10 Amazing Comic Books That Should Have Flopped

10. Crisis On Infinite Earths

DC Comics continuity was a mess. Initially, whenever a writer wanted to tell their story, they weren’t too concerned about when it took place or if their details contradicted something that had been established before. They just wrote their story. But when readership shifted from children to adults, that wasn’t going to fly anymore.

In 1985, legendary writer Marv Wolfman had the crazy notion to have a cohesive DC Universe with a single Earth. Employing the indescribable artistic talents of George Perez, Wolfman planned to create limited series that had the daunting task of taking over 50 years of divergent, overlapping, and, in some cases, contradictory continuity and turning it into a single, linear history of the DC Universe that wouldn’t alienate both long-time creators and fans. Was such a task even possible?

It was not only possible but a rousing success. DC was admittedly unsure that the 12-part series would be a success and thus was limited in the amount of marketing it put behind it. In spite of this, Crisis was a bestselling comic. Several news organizations credit the Crisis on Infinite Earths for saving the company and call it the best comic book crossover ever. Marv Wolfman took a gamble on a risky idea and his talent turned it into what is now considered a touchstone of comics history.