Zero Hour: Crisis In Time

Zero Hour was a crossover event that took place in 1994, intended to deal with numerous possible futures and alternate timelines in the same way the earlier Crisis on Infinite Earths had dealt with alternate realities. The main storyline featured the destruction of the timestream by the efforts of Parallax (Hal Jordan), attempting to restructure the universe and correct things that he perceived to be wrong. Another supervillain, Extant, took advantage of the chaos and tried to use it to recreate the world in his own image. The leader of the fight against them was Waverider of the Linear Men. The conflict resulted in an entirely new Big Bang, which rebooted the entire DC Universe with subtle differences. This served as an opportunity to clear up continuity problems, and fix plot elements and pieces of history that no longer worked well.

Synopsis for ”Zero Hour (Part I)”
32 Hours Ago: At the end of time, a mysterious figure murders the Time Trapper.

30 Hours Ago: Metron unsuccessfully attempts to enlist Darkseid to help him against what he perceives to be a gigantic upcoming crisis.

29 Hours Ago: Batman and Robin are surprised to be aided in capturing the Joker by an alternate Barbara Gordon, still operating as Batgirl despite the fact that she was earlier crippled from the waist down.[1]

28 Hours, 49 Minutes Ago: Matthew Ryder alerts the rest of the Linear Men when his observations of future timelines are mysteriously completely disrupted. The team arrives at the conclusion that a wave of entropy is working its way backwards from the End of Time, destroying everything in its path. Rip Hunter and Waverider are sent to investigate.

28 Hours, 42 Minutes Ago: In the 64th Century, the Flash fights Abra Kadabra. They are interrupted with the Linear Men, and the group attempts to figure out a way to combat the quickly approaching entropy waves together. The Flash, attempting to generate a shockwave by doubling back through his own vortex at ultimate speed, is consumed by the entropy and dies.

24 Hours, 42 Minutes Ago: Batman brings the temporal problems in Gotham City to the attention of Superman. Metron appears, and enlists the two of them to help him.

23 Hours, 40 Minutes Ago: Hunter and Waverider arrive in the 58th Century, where they find a younger version of Hal Jordan (Green Lantern), before he became corrupted,[2] battling the entropy wave. Both Green Lantern and Hunter perish, although Hunter warns Waverider that this is another Crisis, and he must check the Chronoscopes.

21 Hours, 38 Minutes Ago: Hawkman battles Vandal Savage, and suddenly splits into many different temporal counterparts. Doctor Mist notes several of his own counterparts fading in and out of existence. Superman approaches the newer Green Lantern, Kyle Rayner, and requests that he use his ring to help broadcast a message to all of Earth’s heroes. Superman announces the coming of a gigantic new Crisis, and rallies everyone to meet him in Metropolis.

18 Hours, 35 Minutes Ago: In the Chronoscopes, Waverider reads of the original Crisis, long forgotten to all except for the Linear Men.

18 Hours, 25 Minutes Ago: The Justice Society of America converges upon Hawkman, who has summoned them to deal with the recently captured Vandal Savage. However, Savage is suddenly erased from existence. Waverider appears and explains that Savage died because the ancient period he was born in was just erased. He then informs Jay Garrick of the recent death of Wally West combatting entropy.[3]

18 Hours, 19 Minutes Ago: At Vanishing Point, Extant lords over the unconscious bodies of the Linear Men.

Appearing in ”Zero Hour (Part I)”
Featured Characters:

Linear Men
Rip Hunter (Dies)
Waverider
Matthew Ryder
The Flash (Wally West) (Dies)
Superman
Batman
Metron
Supporting Characters:

Time Trapper (Dies)
Darkseid
Robin (Tim Drake)
Batgirl (Barbara Gordon)
Doctor Mist
Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner)
Justice Society of America
Green Lantern
Flash
Wildcat
Dr. Mid-Nite
Atom
The Spectre (James Corrigan)
Hourman
Hawkman
Antagonists:

Extant (Henry Hall) (First appearance as Extant)
Parallax (Hal Jordan) (Behind the scenes)
Darkseid
Other Characters:

The Joker
Abra Kadabra
Green Lantern (Hal Jordan)
Vandal Savage
Darkstar
Aquaman
New Titans
Red Star
Pantha
Changeling
Phantasm
Superboy
The Atom (Ray Palmer)
The Ray
Doctor Fate
Inza Nelson
Outsiders
Geo-Force
Katana
Anima
Green Arrow
Liri Lee
Locations:

Timestream
End of Time
64th Century
58th Century
Solar City
Vanishing Point
Apokolips
Gotham City
Metropolis
Items:

Mobius Chair
Green Lantern Ring
Vehicles:

Batmobile
Notes
This issue is reprinted in the Zero Hour: Crisis in Time trade paperback.
Zero Hour: Crisis in Time was shipped on a weekly publishing schedule.
The reading order for this limited series counts down backwards beginning with issue #4 and ending with issue #0.
Trivia
The Joker taunts Batman by asking him if he’s not as fast as ”that replacement [he] had running around.” He is referring to Jean-Paul Valley, who took up the Batman identity during the Knightfall saga, which concluded shortly before the events of Zero Hour. Superman also references Knightfall when he mentions that even a broken back[4] can’t dampen a Batman’s resourcefulness. Batman responds by saying his injuries weren’t nearly as serious as Superman’s. Superman was actually killed by the monster Doomsday[5] during the events of The Death of Superman, although he was resurrected during the Reign of the Supermen![6]
Batman mentions to Superman that he has been unable to contact him due to Metropolis and its phone lines being destroyed. This occurred during the events of Fall of Metropolis, and shortly afterwards again in Worlds Collide.
Kyle Rayner laments over the death of his girlfriend, Alex DeWitt, which occurred in Green Lantern (Volume 3) #54.
Wally West’s death parallels that of the original Flash, Barry Allen, during the Crisis on Infinite Earths.[7]

https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Zero_Hour:_Crisis_in_Time_Vol_1_4

Sep 1994

DC (Detective Comics)

76194120231000411

4

1

September

1994

1

A

Direct

1

United States

$1.50

Modern Age

English

Magazine

2018-07-02 23:38:40

Zero Hour: Crisis In Time (1994)

”Knights in Darkness”

32

~$4.99

2026-04-13

2018-07-02 23:38:40