By 1985, DC Comics had somewhat painted themselves into a corner. Over the course of their fifty year history at that point they had introduced countless parallel universes in order to compensate with changes to continuity, previous crossovers and the cavalcade of goofy "imaginary stories" that were their bread and butter in the sixties. They needed a way to pare down their comics a little, to simplify the shared universe their characters existed in. Deciding that have that change occur in-universe, they drafted in the dream team of Marv Wolfman and George Pérez to produce what would be the first of many, many universe-spanning DC crossover events. Inspired by previous those previous alternate reality stories - including ones with names like Crisis On Earth-Three - Crisis On Infinite Earths produced some of the most recognisable images in comic book history (including the weeping Superman holding the dead body of Supergirl at the top of this list) whilst making big changes to said history, including killing off the Barry Allen incarnation of The Flash (seen above). All this was done to effectively eliminate the multiverse from DC and line up any and all the previous continuity issues they'd picked up during five decades of comics. It's difficult to sum up what exactly happens in Crisis On Infinite Earths, but needless to say it's bombastic, dramatic and ridiculous in the best possible way, and remains a true classic of superhero storytelling, even though it was mainly a vehicle for corporate restructuring. It was also credited - along with heavyweights like Watchmen and The Dark Knight returns - with helping DC get back on their feet, after years of being trounced by Marvel. So in many ways, we wouldn't have the same DC we have today with this awesome crossover.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
