10 DC Comics Stories That Changed Everything

Crisis on Infinite Earths was the first story of its kind. COIE was a massive crossover event promising readers "Worlds will live, worlds will die and nothing will ever be the same". They kept that promise, probably to a greater extent than was ever expected.

Prior to COIE, many of DC's most iconic characters had conflicting origins and backstories, making creating any kind of cohesive greater narrative difficult. A number of alternate universes were created by writers following the inception of Earth-1 and Earth-2 and were considered too convoluted. This was DC's first attempt to "simplify" their continuity and may be the only time they actually succeeded in that aspect.

In COIE, we're introduced to the Anti-Monitor, a cosmic being that wants to effectively erase the earths of the multiverse and replace them with his own. Our heroes (literally all of them) succeed in stopping him but not before Supergirl and Barry Allen give their lives for the cause.

Most of the surviving characters find themselves on a new Earth while Earth-Two Superman, Earth-Two Lois Lane, Earth-Prime Superboy, and Alex Luthor Jr., being the only ones who remember the multiverse as it was, inhabit a pocket "paradise" dimension.

This was the first time the numerous Earths of DC were canonically referred to as the "multiverse" and theoretically would have been the last. The main function of the story was to combine the timelines into one that would become the entire scope of the DCU.

And so it was... for a while.