History ComicBook / UnderworldUnleashed

* QuickChange: The Trickster does a variant near the start of the story, with rueful narration about how a charter member of The Flash's RoguesGallery is now reduced to conning pizza boys.

* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Neron going after the soul of Captain Marvel, because he was the most pure of the heroes. [[spoiler: However, his soul was so pure a demon couldn't touch it.]]

* ContinuitySnarl: While the one regarding Hawkman had started before this point, the image for [[ContinuitySnarl/{{Hawkman}} the subpage of the subject about him]] comes from here.

* ContinuitySnarl: While the one regarding Hawkman had started before this point, the image for [[ContinuitySnarl/Hawkman the subpage of the subject about him]] comes from here.

* BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu / DoNotTauntCthulhu: Neron allowed any villain to leave if they didn't want to trade their soul for power. Mongul made the mistake of also trying to attack him. Neron promptly snaps his neck and ''consumed his soul''.

* BadassInDistress: When the heroes find out that Neron's looking for a certain pure soul, everyone automatically assumes it's Franchise/{{Superman}} he's going after and, since he's MIA, he's in Neron's grasp. [[spoiler:Turns out that wasn't the case - the entire Superman family was embroiled in "The Trial of Superman" storyline, forcing them all off planet.]]

** The ''Batman'' issue had it even worse. All its ties to the crossover were a single panel of Mr. Freeze vaguely referencing dealing with Neron and battling GreenLantern earlier in the crossover.

Several super-villains get black candles. When they light the candles, they are summoned to Neron, a demon who offers to enhance their powers in exchange for their souls. His real goal from empowering the villains is to [[spoiler:get Captain Marvel's soul]].

* FiveBadBand: Neron's big 5:

* RedSkiesCrossover: Due to the nature of the saga, most crossovers were unrelated to the main story and only dealt with the corresponding hero facing an enhanced villain. An extreme case is the ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} crossover, where Major Disaster's appearance wasn't even part of the main story of the issue and he didn't even face Aquaman, but killed the villain Thanathos after mistaking him by Aquaman himself.

* DealWithTheDevil: Lots of villains (and a few {{Anti Hero}}es like Blue Devil) sell their souls to the demon Neron in exchange for additional powers. (Well, most of them. Lex Luthor did it to cure his cancer. The Joker did it for a box of Cuban cigars.) Many find that the gifts have nasty side effects. [[spoiler:The demon's [[EvilPlan ultimate plan]] was to corrupt, and then buy, the soul of Captain Marvel. When Cap selflessly offers his uncorrupted soul in exchange for nothing but the safety of his friends, Neron has no choice but to accept the deal, even though Captain Marvel had offered exactly what Trickster had told him, and so was safe: Neron could not collect if there was nothing in the bargain for the other person.]]

* CrisisCrossover: The story has Mark Waid killing off 90% of The Flash's rogue's gallery who he felt were too silly even for his Silver Age tastes (though this didn't last long and Waid was proven wrong in a BIG way later on) and introducing Neron, the ''de facto'' Satan of the DC Universe proper. It also saw a ton of DC villains selling their souls for grim and gritty revamps, of which only a small handful actually stuck.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: You ever hear the line "When villains want to scare each other, they tell [[TheJoker Joker]] stories"? This is the story that line comes from.

* DyingToBeReplaced: The ''Franchise{{Batman}}'' foe Spellbinder was shot by his girlfriend after turning down an offer for demonically enhanced powers, so she could receive them (and his identity) instead.

* BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu: Neron allowed any villain to leave if they didn't want to trade their soul for power. Mongul made the mistake of also trying to attack him. Neron promptly snaps his neck.

* DealWithTheDevil: Besides the villains, there are also some heroes who made deals with Neron, like Blue Devil.

* WastefulWishing: The Joker sells his soul for a box of cigars.

* EvilCannotComprehendGood: This ends up costing Neron badly when he reveals that his stream of [[DealWithTheDevil deals with various DC villains and heroes]] was done solely to get [[Comicbook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]] to cut a deal with him. Unfortunately, Neron thought that the Big Red Cheese would ask for something selfish. Instead, Cap asked for something completely selfless ("Let everyone else go and I'm yours."), which meant that when Neron tried to take Cap's soul, [[GoodHurtsEvil it burned him so badly that he fled]]. Neron gets similarly burned when he buys the love between The Flash and Linda Park. It causes him to start developing feelings for the souls in his possession, and he doesn't understand why. He ends up giving it up in disgust.

* CrisisCrossover

* TheWorfEffect: Neron effortlessly {{Neck Snap}}ping Mongul, a guy canonically stronger than Superman.

''Underworld Unleashed'' was a Creator/DCComics mini-series published in 1995, written by Creator/MarkWaid and drawn by HowardPorter.

* WastefulWishing: The Joker sells his soul for a box of cigars. Also counts as a FunnyMoment.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler:Neron gets what he wants: Captain Marvel's soul. However, since Captain Marvel gave it in a disinterested act, it's too pure for Neron to have it.]]

** Also hit with this heavily were the ''Superman'' books due to the fact that they were already caught up in a BatFamilyCrossover storyline entitled ''The Trial of Superman'' which saw the cast off-planet trying to rescue a prisoner-turned-fugitive Supes, so none of them were around while Neron was causing trouble. The tradepaperback collection of ''Trial'' completely omits the portions of the story that tie in with Underworld Unleashed, and aside from the tie-in issues collected being shorter than the standard 22 page length nothing was really lost.

** The ''Batman'' issue had it even worse. All its ties to the crossover were a single panel of Mr. Freeze vaguely referencing dealing with Neron and battling GreenLantern earlier in the crossover.

* CrossThrough: Many titles feature their protagonists being targeted by the powered-up villains or by Neron himself while they're in the middle of a situation. After they go through the encounter, they're back focusing on their predicament.