8. Crisis on Infinite Earths
Gosh-darn if that isn’t the comic book-iest title for any story ever, I don’t know what is.
A being called the Anti-Monitor (remember that name, it’ll come back later) decides he wants to destroy all of space and time, and the heroes of every world across multiple alternate dimensions have to stop him. Over the course of the story, loads of people and worlds die, we get a couple classic heroic sacrifices, and things change forever for the DC universe.
Crisis may have been the first event and may have revitalized the DCU, but let’s all be honest, it is incredibly cluttered. I have read more DC Comics than should be legally allowed, and even I have trouble identifying everyone. But on the positive end, Crisis also contains the greatest super hero death of all time. That being the scene in which Barry Allen, AKA The Flash literally runs himself to death to save all of reality. No super hero death can ever measure up to the scope of that. Crisis is fun and innovative and grand, and that overcomes its flaws. It is BY NO MEANS an entry level DC event. This thing is a 300 level course and you get out what you put in.
