Stephen Wiacek - DC Greatest Events: Stories That Shook a Multiverse

T ime consumes memory, even of the things we love most. I cant honestly recall the first book that made me fall in love with reading, or the first movie that made me love going to the cinema, not with any certainty. But I can recall with astonishing clarity the comic that made me a fan forever, which I will likely remain until the end of my days.

It was this comic, Justice League #100 (above). Look at that cover. I first read it when I was just a kid, and even now, I get chills seeing this image. Who were all these people? Whose grave is that? But looking at that cover, I knew with absolute certainty that I had to have it. Great comics have that effect.

I grew up on a remote farm. Like a lot of farm kids, I read everything I could get my hands on, so my mother used to take me to garage sales and just buy whatever they had, which would at least shut me up for a few precious hours, Im sure. At one such sale, I found a stack of old comics, and this one promised a whopping 33 heroes right on the cover. I took it home and read it to tatters.

You see, it wasnt just any comic. It was an Event comic. And what an event! The Justice League. The Justice Society. The Seven Soldiers of Victory. Multiple worlds. Cosmic Enemies. Time Travel. All in one comic. My little kid brain was blown.

But the bad news? This was only part one of the story! I had to know everything about these characters. I didnt know it was an old comic, so I rode my bike miles every day to check the racks for part two. I bought note cards and made cards for each of the characters. I was hooked. It felt like a party, and we were all invited.

Since then, I have loved these big event books, both reading them and eventually writing them. It felt like something movies and novels didnt do. Pippi Longstocking never crossed over with Dorothy Gale. You never got a novel that promised 33 literary heroes, right?

Thats why I love DC Greatest Events . That feeling of excitement, that thrill that anything can happen, is all through the spectacular stories covered in this book. And no one, I mean no one, does event stories like DC.

This book races through the history of the biggest stories ever told in comics, from the creation of Superman to the first meeting of Batman and Superman to Jack Kirbys epic Fourth World saga to Crisis on Infinite Earths , which took DCs amazing Multiverse and smashed all those worlds togetherand changed comics forever.

This book is an epic story as well. The story of one of the largest and most remarkable shared fictional universes in history, and the creative teams that built it.

This sense of scale, its something comics can do better than any other medium, I believe. Telling tales where a world exploding is only the beginning. Where all your favorites intertwine in battle against enemies too big for a single universe. Its every fans book of dream stories, where every conversation of Whos stronger? or What if Superman met Swamp Thing? finds a glorious reality.

In here are all the milestones that make up a story that spans dimensions, galaxies, and histories from the Big Bang until the End of Time. Tales of adventure, imagination, and sacrifice, and from the best creators in the history of comics. Flipping through these entries makes me want to go back and read the ones I missed. Like right now.

Dang. Looks like Im going to need more note cards!

Gail Simone

Gail Simone has written more than 600 comics and cant resist event and crossover books, as evidenced by her resume: Villains United, Swords of Sorrow, Seven Days, Tarzan/Red Sonja, Wonder Woman/Conan, and Catwoman/Sylvester & Tweety.* She currently lives on the Oregon coast and still reads pretty much every event comic from every companyshes hopeless that way.

*A real comic, by the way!

S ince their invention in the 1930s, comic books have always offered a vibrant portal to adventure and escape for young and old alike. Some of the most potent moments of modern mass-entertainment fiction sprung from those flimsy but colorful pamphlets, molding the tastes and often lives of generations of readers. The eventful stories contained within these comics also formed a resonant, modern mythology, affecting mainstream media: music, drama, apparel, games, the arts, television, and movies.

And what readers recall most are the big stories.

Debuts and reinventions, colossal team-ups, the death of heroes and villains, and the ending of worlds are all memorable events that profoundly impacted readers caught up in the thrill of the moment. These stories also constructed a vital conceptual landscape: a complex, collaborative, cohesive, and constantly evolving meta-reality enticing and open to all.

Whether youre a seasoned collector or a newcomer contemplating buying your very first comicon paper or digital downloadthese stories carry meaning and importance. Moreover, they are interconnected and build upon each other.

All Star lineup

DCs stunning stable of stars combined imagination with longevity by introducing and embracing the concept of iconic Super Heroes inspiring and mentoring successive generations.

When talking of events, were actually describing two different things. One is a landmark moment, either immediate or gradual, that alters the status quo. The debut of Superman immediately reshaped the comics industry. Batman, Justice Society of America, and Wonder Woman were equally significant but took longer to change comics and, ultimately, global culture.

The other is a managed project that enhances reader appreciation, company profile, and sales, such as the groundbreaking Crisis on Infinite Earths . The roots of this transformative 1980s event lay in an equally crucial 1963 story arc that teamed the Golden Age Justice Society of America with their reimagined Silver Age successors, the Justice League of America. The hero-packed tales stunning commercial and critical success sparked an annual tradition (and guaranteed sales), while also coining a generic termCrisis.