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| Zero Hour: Crisis in Time! | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Cover of theZero Hour: Crisis in Timetrade paperback, art by Dan Jurgens. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| Schedule | Weekly |
| Format | Limited series |
| Publication date | September 1994 |
| No. of issues | 5 |
| Main character | DC Universe |
| Creative team | |
| Created by | Dan Jurgens Jerry Ordway |
| Written by | Dan Jurgens |
| Penciller | Dan Jurgens |
| Inker | Jerry Ordway |
| Letterer | Gaspar Saladino |
| Colorist | Gregory Wright |
| Editor | K.C. Carlson |
| Collected editions | |
| Zero Hour: Crisis in Time | ISBN 1563891840 |
"Zero Hour: Crisis in Time!" is acomic bookcrossover storyline published byDC Comics in 1994, consisting of an eponymous five-issuelimited series written and drawn byDan Jurgens and a number of tie-in books.[1]
In the storyline,Hal Jordan, a member of the intergalactic police force known as theGreen Lantern Corps, goes mad with grief after the destruction of his home town ofCoast City during the "Reign of the Supermen!" storyline and attempts to destroy and remake theDC Universe after having obtained immense power asParallax. The issues of the limited series were numbered in reverse order, beginning with issue #4 and ending with #0.[1] The crossover involved almost every DC Universe monthly series published at the time.
Zero Hour: Crisis in Time! was the follow-up to theCrisis on Infinite Earths limited series. This event served as an opportunity to reconcile continuity problems left unaddressed byCrisis and other problems that had been unintentionally caused by it. In particular, the revised characters of the post-Crisis universe had been rolled out gradually, with DC continuing to feature the old versions until the new versions were launched.
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The story begins when characters from alternate realities such asAlpha Centurion, an alternate version ofBatgirl, andTriumph suddenly start appearing in the DC Universe. A wave ofentropy then moves from the end of time to the beginning, erasing entire historical ages in the process.
The villain of the story is Extant, formerlyHawk of the duoHawk and Dove. Extant has acquired temporal powers, using them to unravel the DC Universe's timeline. In a confrontation with theJustice Society of America, Extant ages several of them — removing the effect that has kept them young from the 1940s into the present day — leaving them either feeble or dead. However, the true villain behind the destruction of the universe turns out to beHal Jordan, a member of theGreen Lantern Corps. Calling himselfParallax, Jordan has gone insane and is now trying to remake the universe, undoing the events which have caused his breakdown and his own murderous actions following it. The collective efforts of the other superheroes manage to stop Parallax from creating his vision of a new universe, and the timeline is recreated anew, albeit with subtle differences compared to the previous one, after the young heroDamage, with help from the other heroes, triggers a newBig Bang. Although Jordan was severely weakened from using so much energy, he manages to survive even afterGreen Arrow shoots an arrow into his heart.
DC published a fold-out timeline inside the back cover ofZero Hour #0 which identified various events and key stories and when they occurred. Although fixed dates were given for the debut of historical characters such as the JSA, the debut of Superman was presented as "10 years ago" and subsequent dates were expressed the same way, keeping the calendar years of these eventsfluid and relative to the present as a way to keep the characters at their present ages.
TheLegion of Super-Heroes was completelyrebooted followingZero Hour, and the variousHawkman characters were merged into one. Each ongoing series at the time retold the origin of its heroes in a #0 issue published after the end ofZero Hour and resumed their previous numbering the following month or went on to #1.
Following the end ofZero Hour, every DC Universe title published a #0 issue retelling the character or team's origins and featured the slogan "The Beginning of Tomorrow!" in an event dubbed "Zero Month".[citation needed]
In 2008, 14 years after the end ofZero Hour, an issue ofBooster Gold (vol. 2) was published as "Booster Gold #0", and was announced as an officialZero Hourtie-in by DC Comics. The issue used the same cover style as the previous tie-ins to the event, referring to the "Crisis in Time" and using the semi-metallic "fifth color" ink used on the originalZero Hour issues. Like the other tie-in issues, Booster's origin was explained as part of the adventure in the issue. The cover was a homage toZero Hour #4, withTed Kord's mask replacingWally West's, alternateBlue Beetles replacing the alternate Hawkmen and the superheroes around the edges replaced by Booster in the center.[2]
In August 2024, DC Comics published a graphic novel,Zero Hour 30th Anniversary Special #1, to commemorate the three decades since publication of the original miniseries. The book consists of an all-new story co-written by original author Jurgens andRon Marz, with a group of artists and others contributing multi-page segments, as well as alternate cover artworks. The new story's main character isKyle Rayner, the last surviving member of theGreen Lantern Corps at the end ofZero Hour. Rayner is transported to a "pocket universe" created byHal Jordan in his guise asParallax, where he encounters alternate versions of fellow superheroes and villains he knows fighting each other and the "oblivion wave" that had erased realities in the original series.
Some elements of theZero Hour storyline were loosely adapted intoGreen Lantern: Beware My Power as part of theTomorrowverse.
| Title | Material collected | Published date | ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zero Hour: Crisis in Time | Zero Hour: Crisis in Time #4-0 and material fromShowcase '94 #8-9 | August 1994 | 978-1563891847 |
| Batman: Zero Hour | Batman #0, 511;Batman: Shadow of the Bat #0, 31;Detective Comics #0, 678;Catwoman #0, 14;Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #0;Robin #0, #10 | June 2017 | 978-1401272586 |
| Justice League: Zero Hour | Justice League Task Force #0, 15-16,Justice League International #67-68,Justice League America #0, 92,The Ray #0,Extreme Justice #0,Guy Gardner, Warrior #0, 24 | June 2019 | 978-1401291648 |
| Superman: Zero Hour | Adventures of Superman #0, 516,Superman #0, 93,Superman: The Man of Steel #0, 37,Superman in Action Comics #0, 703,Steel #0, 8,Superboy #8, 0 | June 2018 | 978-1401280536 |
| Zero Hour: Crisis in Time 25th Anniversary Omnibus | Action Comics #703,Adventures of Superman #516,Anima #7,Batman #511,Batman: Shadow of the Bat #31,Catwoman #14,Damage #6,Darkstars #24,Detective Comics #678,The Flash #0 and #94,Green Arrow #90,Green Lantern #0 and #55,Guy Gardner: Warrior #24,Hawkman #13,Justice League America #92,Justice League International #68,Justice League Task Force #16,L.E.G.I.O.N. '94 #70,Legionnaires #18,Legion of Super-Heroes #61,Outsiders #11,Robin #10,Steel #8,Superboy #8,Superman #93,Superman: Man of Steel #37,Team Titans #24,Valor #23,Zero Hour #4-0,Zero Month Sampler and material fromShowcase '94 #8-10 | October 2019 | 978-1401294366 |
In DC's blockbusterZero Hour, writer/artist Dan Jurgens and finisher Jerry Ordway crafted a five-issue story that began with issue #4, and counted backward to zero.
