DC Comics have been pushing the boundaries of what an event book can be for over 40 years now. DC may have created the superhero, but they didn’t create the event book. Marvel did that in 1982’s Marvel Super Heroes Contest of Champions and a few later, DC put out the blockbuster Crisis on Infinite Earths and changed event comics forever. While Marvel has become more well-known for its event comics, mainly because they put out several a year, DC has put out many of the best events ever. Marvel fans have gotten tired of event comics, but DC fans sill look forward to their events. The reason for this is simple: build-up.
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As important as the event itself can be, the story needs a great build-up in order to be truly great, and DC Comics has always excelled at this. The publisher has put out some of the most well-built event comics ever. These five DC events had amazing build-ups, and it made all the difference in the events that they built.
5) DC K.O.
DC K.O.‘s been a spectacular event comic, and the reason why is because of how well the story has been built. It all began with summer 2024’s DC All-In #1, setting up Darkseid’s latest plan. Over the course of the books like Superman, Justice League Unlimited, one-shots like Justice League: Dark Tomorrow and Justice League: The Omega Act, The Flash, the Absolute books, and others, the publisher gave readers an amazing build-up, hooking them more and more with every story. Every month built more of the story, and by the time DC K.O. #1 dropped, DC had made a compelling event story that fans were rabid for before they ever read a single page.
4) Absolute Power
DC’s All-In publishing initiative gets a lot of credit for why the publisher was so successful in 2025, but that’s ignoring the last initiative “Dawn of DC”. They rebuilt their line after “Infinite Frontier” cut nearly everything that wasn’t Batman-related and began building towards Absolute Power, starting with Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths. This story introduced the idea of Amanda Waller’s mission to end metahumans as a power in the world, with several books building this idea more. Titans: Beast World was her first salvo, one whose failure led to her next attack in Absolute Power. Books like Superman, Batman, Titans, Wonder Woman, Suicide Squad: Dream Team, and more all built towards the event, which hit the DC Universe like a ton of bricks all because of how well-built the whole thing was.
3) DC One Million
DC One Million is a fantastic event book, and most people forget how well it was built up. While there was only one story building it up — “Rock of Ages” from JLA — it just so happens to be the best Justice League story ever in numerous readers’ opinions. It introduced readers to Hourman III, teasing the ending of the story, where the League meet the Justice Legion A, their 853rd century counterparts. The build-up was simple, but it worked perfectly for the story that we got, and it shows that sometimes, less is more.
2) Blackest Night
Blackest Night has been a highlight of 21st century DC Comics, a nice little piece of superhero horror and superhero sci-fi mixed up. The book was built up over decades, starting with the Alan Moore/Kevin O’Neill ’80s back-up feature “Tygers” from Tales of the Green Lantern Corps Annual #2 (I get that they didn’t mean for Blackest Night to become a thing, instead telling a one-off story that explained by Abin Sur was in a ship when it crashed in Hal Jordan’s first appearance, but it counts in my opinion). From there, Green Lantern writer Geoff Johns took the idea of the death of the Green Lantern Corps in an event called “the Blackest Night” and went to town with it. The build-up to the event was kicked off with “The Sinestro Corps War”, one of the greatest Green Lantern stories ever, and continued across “Rage of the Red Lanterns”, “Secret Origin”, “Agent Orange”, and the pages of Green Lantern Corps. The build-up was so good that Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps became two of the best selling comics of the late ’00s/early ’10s, which really just says it all.
1) Infinite Crisis
Infinite Crisis is a flawless event story, and one of the best things about it was the build-up. DC started the build to the 20th anniversary of Crisis on Infinite Earths in 2005 several years before, using books like Superman/Batman, Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day and Teen Titans/Legion of Superheroes Special #1 to lay the groundwork. From there, stories like Identity Crisis, “Crisis of Conscience”, “Sacrifice”, Countdown to Infinite Crisis, The O.M.A.C. Project, Rann/Thanagar War, Days of Vengeance, Villains United, DC Special: The Return of Donna Troy, JSA Classified, and so many more really started ramping up the excitement. By the time Infinite Crisis #1 dropped, DC fans had been seeing teases for the story for several years and were more than ready for the book. It was an amazing time to be a DC fan.
What’s your favorite DC event build-up? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
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