10 Major Milestones In Comic Book History

5. Crisis On Infinite Earths Shatters The DC Multiverse

Though the current industry landscape is littered with events, crossovers and oh, more events, it's important to remember that it wasn't always the case. Marvel's Secret Wars did, at first, kick off the trend, but it was DC's first Crisis that truly defined what an event should be.

1985's Crisis on Infinite Earths was written by Marv Wolfman and illustrated by George Perez, and it completely shattered the DC Universe as it then existed. It did away with the multiverse, killed off Supergirl and Barry Allen, and again, altered the DCU from the ground up. This, 'post-crisis' continuity would later be altered by other Crises, Zero Hours and other micro-retcons over the years, but it's by no means any less influential. In fact, it's probably the most influential comic book event of all time, what with there having been so many retcons, renumberings and reboots over the years.

This year's Justice League film seems to be paying homage to the red sky motif of DC's various Crises, so it'll be interesting to see if, like the Crisis of the comics, in can leave a major impact on a different medium.