Every good story has a twist, and as DC has been telling stories for well over 75 years, we have seen quite a few twists from them over the decades. Some were good, some were bad, and the best left our jaws dropped as we flipped the page back and forth again to make sure it was real.
Today we are going to take a look at some of the most shocking twists that we've seen in DC Comics' history, which for our purposes here will include related imprints like Vertigo. So prepare yourself to be shocked by these extremely twisty twists from the DC Universe.
10 TERRA IS A TRAITOR?!
Marv Wolfman and George Pérez's New Teen Titans welcomed quite a few new members on to the team over the years, but none left quite as big of a scar as Tara Markov/Terra, whose brother Geo-Force worked with Batman in the Outsiders. Terra quickly found her place on the team and even began a relationship with Garfield Logan/Beast Boy before the twist.
The Judas Contract revealed that Terra was actually working with Deathstroke the Terminator as a traitor to the Titans. Fans were surprised not only by the sudden heel turn but also the revelation about the troubling relationship between Slade Wilson and the teenaged Tara Markov.
9 ALEC HOLLAND IS DEAD?!
While Alan Moore may not like the comic industry anymore, his work with some of DC's characters in the '80s is still remembered fondly, as it featured quite a few twists in the stories over the years. Moore's work on Saga of the Swamp Thing especially shocked readers and changed the idea of the very character he was writing.
Up until Moore's run on the series, Alec Holland was a scientist who had been transformed into the elemental Swamp Thing during an accident with his bio-restorative formula. However, "The Anatomy Lesson" revealed that Holland had actually died and the swamp had absorbed his memories and personality. Swamp Thing was simply a plant trying its best to be a human.
8 HE DID IT THIRTY-FIVE MINUTES AGO?!
Moore left another huge mark on comics with his and Dave Gibbons's seminal graphic novel Watchmen, which is widely known as one of the best works in comic history. Watchmen was released by Vertigo and based on DC's acquired Charlton Comics characters and has heavily influenced comic culture for years, with a movie adaptation and a TV reboot currently running on HBO.
The comic features one of the most shocking twist endings ever seen in comics, as hero-turned-CEO explains his master plan to unite the world against a common alien threat by murdering hundreds of thousands of people. The twist comes when he reveals that he had already carried out his plan thirty-five minutes before the fight with his former allies began.
7 ORACLE IS BARBARA GORDON?!
When John Ostrander, Kim Yale, and Luke McDonnell reimagined the Suicide Squad for the post-Crisis era, they stocked the team full of expendable villains under the watch of Rick Flag Jr. and Amanda Waller as the government-sanctioned Task Force X. The Squad was eventually assisted by a mysterious information broker known only as Oracle.
Fans were shocked when Oracle was revealed to be the former Batgirl, Barbara Gordon, who hadn't appeared in comics for a few years. While her appearance as Oracle was shocking, it was the fact that she was paralyzed that really surprised fans, as this meant that Alan Moore and Brian Bolland's The Killing Joke was now canon, which would have huge ramifications in the Batman titles.
6 HAWK IS MONARCH?!
DC's Armageddon 2001 event was built around the premise that a DC hero would turn on their allies sometime in the year 2001, wiping them out and leading to a dystopian world ruled by that hero, who had become the despotic Monarch.
The original twist was supposed to reveal that Captain Atom was the corrupted hero. However, due to a leak, DC altered their plans at the last minute, changing the reveal to make Hank Hall/Hawk (of Hawk & Dove) the real face behind the mask of Monarch. Fans were shocked at the last-minute change, which contradicted earlier clues in the storyline.
5 SHE KILLED SUE DIBNY?!
Mark Meltzer and Rags Morales' Identity Crisis kicked off with the mysterious murder of Sue Dibny, wife of Elongated Man and long-time ally of the Justice League. The mystery of her killer played out over the course of the series and ended up revealing a few of the Justice League's dark secrets.
After the past rape of Dibny by Dr. Light, the JLA magically altered Light's mind and then erased Batman's memories, fracturing the league. However, the biggest twist of the story came when Ray Palmer/Atom discovered the true identity of Dibny's killer: his ex-wife Jean Loring. She had accidentally killed Dibny and then caused further deaths while trying to cover up the crime.
4 JASON TODD IS ALIVE?!
Batman's life has been full of loss, from the death of his parents that launched his life-long mission to the loss of his closest partners in his war on crime. The first of those partners to fall in battle was Jason Todd/Robin II, who was beaten viciously by the Joker and then left in an exploding building. It was one of Batman's most tragic losses and left the Dark Knight in a dark place.
So when the Hush storyline used a grown-up Jason Todd as a ruse to get under Batman's skin, it got fans and creators thinking. When the new villain Red Hood appeared, the twist was re-examined and Jason Todd was revealed to be the man under the Hood. We would then learn that the version seen in Hush was actually Todd, taunting his former partner before his return.
3 BARRY ALLEN IS ALIVE?!
One of the longest-standing deaths in comic history happened during 1985's Crisis on Infinite Earths, when Barry Allen/Flash sacrificed his life during the battle with the Anti-Monitor, still managing to warn his allies in the past as he appeared to deteriorate and disappear.
However, one of the big twists in DC's Final Crisis event came when Barry Allen appeared running out of the Speed Force, chasing the bullet that had been shot through time to kill Orion of the New Gods. Barry's return would kick off a series of Rebirth titles that would later inspire the latest rewrite of the DC Universe after the New 52.
2 THERE ARE THREE JOKERS?!
The DC Universe underwent a number of reboots, with the latest New 52 reboot going out with a bang thanks to the "Darkseid War" storyline, which led to the DC Rebirth event that again rewrote the DCU to fix the glaring errors of the last reboot.
One of the biggest twists in the event came when Batman sat on Metron's Mobius Chair and gained omnipotence. Before he was separated from the chair he asked about the Joker's true name, and it responded that "there are three." It was a huge twist that fans are still waiting on for answers, with Geoff Johns and Jason Fabok's Batman: Three Jokers nearing completion.
1 JOR-EL IS ALIVE?!
Superman might have the most confusing New 52 reboot/Rebirth return, as the New 52 version of the character technically died and was replaced by the pre-Flashpoint version of the character, though he had all the memories of the New 52 version, now with a son and oh no, I've gone cross-eyed.
Anyways, Superman was forced to deal with the manipulations and atrocities of a mysterious character named Mr. Oz after he was "reborn." Mr. Oz was eventually revealed to be Jor-El, Superman's father who was presumed to have died along with the rest of Krypton. Mr. Oz's reveal shocked fans and altered years of established Superman history, with the full repercussions yet to play out.