Zero Hour: Crisis in Time #1

History

Zero Hour was conceived by writer-artist Dan Jurgens in collaboration with editor KC Carlson as a targeted response to the continuity tangles left unresolved — and in some cases newly created — by Crisis on Infinite Earths nine years earlier; its specific aims included untangling the competing Hawkman histories, resetting the Legion's 30th-century timeline, and giving ongoing series a clean-slate '#0 issue' moment. Jurgens was chosen by DC editorial based on his track record steering large-scale Superman events, including The Death of Superman, and Jerry Ordway — himself a Crisis on Infinite Earths veteran — was brought on as inker and finisher to provide visual consistency across the five weekly issues. The series was published on an accelerated weekly schedule in September 1994, with the issues numbered in reverse order (#4 through #0) to mirror the story's countdown-to-oblivion structure, a formal experiment that had no real precedent in mainstream American comics publishing.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Written and penciled by Dan Jurgens; inked by Jerry Ordway. Cover date: September 1994. Published on a weekly schedule as the second of five reverse-numbered issues (#4 through #0).
• First appearance of Jack Knight (the future Starman of the acclaimed James Robinson/Tony Harris series Starman vol. 2, 1994–2001), created by Robinson and Harris; Jack's debut is a cameo tied to Ted Knight passing the Starman legacy to son David.
• Issue #1 is the chapter in which Parallax (Hal Jordan) reveals himself as the true villain behind the entropy crisis, blasting his co-conspirator Extant into submission and disclosing that he has engineered the entire destruction of the timestream.
• The issue depicts the Legion of Super-Heroes sacrificing themselves to oblivion in the 30th century — the narrative moment that preceded their complete continuity reboot following the event.
• Extant (formerly Hawk of Hawk and Dove, later revealed to be Monarch who absorbed Waverider's temporal powers) serves as the surface-level antagonist through this chapter before Parallax supersedes him.
• The five-issue series triggered 'Zero Month' in October 1994, during which every active DC Universe ongoing title published a special #0 issue retelling character origins under the banner 'The Beginning of Tomorrow!'
• The story directly resulted in the Legion of Super-Heroes receiving a full continuity reboot and all versions of Hawkman being merged into a single composite character.
• The entire Zero Hour miniseries has been collected multiple times: a trade paperback (first published 1994, reprinted), a 2018 hardcover collecting issues #0–4 plus Showcase '94 #8–9 and a Zero Month Sampler, and a 2025 DC Finest reprint series; a 30th Anniversary Special was published in August 2024, co-written by Jurgens and Ron Marz.

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Variants (2)