In 2005, a story arc by Geoff Johns and Alan Heinberg called “Crisis of Conscience” (JLA #115–119) depicts the dissolution of the Justice League of America as the breakdown of trust shown in the 2004 limited series Identity Crisis reaches its zenith. At the end of the arc, Superboy-Prime destroys the Justice League Watchtower. JLA, one of several titles to be cancelled at the conclusion of the Infinite Crisis storyline, ended with issue #125.
Starting in 2006, the regular writers on Batman and Detective Comics were Grant Morrison and Paul Dini, with Grant Morrison reincorporating controversial elements of Batman lore (most notably, the science fiction themed storylines of the 1950s Batman comics, which Morrison revised as hallucinations Batman suffered under the influence of various mind-bending gases and extensive sensory deprivation training) into the character. Morrison’s run climaxed with “Batman R.I.P.”, which brought Batman up against the villainous “Black Glove” organization, which sought to drive Batman into madness. “Batman R.I.P.” segued into Final Crisis (also written by Morrison), which saw the apparent death of Batman at the hands of Darkseid. In the 2009 miniseries Batman: Battle for the Cowl, Wayne’s former protégé Dick Grayson becomes the new Batman, and Wayne’s son Damian becomes the new Robin. In June 2009, Judd Winick returned to writing Batman, while Grant Morrison was given his own series, titled Batman and Robin.
The comic was originally going to be canon, but James Tynion IV, who took over the writing duties on Batman (Volume 3) from Tom King, said that Batman/Catwoman was moving away from the “bounds of continuity” per his understanding and it would have no effect on the main Batman title.
King later stated it was a standalone series and was his version of how Batman and Catwoman’s ending should be. He also hoped it would lead to “breaking the mold” in DC about Batman’s status quo. The series follows the duo’s romance through multiple eras, unlike the current Prime Earth continuity.
In 1993, the success of the three Robin miniseries led to the ongoing Robin series which ran 183 issues until 2009 and helped his transition from sidekick to a superhero in his own right. In 2004 storylines, established DC Comics character Stephanie Brown became the fourth Robin for a short while before the role reverted to Tim Drake. Batman’s son Damian Wayne then succeeds Drake as Robin in the 2009 story arc “Battle for the Cowl“, until his death in 2013 story. Following the 2011 continuity reboot “The New 52“, Tim Drake is revised as having assumed the title Red Robin out of deference to the deceased Jason Todd; Jason Todd, as he exists today, operates as the Red Hood and has been slowly repairing his relationship with Batman; Dick Grayson is Nightwing, and later fakes his death to become an undercover operative; and Stephanie Brown is introduced anew as Spoiler once again in the pages of Batman Eternal (2014).
Y: The Last Man is a post-apocalyptic science fiction comic book series by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra published by Vertigo from 2002 through 2008. The series centers on Yorick Brown and his pet Capuchin monkey Ampersand, the only males who survived the apparent global androcide. The series was published in sixty issues by Vertigo and collected in a series of ten paperback volumes (and later a series of five hardcover “Deluxe” volumes). The series’ covers were primarily by J. G. Jones and Massimo Carnevale. The series received three Eisner Awards.
Doomsday Clock is part of the DC Rebirth initiative, and it continues the narrative that was established with the 2016 one-shot DC Universe: Rebirth Special, the 2017 crossover event “The Button” and other related stories. It is a follow-up to the 1986–1987 miniseries Watchmen by Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons and John Higgins, and it introduces that story’s characters into the DC Universe, alongside a few original characters created for the book. Although Dan DiDio (then DC’s co-publisher) confirmed that it is a sequel to that miniseries, Johns originally declined to characterize it as such, viewing it as a standalone story, saying, “It is something else. It is Watchmen colliding with the DC Universe.”
The next regular writer after James Tynion IV was Peter Tomasi who began on the series with issue #994, published December 2018. Tomasi’s run as writer continued for two years until issue #1033, published December 2020.
On March 27, 2019, DC Comics released the series’ 1,000th issue, marking the second American comic book in history to reach that milestone after Action Comics in 2018. The issue, which coincided with Batman’s 80th anniversary, is an anthology featuring several stories from a variety of different creative teams.
Writer Mariko Tamaki began on the series with issue #1034 as part of the Infinite Frontier line-wide relaunch. In April 2022, it was announced that Ram V and Rafael Albuquerque would serve as the new creative team starting with issue #1062.
The 1986 company-wide crossover “Legends” concluded with the formation of a new Justice League. The new team was dubbed “Justice League” then “Justice League International” (JLI) and was given a mandate with less of an American focus. The new series, written by Keith Giffen and J. M. DeMatteis with art by Kevin Maguire (and later Adam Hughes), added quirky humor to the team’s stories. In this incarnation, the membership consisted partly of heroes from Earths that, prior to their merging in the Crisis on Infinite Earths, were separate. The Giffen/DeMatteis team worked on Justice League for five years and closed out their run with the “Breakdowns” storyline in 1991 and 1992. The series’ humorous tone and high level of characterization proved very popular.
The Law comes to DC Comics! Judge Dredd storms North America in all-new, all-different adventures. In the post-apocalyptic future world of Mega-City One, where crime and corruption are rampant, the pseudo-militaristic Judges are the only true force for order in a world of seething anarchy. And the most uncompromising of these 21st-century law men is Judge Dredd, a man who lives by the law – and the gun – as he redefines crime and punishment in the not-too-distant future.
“Infinite Crisis” is a 2005–2006 comic book storyline published by DC Comics, consisting of an eponymous, seven-issue comic book limited series written by Geoff Johns and illustrated by Phil Jimenez, George Pérez, Ivan Reis, and Jerry Ordway, and a number of tie-in books. The main miniseries debuted in October 2005, and each issue was released with two variant covers: one by Pérez, and one by Jim Lee and Sandra Hope.
The series storyline was a sequel to DC’s 1985 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths, which “rebooted” much of the DC continuity in an effort to fix 50 years of contradictory character history. It revisited characters and concepts from that earlier Crisis, including the existence of DC’s Multiverse. Some of the characters featured were alternate versions of comic icons such as an alternate Superman named Kal-L, who came from a parallel universe called Earth-Two. A major theme was the nature of heroism, contrasting the often dark and conflicted modern-day heroes with memories of “lighter” and ostensibly more noble and collegial heroes of American comic books’ earlier days.
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