1985 TIMELINE A compilation of the year’s notable comic book industry events alongside some of the year’s most significant popular cultural and historical events. January 3: The first issue of DC Comics’ ultimate status-quo altering maxi-series, Crisis on Infinite Earths, goes on sale.
JANUARY
March 11: The day after the death of Konstantin Chernenko, Mikhail Gorbachev is chosen to succeed him as General Secretary of the Soviet Union’s Communist Party.
F E B R U A R Y M A R C H
May 27: Starring Roger Moore in the final time he will play British super-spy James Bond, A View To A Kill opens in movie theaters.
April 16: Four months after the final issue of Secret Wars is published, the first issue of its sequel, Secret Wars II, goes on sale.
June 14: A TWA jet carrying 139 passengers is hijacked by Lebanese extremists shortly after takeoff from Athens, Greece. A 17-day intercontinental ordeal ensues that includes the murder of a U.S. Naval officer.
A P R I L M AY
JUNE
February 26: Tina Turner’s “What’s Love Got to Do With It” wins Grammy Awards for Record and Song of the year. Cyndi Lauper wins Grammy Award for Best New Artist.
March 3: Moonlighting, a romantic comedy/private investigator television show starring Cybill Shepard and Bruce Willis, premieres on the ABC television network.
May 11: Chester Gould – creator of the comic strip detective Dick Tracy – dies at the age of 84.
Crisis on Infinite Earths and Supergirl TM and © DC Comics. Alpha Flight, Hulk, Secret Wars and the X-Men TM and © Marvel Characters, Inc. Dick Tracy TM and © Tribune Media Services. Calvin and Hobbes TM and © Bill Watterson.
out various DC titles starting with 1982’s New Teen Titans #21. In that issue, the cosmic being called The Monitor makes his debut. In 1984, the Monitor unleashed villains in the pages of Green Lantern and Flash and then began observing such heroes as the Justice League, the All-Star Squadron, and Swamp Thing.
DC Comics house ad that teases the impact of Crisis on Infinite Earths. TM and © DC Comics.
Just as the Monitor’s appearances became more frequent and involved more DC titles, fan-favorite artist George Pérez was assigned to illustrate Crisis on Infinite Earths. As Pérez explained, he was called to duty “for the sense of grandeur that [Crisis] required, and because I’m capable of juggling as many characters as it took to tell the story.” Pérez also admitted that he was excited to take a little bit of vengeance on Marvel Comics: “It was to get revenge for not being able to do the JLA-Avengers book, as well as a way of getting back at Secret Wars, which did phenomenally well with a minimum of effort” (Waid 55130
56). Since their tremendous success with New Teen Titans had made Wolfman and Pérez DC’s team supreme, it was only fitting that they collaborate on DC’s most important project in decades. Crisis on Infinite Earths #1 hit the stands at the beginning of January 1985 (cover dated April). Pérez’s spectacular wraparound cover features an array of heroes juxtaposed against a countless array of Earths. Astute readers recognized Firestorm, The Teen Titans’ Cyborg, The Outsiders’ Geo-Force, and the John Stewart Green Lantern on the cover, but they had to be surprised at seeing former Charlton hero Blue Beetle, a character never previously seen in a DC comic book (despite DC acquiring him and most of the other Charlton Action Heroes in 1983). The cover to Crisis #1 also presented the Earth-2 Superman (complete with white hair in his temples) and two other unidentified characters.