Zero Hour
Zero Hour is an event that features in DC Comics.
Contents |
History
Zero Hour was a holocaust-level crisis in which Parallax attempted to wipe out existence, in an effort to remake the universe to his liking- a universe where, as he said, "Everybody wins!"
A mysterious figure revealed to be Hal Jordan, now calling himself Parallax after absorbing near-limitless power from the Central Power Battery of Oa. Parallax announced his plan to rewrite reality itself, intending to erase the flaws and tragedies of history and build a “perfect” universe. At the same time, across the timestream, heroes and villains began noticing temporal distortions: events happening out of sequence, historical figures appearing in the present, and alternate versions of characters manifesting. Teams of heroes, including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and the Flash, were called together as the fabric of reality visibly began to collapse around them. (Zero Hour v1 #0) The effects of the temporal crisis escalated as entire timelines were compressed or erased. Battles erupted across different eras, with heroes encountering multiple versions of themselves and being forced to question which timeline was 'true'. Parallax’s actions continued to destabilize the timestream, causing chaos on Earth as well as throughout the cosmos. The Linear Men, guardians of time, attempted to intervene but quickly realized the magnitude of Parallax’s power. The heroes recognized that their only chance of stopping the collapse lay in understanding the identity and motivation of the entity behind the crisis. (Zero Hour v1 #1) The timestream grew increasingly unstable, with hours themselves counting backward as the universe moved closer to annihilation. Individuals flickered in and out of existence, replaced by alternate counterparts, while entire eras of history vanished before their eyes. The Justice Society of America was aged to their natural lifespans, effectively removing many of its members from active duty. Meanwhile, the scope of Parallax’s threat became clearer, as he demonstrated his ability to erase and rewrite history with a wave of his hand. The tension among the heroes rose, as the moral weight of opposing Hal Jordan—a former friend and ally—became unavoidable (Zero Hour v1 #2)
At the end of time, a mysterious figure came to murder the Time Trapper. Metron unsuccessfully attempted to enlist Darkseid to help him against what he perceives to be a gigantic upcoming crisis. 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. 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. 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. Batman brings the temporal problems in Gotham City to the attention of Superman. Metron appears, and enlists the two of them to help him. Hunter and Waverider arrive in the 58th Century, where they find a younger version of Green Lantern Hal Jordan, before he became corrupted, battling the entropy wave under the leadership of Pol Manning. Both Green Lantern and Hunter perish, although Hunter warns Waverider that this is another Crisis, and he must check the Chronoscopes. 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. In the Chronoscopes, Waverider reads of the original Crisis, long forgotten to all except for the Linear Men. 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. At Vanishing Point, Extant lords over the unconscious bodies of the Linear Men. (Zero Hour: Crisis in Time v1 #4)
The Justice Society decides to take the fight immediately to its source, using their extensive experience with time-related problems as an advantage. Doctor Fate transports them to Vanishing Point, although Waverider uses Hawkman and Hawkwoman for his own purposes. While traveling to New York City with Metron, Superman goes to investigate screams coming from Keystone City, and meets up with Impulse, who is fighting Dinosaurs. He enlists the young speedster to join him. Outside of the Timestream, the Time Trapper reveals to Rokk Krinn that he is in fact just an older version of himself. In New York City, the heroes of the world finally converge and join together. Superman is elected group leader. The Justice Society arrives at Vanishing Point, and Extant immediately begins blasting them with Chronal Energy. Waverider shows the two Hawks how they are at the center of some of the problems and ramifications still being caused by the original Crisis. On Cairn, Vril Dox of L.E.G.I.O.N. determines that the Timestream is falling apart and sends probes into it to investigate. In Supertown, even the New Gods themselves are terrified of the entropy, as Highfather finds himself unable to feel to feel the powers of the cosmos anymore. The heroes discuss the chronal disruptions with Waverider, and whether or not they can determine who's real and who isn't. Aquaman questions whether or not there could be a singular being of power controlling the whole situation. The Justice Society continues to fight Extant, but are grossly outmatched. He uses his powers to age them. The Atom is outright murdered, and Doctor Fate is defeated as well. Wildcat and Sandman are aged into withering old men. From New York, Waverider feels for the presence of Extant, and is able to track him to Vanishing Point. He is too late to save most members of the Society, as all of them except Alan Scott are aged to old men by Extant's powers. A city from the 25th Century (home of Booster Gold) appears above New York City, and begins slowly descending, about to crush everything. Metron explains that alternate timelines, past and future, true and false, are all merging with the present. After putting the Justice Society in stasis to stabilize them, Waverider confronts Extant. He is shocked, when Extant unmasks himself and reveals a face identical to that of Waverider's own. (Zero Hour: Crisis in Time v1 #3)
He accomplished this by manipulating the connection forged by Krona between the entropy at the End of Time and the creation at the Dawn of Time, causing time to be wiped out from both ends- past and future. As this happened, temporal anomalies (aftereffects of the Crisis on Infinite Earths) began to manifest: among other things, Steel met his younger self, legions of alternate Hawkmen began to appear, Superman met the Jor-El and Lara of an alternate Krypton and Batman found himself in a world where his parents lived, but he died.
Initially, the Linear Men and the heroes of Earth believed Extant was responsible for the events, until Parallax revealed himself just as the present ceased to exist. A handful of heroes survived outside time, who were able to defeat Parallax and create a new big bang using Damage. The resulting history was largely the same as the pre-Zero Hour "Earth-Sigma," with most differences being very subtle. The primary difference was the total erasure of the Legion of Super-Heroes' history, restarting their adventures anew.
Two supervillains individually attempt to destroy the timestream using entropy. Extant wishes to recreate the world in his own image, and Parallax wants to construct a better world, that wouldn't produce the evils that turned him into a villain. Both of their plans involve first destroying everything that ever was, is, or will be, and the following genocide of billions of people. The heroes of the world are organized to fight the chaos, gathered by Superman and Waverider of the Linear Men. With the barriers of time destroyed, time begins eating away at itself from both ends, and the lines separating alternate timelines become blurred, allowing them to interact with the main universe. The Flash is killed trying to stop the entropy. All versions of Hawkman converge into a single being. The Justice Society of America is decimated by Extant, Doctor Fate, Hourman and the Atom are killed, and all except for Alan Scott are aged into withering old men. The Team Titans, revealed to be pawns brainwashed by Extant, fight the heroes and are completely erased from history. Time Trapper is revealed to be Rokk Krinn. Extant kills the Waverider from his timeline, and the Matthew Ryder of the regular timeline is forced to become the new Waverider. The Legion of Super-Heroes are completely wiped out, along with the entire 30th Century. The Leymen are slaughtered by Extant. When Parallax reveals himself, most of the timestream has already been destroyed, and he is attempting to recreate the Multiverse that existed prior to the Crisis on Infinite Earths. There's a big showdown between Parallax and the remaining heroes, Parallax is weakened by the Spectre, and Green Arrow kills him. The Spectre then overloads Damage with the cosmic energies unleashed in the fight, and a new Big Bang is triggered. The timeline is rebooted with subtle differences, but guided by nature, and not by the hands of a villain.
Overview
In appearance, Zero Hour was a cosmic-scale temporal event that depicted the unraveling of time itself as a literal countdown to nothingness. Each issue of the series was numbered in reverse, moving from #4 to #0, reflecting the visual countdown to the end of existence. Pages showed collapsing timelines, characters vanishing mid-panel, and multiple versions of heroes overlapping as reality fragmented. The imagery emphasized disintegration, with the universe collapsing piece by piece until nothing remained. (Zero Hour v1 #0)
It had been designed to serve as a cosmic correction mechanism, purging inconsistencies that had lingered since Crisis on Infinite Earths and the gradual, disjointed post-Crisis retcons. Its catalyst was Hal Jordan, corrupted as Parallax, whose grief-induced madness led him to manipulate time in a desperate bid to rewrite personal tragedy and recreate Universe-wide losses. Alongside him, the enigmatic villain Extant—formerly Hawk of Hawk and Dove—had been accelerating entropy’s spread by unseating Justice Society timelines and allowing aging heroes to wither and die.
The impact of Zero Hour had been profound. It served as a 'soft reboot' of the entire universe, enabling the correction of temporal anomalies across the board: the Legion of Super‑Heroes received a fresh origin, Hawkman identities were merged, and core heroes such as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Green Arrow had carefully re‑established starting points implemented via “Zero Month” issues that introduced new origin stories. The event also introduced and spotlighted a wave of new characters and titles—Starman (Jack Knight), Doctor Fate (Jared Stevens), Manhunter (Chase Lawler), Primal Force, Xenobrood, and Extreme Justice under Captain Atom's leadership.
Narratively, Zero Hour functioned as the ultimate continuity caretaker, a sweeping editorial strategy to tidy up loose plot threads, harmonize timeline disparities, and create a unified starting point for both returning and new readers. Though it lacked dazzling cosmic stakes seen in Crisis on Infinite Earths, its ambition lay in restoring coherence and flexibility to the DC mythos—and its effects rippled through the decade that followed, shaping the nature of subsequent Crisis events.
Most importantly, Zero Hour had marked a turning point in DC’s publishing philosophy. Not only did it anchor the universe in a clearer present, but it also cemented the concept of “event-driven” continuity resets, establishing a format that would influence Infinite Crisis, Final Crisis, Flashpoint, and beyond. In doing so, it underscored the fragile nature of time and offered a sobering, if imperfect, lesson: without balance, even heroes could fracture reality itself.
Participants
- Parallax :
- Monarch :
Notes
- Zero Hour was created by Dan Jurgens and Jerry Ordway where it made its first appearance in Zero Hour: Crisis in Time v1 #4 (September, 1994).
Appearances
- Zero Hour: Crisis in Time v1: (1994)
