Unafraid to shake up the status quo, many of DC's crossover events left individuals, teams, worlds, and the DC Universe forever changed.

DC Comics has earned a reputation for events that make sweeping changes to its universe. These crossover events have combined the greatest heroes of the DC Multiverse in desperate battles against the worst enemies imaginable. DC's event books have often been well-received because each one brings consequences, transforming the DC Universe.

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Some DC events enact bigger changes than others. It's ranged from introducing characters who would make a tremendous difference down the road to completely altering the DC continuity. Each event uniquely approaches change, leaving their mark on the DC Multiverse.

Dark Knights: Metal, by writer Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo, introduced several new elements to the DC Multiverse. The Dark Multiverse proved interesting, but the most important character was the Batman Who Laughs. This Joker/Batman hybrid made a significant impact on the DC Universe.

The Batman Who Laughs battled Batman, Superman, and defeated Lex Luthor in a duel for the Perpetua's favor. For several years, he had his fingers throughout the DC Universe. Many readers tired of the Batman Who Laughs long before that, but his defeat would further affect things down the road.

Blackest Night, by writer Geoff Johns and artist Ivan Reis, pit the heroes of the universe against the undead Black Lantern Corps. Compared to some other DC events, it's not some continuity altering battle, but it has some rather important consequences.

The end of Blackest Night brought dead characters back to life — including Aquaman, Shayera Hall's Hawkgirl, and Captain Boomerang — while also revealing how Reverse Flash returned from the grave. While the New 52 followed soon after, bringing these characters back guaranteed that some of them would play big roles in the DC Universe's future.

Identity Crisis, by writer Brad Meltzer and artists Rags Morales, doesn't have the greatest reputation nowadays. Its terrible treatment of Sue Dibny has become a huge problem for readers, but it the event did have major consequences for the DC Universe.

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The reveal of the Justice League mindwipes drove a wedge between the team and changed the way they interacted for years to come. Readers began looking at the group's old adventures in a new light. The changes it wrought to DC history foreshadowed darker things to come.

Justice League of America (Vol. 1) #29-30, by writer Gardner Fox and artist Mike Sekowsky, featured the introduction of the iconic Crime Syndicate. The event depicted Earth-1's Justice League and Earth-2's Justice Society teaming up to stop Earth-3's most powerful superhumans.

The Crime Syndicate became the most well-known group of multiversal villains in the DC Multiverse, and they battled the Justice League and other heroes multiple times over the years. Even with the way DC's continuity would regularly shift, there was always a Crime Syndicate.

Justice League of America (Vol. 1) #21, by writer Gardner Fox and artist Mike Sekowsky, became a Justice League classic. This story featured the first crossover between the Justice League and the Justice Society, bridging the gap between the two Earths. This groundbreaking meeting would lead to several exciting team-ups in the future.

Bringing the two teams together was the first big move in DC's then-nascent multiverse. It led to even more multiversal shenanigans over the years, many of which defined DC for the rest of the Silver Age and the years to come.

Readers often considered Zero Hour, by writer/artist Dan Jurgens with an assist from writer/artist Jerry Ordway, the forgotten Crisis event. It dealt more with alternate timelines than alternate Earths, pitting the heroes against a mysterious new villain named Extant. It introduced multiple new characters and brought Parallax back to the forefront.

Zero Hour also played a huge role in refining the post-Crisis timeline. It dealt with inconsistencies from the 1985 reboot event — fixing some and making others worse — and it ended with a new timeline of events for the universe.

Infinite Crisis became a fan favorite Crisis that set the stage for a revival of Silver Age concepts. Written by Geoff Johns with art by Phil Jimenez, George Pérez, Ivan Reis, and Jerry Ordway, DC spent years building up to the story. With the heroes scattered and facing their greatest challenge ever, old heroes returned and a plan to create the perfect Earth was hatched, whether or not everyone wanted it.

Released in conjunction with the twentieth anniversary of Crisis On Infinite Earths, the story brought back several concepts. It was part of the re-Silver Age-ification that took place in the DC Universe during the '00s and helped spur renewed interest in DC and its history.

Dark Knights: Death Metal, by writer Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo, was the sequel to Metal. It pit the broken remnants of the DC Multiverse against Perpetua and the Batman Who Laughs. Their battle would change everything in the years to come, re-canonizing concepts that had been lost in the upheavals of the New 52 and Rebirth eras.

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Death Metal also birthed the Omniverse, a new multiversal concept that would hint toward the return of the old infinite Earths. It ended the threats presented by Perpetua and the Batman Who Laughs, setting the DC Universe on a new course that fans loved.

Flashpoint, by writer Geoff Johns and artist Andy Kubert, was the biggest DC event since Crisis On Infinite Earths. Much like that series, it forever changed the DC Universe. Starring Barry Allen, the story revealed him waking up in a very different world, leading him to set out and uncover how it got that way.

While trying to fix it, Flash met duplicates of heroes he knew and had to wrestle with his own role in the whole thing. Flashpoint had a mixed reputation, as it brought about the New 52. The new publishing initiative restarted the DCU from scratch, and readers hated most of the resulting retcons. It's considered one of the darkest times in DC history, all of it stemming from Flashpoint.

Crisis On Infinite Earths is the blueprint every succeeding comic event followed. Written by Marv Wolfman with co-plotting and art from George Pérez, it chronicled the battle between the heroes of the DC Multiverse and the Anti-Monitor. The book's tag line was, "Worlds will live, worlds will die, and nothing will ever be the same," and it delivered on that promise like no crossover before or since.

CoIE ended the DC Multiverse, changed the DC Universe's entire timeline, and rebooted multiple characters' stories. Superman, Wonder Woman, Hawkman, and many more were affected, some to their benefit, others to their detriment. It brought about DC's most fruitful era and became the high watermark for every event book by any publisher.

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David Harth has been reading comics for close to 30 years. He writes for several websites, makes killer pizza, goes to Disney World more than his budget allows, and has the cutest daughter in the world. He can prove it. Follow him on Twitter- https://www.twitter.com/harth_david.

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