Zero Hour: Crisis in Time #1

Zero Hour: Crisis in Time #1 was released by DC Comics in 1994 as the debut issue of a five-part weekly miniseries. The event was conceived by Dan Jurgens as a direct sequel to the 1985 series Crisis on Infinite Earths, designed to reconcile various continuity contradictions that had emerged within the DC Universe over the preceding decade. The narrative centers on the villain Hal Jordan, acting as Parallax, who attempts to undo and recreate reality, effectively functioning as a soft reboot of the publisher's internal timeline.

The visual aesthetic and narrative structure were driven by Jurgens, who served as both writer and penciller for the series. His approach utilized a reverse-chronological countdown, with the issue numbers descending from 4 to 0, a stylistic choice intended to emphasize the ticking clock of the cosmic collapse. Upon its release, the series was received as a significant editorial project, noted for its attempt to streamline the histories of characters like Hawkman and the Legion of Super-Heroes, though its heavy reliance on extensive continuity updates became a defining characteristic of the 1990s comic book era.