive trap.
Maxwell Lord shoots Blue Beetle. Alone and unaided, Blue Beetle continues to follow the clues to Switzerland where he infiltrates the castle base of the Checkmate organization. There, he confronts Maxwell Lord, who is revealed to be using his Justice League files and Batman's satellite, the Brother MK I, to keep an eye on the superhero community, which he considers a threat to the human race. After Beetle refuses to join Lord, Lord shoots him in the head, killing him.
Four miniseries spawn from this story: Day of Vengeance, in which Shadowpact is formed to defend magic from the Spectre; Rann-Thanagar War; Villains United, in which the Secret Six is formed to fight the Secret Society of Supervillains; and The OMAC Project, in which Batman's mistrust of his fellow heroes leads to the creation of an army of cyborgs.
OMAC Project
OMACs are modified humans who work as sleeper agents, a product of the Checkmate organization, now led by Maxwell Lord. They possess the Brother Eye spy satellite built by Batman. Blue Beetle is dead, Booster Gold is in the hospital, and the Checkmate organization, led by Maxwell Lord, continues its mysterious operations against superheroes. Booster Gold wakes up and, after learning of Ted Kord's disappearance, decides to investigate with the help of Wonder Woman. Lord is then killed by Wonder Woman (in the pages of Wonder Woman #219) to prevent him from continuing to direct the actions of a mind-controlled Superman. Brother Eye, the artificial intelligence directing the OMAC drones, initiates a protocol specifically designed to be used in the event of Lord's death and OMAC drones worldwide begin to wreak havoc and destruction.
Brother Eye overrides all television screens around the world and broadcasts Wonder Woman's killing of Maxwell Lord. People do not understand the circumstances, only that they are watching Wonder Woman murder a recognized Justice League colleague. In Wonder Woman #221, Wonder Woman took a defeated OMAC to a hospital, and noticing everyone staring at her in fear, saw the broadcast and realized "They have killed my name." As the series closes, Brother Eye prepares to launch an all-out war against metahumans to protect humanity. Batman works furiously to disable his rogue creation, while Wonder Woman and the Amazons of Themyscira face international backlash over Diana's brutal means. Brother Eye's campaign against the Amazons leads into Infinite Crisis #1.
Brother Eye overrides all television screens around the world and broadcasts Wonder Woman's killing of Maxwell Lord. People do not understand the circumstances, only that they are watching Wonder Woman murder a recognized Justice League colleague. In Wonder Woman #221, Wonder Woman took a defeated OMAC to a hospital, and noticing everyone staring at her in fear, saw the broadcast and realized "They have killed my name." As the series closes, Brother Eye prepares to launch an all-out war against metahumans to protect humanity. Batman works furiously to disable his rogue creation, while Wonder Woman and the Amazons of Themyscira face international backlash over Diana's brutal means. Brother Eye's campaign against the Amazons leads into Infinite Crisis #1.
Infinite Crisis
Infinite Crisis is a seven-issue series written by Geoff Johns and illustrated by Phil Jimenez, George Pérez, Ivan Reis, and Jerry Ordway. The series was published beginning in October of 2005. The story begins with Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman feuding, the JLA Watchtower destroyed, and the heroes of the world all facing a variety of menaces. Over this backdrop, Kal-L (the Earth-Two Superman), along with Earth-Two Lois Lane, Earth-Three Alexander Luthor, and Superboy-Prime escape from the pocket universe where they had been left at the end of Crisis on Infinite Earths.Kal-L seeks out his cousin, Power Girl, also a survivor of Earth-Two. Using the Anti-Monitor's remains and captured heroes and villains specifically attuned to former universes (Power Girl among them), Alex restores Earth-Two, un-populated except for the Earth-Two heroes transported there.
Seeking to create a perfect world, Alexander restores many alternate Earths. The Earth-Two Lois dies, and an aggrieved Kal-L and the younger Superman Kal-El fight until Wonder Woman separates them. Bart Allen (wearing Barry Allen's costume and aged to adulthood) emerges from the Speed Force, warning that he and the other speedsters were unable to hold Superboy-Prime, who returns wearing Anti-monitor inspired armor that stores yellow sun radiation to empower him, making him even stronger.
Batman's strike force destroys Brother Eye, a satellite AI created by Batman that had gone rogue and begun transforming civilians into nano-infused robots. Alexander selects and merges alternate Earths, trying to create a "perfect" world. Superboy-Prime takes off to destroy Oa, planning to collapse the Universe, and recreate it with himself as the only superhero. Superboy-Prime breaks through a 300-mile thick wall of willpower, and then kills thirty-two Green Lanterns before Kal-L and Kal-El carry him toward Krypton's remains, now essentially a huge cloud of kryptonite. Flying through Krypton's red sun, Rao, destroys Superboy-Prime's armor and causes all three Kryptonians' powers to dissipate. Kal-El finally knocks Superboy-Prime out and the older Superman, Kal-L, dies from his injuries in the arms of his cousin, Power Girl. Back on Earth, Batman, struggling with Superboy's death and Nightwing's severe injuries, contemplates shooting Alex. Batman is discouraged by Wonder Woman. Alex manages to escape.
The Green Lantern Corps imprison Superboy-Prime inside a red Sun-Eater. The series ends with him carving an S into his chest with his bare hands and declaring that he has escaped from worse prisons than this.
Wonder Woman, Batman, and Superman later meet up in Gotham. Wonder Woman plans to find out who she is. Batman plans a similar journey of self-discovery, revisiting the training of his youth, this time with Dick Grayson, now healthier, and Tim Drake joining him. Superman retires from superheroics until his powers return. Hiding in an alley in Gotham City and making new plans, Alexander Luthor is found by Lex Luthor and the Joker. The Joker kills Alexander.
Seeking to create a perfect world, Alexander restores many alternate Earths. The Earth-Two Lois dies, and an aggrieved Kal-L and the younger Superman Kal-El fight until Wonder Woman separates them. Bart Allen (wearing Barry Allen's costume and aged to adulthood) emerges from the Speed Force, warning that he and the other speedsters were unable to hold Superboy-Prime, who returns wearing Anti-monitor inspired armor that stores yellow sun radiation to empower him, making him even stronger.
Batman's strike force destroys Brother Eye, a satellite AI created by Batman that had gone rogue and begun transforming civilians into nano-infused robots. Alexander selects and merges alternate Earths, trying to create a "perfect" world. Superboy-Prime takes off to destroy Oa, planning to collapse the Universe, and recreate it with himself as the only superhero. Superboy-Prime breaks through a 300-mile thick wall of willpower, and then kills thirty-two Green Lanterns before Kal-L and Kal-El carry him toward Krypton's remains, now essentially a huge cloud of kryptonite. Flying through Krypton's red sun, Rao, destroys Superboy-Prime's armor and causes all three Kryptonians' powers to dissipate. Kal-El finally knocks Superboy-Prime out and the older Superman, Kal-L, dies from his injuries in the arms of his cousin, Power Girl. Back on Earth, Batman, struggling with Superboy's death and Nightwing's severe injuries, contemplates shooting Alex. Batman is discouraged by Wonder Woman. Alex manages to escape.
The Green Lantern Corps imprison Superboy-Prime inside a red Sun-Eater. The series ends with him carving an S into his chest with his bare hands and declaring that he has escaped from worse prisons than this.
Wonder Woman, Batman, and Superman later meet up in Gotham. Wonder Woman plans to find out who she is. Batman plans a similar journey of self-discovery, revisiting the training of his youth, this time with Dick Grayson, now healthier, and Tim Drake joining him. Superman retires from superheroics until his powers return. Hiding in an alley in Gotham City and making new plans, Alexander Luthor is found by Lex Luthor and the Joker. The Joker kills Alexander.
DC Comics Releases Post-Infinite Crisis / OMAC Project
The screen shot above is an MS Excel table showing the dates and issue numbers of DC comics titles that started after the Infinite Crisis / OMAC Project Events.
OYL = One Year Later tag that DC put on some of their titles.
OYL = One Year Later tag that DC put on some of their titles.