History ComicBook / DarkCrisis

** ''Dark Crisis: Young Justice'' #5 has the villain play on the Young Justice boys' fears that they've been replaced by their mentors and not given what they're owed, pointing to Bruce, Clark and Wally replacing Tim, Conner and Bart with Damian, Jon and Ace. While Tim and Conner's "replaced" status could be debated, Bart's cannot -- he was ''never'' Wally's sidekick, never liked the idea of being a sidekick and Wally only "mentored" Ace ''in one arc'' immediately prior to ''Dark Crisis''.

* StrawFan: [[spoiler: Mickey Mxyzptlk. He portrays the fan who believes that the 90's DCU heroes were robbed of their time to shine by other characters and that they shouldn't even grow beyond their base characteristics. It's telling that he hates the idea of Tim being with someone other than Stephanie Brown, that he believes Bart should be nothing but a comic relief and even rejects the idea of bringing in Cassie and creates a version of her old self because she looked "too old".]]

* ''Dark Crisis: The Dark Army''

** In ''The Dark Army'', it's revealed that [[spoiler:the Monitor created the Kimiyo Hoshi Dr. Light

* RagtagBandOfMisfits: Issue 1 introduces a new Justice League, comprised of Superman (Jon Kent), Supergirl, Robin (Damian Wayne), Aquaman (Jackson Hyde), Frankenstein's Monster, Blue Beetle (both Ted Kord and Jaime Reyes), Booster Gold, Harley Quinn and Dr. Light (Kimiyo Hoshi). Jon asked everyone and these are the only people who said yes. Black Adam sees the team as a lost cause.

* ArcWelding: The Great Darkness is used to arc weld '''almost every major DC story since the ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths''' into a single coherent MythArc involving the Darkness' attempts to destroy reality and [[GodIsGood the Presence]]. In particular, it is explicitly stated to have been the power behind (directly or indirectly) the Anti-Monitor itself, [[ComicBook/KingdomCome Magog]], the Anti-Life Entity from ''Cosmic Odyssey'', [[ComicBook/ZeroHour Monarch/Extant]], [[ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis Superboy-Prime]], [[ComicBook/FiftyTwo Mister Mind becoming the Hyperfly]], [[ComicBook/FinalCrisis Darkseid and Mandrakk]], [[ComicBook/DoomsdayClock Dr. Manhattan's timeline meddling]], [[ComicBook/TheMultiversity the Empty Hand and his Gentry]], [[ComicBook/DarkNightsMetal Barbatos]], and later, Pariah's FaceHeelTurn and Deathstroke's leadership of TRUST.

* FallenHero: Pariah, one of the key heroes from ''Crisis on Infinite Earths'', is now in service of the Great Darkness. It's revealed that [[spoiler:the Great Darkness corrupted him by tempting him through his lost family.]]

* TalkingToThemself: [[spoiler:The true nature of Pariah's conversations with the Great Darkness at times, possibly all the time, is that he is simply talking to himself. Once his role in the crisis is clarified, this becomes more obvious, with him whispering to someone who clearly does not exist.]]

* DarkIsNotEvil: [[spoiler:As revealed in ''The Deadly Green'', Pariah is the one corrupting the Great Darkness with his madness, not the other way around. Being an existence of darkness, the Great Darkness itself is without hate, just being something to strive against in an attempt to be better.]]

* BaitAndSwitch: As the Secret Society lay siege to Titans Tower and Jon arrives to help the Titans, we cut to outside where a man with distinctive black hair, a red cape, and super-speed is bearing down on the Tower. Franchise/{{Superman}} back to save the day?! [[spoiler:Nope. It's '''Hank Henshaw'''.]]

* DragonAscendant: [[spoiler:After Jace and Mr. Terrific are able to kill Pariah using his Anti-Matter device, Deathstroke takes over as the ultimate BigBad.]]

* TragicVillain: Pariah. He doesn't ''want'' to help the Great Darkness, but he's driven to through psychological torture and temptation in the form of visions of his family being returned to him and a worse crisis occurring if he doesn't.

* EvilMakesYouUgly: The more the Great Darkness gets it's hooks in Deathstroke and Pariah, the more pallid and sickly they look. Slade in particular eventually starts bleeding some kind of black ichor out of his eyes constantly. [[spoiler:The second Pariah is defeated, Slade also transforms into a [[HulkingOut hulking monstrosity]] roughly the size of doomsday.]]

* DragonAscendent: [[spoiler:After Jace and Mr. Terrific are able to kill Pariah using his Anti-Matter device, Deathstroke takes over as the ultimate BigBad.]]

* EvilMakesYouUgly: The more the Great Darkness gets it's hooks in Deathstroke and Pariah, the more pallid and sickly they look. Slade in particular eventually starts bleeding some kind of black ichor out of his eyes constantly.

** In ''I Am Batman'' #14, Jace is accused of being a coward by invoking this trope by Detective Whitaker as it seems that whenever things get too bad for him, he runs. [[spoiler:Jace just about kills him for this]].

* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: Alan Scott gives one of these to Nightwing to slap him out of his depression in issue #4

* BigBad: Pariah is this for the main story, Mickey Mxypltlik for the ''Young Justice'' tie-in.
* BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler:Before Doomsday can land the killing blow on Jon, Superman arrives to block his punch, allowing father and son to drop him. Soon after, both the Justice League and the Green Lantern Corps arrive to help our heroes.]]

* ChangedMyMindKid: Yara Flor initially isn't very receptive to the idea of joining Jon's new League, but after the attack on Titans Tower, she decides they'll need all the help they can get.

* ''Aquamen'' #6

* AnArmAndALeg: [[spoiler:Beast Boy survives his shooting, but he's lost his right eye.]]

* BigBad: The Great Darkness is this not just for the event, but ''the entire DC multiverse''.

* SupermanStaysOutOfGotham: ''Not a single speedster hero'' is on Earth-0 during the events of ''Dark Crisis'', which helps with maintaining Deathstroke's threat -- especially when he attacks Titans Tower. Wally, Ace, Jay, Max and Jesse have left to find Barry, while Bart is whisked away to some warped recreation of ''Young Justice'' in the '90s. With the exception of Bart, they all return in time for issue #5.

* Mea

* BigDamnHeroes: Jon saves Nightwing from being shot by Deathstroke by literally hurling himself between the two; [[ImmuneToBullets for obvious reasons, Deathstroke's bullet does nothing to him]].

** ''Dark Crisis'' #3 sees the full return of [[spoiler:the ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica]].

*** On the other end of the spectrum, when all Hope seems lost, who all arrive to aid our heroes but [[spoiler:the Justice Society, the heroes before the League.]]

*** Ace West is seemingly integrated into Barry's world when he and Wally try to rescue Barry. In Ace's world, Wally is happily retired, having handed the reins over to Ace, who is now a superhero called Burst, working alongside Irey and Jai West, while being in a relationship with Emiko Queen.

* SeriesContinuityError: A minor one in the first issue, where Knight and Squire from [[ComicBook/BatmanGrantMorrison Batman Inc.]] are shown fighting cultists in London. The problem is that the Knight and Squire shown are Cyril Sheldrake and Beryl Hutchinson when the former is dead while the latter took up his mantle. The current Squire should be Beryl's protege Amina Eluko, who debuted in Tom Taylor's ''Batman: The Detective''.

* BrutalHonesty: Black Adam doesn't mince words when he says how unimpressed he is with the Justice League Jon has assembled. He points out that some members are young (Dr. Light), untrustworthy (Harley and Killer Frost) and that the world needs capable protectors, which is not the case. He ends by saying that Jon has very little experience being a hero and no experience in being a leader and Nightwing is the one who should lead a New Justice League.
** But after the utter disaster that was Slade's attack on Titans Academy, Black Adam immediately renounces his endorsement of Nightwing, expressing his disappointment in Grayson's handling of the entire situation and places the blame of the tragedy squarely on his shoulders.

* AboveGoodAndEvil: In issue four, the Swamp-Things note that the Great Darkness isn't really ''evil'' or even malicious — it's just a force a nature that exists as a natural part of the cosmos, and is more curious then anything. [[spoiler:Given this, they further determine, the Darkness has no reason to be going on the offensive like this, meaning it's most likely being manipulated by someone else…]]
* AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: Deathstroke leads the Secret Society to attack Titans Academy.

* FaceHeelTurn: Black Adam runs off to join Luthor's Legion of Doom when he decides the heroes aren't ruthless enough to "do what it takes".

** [[spoiler:The Swamp Things suggest that the Great Darkness isn't good nor evil, it's just a force of nature and that whatever is out there is either ''not'' the Great Darkness or the Great Darkness is being manipulated.]]

* SupermanStaysOutOfGotham: ''Not a single speedster hero'' is on Earth-0 during the events of ''Dark Crisis'', which helps with maintaining Deathstroke's threat -- especially when he attacks Titans Tower. Wally, Ace, Jay, Max and Jesse have left to find Barry, while Bart is whisked away to some warped recreation of ''Young Justice'' in the '90s.