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

[MajorHoy]

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.

The way they rebooted Superman and Batman weren't the problems. Both had stories set in the past (the Man of Steel six-issue series and the "Batman: Year One" arc in his title) to re-establish the new versions. But Wonder Woman having her new story set in the (then) present day wiped out all of her past involvements with the rest of the DC universe, including erasing her as a founding member of the Justice League of America. (They then repeated that mistake a few years later with Hawkworld taking place in the (then) present day.)

[JT221]

Personally I would go with Infinite Crisis. For me that did the classic Superman dirty, undoing a really solid ending for the character. I also wasn't a fan of what they did with Superboy Prime. Sort of started the turn of really darkening the DCU for me.

[caj]

The way they rebooted Superman and Batman weren't the problems. Both had stories set in the past (the Man of Steel six-issue series and the "Batman: Year One" arc in his title) to re-establish the new versions. But Wonder Woman having her new story set in the (then) present day wiped out all of her past involvements with the rest of the DC universe, including erasing her as a founding member of the Justice League of America. (They then repeated that mistake a few years later with Hawkworld taking place in the (then) present day.)

Completely agree with this ^^^^^^^^^^

[astro@work]

The way they rebooted Superman and Batman weren't the problems. Both had stories set in the past (the Man of Steel six-issue series and the "Batman: Year One" arc in his title) to re-establish the new versions. But Wonder Woman having her new story set in the (then) present day wiped out all of her past involvements with the rest of the DC universe, including erasing her as a founding member of the Justice League of America. (They then repeated that mistake a few years later with Hawkworld taking place in the (then) present day.)

Proving DC is literally incapable of learning from past mistakes! Even to this day!

See "the failure of Joker;Last Laugh interruptive crossovers", and round up one "Batman Knight Terrors interruptive crossovers"...

[Lee Stone]

The way they rebooted Superman and Batman weren't the problems. Both had stories set in the past (the Man of Steel six-issue series and the "Batman: Year One" arc in his title) to re-establish the new versions. But Wonder Woman having her new story set in the (then) present day wiped out all of her past involvements with the rest of the DC universe, including erasing her as a founding member of the Justice League of America. (They then repeated that mistake a few years later with Hawkworld taking place in the (then) present day.)

True, but Byrne in particular wanted a fresh slate. No Clark as Superboy, no Supergirl, no Krypto... He didn't travel to the 30th century and join the Legion of Super-Heroes... Jonathan and Martha Kent didn't die while he was still young... Which erased most of pre-Crisis Superman.

Miller's take on Batman, that just changed stuff like Catwoman's origin, did manage to keep most things intact. But I do think there was a problem with Jason Todd's origin changing, too.

[Stanlos]

Personally I would go with Infinite Crisis. For me that did the classic Superman dirty, undoing a really solid ending for the character. I also wasn't a fan of what they did with Superboy Prime. Sort of started the turn of really darkening the DCU for me.

I feel that Superman and Lois and Luthor were kind of pooped on too. But I think by far the greater transgression is the failure to follow through the themes presented in the year before it kicked off and the MAGNIFICENT set up provided in the special one shots leading into the finale issue. Gail Simone in particular deserves a shout out because that Villains United tie-in which set the stage for earth based problem was one of the best and most bad @$$ Pre-ambles I have ever read. That last page reveal was positively JAWDROPPING. I gasped and exclaimed aloud.

Then here comes the final issue. You had three major problems the heroes needed to solve. You had the tracking down and disabling of Brother Eye. Then there was the engageing and defeat of derpy Superboy Prime. Lastly, you had the basically impossible situation with the villains (like, ALL the villains).

So that lines up with themes conveyed. The Trinity were broken and the heroes in turn were vulnerable, demoralized, full of fear, and doubtful about the future. Three major objectives needed addressing, but how could they triumph?

What SHOULD have happened was a parallel of the beginning IC#1 but this time the Trinity come together, display the repair of their bonds, divide the objectives among them, and each lead a team of heroes TO VICTORY with an exhuberant display of the heroes' renewed spirits. It's a no brainer.

But that ain't what happened and it is a Gee Dee shame. In fact, it is perhaps the biggest ball drop ever. Literally EVERYONE did their part but the writer. It's tragic.

[Stanlos]

True, but Byrne in particular wanted a fresh slate. No Clark as Superboy, no Supergirl, no Krypto... He didn't travel to the 30th century and join the Legion of Super-Heroes... Jonathan and Martha Kent didn't die while he was still young... Which erased most of pre-Crisis Superman.

Miller's take on Batman, that just changed stuff like Catwoman's origin, did manage to keep most things intact. But I do think there was a problem with Jason Todd's origin changing, too.

If we're talking the Byrne Man of Steel reboot, Byrne had marching orders from DC editorial with the whole Last Son of Krypton bit they wanted to do.

[JT221]

I feel that Superman and Lois and Luthor were kind of pooped on too. But I think by far the greater transgression is the failure to follow through the themes presented in the year before it kicked off and the MAGNIFICENT set up provided in the special one shots leading into the finale issue. Gail Simone in particular deserves a shout out because that Villains United tie-in which set the stage for earth based problem was one of the best and most bad @$$ Pre-ambles I have ever read. That last page reveal was positively JAWDROPPING. I gasped and exclaimed aloud.

Then here comes the final issue. You had three major problems the heroes needed to solve. You had the tracking down and disabling of Brother Eye. Then there was the engageing and defeat of derpy Superboy Prime. Lastly, you had the basically impossible situation with the villains (like, ALL the villains).

So that lines up with themes conveyed. The Trinity were broken and the heroes in turn were vulnerable, demoralized, full of fear, and doubtful about the future. Three major objectives needed addressing, but how could they triumph?

What SHOULD have happened was a parallel of the beginning IC#1 but this time the Trinity come together, display the repair of their bonds, divide the objectives among them, and each lead a team of heroes TO VICTORY with an exhuberant display of the heroes' renewed spirits. It's a no brainer.

But that ain't what happened and it is a Gee Dee shame. In fact, it is perhaps the biggest ball drop ever. Literally EVERYONE did their part but the writer. It's tragic.

Agreed. It was set up well.

[Buried Alien]

COIE, no contest. LOVED the story. Never cared for the neverending aftermath.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Refrax5]

Personally I would go with Infinite Crisis. For me that did the classic Superman dirty, undoing a really solid ending for the character. I also wasn't a fan of what they did with Superboy Prime. Sort of started the turn of really darkening the DCU for me.

Yeah, Superboy Prime bludgeoning the original E2 Superman to death with a rock was a bridge too far for me. That story had its merits, but that scene really felt ugly to me.

[caj]

Yeah, Superboy Prime bludgeoning the original E2 Superman to death with a rock was a bridge too far for me. That story had its merits, but that scene really felt ugly to me.

It always made zero sense that the sweet, heroic young man we met in COIE could turn into such a cold blooded killer. Johns really missed the mark with his transformation of S-Prime IMO.

[JT221]

It always made zero sense that the sweet, heroic young man we met in COIE could turn into such a cold blooded killer. Johns really missed the mark with his transformation of S-Prime IMO.

Very much agreed. Undid a very solid ending for the characters and set what I thought was an unfortunate tone for almost two decades of DC comics.

[MajorHoy]

Very much agreed. Undid a very solid ending for the characters and set what I thought was an unfortunate tone for almost two decades of DC comics.

The way the whole series just casually killed off characters just showed no respect for any fans who may have liked them.

So immature and distasteful . . . fanboy-ism run amok.

[JT221]

The way the whole series just casually killed off characters just showed no respect for any fans who may have liked them.

So immature and distasteful . . . fanboy-ism run amok.

The words I would use to describe it would be gratuitous and uncaring.

[ducklord]

If you wanna talk full-on destruction of the DC Omniverse, I think the battle comes down to CoIE vs. the New 52 (I don't blame Flashpoint for the New 52, since it wasn't originally written as a line-wide reboot).

The arguments for tagging Crisis with the Most Damage Ever sticker are well-known:
- Eliminated the Golden Age Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, etc., creating significant knock on effects to the history of the DCU's Golden Age.
- Eventually led to the never ending fustercluck of Donna Troy's, Hawkman's, and Power Girl's continuity.
- Did weird stuff to the history of the JLA.
- Got rid of parallel Earths, eliminating a LOT of story-telling potential
- Jammed everyone onto a "Clutter-Earth," which often made certain characters feel redundant.

That said, the post-Crisis DCU opened up a lot of avenues for interesting stories. Earth-4's Blue Beetle and Captain Atom as JLA members. A rich history of legacy heroism stretching from the Golden Age to the present, as artfully exploited in Starman. For every tremendous screw-up (eg not making Hawkworld a flashback), there seemed to be two or three "oh that's cool" new things.

So, yeah, the Crisis was destructive. But it was often creatively destructive.

What about the New 52?

Well, its sins have been trod over so many times that it hardly seems worth going over them. But here's some low points:
- Nuking the entire Golden Age of super-heroes in the DCU. Not just a few leftover dopplegangers, but the whole damn thing.
- Nuking just about any and all sense of legacy characters in the DCU. Including Wally freaking West.
- Trying to do a line-wide total reboot on the fly (and lying about it for a couple of months), causing ridiculous confusion between titles.
- Twilight Lobo (okay, that's just me

One the plus side, the New 52 didn't blow up its multiverse. So I guess DC learned its lesson from the original Crisis.

Also, there were number of good/great titles that emerged during the New 52. But the thing of it is, *most* of those titles didn't really need a line-wide reboot of DC's continuity to exist - they would've been perfectly at home in the post-Crisis DCU.

So, in the final analysis, I'm going to have to go with the New 52 being the most destructive.

As for spiritually destructive - I'd say it's somewhat of a dead heat between Identity Crisis and Heroes In Crisis. On the plus side, both of those have almost entirely been unwound.