DC Comics gave readers such remarkable gifts as the superhero, the teen sidekick, the modern superteam, the teen superteam, and many other remarkable firsts. However, one that DC didn’t invent was the event comic. That was all Marvel, but after seeing the sales that Marvel was able to get, DC started putting out their own. DC events have something of a stereotype — basically universe resetting, multiversal shenanigans — but not every DC event is the same. Readers have gotten all kinds of event comics over the years, and while some of them have the problems that turn off most fans to event comics, some of them are amazing. The best DC events are one of a kind, taking advantage of the vagaries of DC history to create amazing stories.
Videos by ComicBook.com
DC’s best known events combine the greatest heroes in comics against foes that could burn through just about anything in front of them. While Marvel is better known for their event comics, the House of Idea’s events can often be pretty inferior to DC’s. There’s just something about a DC event, that really grabs readers. These ten DC events are the best of the best, creating stories that are among the best comics of all time.
10) Doomsday Clock
Doomsday Clock, by Geoff Johns and Gary Franks, isn’t exactly a beloved comic. It was a crossover between the heroes of the DC Multiverse and Watchmen, which was something that fans either really wanted or were completely uninterested in. The book revealed the secrets of how Doctor Manhattan had created the New 52, and was meant to set the DC Multiverse in a new direction. However, the book’s delays robbed it of that ability. All of this hurt the book, but Doomsday Clock is actually a pretty good story. It’s not perfect, but there are some awesome issues and cool ideas throughout the book. Plus, Doomsday Clock has some of the best art in a DC book in ages. It’s a better comic than it gets credit for.
9) Final Night
Final Night, by Karl Kesel and Stuart Immonen, doesn’t get the credit it deserves among DC events and that’s a tragedy. The story is simple — a Sun Eater, a self-explanatory alien monster, eats the sun. The heroes have to figure out a way to fix the problem and save all life on Earth. There’s no big bad behind the whole thing, and no twist into a different kind of story halfway through when the truth is revealed. Final Night is merely about a group of heroes doing everything they can to save the day in the face of a threat unlike anything they have faced before. This isn’t a problem that can be punched, and Final Night really does a great job of humanizing the most powerful heroes in comics as they face a problem that they can’t solve. Final Night doesn’t get the credit that the other, more boisterous event stories get, but it’s still an amazing event comic.
8) Forever Evil
The New 52 was a pretty lackluster time for DC Comics. There were definitely some great stories and comics, but fans just weren’t overly impressed with the New 52 as a whole. There were several event books during the New 52, and only one of them is in the least bit memorable — Forever Evil, by Geoff Johns and David Finch. This story saw the Crime Syndicate of Earth-3 taking over the Earth after escaping the destruction of their own Earth, taking down the superhero community in one fell swoop. Lex Luthor is obviously not every happy about this, and recruits a group of powerful villains as his own Justice League to help deal with the villains, with Batman helping out (because it’s DC Comics). Forever Evil isn’t a groundbreaking event, but it’s very entertaining. The relationship between Lex and a Bizarro he created named B-1 is a highlight of the story, and Forever Evil definitely shouldn’t be memory holed with the rest of the New 52.
7) Dark Knights: Metal
DC Rebirth was supposed to culminate in Doomsday Clock, but that book’s delays meant that the DC Multiverse had to move on. This led to Dark Knights: Metal, by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. Metal pit the heroes of the DC Multiverse against the dark god Barbatos, who was trying to use the power of the Dark Multiverse, the dark underbelly of creation formed by diseased Earths, to take over all creation. Leading the charge were his Dark Knights, evil Batmen with the powers of the Justice League. The only hope the heroes had was to get their hands on the ten magical metals, all in order to harness the power of creation itself. Metal wasn’t a deep event book, it was just an action-packed romp, giving readers the kind of big superheroics that make DC events so exciting.
6) Dark Knights: Death Metal
Dark Knights: Death Metal, by the same team as Metal, is the continuation of that previous story. The Justice League accidentally broke the Source Wall, and that led a being called Perpetua to enter the Multiverse and begin to work with Lex Luthor and the Legion of Doom against the heroes, all while the sinister Batman Who Laughs vied with Luthor over who would be Pepertua’s right hand man. Death Metal opens with Perpetua and the Batman Who Laughs having won, creating a composite Earth from the scraps of the Multiverse and Dark Multiverse. The only person with a plan is Wonder Woman, and it’s no less than saving all of creation itself, no matter what the odds. Death Metal takes the big moment writing of the previous volume and kicks them into high gear. It’s an insane good time, and one of the few events where Wonder Woman gets to be the hero who saves the day.
RELATED: 10 Worst Superpowers in DC (& Some Are Just Gross)
5) Blackest Night
Blackest Night, by Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis, is an example of what happens when you build a story perfectly that still works for people who haven’t read that story. It all began with “The Sinestro Corps War”, a story that set up the existence of other Lantern Corps and led to Blackest Night, when Black Hand and the Black Lanterns, formed from the dead of the universe and animated by Black Lantern rings, attacked the living in order to devour all life and emotional energy in the universe. Blackest Night was the culmination for years of Green Lantern stories, but was such a cool story that it worked for people who hadn’t been following the Green Lantern books (at that point, though, if you were a DC fan you were probably reading Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps anyway). It’s an action packed thrill ride, that will keep readers at the edge of their sets the entire time.
4) DC One Million
DC One Million, by Grant Morrison an Val Semeiks, is an underrated gem of late ’90s DC. It spun out of Morrison’s JLA, when the Justice Legion A from the 853rd century (when the millionth issue of DC comics would have been shipping) came back in time to invite the present League to see the Prime Superman leave his Solar Fortress of Solitude. Meanwhile, Vandal Savage readies an attack on the world that no one saw coming, and the greatest villains of the 853rd century scheme on how to destroy the League of the present and future. DC One Million is amazing, especially if you can get one of the omnibuses with all of the tie-in issues. Each DC comics got an #1,000,000 issue, taking readers to the far off future to see how their favorite heroes turned out. It’s an amazing story, anchored by Morrison and Semeik’s brilliant four issue series.
3) Infinite Crisis
Infinite Crisis, by Geoff Johns, Phil Jimenez, George Perez, Ivan Reis, and Jerry Ordway, was built over several years and was meant to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Crisis on Infinite Earths. By the time the series dropped, fans were hyped for Infinite Crisis, and luckily the series didn’t disappoint. Infinite Crisis is a blockbuster that sees the four heroes of the original Crisis return — Alexander Luthor of Earth-Three, Superboy-Prime, and Superman and Lois Lane of Earth-Two — to help fix the universe. The Justice League has been shattered, no one trusts anyone, magic is wonky, and the villains are ascendant. This is the stage for Infinite Crisis, as the last people the heroes expect have a plan to fix everything in the most extreme way possible. Infinite Crisis did a tremendous job at capturing the scope of Crisis and adding in some modern day edge. It presaged some dark times for DC, but it’s the best of the best.
2) Final Crisis
Final Crisis, by Grant Morrison, J.G. Jones, Carlos Pacheco, and Doug Mahnke, is the day evil won. Morrison threw the greatest threat they could at the DC Multiverse, unleashing a dying Darkseid with the Anti-Life Equation on creation. The God of Evil is able to outclass the Justice League, and takes over the the Earth, all while the Monitors learn about a growing evil that threatens everything else. Final Crisis is everything an event needs to be. It has an epic scope like few other stories, deep storytelling that uses the neverending battle between good and evil to talk about the human condition, and the best superheroes written by the best superhero writer. Final Crisis is a masterclass in storytelling, with art that will blow your mind. It can be a very confusing story, but it rewards rereading, as new facets become apparent every time you pick it up again. Final Crisis is the ultimate word on superheroes and DC Comics from Grant Morrison, and really needs to be experienced to be understood.
1) Crisis on Infinite Earths
Crisis on Infinite Earths, by Marv Wolfman, George Perez, and Jerry Ordway, is the event comic that changed event comics forever. Crisis on Infinite Earths was an epic on another scale, the twelve issue series ending the DC Multiverse of the past in a battle with the Anti-Monitor, an all-powerful force of destruction. Crisis on Infinite Earths featured every major DC character from across the multiverse, kicking off with the death of the Crime Syndicate and ending with the formation of a new DC Universe. It’s changed the way event stories worked forever, resounding with major deaths and bringing huge changes to DC Comics. Crisis is a one of a kind event in the history of the comic industry, and still stands up all these years later as the cream of the crop.
What’s your favorite DC event book? Sound off in the comments below.
Most Viewed
-
Hulu / 20th Television Animation
