DC is known for big continuity altering events like Crisis on Infinite Earths or Final Crisis that change the course of the DC multiverse as everyone knows it. These events are perpetrated by the most powerful and dangerous villains imaginable who set out to leave their stamp on the many universes that comprise the multiverse. They've kicked off events that reshaped the DC universe in many ways, spurring on new beginnings and endings.
Some of these villains are well-known, others are a bit more obscure, and one of them isn't usually considered a villain. They've all had their hands in events that changed the DC universe forever, their plans having wide-ranging repercussions.
10 The Flash And Reverse Flash Ushered In The New 52
Flashpoint damaged the Flash mythos and the DC multiverse. The catalyst of the story was the Reverse Flash traveling back in time to murder Barry Allen's mother, changing his life forever. Allen himself decided to go back and stop the murder, which resulted in the doomed Flashpoint universe. While he remedied his mistake, it still had repercussions that led to the New 52.
Reverse Flash and Barry Allen both deserve credit for the ruination of DC multiverse. Reverse Flash's murder of Barry's mom began the whole cycle, but it was Allen himself who did the most damage. He created the broken Flashpoint universe and his journey back to save things left the multiverse open to Doctor Manhattan's manipulations.
9 Extant Created Alternate Timelines To Help Hal Jordan Recreate The Multiverse
Zero Hour often gets left out of the conversation when it comes to Crisis events. In it, the mysterious villain Extant showed up and messed with time. Alternate universe versions of familiar characters popped up, as did entirely new ones, challenging the heroes to figure out exactly what was going on and how to stop it.
Extant was revealed to be Monarch, Hank Hall from an alternate future, who gained his temporal might by draining it from Waverider. He teamed up with Hal Jordan when he was Parallax, in a scheme to create new Earths based on the timelines Extant created. Parallax was defeated, but Extant survived and bedeviled the heroes again.
8 Mr. Mind Tried To Devour Entire Universes After Emerging From His Chrysalis
Mr. Mind battled Shazam for years. A telepathic worm from the planet Venus, he was among the first beings to discover the return of the multiverse after Infinite Crisis. This gave Mind a unique chance. Spinning himself into a chrysalis and hiding inside Booster Gold's robot Skeets, he emerged as a powerful behemoth and journeyed into the Bleed, ready to devour the nascent multiverse.
Every flap of his wing altered time, changing the histories of the newly created Earths drastically. If it wasn't for the efforts of Booster Gold and Rip Hunter, Mind would have done more than just alter the history of the multiverse, completely devouring it before it got a chance to grow.
7 Barbatos Unleashed DC's Dark Multiverse
Dark Knights Metal had major repercussions on the DC universe. The dark god Barbatos brought his terrible plans to fruition, opening up the multiverse to an attack from the broken worlds that existed in its shadow: the Dark Multiverse. Using the Dark Knights, evil Dark Multiverse Batmen, Barbatos almost replaced the multiverse with its terrible twin.
The existence of the Dark Multiverse, and its exemplar the Batman Who Laughs, had a huge effect on the DC multiverse. Barbatos's defeat saved the multiverse, but he still exists in the shadows ready to strike again.
6 Alexander Luthor Sowed The Seeds Of The New Multiverse And Changed History
Infinite Crisis was a major turning point in DC's history. The return of the heroes of the original Crisis was momentous enough, but Alexander Luthor's plan to create the perfect Earth almost upended creation. With the help of Superboy-Prime and the unwitting villains of Earth, Luthor created a machine that brought back the infinite Earths, allowing him to experiment until he found perfection.
Luthor was defeated, but he changed everything. The seeds of a new multiverse were planted, although this one wasn't infinite and limited to 52 universes. On top of that, the history of the prime Earth was changed, more in line with how it was in the pre-Crisis years.
5 Darkseid Corrupted The Fabric Of The Universe
Darkseid is an iconic Justice League foe, and his greatest attack against the universe came in Final Crisis. After the fall of the Fourth World, Darkseid and his servants escaped to Earth with the Anti-Life Equation. Taking over new host bodies, Darkseid and the elites of Apokolips unleashed the Equation on Earth, taking control of half the planet.
The destruction of Darkseid's old body created a massive black hole in the fabric of spacetime that pulled the universe in, compressing it down into a single point. All would have been lost if Superman hadn't built the Miracle Machine, using it to save existence from the God of Evil.
4 Perpetua Created The Multiverse And Almost Remade It
The Justice League has faced great threats, but none had the power of Perpetua. Perpetua was a Hand, part of the order of beings who created multiverses. She created the DC multiverse but tried to weaponize it against her fellow Hands, resulting in her being trapped in the Source Wall. Freed when the Wall cracked, she set out to fulfill her earlier goal.
With the help of Lex Luthor, the Legion of Doom, and eventually the Batman Who Laughs, Perpetua defeated the Justice League and took control of the prime Earth while destroying other worlds in the multiverse. She was defeated by the Batman Who Laughs, but she almost succeeded in her foul plans.
3 Pariah Recreated The Infinite Multiverse
Pariah was a big help during the original Crisis, warning the heroes of the core Earths of the Anti-Monitor's attacks. Since then, he explored what the resulting universe but the guilt and trauma of his years watching Earths destroyed got to him. Believing he was a vessel for the Great Darkness, he set about on a new quest.
Pariah captured the Justice League and used them to power his machinery. When he gained enough power, he was able to recreate the infinite Earths, although they were unstable. His quest for more power led him to get Deathstroke to start a crisis on Earth that would give him more power, but the truth of his mania and the quick thinking of Earth's heroes stopped him. The fate of the infinite Earths remains to be seen.
2 The Batman Who Laughs Almost Recast The Multiverse In His Image
The multiverse is rife with powerful Batmen, but few had the impact of the Batman Who Laughs. The BWL was the chief lieutenant of Barbatos, leading his Dark Knights against the Justice League. Created on a Dark Multiverse Earth where Batman was infected with a special Joker toxin, the BWL was the only Dark Knight to survive Barbatos's initial onslaught.
Imprisoned by the Justice League, the BWL escaped and wrought havoc before challenging Lex Luthor for who would be Perpetua's right-hand man. BWL won and helped the Hand conquer the universe. After a catastrophic attack on him by Wonder Woman, he had his brain implanted into a version of Watchmen's Doctor Manhattan. He killed Perpetua and nearly took control of the multiverse.
1 The Anti-Monitor Destroyed The Original DC Multiverse
The Anti-Monitor is DC's deadliest villain. A son of Perpetua, the Anti-Monitor went on a rampage through the multiverse, using his vast anti-matter energies to destroy every universe in his way. There's no way to calculate how many universes fell before his rampage and he almost succeeded at destroying everything.
The war against the Anti-Monitor was unlike any the heroes ever fought. In its aftermath, the remaining worlds of the multiverse were condensed into one Earth. The Anti-Monitor changed everything forever, with the very history of the Earth rewritten in the aftermath of his defeat.