Here's a list of the moments posted so far (posted in no particular order) that you will be able to choose from for your top ten picks for the "Most Memorable Moments in DC Comics History when the voting starts July 31st (you can find more details here). Remember that point - these are not ordered - you will be doing that at the end of the month. I'll be posting six a day until that point. Check back each day for the latest six or just bookmark this list! NOTE: There will certainly be some spoilers for past comic books in these moments, plus there is some content that originally appeared in "Mature Readers Only" comics, so be forewarned!
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Moment 1. Baby Superman speeds away from his dying home planet in a rocket ship (Action Comics #1)
One of the most iconic visuals in comic book history, courtesy of Superman's creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.
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Moment 2. Green Lantern learns a difficult lesson (Green Lantern Vol. 2 #76)
In Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams' first issue of Green Lantern (where Green Lantern began teaming up with Green Arrow), Hal Jordan is shown how out of touch he is with the plight of typical Americans at the beginning of the 1970s - this helps spur Jordan to travel across the country with Green Arrow re-discovering America.
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Moment 3. Batman shoots a vampire (Detective Comics #32)
Matt Wagner basically built an entire mini-series around this issue. The sight of Batman using a gun (for the first time ever) is still one that sticks in people's minds (hence Neal Adams using it for the cover of Batman Odyssey). Bob Kane, Gardner Fox and Sheldon Moldoff were the creative team on this issue.
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Moment 4. Darkseid revealed as the "big bad" of the Great Darkness Saga (Legion of Super-Heroes #293)
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After a number of issues teasing who the mastermind was behind the Great Darkness Saga, Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen's reveal that it is Darkseid, alive in the future, was inspired.
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Moment 5. A group of Legionnaires willingly risk their lives to revive the fallen Lightning Lad (Adventure Comics #312)
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Edmond Hamilton and John Forte deliver one of the most famous scenes in legion of Super-Heroes history, and the fact that the Legionnaire who died was a shapeshifting pet who was only making his second appearance in this issue really did not even feel like a cop-out in the context of this powerful tale.
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Moment 6. Batman duels Ra's Al Ghul in the desert...bare-chested (Batman #244)
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From the first major Ra's Al Ghul saga, Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams truly nail the whole "international man of action" vibe that they were going for with Batman in this storyline. This is a frequently homaged battle.
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Moment 7. Aquaman's son is murdered by Black Manta (Adventure Comics #452)
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There is a good case to be made that this 1977 story by David Michelinie and Jim Aparo was the one that started the whole trend of murdering off the loved ones of superheroes. In any event, a super villain murdering a superhero's infant son? That's a major turning point in DC history.
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Moment 8. Superman expresses his frustrations at Mongul (Superman Annual #11)
From Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon's brilliant "For the Man Who Has Everything," Superman was just subjected to some heavy duty psychological torture at the hands of the villain Mongul (and on Superman's BIRTHDAY, of all days!), and Superman is quite displeased with Mongul...
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Moment 9. Hot shot District Attorney Harvey Dent gets a face full of acid (Detective Comics #66)
There's not many SUPERHEROES who have as famous of an origin as the classic Batman villain, Two-Face. Here it is from 1942's Detective Comics #66, by Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Jerry Robinson and George Roussos.
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Moment 10. John Constantine outsmarts a trio of demons (Hellblazer #45)
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In what has become pretty much the most famous Hellblazer story of all time, Garth Ennis and Will Simpson have John Constantine cheat death itself, as a dying-of-cancer Constantine cons a trio of demons by selling his souls to all three of them separately. So if Constantine dies, the demons would have to wage a terrible war against each other, which does not serve either of their interests at this point. So they cure Constantine of cancer (note that he goes right back to smoking upon being cured) and he gives them the finger. This was loosely adapted into the Constantine film.
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Moment 11. Joker gets in one last joke (Batman: The Dark Knight #3)
In Frank Miller's dark tale of Batman in the future, Batman has captured the Joker, but the Joker decides to get one last piece of revenge by framing Batman for his murder. Frank Miller captures the darkness of this madness beautifully.
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Moment 12. Dick Grayson becomes Nightwing (Tales of the Teen Titans #44)
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No offense to Jericho, but man, that sort of puts a damper on Dick's moment, no? Anyhow, in this penultimate chapter of the Judas Contract, Marv Wolfman and George Perez debut the new costumed identity for Dick Grayson. This was pretty much the first time a character THIS big got a new identity (other than characters taking up new names for a storyline, like Cap becoming Nomad).
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Moment 13. John Stewart dooms an entire planet (Cosmic Odyssey #2)
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In the pages right before this (which were written and drawn, just the pages above, by Jim Starlin and Mike Mignola), John Stewart was bragging about how his Green Lantern ring could pretty much do anything. The planet of Xanshi was destroyed because he was wrong. Pretty much THE defining plot point for John Stewart in the comics ever since.
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Moment 14. Superman meets the cousin he didn't know he had - Supergirl! (Action Comics #252)
Otto Binder and Al Plastino give the world a brand-new superhero, and one of the most popular female superheroes ever! Doesn't Plastino do a fantastic job on her facial expressions?
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Moment 15. Batman discovers the Hyperclan's secret (JLA #3)
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This issue was pretty much the introduction of Grant Morrison's "Bat-God" take on Batman. This JLA run had already gotten off to a great start, but this scene took it to the next level. Howard Porter was the artist.
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Moment 16. Ozymandias' plan goes into effect (Watchmen #11)
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Forget Watchmen, the "thirty-five minutes ago" line is one of the most famous lines from comics PERIOD.
Beautiful work by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.
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Moment 17. Death of Supergirl (Crisis on Infinite Earths #7)
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Marv Wolfman and George Perez give Superman's cousin an extremely heroic, heartfelt send-off in this touching moment from Crisis on Infinite Earths.
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Moment 18. Is Batman a man or a fiend from hell? (Batman #244)
This is how awesome Batman #244 is - this isn't even the last moment from this Denny O'Neil/Neal Adams classic. Still, in terms of "wow, Batman is awesome?" you don't get much cooler than the reaction Ra's gives him here.
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Moment 19. The revelation of the Fourth Man (Planetary #12)
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All throughout the series, Warren Ellis and John Cassaday laid hints as to who the mysterious "Fourth Man" of Planetary was - here, Elijah Snow discovers the truth - the man he has been searching for has been him all along!
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Moment 20. Superman reveals his secret identity to Lois Lane (Action Comics #662)
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You know, oddly enough, the actual PROPOSAL (and acceptance) between Lois and Clark really is not all that memorable (and as such, won't be on the list), but the reveal of his identity sure was. A job well done by Roger Stern and Bob McLeod...
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Moment 21. Earth-2 is discovered! (Flash #123)
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In this important issue, Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantino introduce the concept of TWO Earths to work in the fact that DC had had previous incarnations of the Flash, Green Lantern, etc. This is the first meeting of heroes from both worlds.
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Moment 22. Gordon and Batman's alliance begins (Batman #404)
As awesome as Batman Year One was, only this last scene was actually included more or less word for word in the film Batman Begins. It's a beautifully memorable ending by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli.
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Moment 23. Wonder Woman wins the contest to go to Man's World! (All-Star Comics #8)
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William Moulton Marston and H.G. Peter deliver the iconic origin of Wonder Woman.
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Moment 24. Batman - ladies' man (Batman #244)
Perhaps the perfect representation of what Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams saw as their take on Batman, international man of mystery.
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Moment 25. Silk Spectre and Nite-Owl discover the power of costumes (Watchmen #7)
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In one of the most notable sequences in Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen, Nite-Owl and Silk Spectre find that while they were unable to have sex when they were in their secret identities, after a night of superheroing, well...things went differently...
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Moment 26. Barry Allen has a little accident (Showcase #4)
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Robert Kanigher, Julie Schwartz and Carmine Infantino deliver one of the most famous origins of the Silver Age. So famous that John Broome later just re-used it for Kid Flash's origin!
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Moment 27. Batman fights the Mutant gang leader for the first time (Batman: The Dark Knight #2)
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Batman attacks the Mutants in his Batmobile/tank, but he can't help but want to get in there and fight man to man, and this beautiful slash page by Frank Miller captures that feeling perfectly.
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Moment 28. Morpheus and a demon have a contest (Sandman #4)
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In this early issue of Sandman, Neil Gaiman (and artists Mike Dringenberg and Sam Kieth) has Morpheus go around and re-collect his magical items he had lost in his years of imprisonment. To regain one of his items, he has a contest with a demon from hell. This exchange was so famous that it was even turned into an online political ad in 2008 (with Obama taking Morpheus' lines and Hillary Clinton taking the demon's lines).
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Moment 29. Abin Sur finds a replacement (Showcase #22)
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John Broome and Gil Kane deliver the iconic origin of Hal Jordan of Earth, the new Green Lantern of Sector 2814!
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Moment 30. Animal Man meets his maker (Animal Man #25)
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In this cliffhanger at the end of the penultimate issue of Grant Morrison's Animal Man run, Animal Man comes face to face with Morrison himself! Chas Truog drew the comic.
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Moment 31. Blue Beetle is defiant in the face of death (Countdown to Infinite Crisis #1)
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Countdown to Infinite Crisis was written by Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka and Judd Winick. It was drawn by a number of artists, with Phil Jimenez being the one who drew this final confrontation between Blue Beetle and Maxwell Lord, where Beetle discovers Lord's plans before anyone else, including Batman. Sadly, Beetle pays for his discover with his life, but at least he went down heroically.
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Moment 32. Lex Luthor reacts poorly to bad news (Adventure Comics #271)
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Jerry Siegel gave the most famous origin to Lex Luthor in this issue, drawn by Al Plastino (isn't it amazing how good of an expressionist Plastino was?).
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Moment 33. The first woman in a refrigerator (Green Lantern v3 #54)
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Ron Marx and Darryl Banks had just introduced the new Green Lantern, Kyle Rayner, when his girlfriend, Alex DeWitt, was viciously murdered by a villain sent to retrieve Kyle's ring.
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Moment 34. Dick Grayson loses one relationship, gain a new, unhealthy one (Detective Comics #38)
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In Detective Comics #38, Bill Finger, Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson followed up the origin of Batman a few issues earlier with the origin of Batman's new partner, Dick Grayson, or Robin, the Boy Wonder!
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Moment 35. Swamp Thing and Abby get better acquainted (Swamp Thing #34)
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Alan Moore, Stephen Bissette and John Totleben deliver a breathtaking endeavor when they show how Swamp Thing and his girlfriend, Abby, have sex - or at least Swamp Thing's version of sex.
There are many brilliant pages, so look at the ones above as more emblematic than anything else.
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Moment 36. Superman discovers a new use for Kryptonite (Superman #233)
In this first issue of the Julie Schwartz-mandated revamp of Superman, all Kryptonite on Earth has been changed to iron. Denny O'Neil and Curt Swan demonstrate this change through a classic scene.
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Moment 37. Barry Allen makes the ultimate sacrifice to save the Multiverse (Crisis on Infinite Earths #8)
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Yeah, the Multiverse ended up getting more or less destroyed ANYways (then later brought back), and yeah, Barry Allen eventually came back to life, but this is still a classic scene from Marv Wolfman and George Perez! The guy is RUNNING HIMSELF TO DEATH TO SAVE THE UNIVERSE! That's awesome.
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Moment 38. Hal first recites his oath (Showcase #22)
John Broome and Gil Kane deliver the second-most iconic oath ever (outside of the Pledge of Allegience)* in this second story from the issue that one story earlier gave us the debut of Hal Jordan as Green Lantern.
*It is not actually the second-most iconic oath ever. That was a joke.
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Moment 39. Ferro Lad sacrifices himself (Adventure Comics #353)
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Jim Shooter was not even on the title for a year before he killed of his first Legionnaire, in this dramatic story that would be referenced a number of times over the years, with the mid-1990s DC event, Final Night, being the most notable.
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Moment 40. Superman doubles his pleasure AND doubles his fun (Superman #162)
When you think back upon classic Superman writers, Leo Dorfman might not automatically come to mind, but alongside legendary Superman artist, Curt Swan, Dorfman delivered one of the most memorable "Imaginary Stories" of all-time.
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Moment 41. Green Arrow's ward is a junkie?!!? (Green Lantern #85)
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Denny O'Neill and Neal Adams had this story worked out BEFORE the famous Spider-Man drugs issue, but DC was wary about putting it out against the Comics Code. Luckily, the Spidey story led to the Code changing and this issue was released, and it was a much stronger anti-drug storyline than the Spidey one.
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Moment 42. The Waynes take a night stroll (Detective Comics #33)
The parent death that pretty much all parental deaths are measured against. Bill Finger actually only wrote the first two pages of Detective Comics #33 (Gardner Fox wrote the rest) just so he could deliver this origin story. Bob Kane and Sheldon Moldoff did the artwork.
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Moment 43. Lex Luthor is a big, fat jerk (Superman Vol. 2 #9)
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While the Post-Crisis Lex Luthor has moved past this characterization in many ways, for a good many years this was a very popular take on Lex Luthor, and this back-up story where Lex Luthor offers a waitress one million dollars to spend a month with him really stood out to demonstrate the type of villain this Lex Luthor was.
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Moment 44. David Knight has an inauspicious debut as Starman (Starman #0)
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This was a pretty darn striking opening to the acclaimed James Robinson and Tony Harris run on Starman. Rarely does the title character of a book die in the first three pages.
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Moment 45. Wonder Woman does not see eye-to-eye on things with Maxwell Lord (Wonder Woman Vol. 2 #219)
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Maxwell Lord has returned to the living, and I don't know if we'll ever really see this moment referenced again, but it sure was referenced a LOT over the last six years, so I guess it is worth being up there for you to vote on! Greg Rucka and Rags Morales show Wonder Woman determining that the only way to stop Maxwell Lord for good is to end his life.
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Moment 46. Terra reveals herself (Tales of the Teen Titans #42)
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After a number of months of being slowly absorbed on to the team, Terra finally gains the full trust of the Titans by taking on one of their deadliest enemies, Deathstroke the Terminator, one on one! However, we soon learn that the battle was not as "real" as it seemed....
(Thanks to John Trumbull for reminding me I had the wrong issue number initially for this moment)
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Moment 47. Bruce Wayne loses a window, gains an identity (Detective Comics #33)
Batman's origin is so awesome that it actually merits TWO moments - his parents getting shot and then later, the idea for naming himself after a bat. Bill Finger, Bob Kane and Sheldon Moldoff deliver the tale.
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Moment 48. Herr Starr finds that getting ahead is not always a good thing (Preacher #27)
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As the series went on, Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon (who had already had Herr Star sodomized and had his ear blown off) would subject Herr Starr to a great deal of indignities, to all of which he would reply with some variation of a pause and then "shit." But his discovery that Jesse Custer had left his head looking like a penis was the first and most notable of them all.
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Moment 49. The Legion mess with Superboy a bit (Adventure Comics #247)
Otto Binder and Al Plastino give us the iconic introduction of the Legion, as they mess with Superboy's head a bit.
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Moment 50. Doom Patrol is defiant until the end (Doom Patrol #121)
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Arnold Drake and Bruno Premiani make comic book history by having the Doom Patrol sacrifice their lives in exchange for a small fishing village. Killing off all the characters in a book was not something you would see every day!
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Moment 51. Heads roll as Superboy Prime gets mad (Infinite Crisis #4)
Geoff Johns and Phil Jimenez definitely got everybody's attention when Superboy Prime, who, to this point, could be seen as almost well-meaning, went a whoooooooooole other direction when the Teen Titans gather together to fight him. The next page is even more bloody, but this initial punch of Pantha's head is the moment everyone remembers.
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Moment 52. Swamp Thing makes a discovery (Saga of the Swamp Thing #21)
Alan Moore, Stephen Bissette and John Totleben quickly made a name for themselves in this dramatic reveal that Swamp Thing was not, in fact, a transformed Alec Holland, but a mutated plant creature that THOUGHT it was Alec Holland. A true game-changer.
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Moment 53. Three young people find a calling (Superboy #147)
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E. Nelson Bridwell and Pete Costanza deliver the iconic origin of the Legion of Super-Heroes. It is pretty weird that it took a decade before the Legion even HAD an origin, but it's stuck ever since!
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Moment 54. Coast City is destroyed (Superman Vol. 2 #80)
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Dan Jurgens steps up the Reign of the Supermen by revealing that the Cyborg Superman is actually a VILLAIN working with the alien despot, Mongul! He demonstrates this in dramatic fashion when he and Mongul destroy Hal Jordan's home of Coast City!
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Moment 55. Joker shoots Barbara Gordon (Batman: The Killing Joke)
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You don't get much more shocking than the sight of the former heroine known as Batgirl getting shot in the gut by the Joker in front of her father, Commissioner Gordon. You don't have to LIKE the scene to appreciate that it has become etched in the memories of fans everywhere. Alan Moore wrote it and Brian Bolland drew it.
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Moment 56. Superman returns (Kingdom Come #1)
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At the end of the first issue of Kingdom Come (by Mark Waid and Alex Ross), after a long time in self-imposed exile, Superman is lured back to the mainstream world to help curb an infestation of "modern" superheroes. Little does he know that his return is going to set the world down a path that might lead to the annihilation of everyone!
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Moment 57. Batman and Joker share a laugh (Batman: The Killing Joke)
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While quite a few folks were put off by Joker shooting Barbara Gordon in the Killing Joke - the end of the book (written by Alan Moore and drawn by Brian Bolland) was possibly even MORE divisive! The two men standing in the rain laughing at a silly joke is intentionally provocative, but certainly memorable.
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Moment 58. Doctor Erdel reached out and touched someone (Detective Comics #225)
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Joe Samachson and Joe Certa deliver the iconic origin of the Manhunter from Mars!!
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Moment 59. Aquaman loses a hand (Aquaman Vol. 3 #2)
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The villain Charybdis is taken down by Aquaman and Dolphin, but not before he (using powers he stole from Aquaman) compels a group of piranhas to destroy Aquaman's hand. The issue was written by Peter David and drawn by Martin Egeland.
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Moment 60. The Justice Society of America has their first meeting (All-Star Comics #3)
Gardner Fox and Everett Hibbard deliver the first meeting of the Justice Society of America. The early meetings were just framing sequences to cover up the fact that All-Star Comics basically remained the same anthology it was before. To wit, in the first issue, the meeting just sets up Johnny Thunder asking each member of the team to tell a story, and they do so, with each story naturally being the story that would have appeared in the issue had they not all been on a team. Still, the first meeting of a superhero team was a BIG deal!
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Moment 61. Frank Miller adds a little extra to Batman's origin (Batman: The Dark Knight #1)
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This moment from the first issue of Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight series features Batman being compelled to return to the streets while he watches the news and hears of horrors that remind him of the fateful night that his parents were killed. Miller added the striking visual of Martha Wayne's pearls being broken during the ruckus that led to the death of Bruce's parents, and that visual has become a key element of pretty much all future re-tellings of the origin, a rarity for origin re-tellings (to have that much of a permanent effect on the origin).
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Moment 62. The very first "Bwah Ha Ha" (Justice League International #8)
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The Justice League became "International" in issue #7, so in #8 (written by Keith Giffen and JM DeMatteis and penciled by Kevin Maguire) they began setting up embassies in different International cities. Blue Beetle, Booster Gold And Black Canary were in charge of the Paris branch. While getting lunch in their civilian identities, Beetle and Booster encounter a striking woman who Booster tries to pick up - when he fails miserably, we soon get the most famous laugh in DC history (only because Joker's laughs aren't consistent).
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Moment 63. Johnny Cloud avenges his friends (DC Universe: The New Frontier #1)
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The Losers are sent on a mission and end up on Dinosaur Island in this opening to Darwyn Cooke's acclaimed New Frontier series (telling the origin of the Silver Age from a different perspective). They get picked off one by one until only Johnny Cloud remains. His final act of heroism is incredibly striking. I was unsure if I was going to go with this one, but when three different people I was talking to about the moments suggested this moment unprompted, I figured it had to be here.
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Moment 64. Dr. Manhattan silences Rorschach (Watchmen #12)
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Besides the sheer drama of having Dr. Manhattan be forced to kill Rorschach to keep him from revealing what Ozymandias did to achieve world peace, how awesome is it that Manhattan effectively explodes Rorschach into a bloody Rorschach drawing?!? Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons are deeeeeep.
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Moment 65. Sue Dibny is killed (Identity Crisis #1)
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Brad Meltzer and Rags Morales opened their popular mini-series, Identity Crisis, with the death of Sue Dibny, wife of the longtime Justice Leaguer, Elongated Man.
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Moment 66. Batman strikes a pose (Batman #251)
From the pages of one of the most famous Denny O'Neil/Neal Adams issues of Batman, the Joker's Five-Way Revenge, we get this full page splash of Batman racing across the beach to catch the Joker. This picture was so memorable that it was turned into a cover just a few years later for a Treasury Edition. John Cassaday later homaged it in his Planetary/Batman crossover - it's THAT recognizable of a shot that just drawing Batman in that pose will make people realize what Adams drawing you're talking about.
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Moment 67. The "slow walk" (New Frontier #6)
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The "slow walk" is a classic in movie-making, but never was it so well translated into comics as it was in the finale of Darwyn Cooke's classic mini-series, New Frontier.
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Moment 68. Batman takes down Superman (Batman: The Dark Knight #4)
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The beginning of this fight (courtesy of Frank Miller) is also quite memorable, where Batman punches Superman, but the ending is the most memorable part of the fight.
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Moment 69. Superman wrestles an angel (JLA #7)
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I think Flash says it best in the pages above (the issue, written by Grant Morrison and drawn by Howard Porter, features an evil angel coming to Earth to keep another angel from spilling his plans to attack Heaven).
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Moment 70. Sue Dibny is raped (Identity Crisis #2)
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Brad Meltzer (along with artist Rags Morales) felt that they needed to have something awfully bad happen to compel the Justice League to actually mess with a supervillain's mind. What he came up with was having Doctor Light rape Sue Dibny years ago when Elongated Man was a member of the "satellite era" of the Justice League of America.
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Moment 71. Superman races the Flash (Superman #199)
Jim Shooter and Curt Swan give us the race everyone was waiting for!
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Moment 72. Batman tells us who he is (All Star Batman and Robin #2)
Frank Miller and Jim Lee deliver an extremely memorable line.
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Moment 73. Rorschach enjoys prison life (Watchmen #6)
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Outside of the "35 minutes" line, probably the most famous quote from Watchmen.
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Moment 74. Captain Marvel saves the day...kinda (Kingdom Come #4)
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That is one dramatic scene from Mark Waid and Alex Ross.
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Moment 75. The Red Hood takes off the hood (Batman: The Killing Joke)
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Alan Moore and Brian Bolland, particularly Bolland, deliver one of the most iconic Joker panels ever.
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Moment 76. Batman...lives! (Batman: The Dark Knight #4)
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Frank Miller ends the Dark Knight Returns with a wink. A very cool wink.
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Moment 77. "One Punch!" (Justice League #5)
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For the first few issues of the Justice League relaunch by Keith Giffen, JM DeMatteis and Kevin Maguire, Guy Gardner had been giving Batman a hard time. In this famous scene, Gardner finally gets what's coming to him.
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Moment 78. Jason Todd is beaten nearly to death by the Joker (Batman #427)
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This is one depressing moment, courtesy of Jim Starlin and Jim Aparo. Jason Todd is looking for his mother, but she sells him out and he is beaten nearly to death by the Joker. His mother is then betrayed by the Joker and left with the nearly dead Jason. He manages to awake and struggle to get them both to safety, but the bomb goes off before they can make their escape.
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Moment 79. The Justice League and the Justice Society meet for the first time! (Justice League of America Volume 1 #21)
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In this famous issue, by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky, the two famous DC superhero teams meet for the first time!
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Moment 80. Bane breaks Batman's back (Batman #497)
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Doug Moench and Jim Aparo deliver what is effectively the climax of Knightfall in this tragic tale.
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Moment 81. Batman accepts a new Robin (Batman #442)
Tim Drake made his debut in the Lonely Place of Dying and quickly stood out from the previous Robin, Jason Todd. This Robin, Tim Drake, was clever, intelligent and very respectful to not only Batman, but to Dick Grayson, as well. So when Batman concedes the point that maybe he DOES need a Robin above, Dick's smile says it all.
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