Major events of the DC Universe

During its 75 years of publication, DC Comics has produced many noteworthy stories set in its fictional DC Universe. The following is a list of the major storylines that took place within the "Modern Era of Heroes", a period that covers a fixed number of years before the present (regardless of when the stories were published.) (see: sliding timescale) Only major crossovers, or stories with major impact on leading characters, are included.

For events that took place before the Modern Era, see Timeline of the DC Universe.

Events

{| class="wikitable"! Event !! Year Published !! Notes
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Great Darkness Saga || 1982 || In the 30th century, The Legion of Super-Heroes battles Darkseid.
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Crisis on Infinite Earths || 1985 || The Anti-Monitor tries to destroy the DC Multiverse but succeeds only in merging it into a single universe; numerous characters die, including Supergirl (Kara Zor-El) and the Flash (Barry Allen). Series to spin out of event; Man of Steel, Green Lantern Corps.
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Legends || 1986 || Darkseid and his servant Glorious Godfrey attempt to ruin humanity's faith in superheroes. First Post-Crisis appearance of Captain Marvel in normal continuity, and forms a new JLA roster.
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Cosmic Odyssey || 1988 || Darkseid strives to gain the Anti-Life Equation. Series to spin out of event; New Gods.
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Millennium || 1988 || After the Guardians and Zamarons exile themselves from this dimension, one of each remains and seeks out 12 Chosen to become the New Guardians. The robotic Manhunters aim to prevent this and several supporting characters were revealed to be Manhunters. Series to spin out of event; New Guardians.
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Invasion! || 1988 - 1989 || The Dominators have put together an Alliance to invade Earth and eliminate the threat posed by their unpredictable "metahumans".
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War of the Gods || 1991 || Wonder Woman and the Amazons are caught in the middle of a war between the ancient Roman gods and the Olympian gods. Meanwhile, Circe frames Themyscira for crimes that leads to a war between America and the Wonder Woman's home.
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Panic in the Sky || 1992 || Earth's superheroes fight Brainiac and his Warworld.
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The Death of Superman || 1993 || Doomsday kills Superman, then four different "Supermen" try to take his place.
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Knightfall || 1993 || Bruce Wayne is crippled by Bane and replaced as Batman by Azrael.
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Trinity || 1993 || The Green Lantern Corps, The L.E.G.I.O.N., and The Darkstars go up against the beings called "The Triarch".
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Bloodlines || 1993 || The DC superheroes go up against alien parasites; new superheroes are created from some of their victims.
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Worlds Collide || 1994 || The DC superheroes meet their Milestone Comics counterparts.
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Zero Hour || 1994 || Extant and Parallax attempt to recreate the Multiverse; a new timeline emerges.
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Underworld Unleashed || 1995 || Neron a demon from Hell offers the DC universe villains an "upgrade" in exchange for their souls.
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The Final Night || 1996 || A Sun-Eater threatens life on Earth by devouring the Sun.
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Genesis || 1997 || Darkseid battles Earth's heroes when the Genesis Wave strikes; many superbeings have their powers altered or negated.
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DC One Million || 1998 || The Justice Legion Alpha of the 853rd century joins together with the present day Justice League to battle Solaris the Tyrant Sun.
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No Man's Land || 1999 || Batman fights to retain control in a quake-ravaged, anarchic Gotham City.
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Day of Judgment || 1999 || Demonic forces threaten the Earth; Hal Jordan becomes the Spectre.
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Our Worlds at War || 2001 || Imperiex threatens the universe.
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JLA/Avengers || 2004 || Krona seeks to destroy the universe, and a game by The Grandmaster is put in place.
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Identity Crisis || 2004 || Sue Dibny is mysteriously murdered; the Justice League of America is revealed to have performed "mindwipes" on various supervillains.
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Countdown to Infinite Crisis || 2004 || Consists of the one-shot Countdown to Infinite Crisis and four miniseries which spin out of this comic: Day of Vengeance, in which Shadowpact is formed to defend magic from the Spectre; Rann-Thanagar War; Villains United, in which the Secret Six is formed to fight the Secret Society of Supervillains; and The OMAC Project, in which Batman's mistrust of his fellow heroes leads to the creation of an army of cyborgs.
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Infinite Crisis || 2005 || Kal-L, the Superman of Earth-Two, and several other characters return to attempt to change the universe for the better. History is altered at the end of the series.
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52 || 2006 || The "missing year" between Infinite Crisis & One Year Later where the world is without Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. The series establishes the existence of a new Multiverse.
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One Year Later || 2006 || All DC comics jump forward in time to one year after the end of Infinite Crisis. Diana has a secret identity of Diana Prince and reclaims the Wonder Woman mantle, Bruce Wayne resumes as Batman, and Clark Kent gets his powers back and returns as Superman.
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Amazons Attack || 2007 || Lead up with "Wonder Woman v3" #6-8, Circe manipulates the Department of Metahuman Affairs and the Amazons after bringing Queen Hippolyta, Wonder Woman's mother, back from the dead that leads the Amazons to fight America and the country's heroes. The only way Wonder Woman could end this war, besides defeating Circe, is fighting her own mother.
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Sinestro Corps War || 2007 || The Sinestro Corps gather strength by freeing Superboy-Prime and reactivating Warworld.
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Countdown (to Final Crisis) || 2007 || A new weekly series that started a week following the end of 52, Countdown acts as the "spine" to the DC Universe that, as the name suggests, counts down to a new event for 2008. The series crosses over with certain titles and deals with Jimmy Olsen getting super powers, Mary Marvel trying to get her powers back, and a plot with the Monitors that involves the new Multiverse and the three characters that were supposed to die in Infinite Crisis: Jason Todd, Donna Troy, & Kyle Rayner.
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Final Crisis || 2008 || The upcoming event coming at the conclusion of Countdown. Starts May 2008.
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Trinity ||2008|| A third weekly series starting in June, starring Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. It is set aside from events in the DC Universe as 52 was.
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The Blackest Night || 2009 || A major event coming in 2009. An all our war between the 8 different Lantern Corps.