Marvel issues a press release declaring they've filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
They tried to go around Diamond and self-distribute. Only the market collapsed and they were left with a huge amount of product. The bubble had burst. The Gimmick Age was over.
Marvel killed off Professor Xavier and all hell broke loose.
Three powerful words... Spider-Man Clone Saga.
Zero Hour was meant as a follow-up to DC's maxi-series Crisis on Infinite Earths, to both do for the timelines what Crisis did for alternate realities as well as answer some unforeseen problems that arose out of Crisis (most notably serious confusion over Hawkman). The main controversy arose not out of the premise however but over the execution, in particular the arrival of Hal Jordan, the former Green Lantern, as the misunderstood villain Parallax.
Image and Valiant try to put out a comic mini-series. It is an utter failure. Despite being cover dated from September, the issues consistently came out six months or more late.
