In our modern age of comics, there aren't many events bigger than DC Comics' 2005 and 2006 event Infinite Crisis. It had some massive shoes to fill, as it was the sequel to what is probably the best event comic ever, Crisis On Infinite Earths. DC pulled out all the stops for this one as it started seeding the story for years before it ever began, setting things up for what would be one of its biggest stories ever.
Infinite Crisis was the biggest book in the industry as it was coming out, keeping fans enthralled with every issue. This list is going to look at some of the biggest things that happened during this event.
10 Power Girl's Origin
Power Girl's origin in the post-Crisis On Infinite Earths DC Universe was always a huge mystery. Over the years, different writers tried to give her a new origin, be it as a lost member of the Legion of Superheroes or a descendant of the Atlantean sorcerer Arion.
Infinite Crisis revealed Power Girl's actual origin, and it was the same as her pre-Crisis one- she was the Supergirl of Earth-2. This may seem kind of anti-climactic, but it was a very big deal at the time.
9 The Battle Of Metropolis
In the last issue of the book, the villains attacked Metropolis in an attempt to draw all of the heroes there and take their attention away from the true masterminds of the whole plot.
Involving just about every hero and villain in the DC Universe at the time, the Battle Of Metropolis was huge and drawn to perfection by series artist Phil Jimenez, with some assists by classic DC artist Jerry Ordway.
8 A New Blue Beetle
Ted Kord, the Blue Beetle, was killed in the lead-up to Infinite Crisis by Maxwell Lord, leaving the mantle of Blue Beetle wide open. The Blue Scarab of the original Golden Age Blue Beetle, which Ted was never able to use, was up for grabs, and Ted's old friend Booster Gold helped it find a new host, a teenager named Jaime Reyes.
Jaime Reyes would be a different kind of Blue Beetle than Ted. Fans would gravitate to the character, and he would even end up in the TV show Young Justice, garnering some mainstream popularity for Blue Beetle.
7 Return Of The Heroes Of The Crisis
The first issue of Infinite Crisis had a mysterious voice critiquing the events happening recently in the DC Universe, talking about how the heroes had lost their way and how dark the universe had become.
The last pages would reveal who was saying this- the Superman of Earth-2, along with his wife Lois Lane-Kent, Alexander Luthor of Earth-3, and the Superboy of Earth-Prime. This was a shocking moment and had fans buzzing.
6 Betrayal!
Unfortunately, not everything was on the up and up with the returning characters. Alexander Luthor and Superboy-Prime had been coming to the DC Universe for a long time since the Crisis, changing things and tweaking the universe. This was all part of a sinister plot.
They were trying to find what they thought of as the perfect Earth and would stop at nothing, manipulating heroes and villains alike and betraying everything they had stood for.
5 The Death Of The Wizard Shazam
One of the key parts of their plan was the destruction of the most powerful magical beings in the DC Universe. This would break the orderly flow of magic that these beings had established over the years, making magic into a wild thing they could harness for their own purposes.
They tasked an Eclipso possessed Jean Loring to manipulate the Spectre into doing their dirty work, and he was able to destroy the Wizard Shazam, robbing Captain Marvel of his power and changing the nature of magic.
4 Superboy-Prime
Superboy-Prime and his various rampages throughout the book were a huge part of the whole event. He was responsible for deaths of many second-string Teen Titans and then a much bigger death (more on that one next entry). He would smack around the Green Lantern Corps like it wasn't a thing and generally make a huge nuisance of himself.
After the story, he would stay around and become one of the most powerful villains in the DC Universe, acting as an indictment of angry entitled fanboys everywhere.
3 Death Of Superboy
Superboy had debuted back during the "Rise Of The Supermen" story after Superman died. He would become a big part of the DC Universe, founding Young Justice along with Robin and Wonder Girl and helping revitalize the Teen Titans for a new generation.
He would die battling Superboy-Prime and destroying the multiversal tuning fork Alexander Luthor was using to recreate the Multiverse, sacrificing himself in a heart-wrenchingly heroic manner.
2 Death Of The Originals
The Superman and Lois Lane of Earth-2 are the original versions of the two characters, the ones who debuted way back in the Golden Age. Their latter-day adventures played out in the Earth-2 comics of the Silver and Bronze Age before their retirement in Crisis On Infinite Earths.
Their return in Infinite Crisis was both wonderful and bittersweet, as the two would both die in the book. Lois would succumb to old age's rigors, and Earth-2 Superman would go out as he lived, battling evil to his last breath.
1 The Return Of The Multiverse
Crisis On Infinite Earths ended the DC Multiverse and brought readers a new DC Universe, one more modern but also one that had a lot of problems. It was a hodgepodge of different Earths and their characters, and this caused some problems. Infinite Crisis served as a way to bring back the Multiverse and make sense of a lot of things that Crisis On Infinite Earths broke.
Infinite Crisis brought this concept back to DC and that's easily the biggest thing to happen to DC Comics since the Multiverse was destroyed.