Your First Event (and was it any good?)

[9th.]

Infinite Crisis, I thought it was amazing. There were 2 Robin's and and fights happening all over the place. 13 yr old me was excited and highly confused.

[HandofPrometheus]

Between Trinity War or Sinestro Corps War. I believe. I was mainly skimming through SCW because I wasn't into comics and had no idea what was happening but I actually read TW.

[ohmshalone]

Mine was Batman War Games. Tried re-reading it recently and I lost interest and didn't finish it. To be honest I don't remember much apart from Stephanie Brown being killed by Black Mask. Kind of a dud... what was your first event? Is it a classic? A part of me wishes I got into comics around the time of Knightfall or Death of Superman.

My first company wide event was Infinite Crisis but I didn't know what the hell was going on at the time. Reading it years later I really like the book a lot.

Exactly what I came here to say! As with all DC stories, you appreciate them more the deeper you go into the history (Green Lantern Rebirth!).

I remember liking Marvel's Civil War a lot more at the time, but as time goes on, I look back more and more fondly towards IC. In terms of blockbuster, accessible events like Civil War, the best that DC has put out is Identity Crisis (although I don't really keep up with what's going on nowadays. I haven't read a single issue of Doomsday Clock coz I'm waiting to buy it collected. Same with White Knight. I read one issue and said that I have to read this only when it's done.)

Edit: Yes, it's done now but it's not out in a format I want to buy yet.

I've tried to read CoIE several times but I just can't bring myself to go further than issue #1. Eh. My love of DC history has its limits I guess.

[Buried Alien]

My first event was the first event comic: Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars in 1984.

Marvel hyped it up like there was no tomorrow even though it was just a glorified toy tie-in. The comics press trashed it, but the fans bought it in droves.

For me, I thought it was lazy and uninspired, and I was a fan of both Jim Shooter and Mike Zeck, but I thought they phoned it in. It changed my perception of Marvel. I had been heavily into Marvel from 1978-1984 even though I was always primarily a DC fan. Secret Wars began the process of my turning away from Marvel.

So, for DC, my first event would be 1985's Crisis on Infinite Earths. What a monumental difference from Secret Wars. This was the way an event comic really should be done. There were real stakes in this story, and it set the stage for the Post-Crisis DCU, which led to a lot of great comics. Yes, it screwed up the Legion, but Legion was still a good read. What really killed the Legion was the 5-Years Later direction, but I digress.

In general, I've found DC's company-wide events from the 80s to be largely superior to Marvel's. Legends and Invasion were great. Millennium was better in concept than in execution, but still good.

Events from the 90s are generally cash grabs from either company.

I followed more or less the same course. SECRET WARS (Marvel, 1984) actually started off kind of promisingly, and I enjoyed the first few issues. About halfway through, however, the story seemed to wander away (and so did the Marvel Universe with it; SECRET WARS and its aftermath, as well as other, unrelated factors, more or less ended my month-to-month Marvel fandom for good).

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Brad]

My first event was Armageddon 2001, the two bookend specials with a bunch of annuals in between. Matt Ryder's story of rebelling against Monarch, time travel, and probing potential futures of various characters seemed awesome at the time. I was unaware of the changed ending when first reading it.

[Jody Garland]

Infinite Crisis was mine. I loved it- it's still one of my favorite periods for DC.

[married guy]

Trial of the Flash
Big all encompassing event? Crisis on Infinite Earths.

[Ascended]

Reign of the Supermen was technically my first event I guess, but I only got a few issues sporadically here and there as I could find them (the newstands weren't kind) and didn't start reading regularly until the final few issues, after Clark had returned but was still wearing the black suit.

The first major Event I got to experience in full as it happened was Zero Hour. At the time I thought it was the coolest, biggest thing ever and I read those books on a daily basis. Time and experience have changed my opinions on this of course but I still think it was far better than a lot of people give it credit for.

[Lee Stone]

Marvel's first Contest of Champions.

Yes, I loved it.
It's my idea of what an event should be like.

[Brad]

My first event was Armageddon 2001, the two bookend specials with a bunch of annuals in between. Matt Ryder's story of rebelling against Monarch, time travel, and probing potential futures of various characters seemed awesome at the time. I was unaware of the changed ending when first reading it.

For anyone not familiar with it, Armageddon 2001 came out in 1991, and looked to the far off future of 2001. Time flies!

[kingaliencracker]

Hmmm...

What are we defining as an "event"?

I guess mine would be Superman's death and return, but I was reading comic book for a few years before that.

[The_Sneezing_Stormtrooper]

Infinite Crisis. All I had was the DCAU and a little bit of Johns Flash and Teen Titans under my belt. I guess Identity Crisis had tie-ins for both of those books but I didn't read the event itself until many years later.

I have fond memories of exploring all the One Year Later books in the aftermath and slowly catching up on post-crisis DC.

As soon as I felt like I knew my way around... BAM! Flashpoint hit.

[liwanag]

armageddon 2001 was mine when i was a kid.

i remember worrying who would monarch turn out to be. must have bought half of all the tie-ins. didn't have much money after that.

[Adset]

For DC my first event was Zero Hour and no it was not good at all but at least Starman launched after it so I guess I have to thank DC for it.

ha this was basically my reaction to zero hour, too.

me: you bastards, you killed off the justice society in a boring event.

also me: well, you gave us starman, so we're cool.

[DrNewGod]

It depends I suppose. Even tho they got regular as daylight savings time, as a kid I thought of the JLA/JSA crossovers as Events. The first of those I can recall where I got all of the issues was JLA 123-124, where Bates and Maggins get pulled into the comics. It was also my first sight of E2 Robin's RoBatman costume, which made perfect sense to my prepubescent brain.

If we define event as something that has to span more than one title, I'd say the first was Marvel's Avengers/Defenders War, which I love to this day.

As far as DC under the title-spanning definition, it was Crisis on Infinite Earths. As far as I can see, that's still the standard setter for scope, impact, and sheer complexity. Looking back, not a fan of the half-way measures continuity reset DC did, but it was undeniably a herculean effort, and some of Perez' most impressive work.