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

[MajorHoy]

The DC Implosion . . .

[blunt_eastwood]

Armageddon 2001 was the Hawk/Captain Atom switch which thankfully was before my time. Zero Hour was when they said it was Monarch's/Hawk's fault but then made Parallax-Hal the real villain at the last second.

Are you saying that it wasn't the plan to have Parallax be the villian?

[blunt_eastwood]

Identity Crisis.

How come? I love this story and I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this.

Edit: I misread this as Infinite Crisis, so never mind. I don't love Identity Crisis.

[blunt_eastwood]

In your opinion, what major event in DC Comics history caused the most damage?

And if you'd like, provide some examples. What would you want to be put back in place?

I forgot examples and what I would put back in place:

Remove these stories:
-Final Crisis (or at least don't make it a Crisis story)
-Both Death Metal stories. They are both stupid IMO as is the concept of "everything happened"
-Heroes in Crisis - WTF?
-Convergence - WTF?
-Dark Crisis - pointless and boring

Make these changes:
-Keep Barry dead. Make COIE actually have some kind of consequence.
-Keep Hal as the Spectre. Again, make these stories and death have some kind of impact.
-Keep Jason Todd dead. Again again, make Death in the Family and death have some kind of real impact.
-Take the rape out of Identity Crisis
-Have Tim become a different hero like Dick (and I don't mean Red Robin). It doesn't make sense to have him and Damian be Robin.
-Restore Conner's character growth
-Keep Jon as a kid

The only Crisis stories should be:
-COIE
-Zero Hour
-Infinite Crisis

As for the New 52, it's not a bad idea, but here's how I would do it. Do the Flashpoint story exactly the same, except take out Pandora at the end.

Have Barry return to the normal timeline and find out it has somehow become the New 52 (but call it something else).

For the next 6 or 7 months publish the New 52 stories with a brand new reset continuity.

Then publish Doomsday Clock and reveal that Dr. Manhattan created the New 52 by moving Alan Scott's lantern. The story plays out the same way with him moving the lantern back, and the old continuity being restored.

The only change I would make it is to get rid of the "backup continuities". Those continuities should have ended when they did, not be another universe in the multi-verse.

[The Darknight Detective]

The crisis/crises that messed up the continuity that you liked the best is/are the one/ones that caused the most damage.

[The Darknight Detective]

The DC Implosion . . .

If it hadn't happened, COIE may never been an event or at least put it on the back burner for years.

[JThree]

COIE. DC is still cleaning up the mess it made to this day. When you're still trying to sort out your continuity 40 years after and event happened, it might be safe to say it was more trouble than it was worth.

I think you're right. While the original COIE had its moments, I had a hard time reconciling all the later changes with Superman and others.

--jthree

[SiegePerilous02]

COIE, with Flashpoint a close second.

COIE is the "original sin" of DC continuity events, it established a precedent for all the nonsense that followed. We likely don't have the New 52 without COIE, and a lot of the stuff that was erased by COIE didn't need to be erased. Creating headaches when future creators inevitably wanted to use the old stuff that no longer fit.

New 52 is worse if only because it was even more of a jumbled mess, and while there was quality stuff, it was way less cohesive than in the COIE aftermath. It had the better revamp of Superman though, I don't care what anyone says.

[marhawkman]

-Restore Conner's character growth
-Keep Jon as a kid

by my math the right way to do that would have Jon hanging out with his niece or nephew

The only change I would make it is to get rid of the "backup continuities". Those continuities should have ended when they did, not be another universe in the multi-verse.

i disagree. the core fundamental FAILING of the New 52.... was making a whole bunch of NEW universes that'd never existed before and thus had no history at all.

[The Darknight Detective]

I think you're right. While the original COIE had its moments, I had a hard time reconciling all the later changes with Superman and others.

--jthree

I think it can objectively be said that the changes caused by it and its aftermath had the least demand by readers at the time it happened compared to later Crises.

[marhawkman]

COIE, with Flashpoint a close second.

COIE is the "original sin" of DC continuity events, it established a precedent for all the nonsense that followed. We likely don't have the New 52 without COIE, and a lot of the stuff that was erased by COIE didn't need to be erased. Creating headaches when future creators inevitably wanted to use the old stuff that no longer fit.

New 52 is worse if only because it was even more of a jumbled mess, and while there was quality stuff, it was way less cohesive than in the COIE aftermath. It had the better revamp of Superman though, I don't care what anyone says.

Yeah, "New Earth" era was lesser in diversity than what came before, but New 52 somehow made it worse. It didn't RESTORE what was lost. It just broke it further by destroying "New Earth" continuity.

[Lee Stone]

Crisis on Infinite Earths.
It really should've just wiped a few of the extra Earths out, leaving Earth-1, Earth-2, Earth-3 and maybe a few others.
Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family, the Charlton heroes and any other heroes on Earths that don't get used could've been merged into Earth-1 or Earth-2.
Otherwise, I think the event should've reset things back like they were, but with less Earths in the Multiverse.

Rebooting heroes with ongoing books should never have happened, though. That's what messed everything up.
Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman could've still had brand-spankin'-new number one issues without rebooting.

[marhawkman]

Crisis on Infinite Earths.
It really should've just wiped a few of the extra Earths out, leaving Earth-1, Earth-2, Earth-3 and maybe a few others.
Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family, the Charlton heroes and any other heroes on Earths that don't get used could've been merged into Earth-1 or Earth-2.
Otherwise, I think the event should've reset things back like they were, but with less Earths in the Multiverse.

Rebooting heroes with ongoing books should never have happened, though. That's what messed everything up.
Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman could've still had brand-spankin'-new number one issues without rebooting.

Yeah, this is why I call it "continuity mangling". DC erases it's own history.

[HsssH]

I guess DC implosion caused original Crisis, but I doubt that it also forced DC to destroy their continuity so I'd still put the blame on CoIE.

A lot of people forget that the New 52 was kind of a golden era for DC’s supernatural characters. That side of the universe had languished for decades but suddenly we had great books featuring Animal Man, Swamp Thing, Frankenstein, Deadman, and the formation of the Justice League Dark. It was a continuity disaster but there were good things that came out of the reboot too.

I'm not sure if people are forgetting or ignoring certain things because they don't fit their narrative.

[Aahz]

I still think that what ever event made "everything is continuity" a thing did far more damage than COIE.

After COIE you had at least still a fixed consistent continuity, and when the next writer took over what the previous did was still mattered.

To day writers seem to can decide on a whim which parts of previous parts they keep, ignore or just randomly retcon, and that just really frustrating for long term fans.