Issue #7, featuring the death of Supergirl
January 3, 1985: DC Comics celebrates its 50th Anniversary by rewriting its history, beginning its 12-part series Crisis On Infinite Earths, with an issue dated April 1985.
Essentially, it eliminates Earth-One (which features the current heroes) and Earth-Two (which features the heroes introduced before and during World War II), along with every other "alternate Earth" they'd ever depicted, and combines them into a single narrative.
This provides an explanation of why the WWII-era heroes can still be fighting for justice when they should be elderly -- in many cases, as mentors to the younger versions of their characters, i.e. Jay Garrick, the 1st Flash, doing so for Wally West, the 1st Kid Flash, who becomes the 3rd Flash after the 2nd, Barry Allen, sacrifices his life to save the universe in issue #8. (Barry would later be brought back to life in 2010's Blackest Night, DC's insane attempt at a zombie story.)
It also enables a reboot of the origin stories. Among the notable changes: Clark Kent was never Superboy, his parents Jonathan and Martha Kent are still alive as he begins his career as Superman, and, as Clark, he's not pretending to be the mild-mannered milquetoast he's usually seen as, making him seem more believable as a big-city reporter -- and, in hindsight, resembling George Reeves' 1950s TV Superman more than Christopher Reeve's then-current movie Superman.
Batman's origin is also slightly tweaked. Originally, his butler, Alfred Pennyworth, had worked at Wayne Manor for Thomas and Martha Wayne, then left before they were killed, with Bruce raised by an uncle and his housekeeper; and returned many years later to work for Bruce Wayne, who had already adopted Dick Grayson. He soon found out the hard way that Bruce was Batman and Dick was the 1st Robin.
In this new version, Alfred never left Wayne Manor, raising Bruce after his parents were killed, and assisting him in becoming, and then being, Batman every step of the way.
Not all the changes were popular: In addition to the death of my generation's Flash, Superman's cousin Supergirl, known as Kara Zor-El on Krypton and Linda Danvers on Earth, was killed in issue #7, producing a shocking and oft-imitated cover. And all the other Kryptonians were eliminated, making Superman truly "the Last Son of Krypton." This was dropped in DC's next reboot, the 1994 series Zero Hour.
In 2019, TV network The CW, having done several superhero shows in their "Arrowverse" series, crossed them all over, adapting Crisis On Infinite Earths. In this case, though, not only did Supergirl, now known as Kara Danvers, and the Barry Allen version of the Flash survive, but Barry proves pivotal in developing the final weapon, and Kara is the one who delivers it. In this version, the one who sacrifices himself for the greater good of the multiverse was Green Arrow, who, in order to do it, becomes that universe's version of the Spectre.
The original series was written by Marv Wolfman, and drawn by George Pérez. In the Arrowverse version, Wolfman makes a cameo appearance in the 5th and final episode. Pérez was dealing with serious health issues, and was unable to appear, so he was honored by the writers placing the final showdown with the Anti-Monitor takes place in Pérez Square.
(UPDATE: Pérez died in 2022. In 2024, a 3-part animated film, Justice League: Crisis On Infinite Earths, premiered, as part of the DC Animated Universe. It is yet another variation on the story, but it is closer to the original comic than to the Arrowverse version.)
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January 3, 1985 was a Thursday. Baseball was out of season. The NFL was between rounds of their Playoffs. There were 5 games played in the NBA:
* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Washington Bullets, 100-93 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio.
* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Dallas Mavericks, 116-115 at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio.
* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 111-87 at the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena.
* The Indiana Pacers beat the Golden State Warriors, 112-96 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.
* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat their arch-rivals, the Seattle SuperSonics, 123-89 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.
And there were 5 games played in the NHL:
* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Vancouver Canucks, 6-4 at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands.
* The Hartford Whalers beat the Detroit Red Wings, 6-2 at the Hartford Civic Center (now the PeoplesBank Arena).
* The Montreal Canadiens and the St. Louis Blues played to a tie, 2-2 at the St. Louis Arena.
* The Calgary Flames beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-3 at the Saddledome in Calgary.
* The Minnesota North Stars beat the Los Angeles Kings, 8-3 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.
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