Superhero comics are known for, if nothing else, being extremely safe. Status quo is king, after all. Ninety percent of all comics reset to a standard status quo at some point, usually after a big story arc or when a new run starts. DC’s biggest names have been around for decades at this point, and that means that their characters and the type of stories that work for them have been well-established. Knowing what works makes it very hard for companies to be willing to try new things that could potentially make them a lot less money than what they know they could get normally. Even then, one of the biggest things holding comics back is the fans.
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Comic book fans tend to be very resistant to major changes. Big stories that implement massive status quo or mythos changes tend to be very divisive, and more often than not wind up being hated on some level. Yet, there are some stories that go against everything fans loved about a character, or are so out there that even suggesting DC would print it would get you laughed out of your local comic shop, but are beloved anyway. Today, we’re looking at five of DC’s most ambitious stories that should never have worked but wound up being classic, beloved runs.
5) Wonder Woman (2011)
The New 52 is remembered as one of DC’s biggest swings and most controversial misses. The universal reset hit everyone, but Wonder Woman especially suffered. Her origin and mythos were gutted and reimagined as way more grimdark, generic, and man-focused than they ever should have been. Wonder Woman being the product of an affair between Zeus and Hippolyta instead of being born from clay, and everything about how the Amazons reproduce, should be thrown into the deepest pit and forgotten about. This run left a stain on Wonder Woman’s character that still hasn’t washed off.
Yet, despite all of the negatives, this run is really fun to read. I hate the editorial decisions and changes to Wonder Woman’s mythos more than I can say, but Brian Azzarello’s run on this title was a great read. The darker interpretation of the Greek pantheon and the trials that Wonder Woman faces are incredibly entertaining. This run will keep you on the edge of your seat with its revelations and dynamic reinventions. Whether you agree with the lore changes or not, this run is a genuine treat when Azzarello is at his best.
4) Animal Man (1988) #26
Grant Morrison is one of the comic book world’s most lauded and strangest writers. Their work always teases the meta-reality of comics as a whole. Superheroes are stories all about good people rising above adversity to save the day, and they have become akin to modern myths, which Mossion always taps into for their work. But none of their work is anywhere near as meta as literally inserting themself into the comic. Their final issue of Animal Man literally saw a conversation between the titular hero and the author, which, on paper, sounds insane, but was actually the perfect ending.
Animal Manwas one of Morrison’s most meta works of all and set up the climax beautifully across the entire series. Buddy slowly but surely kept pulling back the curtain until he saw the creative, fictional threads that held the DC Universe together. The small steps he took towards realizing the horrible truth all felt earned, to the point where meeting his own author read more like an eventuality than a weird choice. This entire run is a classic that everyone needs to read at some point if meta narratives are your cup of tea.
3) Crisis on Infinite Earths
Speaking of meta narratives and big swings, there’s no bigger swing in comic books than Crisis on Infinite Earths. Up to this point, the idea of a universal reboot that wiped out decades of lore was unthinkable. Not to mention that the scope of this story was insane. DC wanted it to touch on every era of DC, and to that end, hired historians to read literally every comic book the company had published. This was DC’s most ambitious idea of time, but not only did it come together, but it still might be their best comic.
Crisis is still the gold standard for multiversal-scale comic book events, and its impact is still felt to this day. DC is clearly separated into pre- and post-Crisis timelines, and that’s not just because of the continuity changes. This event literally coined the crisis name, which all future major DC events would harken back to. Crisis fundamentally changed the comic book genre, and it still stands as one of the greatest events in all of superhero history
2) “No Man’s Land”
Batman has almost always been one of DC’s biggest cash cows. He rakes in money like nobody else, so DC has been very keen to give the Dark Knight plenty of series to call his own, but at the same time, it makes them all the more reluctant to change anything about the character that so many people love to death. All of that makes the idea of radically changing his status quo almost laughable, but “No Man’s Land” was determined to go farther than any Batman story before or since, and oh boy, did it succeed.
The idea of a Batman story where Gotham was cut off by the USA and left to fend for itself in a post-apocalyptic, gang-controlled, territory-driven war being the main focus across every Batman and Bat-adjacent book for an entire year is beyond bananas. This comic broke Batman’s belief in Gotham, only to rebuild it and the Bat-Family stronger than ever. It’s completely unlike anything else Batman has ever done, but that’s exactly what made this the perfect story to usher in the new millennium.
1) 52
52 is, without a doubt, DC’s most ambitious comic of all time. It was a weekly series that covered the missing year that followed the end of Infinite Crisis, depicting how the world reacted to living without the Trinity. It followed the superhero community’s underrated stars as they stepped up to the plate, rising to heights that not even they could have imagined. The cast was truly immense, but every seemingly disparate storyline coalesced into a single, awesome finale that paid off everything and showed everyone that the DC Universe was in good hands.
Weekly comics are unheard of, and even on the rare occasions they happen, their quality tends to fall apart pretty quickly. Yet, that never happened to 52. Five of DC’s star writers and over a dozen artists worked together to create a comic whose quality and consistency are out of this world. This comic being as incredible as it is feels like nothing short of a miracle. This level of art and writing on such a short timeline, for an entire year, uninterrupted, is lightning in a bottle. It can never happen again, but that’s what makes it so special. Even DC acknowledges that, given how 52 has become their number. This comic is DC’s biggest swing and their biggest success.
Which classic DC story did you think was never going to work, only to be blown out of the water when it did? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts on the ComicBook Forum!
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