DC may not have invented event comics but they refined the process with Crisis On Infinite Earths, which is still regarded as one of the best crossover events ever. Since then, DC has been in the business of continuity altering events, using them to clean up their timeline and make sense of close to a century of stories and continuity.
However, sometimes those events are ignored by future creators, which is a shame because some of the things they set up are pretty interesting. Conversely, some of the changes made by other events have been reset and no one misses them.
10 Event Whose Consequences Should have Stuck: Infinite Crisis Rebuilt A Lot Of Great Silver Age Continuity
Infinite Crisis, by writer Geoff Johns and artists Phil Jimenez, George Perez, Ivan Reis, and Jerry Ordway, has gone down as one of DC's best events of the 21st century, and for good reason. This action-packed epic went a long way towards reverting the DC Universe to something that combined pre and post-Crisis continuity, bringing some beloved things back into continuity.
It brought back the Silver Age Legion of Superheroes, the pre-Crisis Superboy adventures, and so many other little things that combined past and present in an interesting way. However, in subsequent continuity shifts, things would be changed and shuffled around to the extent that a lot of the great changes were left behind again.
9 Glad To See Reset: Flashpoint's Creation Of The New 52 Soiled Its Legacy
Flashpoint, by writer Geoff Johns and artist Andy Kubert, has a very interesting legacy. The story itself was well-received but the consequences of the whole thing have soiled how it's perceived by fans. Flashpoint created the New 52, which had the effect everyone wanted in the short term - it drove sales up - but failed in the long term.
The New 52 represented an interesting expansion of how DC usually used event storytelling. They had long been resetting their universes but the last time they did it this drastically in Crisis, they released The History Of The DC Universe to let fans know what was canon. They never did this with the New 52 and it hurt things immensely, as fans had no idea what counted and no one was telling them.
8 Event Whose Consequence Should Have Stuck: Brightest Day Brought Back A Lot Of DC Legends
After Blackest Night resurrected a group of DC's most illustrious dead characters, Brightest Day, by writers Peter Tomasi and Geoff Johns and multiple artists, saw these returned heroes laboring to complete the purpose given to them by the White Lantern that resurrected them. It was an interesting series that opened up a lot of potential stories for fans.
However, it came before Flashpoint, which meant everything it set up was quickly brushed aside for the New 52, a development that would play out for years and lead to a lot of places fans weren't exactly thrilled with.
7 Glad To See Reset: Day Of Judgment Began Hal Jordan's Forgettable Stint As The Spectre
After his death in Final Night, Hal Jordan was pretty much gone from the DC Universe but would be brought back in writer Geoff Johns and artist Matthew Dow Smith's Day Of Judgment. In this story, the rogue angel Asmodel took control of the Spectre and wreaked havoc on the world, with only the magic-using heroes of the DC Universe to stop him.
At the end of the book, Hal Jordan would become the new host of the Spectre and it was a weird move for the story. While it led to some cool stories for characters like Green Arrow and the Flash, it didn't make a lot of sense, and was eventually undone by Green Lantern: Rebirth and the subsequent continuity alterations.
6 Event Whose Consequences Should Have Stuck: The Kingdom Introduced Hypertime, A Woefully Underused Idea
Kingdom Come was a big deal in '90s DC and would spawn a little-known sequel - The Kingdom, by writer Mark Waid and artists Ariel Olivetti and Mike Zeck. Seeing Gog hunting Superman throughout space and time, it introduced a concept that Waid and Grant Morrison came up with, one that was meant to act as a workaround for DC's tangled continuity - Hypertime.
Hypertime basically meant that everything that ever happened in the old DC Multiverse happened but in different timelines, allowing creators to still use all of it. Hypertime would prove a rather complicated concept for a lot of creators and fans and was quickly ignored by everyone.
5 Glad To See Reset: Heroes In Crisis's Treatment Of Wally West Has Been Retconned Away
Heroes In Crisis, by writer Tom King and artists Clay Mann and Mitch Gerads, is a much better story than it gets credit for but it still has problems. One of those is Wally West, who is revealed to be the Sanctuary murderer who killed his victim in a moment where he lost control. It was a blow to fans of the character who were initially just happy to have him back.
However, in the recent Flash Annual 2021, it was shown that the Speed Force surge that Wally was trying to stop was actually responsible for the whole thing. It even had him apologize to Arsenal and tell him the real reason he was about to die. It undid a dark stain on Wally West and made fans happy.
4 Event Whose Consequences Should Have Stuck: DC: Rebirth #1 Fixed The Mistakes Of The New 52 But Was A Victim Of Circumstance
DC: Rebirth #1, by writer Geoff Johns and artists Ethan Van Sciver, Phil Jimenez, Gary Frank, and Ivan Reis, was a rebirth of hope in the DC Universe after the missteps of the New 52. Focusing on Wally West, the book reintroduced a lot of concepts from before the ill-fated New 52 and brought in a lot of new plotlines for writers to play with.
Unfortunately, one of the biggest problems with DC: Rebirth #1 is that many of its best ideas were abandoned or undone, whether that was because of other stories popping up in the interim or how long it took for its follow-up, Doomsday Clock, to come out.
3 Glad To See Reset: Doomsday Clock Was Left Behind Because Of Delays
Writer Geoff Johns and artist Gary Frank's Doomsday Clock was one of the most highly anticipated DC stories of the 21st century, promising to pay off plotlines introduced in DC: Rebirth #1. The book has a complicated legacy and all of the things it tried to introduce were left behind because of how long it took for the book to be finished.
However, even if it hadn't, things like the Superman Project, which revealed that the US government created scores of metahuman heroes and villains, were viewed as kind of lackluster and what eventually took its place in the continuity was unequivocally better.
2 Event Whose Consequences Should Have Stuck: Final Crisis Was Meant To Completely Change The DC Universe Forever
Final Crisis, by writer Grant Morrison and artists JG Jones, Carlos Pacheco, and Doug Mahnke, is Morrison's DC Universe opus. Billed as the day evil won, the story saw Darkseid and his servants secretly invade Earth and take over, beating the heroes at every turn as another evil used the chaos to strike at the heart of creation.
Morrison meant for Final Crisis to evolve the DC Universe to its next iteration but no one at the publisher was ready for it. The book had notorious problems with its build-up and DC editorial pretty much ignored everything Morrison set up for afterward and went in a completely different direction.
1 Glad To See Reset: Identity Crisis's Changes Were Done Away In Subsequent Years
Identity Crisis, by writer Brad Meltzer and artist Rags Morales, has a checkered legacy. This murder mystery saw a lot of rather dark secrets revealed and resulted in the death of Sue Dibny, sundering one of DC's greatest couples. Beloved upon release, fan opinion on it has turned over the years and DC has undone a lot of its changes.
Sue is back to life, the Justice League mindwipes are no longer canon, and the whole thing has pretty much been done away with. This was the right thing to do as a lot of the more controversial stuff was seen as unnecessary by many readers.