The Many Crises In Dc Comics

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Over the course of the publishing history of DC Comics, there is one main thing the
company has been known for: Crisis. From the original "Crisis on Infinite Earth" way
back in 1986, to the current "Final Crisis" that is ripping through continuity once
again, the crises have been DC Comics' way of mixing things up for over 20 years.
And while their publishing has existed for far longer than those 20 years, the past 20
or so have been the most impacting in the company's history.

Prior to the original 'Crisis', DC Comics had, over the years, split their universe into
multiple universes. They would introduce duplicates of characters from other
timelines, then realize they didnt fit in current continuity. It was basically a bunch of
Elseworlds style tales that culminated in a LOT of duplicates running around. So they
began to claim these were all in alternate universes. The problem was things got so
convoluted that no one knew what was up or down. And forget about being
new-reader friendly, because if someone new came in they would be utterly confused
reading three separate Superman tales that seemed to take place on different worlds
with different characteristics, supporting roles, etc. It was mass confusion.

So, to correct this mistake, DC Comics decided to mesh all of their universes together
into one single universe, thus eliminating a bunch of unnecessary characters and
timelines, and infusing the more popular ones into the current main universe's
continuity. But instead of doing this quietly they decided to make it an event, which
essentially became the first big blockbuster, universe-wide crossover that would pave
the way for many more to come at DC and other comic companies. In "Crisis on
Infinite Earths" many heroes fell, history was changed, and the DC Universe started
over new and fresh.

Gradually, though, over the course of time, small elements, characters and storylines
from pre-Crisis continuity began to crop up here and there. Eventually, so much had
been brought back from pre-Crisis continuity that things became convoluted again.
You once again had many duplicates, but they went by different names. Some of them,
like Powergirl (Earth 2's Supergirl) didn't remember who they were or where they had
come from as their world and their past had been erased, but somehow they survived
and crossed over into a new continuity. So DC Comics began devising a plan to
correct their mistakes once again.

This led us to Identity Crisis, which led to Infinite Crisis, and finally to, well, Final
Crisis. Through these events over the past few years, many revelations have come
concerning many DC Comics characters. New characters were introduced, old
characters returned, and many characters showed their true colors or their true mettle.

When its all done, who knows where the DC Universe will be? Will this truly be the
Final Crisis? It begins with the beginning of time and ends with the end of time, so
one would think so. And DC Comics has been building up to this for a while. But one
has to wonder if the changes made in this crisis will someday need to be corrected by
yet another.