The Best Comic Crossovers/Events

A few posts ago, I listed some of the comic book crossovers and events that I felt were lacking in their performance.  For the sake of fairness, I felt it only fitting that I list some of the ones that I thought were actually good.  In this case, I have tried to limit the series to those that were “in continuity,” which is why mini-series like Watchmen, V for Vendetta and Camelot 3000 are absent.

Justice League of America issues 100-102 (DC Comics) - An early event marking the 100th issue of the Justice League of America.  The run, featuring not only guest appearances from Justice Leaguers past and present, but the Justice Society of America (this was back in 1974, in the hey day of Earth 1/Earth 2) as they race through time to find the Seven Soldiers of Victory.

Contest of Champions (Marvel Comics) – Probably one of the first “true” mini-series, Contest of Champions Is the story of the gathering of Earth’s heroes to represent the players in a duel between Elder of the Universe Grandmaster and “the Unknown.”  The series has been collected, along with the annuals for West Coast Avengers and Avengers which serve as a sequel to the original series.  The series is highlighted by the inclusion of a number of international characters, some of which were created for the series, and a supplement listing of all the heroes, the first “handbook to the Marvel Universe” as it were.

Crisis on Infinite Earths (DC Comics) – So big, it really has to be classified as a mega-series, Crisis was DC’s first major attempt to rectify the anomalies that had surfaced in their (at that time) 50 year history.  At that time, because of the revamp of a number of characters that marked the start of the Silver Age, DC had two universes for their characters – Earth 1 representing the Silver Age heroes, and Earth 2 for the Golden Age heroes and (with Infinity Inc.) their offspring.  In addition, they had also picked up the characters from a number of other companies (The Shazam/Fawcett characters, the Charlton Comics characters, and so on) that each of them were in their own separate parallel Earths.  By the end of the roller coaster ride that was Crisis, all of these worlds were merged into one, and the anomalies (WW2 Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman) were expunged, for the time being anyway

Marvels (Marvel Comics) – Marvels is probably one of the most beautifully illustrated mini-series that has come around in a long time.  But, the artwork of Alex Ross would mean nothing without Kurt Busiek’s brilliant story of the history of the Marvel Universe as told through the eyes of one photographer who lived recorded most of it.

Identity Crisis (DC Comics) – At the heart of Identity Crisis is one simple question: who killed Sue Dibny?  It is in seeking out who is responsible for this crime that the very fabric of the DC Universe begins to unravel.  The search for the truth leads the heroes down a very dark path.

52 (DC Comics) – DC took a major chance with this one.  The series, released weekly, did not feature any of DC’s headliners.  that’s right, no Superman, no Batman, no Wonder Woman.  Bridging the gap between the end of Infinite Crisis and One Year Later (where all DC titles were bounced ahead, you guessed it, one year).  What DC ended up with was an excellently crafted series that kept readers coming back week after week after week.

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