DC Comics has been enthralling readers with their stories for decades, even before they created their first superhero. Over the years, they’ve taken superhero stories in some pretty exciting directions, using a variety of tropes and genres to make the superhero into the mythology of the modern age. The publisher has used numerous methods to keep readers glued to their stories, and secrets have been key to the success of DC. Over the decades, readers have gotten some reveals that changed the way they looked at the heroes, villains, and worlds of the DC Multiverse.
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Secrets in comics are fraught with peril, because you never really know how the fans are going to react to them. Some secrets have been rather underwhelming, but some of them are completely justified. These seven big DC secrets needed to be kept, and their reveals are still talked about to this day.
7) Earth as the Cradle of Life in the Universe
Blackest Night is a DC classic, and it changed everything we thought we knew about the DC Universe. For years, the Oans claimed that Oa was the center of the universe and that they were the first lifeforms to ever exist. However, the Black Lanterns and their leader Nekron, a personification of death, attacked the Earth in their quest to destroy the source of life. The last issue of the book revealed that the Life Entity, the embodiment of the white energy of life, was on Earth the whole time and that the planet was the first place to have life. The Oans knew this the whole time, but they kept it a secret because humans are much weaker than they are, and couldn’t handle attacks like the Oans could.
6) The Superman Project
The Superman Project was introduced in Doomsday Clock. Basically, when Superman showed up, the US government decided to create their own superheroes who they could control. They even created supervillains meant to fight them and ingratiate them to the public. It was all kept a secret from the subjects, including Firestorm. The New History of the DC Universe revealed it was still canon, and it makes sense that this would have been a secret. Manipulating people, exposing them to experiments that could kill them, is a terrible thing and if the general public knew about it when it was happening, there would be an endless uproar.
5) Darkseid’s Plans for the Multiverse in DC All-In
Darkseid has long been considered the greatest villain in the DC Multiverse, and DC All-In has used that idea with gusto. It all started with DC All-In #1, with the God of Evil killing his servants on Apokolips, sacrificing them for power to steal the energies of the Spectre, and get the Justice League to kill him, exploding and creating the Omega Rift. Everyone wondered why he did it, and it would soon be revealed: not only did allow him to take over the Alpha Earth, a blank Earth waiting for someone to define it, but also to spread his energy throughout the Multiverse in an attempt to become the basis of everything. Darkseid was able to keep everyone guessing, and would have won if it wasn’t for Doomsday amping Superman in DC K.O. #5.
4) Alexander Luthor and Superboy-Prime’s Plans
Infinite Crisis was one of DC’s greatest events, and a big part of that were how many huge reveals that the book had. It began by bringing back Superman and Lois Lane-Kent of Earth-Two, Alexander Luthor Jr. of Earth-Three, and Superboy-Prime, who fans hadn’t seen since Crisis on Infinite Earths #12. It was soon revealed that Luthor and Prime had a secret plan to create the perfect Earth, and had been able to escape their paradise dimension to manipulate the heroes and villains of Earth. They kept their plan secret from the Kents, and only failed in the end because they overplayed their hand.
3) The Lazarus Pits
The Lazarus Pits have become extremely important to the history of the planet. These pits allowed the dead to resurrected, but each one could only be used once. Ra’s al Ghul learned about them and began to hunt them all down for his own use, keeping them a secret from the world. Pits full of liquid that could resurrect people would be the targets of everyone who knew about them, causing huge wars over who controls them, and al Ghul was smart to keep it all a secret.
2) Doctor Manhattan’s Multiversal Manipulation
Doomsday Clock is an underrated story, with most fans hating it because they hate anything that has Watchmen in it that isn’t the original story. It began to be teased with DC Rebirth #1, when various heroes learned that the current universe (at the time the New 52) wasn’t exactly right. Batman and the Flash would investigate the whole thing, but readers would learn right away that it was all caused by Doctor Manhattan. Manhattan had wanted to experiment on the universe, manipulating time and space to see how the heroes would react. Obviously, a godlike being moving the pieces of the multiverse like they’re toys is the ultimate existential crisis and keeping it a secret was the right call.
1) The Justice League Mindwipes
Identity Crisis is the most maligned DC event of the ’00s, all because of the way the book treated Sue Dibney. However, it also introduced a huge idea that is honestly pretty cool. After Dr. Light’s attack on Sue, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Hawkman, Zatanna, the Atom, and the Flash voted to wipe Light’s mind, so he couldn’t remember who Sue was. As they were doing this, Batman showed up and they had to mindwipe him as well. It was revealed that this wasn’t the first and second time they had done something like this either, as they had also mindwiped other villains who learned the secrets of Leaguers They kept this secret and for good reason; it would have destroyed the League from within. The group was supposed to be better than this and revealing it would have killed how everyone looked at them.
What’s your favorite DC secret? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
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