2021 was a monumental year for DC Comics, as a number of high-profile events both acknowledged the company’s past and looked to its future. These events ranged from line-wide initiatives, such as Future State and Infinite Frontier to events specific to a certain character, such as Fear State, running through the Batman family of titles.
When the clock struck midnight on January 1st, the DC Universe was non-existent, thanks to the events of Dark Nights: Death Metal. Due to the machinations of the Batman Who Laughs, the multiverse was largely destroyed, with a rag-tag assortment of heroes left to fight. The Batman Who Laughs was defeated and in response, a powerful group known as the Hands came to wipe out the last vestiges of the old multiverse. However, thanks to Wonder Woman’s intervention, the Hands gave the multiverse another chance, leading to a new beginning for the DC Universe.
So, without further ado, here are the best DC Comics events of 2021!
FUTURE STATE
Dark Nights: Death Metal was to have led into a new DC Universe, in an initiative referred to as “5G.” The plan was scrapped when Dan DiDio, allegedly the initiative’s architect, exited the publisher. According to insiders, 5G would have aged DC’s stable of heroes and replaced them with newer, younger heroes.
The 5G reportedly morphed into Future State, a two-month event spinning out of the end of Dark Nights Death Metal. Billed as the “destiny of the DC Universe,” Future State presented a possible future for the DC Universe, beginning just a few years into the future and stretching onwards for thousands of years, concluding at the end of the universe.
A number of developments teased in Future State have already come to pass. Superman has gone to liberate WarWorld, passing the mantle on to his son Jon and the Magistrate reared their heads in Gotham. The Green Lantern Corps are gone, destroyed in a terrorist attack, leaving Jo Mullein the sole surviving member and Shazam has started down a path that will turn him into a dark vigilante.
Echoes of the 5G plan were found in the exciting new characters that made their debut during Future State. Most notable among them was Yara Flor, the new Wonder Girl, who quickly became a fan favorite. The aforementioned Magistrate, a fascist regime who ruled over a futuristic Gotham with an iron fist, debuted not long after Future State’s conclusion and were integral to Fear State as well.
Future State set the bar high for DC in 2021, radically reimagining the DC Universe and setting the stage for 2021’s next big event: Infinite Frontier!
INFINITE FRONTIER
Once Future State concluded, Infinite Frontier began. Another line-wide initiative, Infinite Frontier provided a fresh start for many of the publisher’s books. The continuity-altering effects of Dark Nights: Death Metal were felt throughout the DC Universe, bringing long-dead or missing characters back, and giving new directions to existing ones.
The event kicked off in grand fashion in March, with Infinite Frontier #0, an 80-page special that established which storylines would run through the DC Universe for the next several months. A framing sequence saw the Quintessence, some of the most powerful beings in the multiverse, ruthlessly massacred by Darkseid, who had assumed his ultimate form.
A follow-up miniseries saw the supercharged Lord of Apokolips turn his ambitions away from the Anti-Life Equation and towards the Great Darkness, the primordial evil lurking outside the Omniverse. To this end, Darkseid fought the Justice League Incarnate, a team of heroes from across the multiverse, seeking to use Barry Allen to open a crack in the multiverse; this breach would give him access to the Great Darkness. Darkseid’s schemes are continuing to play out in Justice League Incarnate, before kicking into full gear in 2022.
Beyond Darkseid’s attempt to take the multiverse, Infinite Frontier also saw characters who had been missing, or dead, return to life. Roy Harper, seemingly killed during Heroes in Crisis, got a new lease on life, as did Connor Hawke, the former Green Arrow erased from history at the beginning of the New 52.
Both Fear State and Infinite Frontier were line-wide, affecting many heroes. However, there were character-centric events too, one of which was seeded in Future State.
FEAR STATE
Readers saw a hellish vision of Gotham City in Future State, one where costumed heroes were outlawed and a fascist regime called the Magistrate ruled the city. Fans were left wondering how things got so bad in Gotham, and they got the answer in Fear State.
Debuting concurrently with Infinite Frontier, Fear State kicked off with a brutal attack on Arkham Asylum, leaving long-time foes such as Bane dead. This created a climate of fear in Gotham, casting doubt on both Batman and the city’s existing law enforcement agencies, allowing Silicon Valley tycoon Simon Saint to join forces with Jonathan Crane, the Scarecrow, to begin sowing the seeds of the “Fear State.” This idea, developed by Crane, posits that a traumatic event can cause humanity to “evolve” and “grow.” Scarecrow intended to unleash a highly virulent strain of his Fear Toxin into Gotham, which would drive the city mad—creating his Fear State.
Fear State recently concluded, and its effects will take time to settle, but its impact on the Bat-Family has already been immense. Barbara Gordon kicked ass as both Batgirl and Oracle and Red Hood took an important step forward in his journey of redemption. Bat-Family members such as Tim Drake, Spoiler, and Cassandra Cain—all sidelined at the beginning of the New 52, also returned to prominence.
But the Dark Knights was not the only DC hero facing a big event in 2021…
SUPERMAN/WARWORLD
Another storyline seeded during Future State was the saga of Superman’s attempt to liberate the denizens of WarWorld, an artificial planet ruled over by the tyrant Mongul, who enslaves beings from around the universe, forcing them to fight in battles to the death. In the pages of Superman and the Authority, the Man of Steel created a new version of the team to help him fight Mongul and his hordes. He entrusted the mantle of Superman to his son Jon Kent, who history records will also be a great hero.
This event is still unfolding. The Authority recently landed on WarWorld, taking the fight directly to Mongul. Jon Kent is proving to be a much different Superman than his father, earning him the ire of both Lex Luthor and Henry Bendix, the despotic leader of Gamorra.
These events rocked the DC Universe in 2021, laying the foundation for even more epic events in 2022.