DC’s Zero Hour: The 90s Crisis That Reset the DC Universe
In the landscape of major comic book events, few have the disruptive and timeline-altering reputation of DC’s Zero Hour. This 1994 crossover, officially titled Zero Hour: Crisis in Time, served as a significant, albeit chaotic, follow-up to the universe-defining Crisis on Infinite Earths. While the earlier event sought to streamline DC’s convoluted history, Zero Hour dealt with the temporal fallout, creating a soft reboot that had lasting repercussions for many of its iconic characters. As dedicated followers of the DC Universe, we understand that these moments are pivotal, reshaping the stories we love for years to come.
The mid-90s were a turbulent and exciting time for comics. Publishers were not afraid to take massive risks, and Zero Hour was one of the biggest. Spearheaded by writer and artist Dan Jurgens, with inks by the legendary Jerry Ordway, the event promised to fix the remaining continuity glitches left over from the first Crisis. The core creative team for the main series also included colorist Gregory Wright, letterer Gaspar Saladino, and editor KC Carlson. This undertaking was massive, not just a simple story but a line-wide event that saw every DC comic title at the time publish a special “#0” issue, exploring the new status quo. For fans, it was a thrilling, if sometimes confusing, era of storytelling and a testament to the ambitious nature of the time.
Understanding the Chaos of DC’s Zero Hour
The central premise of DC’s Zero Hour revolves around a mysterious force causing waves of entropy to sweep through the timeline, erasing history from both the beginning and the end of time. This temporal annihilation wasn’t just a random cosmic occurrence; it was orchestrated by a familiar face pushed to the brink. The main antagonist was revealed to be Hal Jordan, once the greatest Green Lantern, now the immensely powerful and unstable being known as Parallax.
Grief-stricken and maddened by the complete destruction of his home, Coast City (a traumatic event in its own right), Jordan sought to use his immense power to recreate the universe, to set things right from his broken perspective. This put him in direct conflict with every other hero in the DC Universe. The ensuing battle was not just for the present, but for the very existence of their shared history. Furthermore, another villain, Extant—formerly the hero Hawk of Hawk and Dove—emerged, manipulating temporal energy and directly causing the deaths of several Golden Age Justice Society of America members. The stakes were incredibly high, as heroes found their own histories being rewritten around them, sometimes with bizarre and contradictory results. Many of these events have been chronicled and debated by fans on platforms like Comic Book Addicts for years.
The Aftermath and a New DC Timeline
The conclusion of DC’s Zero Hour saw the heroes narrowly prevent the total obliteration of reality. Green Arrow was forced to put down his old friend Hal Jordan, and the young hero Kyle Rayner became the sole Green Lantern, entrusted with carrying on the legacy. However, the victory was not without significant cost. The timeline, while not completely erased, was “rebooted.”
This soft reboot allowed DC Comics to make numerous retcons, both large and small. The Legion of Super-Heroes, for example, was entirely rebooted with a new origin. Characters like Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) were confronted with alternate versions of themselves from defunct timelines, only to see them fade from existence. The event also served to streamline the complex histories of characters like Hawkman, who was merged into a single, new version. While not as sweeping a change as Crisis on Infinite Earths, the impact was significant. It created a fresh, albeit temporary, starting point for many series and remains a fascinating, if divisive, moment in comic history for readers of new and old stories alike.
In summary, DC’s Zero Hour was a quintessential 90s comic book event: bold, chaotic, and brimming with universe-altering consequences. It demonstrated that even the most celebrated heroes could fall and that the fabric of reality was constantly under threat. The event solidified the idea that the DC Universe was a fluid, ever-evolving entity, a concept that continues to this day with subsequent Crises. It was a complex story that rewarded long-time readers with deep-cut continuity references while simultaneously trying to untangle that very same continuity.
What are your thoughts on Zero Hour? Did the rebooted timeline improve the DC Universe, or did it create more problems than it solved? Let us know your take on this classic event over on our Twitter page!
