What major event in DC Comics history caused the most damage?

[blunt_eastwood]

Zero Hour was epic indeed but I understand that it suffered from editorial interference. Apparently the fate of the JSA was to be very very different. But in a way, it was the spiritual precursor to Infinite Crisis and War of the Gods in the way the lead up was handled. ZH had fully a year of build up in the League books with major threats leading up to ZH. While IC had a year's build up across multiple titles across the DCU as well as specials and minis.

I didn't know that. What happened in the build up? What issues of JL did it happen in? I would love to read that.

[Stanlos]

I didn't know that. What happened in the build up? What issues of JL did it happen in? I would love to read that.

I will look for the summary of the issues. In the meantime, here is a summary page from the halfway point where all three teams meet to discuss their peculiar recent troubles.

Screenshot_20230607_172035_Kindle.jpg

[caj]

Like some, I don't blame COIE as much as I do what came afterwards. If Wonder Woman and Hawkworld had taken place in the past, it would've solved a lot of (still) ongoing problems.

As far as I'm concerned, the Golden Age Hawks could've kept the moniker Hawkman and Hawkwoman. Katar and Shayera could've been called Katar and Shayera with their same abilities as before.

[krazijoe]

The Fans...

[marhawkman]

Like some, I don't blame COIE as much as I do what came afterwards. If Wonder Woman and Hawkworld had taken place in the past, it would've solved a lot of (still) ongoing problems.

As far as I'm concerned, the Golden Age Hawks could've kept the moniker Hawkman and Hawkwoman. Katar and Shayera could've been called Katar and Shayera with their same abilities as before.

Yeah, ultimately.... New Earth wasn't bad as an era. the problem it had was what was erased from canon.

[godisawesome]

I’m inclined to argue Identity Crisis because it provided a template for “events,” heavy on casualties, grim and gritty re-evaluations of happier times, and (maybe, though this is more debatable) a “the superstar writer of the month can do whatever they damn please rather than working with the team” system.

While the characters I most cared about were eventually screwed up by the New 52, and while I generally liked stuff like the Post-Crisis timeline and integrating the JSA and other “Earth-variable” characters into a single timeline and world, I *get* Silver Age fans aggrieved by COIE.

My one argument there, though, would be that the editorial philosophy post-Crisis wound up growing more productive and accommodating of Silver Age fans towards the end, and achieved a higher degree of consistency and cooperation, and that the creators behind COIE sort of proved the concept *could work* of you had your house in order… while the New 52 (or rather, the editorial teams that started BEFORE the New 52) show where both itself *and* COIE struggled or even failed:

The editorial teams need to foster productive, cooperative writing stables like most of the Post-Crisis comics had and inherited from the Bronze Age, and not instead inculcate a toxic, back-biting, and exploitive atmosphere like Didio allowed to develop under his reign.

Remember: the New 52 started much stronger than it became even just a year or so later. Part of the problem New 52 Superman *and Rebirth* had was that editorial kept on chasing away competent writers and responding to every inconvenience by “throwing the baby out with the bath water” - as they’d been doing since roughly the time of Birthright, and as they’d been doing to Wonder Woman as well…

[Bruce Wayne]

The Fans...

Definitely toxic fans.

[Dataweaver]

Definitely toxic fans.

Yeah; the people who pay money to buy the product (or don't, if they don't like it) are definitely the problem. </sarcasm>

[Stanlos]

The Fans...

Is that some other language that translates to: Dan DiDio?

[adamishere1]

For me the most destructive event was the New 52. They had a lot of potential going into Flashpoint with the not big 3 led Justice League, a potential return of the Justice League International, the Firestorm matrix counting down to blowing up. Booster Gold being a good hero, doing the Time Master stuff, but still pretending to be the let gets rich.. Flashpoint was good as an event, the idea of seeing a world where everything was screwed up by someone changing time, but the end that had the New 52 created sucked.

Also Barry Allen coming back permanently, shouldn't have happened as it basically took Wally West and shoved him in the trash. Barry should have remained dead, but made appearance through the miracle of time travel or slightly tweaked that his final run in Crisis happens, but it causes him to appear in different times to assist Wally, but knows he has to go back to continue.

[Timber Wolf-By-Night]

It's so interesting to see how long time readers feel about DC's history.

I started reading comics in 1992 with Knightfall so I had no real point of reference for anything. Everything I read was amazing to me.

A perfect example is Zero Hour. When that first came out I thought it was the most epic story ever.

Now I find out that people don't like that story, don't like how the JSA was killed, or how Hal became evil.

Why would fans of the JSA like a story in which the JSA are killed off like mere cannon fodder, at the (probable) editorial mandate of somebody who hated them for being "senior citizen super-heroes"?

edited to add: Before New 52 and Flashpoint, before Infinite Crisis and possibly Identity Crisis, there was quite possibly the Ur Didio-era event: GRADUATION DAY.

[JT221]

It's so interesting to see how long time readers feel about DC's history.

I started reading comics in 1992 with Knightfall so I had no real point of reference for anything. Everything I read was amazing to me.

A perfect example is Zero Hour. When that first came out I thought it was the most epic story ever.

Now I find out that people don't like that story, don't like how the JSA was killed, or how Hal became evil.

I am in the same boat. I enjoyed Zero Hour when it first came out...and really I still do today. But it seems like one of the events that is really disliked by a large number of fans.

[JThree]

I enjoyed the Zero Hour tie ins. They were fun. Sort of like the Convergence and Retroactive stories. Nice to see old continuities revisited.

--jthree

[marhawkman]

I am in the same boat. I enjoyed Zero Hour when it first came out...and really I still do today. But it seems like one of the events that is really disliked by a large number of fans.

It's like Infinite Crisis and Countdown..... good stories, but...the aftermath was.... o-o'

[blunt_eastwood]

Why would fans of the JSA like a story in which the JSA are killed off like mere cannon fodder, at the (probable) editorial mandate of somebody who hated them for being "senior citizen super-heroes"?

edited to add: Before New 52 and Flashpoint, before Infinite Crisis and possibly Identity Crisis, there was quite possibly the Ur Didio-era event: GRADUATION DAY.

They wouldn't. My point is that as a kid who just started reading comics, I had no idea of the significance of the JSA, nor did I have any understanding or concern about what editorial was doing.

I just liked the superheroes and could tell that this was an important story because it involved everyone and was causing a lot of changes.