DC Comics has been publishing superhero comics longer than anyone and has broken new ground with the superhero numerous times in their 88-year history (referring to superheroes; DC history stretches back longer). Everything you love about superheroes had its origins with DC, and while they haven’t always been the top of the heap, they’ve given readers some of the biggest moments imaginable in comics. They’ve created characters, heroes, villains, and supporting cast alike, who have played a huge role in the superhero medium, creating some of the most popular icons in pop culture. 2025 was an especially good year for fans of DC, as the publisher made their triumphant return to the big screen with Superman and the new Absolute line of books ruled the sales charts.
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The history of DC Comics is one of the most interesting in fiction. Their multiverse has given fans decades of enjoyment and the publisher has created many of the best stories, not just in comics but in general, of the 20th and 21st century. Over the decades, these DC milestones are the ones that made the most difference, changing DC Comics and the comic industry.
10) Dark Knights: Death Metal
2025 was a great year for DC, and all of the year’s successes can be traced back to one book: Dark Knights: Death Metal, by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. The story of the Trinity’s war against Perpetua and the Batman Who Laughs is the kind of cosmic craziness that DC does so well, but it also represents the true last gasps of the New 52. This story saw DC finally start reincorporating things into their universe that they hadn’t in a while, from the Golden Age heroes to the return of a truly infinite multiverse. Every great thing that has happened to DC since 2021 comes from this series.
9) The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen
1986 was a massive year for DC Comics for numerous reasons. It would see the end of the DC Multiverse and the rebooting of every major DC character (more on that later) and it would see the publisher charting the course of its future with two of the most influential comics of all-time: The Dark Knights Returns and Watchmen. The Dark Knight Returns changed Batman for years to come and Watchmen represents the ultimate maturation and deconstruction of superheroes. The publisher had been experimenting with “graphic novel” stories since the early ’80s, but these two would show just how popular that kind of storytelling would become and laid the groundwork for what the company did with their main superhero line and their mature readers horror line, which would turn into Vertigo. These two stories changed the course of DC forever.
8) Flashpoint and the Birth of the New 52
Flashpoint, by Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert, didn’t seem like it was going to be a continuity-altering event when it was first announced at the end of The Flash: Rebirth #6, but thanks to Dan DiDio deciding to reboot the DC Multiverse after years of rebuilding it without a concrete plan, it’s become one of the most important DC stories ever. The birth of the New 52 would lead to some massive successes and failures, and they all have their genesis in Flashpoint. It’s a pretty standard quality event series, and in another timeline it would have just been a Flash event, like Blackest Night was for Green Lantern. However, that isn’t the world we live in and we’ve been dealing with the fruits of this story for close to 20 years now.
7) DC Rebirth
After five years of the New 52, fans had enough and DC decided to pedal things back significantly. This led to DC Rebirth #1, from Geoff Johns, Ethan Van Sciver, Ivan Reis, Gary Frank, and Phil Jimenez. This story would kick off the Rebirth publishing initiative, which saw pre-Flashpoint aspects of DC continuity brought to the New 52 universe, like post-Crisis Superman and Lois Lane, with Jon Kent, and Wally West. DC Rebirth was a huge success; the eponymous issue sold like hotcakes (80-pages for $2.99 in 2016 was a steal) and it led to some big successes for the Rebirth books. It was something of a false start — the New 52 still existed, after all, and things did start to fizzle out — but it was a step in the right direction at the right time.
6) Infinite Crisis
Infinite Crisis is a perfectly built event and had major repercussions on the DC Universe. The publisher began dropping hints about their plans for the 20th anniversary of Crisis on Infinite Earths years before the book dropped in late 2005, taking the time to build the story perfectly. It didn’t matter what DC you were reading at the time, you knew something was coming. The story paid homage to the elder Crisis wonderfully, echoing moments from that classic series, and would serve to un-do a lot of what Crisis did. We got the seeds of the Multiverse replanted, the return of things like Superboy and the original Legion of Superheroes to DC history, and much more. It kicked off a “neo-Bronze Age” of DC, as older creators recreated the DC of their youth in the modern day with often mixed results. It set the course that the publisher follows to this day.
5) Justice League of America #21
DC began the Silver Age with Showcase #4, introducing a whole new generation of DC heroes that would culminate in the first appearance of the Justice League. Justice League of America became the epicenter of the DC Multiverse, with Justice League of America #21, by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky, giving readers the first taste of what was to come. Fox brought together his two superteam creations for the biggest crossover in comics history (at the time). This would be the first multiversal crossover, and would lay the groundwork for the DC Multiverse as we know it. This classic story was the catalyst for everything so many fans love about DC and has become a legendary comic.
4) The Flash (Vol. 1) #123
DC continuity has always been wonky, and the best example of that is the way the company dealt with their Golden Age heroes. Instead of making a multi-generational superhero universe, they decided to put the older heroes on their own Earth with Earth-Two (which somehow came first, yet was the second one). The Flash (Vol. 1) #123, by Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantino, brought back the Golden Age Flash Jay Garrick, revealing that he and his fellow Justice Society members lived on their own Earth. This was the huge change that made DC unique, and it led to every multiverse in superheroes stories since. It’s a singular moment in pop cultural history that changed everything and most people don’t even know it exists.
3) All-Star Comics #3
There are some people out there who would say that this is the most important DC comic ever, and there’s an argument for that. All-Star Comics (Vol. 1) #3, by Gardner Fox, Jerry Siegel, Ken Fitch, Sheldon Moldoff, Bill O’Connor, Evenlyn Gaines, Everett E. Hibbard, Bernard Baily, Chad Grothkopf, Howard Sherman, and Ben Flinton, brought together the greatest superheroes on Earth in one big comic, creating the Justice Society of America. This was the first major superteam, combining the most popular heroes of the day, and would pave the way for everyone from the Justice League to the Avengers. Their debut is one of many gamechanging momenst from the first five years of DC’s existence as a superhero publisher.
2) The Brave and the Bold (Vol. 1) #28
The Brave and the Bold (Vol. 1) #28, by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky, gave readers the greatest superhero team of all time. The Justice League of America is basically just a modernized version of the Justice Society, but the team broke so much new ground it’s not funny. In the Silver and Bronze Ages, Justice League stories were the equivalent of modern event books, as the team protected the universe from threats across the length and breadth of existence. The team was massively successful right away, so much so that Marvel decided to re-enter the superhero game to get in on that sweet superhero cash. This one issue changed the course of the comic industry, leading us to where we are today.
1) Crisis on Infinite Earths
Crisis on Infinite Earths, by Marv Wolfman, George Perez, and Jerry Ordway, changed DC Comics completely. The 12-issue series told the story of the end of the multiverse, pitting the heroes against the ultimate evil, the Anti-Monitor. This story marked the end of Barry Allen and Supergirl, two characters who have been looked at as the personification of the Silver Age, then took the worlds of the old multiverse and made them into one singular Earth, ending an entire era of DC. This was the biggest event ever in comics when it was published, and it plotted the course for comics in the future, showing what a company could do with their event comics and how much they could change things.
What are your favorite DC milestones? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
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