With nearly ninety years of publishing history under their belts, the most iconic heroes of the DC Comics Universe have starred in more stories than most fans can count. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and the rest of their Justice League cohorts have gone through quite a lot over the years and not all of it has been good.

Thanks to these ups and downs, there are plenty of readers out there that are nostalgic for earlier periods of storytelling, and more than a few diehard DC fans consider the ‘90s to be their personal favorite era. But when it’s boiled down, the ‘90s were arguably the roughest decade for the Justice League’s marquee heroes – and we need to stop with the nostalgia if only for their sake.

The comic book industry of the ‘90s was well-known for its love affair with grim, angsty, and edgy storytelling, and DC Comics was no exception. Over the decade, many of the World’s Finest Heroes underwent some of the greatest traumas of their crimefighting careers.

There are more than a few of these events that even DC Comics’ icons haven’t forgotten. And these very same events helped forge characters like Superman and Batman into the heroes they are today, even if they probably would’ve been much happier had they never happened.

Gotham City Experienced Some Dark Nights

Batman & His City Were Broken In More Ways Than One

As one of DC Comics’ primary champions, it’s no surprise that the Dark Knight’s experience in the 1990s was largely indicative of the entire atmosphere of the DC Universe as a whole. First, Batman found himself utterly broken by an opponent who finally matched his mettle – the mysterious and murderous Bane. The infamous Batman #497 by Doug Moench, Jim Aparo, and Dick Giordano laid Bruce Wayne low as his new adversary shattered his spine, seemingly ending the Batman legacy.

Unable to leave Gotham defenseless as he recovered, Bruce named Jean-Paul Valley, the unstable Azrael, as his replacement only to have to defeat his crazed, brutal successor upon his return. As if that personal dark night of the soul wasn’t enough, neither Gotham’s Dark Knight nor the city itself would make it through the rest of the decade unscathed thanks to back-to-back tragedies. The events of story arcs like “Contagion,” “Cataclysm,” and “No Man’s Land” fundamentally reshaped Gotham City in ways that fans are still discovering, and neither the city nor its protectors have been the same since.

Superman Gained & Lost It All

Kal-El Learned Just How Human He Was

Meanwhile, at the tail end of the 20th Century, Batman’s old pal Superman also experienced some major milestones. He revealed his identity to Lois Lane before the two married, he grew a sweet mullet, and he even got new powers along with a new costume. But Superman also got killed. Released in 1992 and kicking off the ‘90s with a bang, Superman #75 by Dan Jurgens, Brett Breeding, & Glenn Whitmore saw the Man of Steel finally fall, not to Kryptonite, but at the hands of the infamous Doomsday, the nigh-unstoppable gray behemoth that’s haunted Clark Kent in the decades since. While Clark did eventually make a triumphant return, even his revival wasn’t without tragedy as he failed to stop the impostor Cyborg Superman and Clark's old foe Mongul from destroying Coast City – the impetus for a Justice League ally’s inevitable downfall.

Emerald Twilight Hit Green Lantern Hard

Hal Jordan Burned Out Too Brightly

With his hometown of Coast City destroyed, it was the Silver Age Green Lantern known as Hal Jordan’s turn to suffer. Driven to madness by the destruction of his home and his ultimate inability to save the day, the Green Lantern turned against both the Guardians of the Universe and the Green Lantern Corps itself in the pages of “Green Lantern: Emerald Twilight” – a storyline that took place across issues #48 to #50 of Green Lantern by Ron Marz, Bill Wilingham, Fred Hayes, and Darryl Banks.

Feeling betrayed by the Corps, the Greatest Green Lantern of All goes on a rampage resulting in the deaths of the Guardians, the classic DC villain known as Sinestro, and countless other Green Lanterns including Kilowog. Taking on the name Parallax – later retconned as a possession from a malignant alien entity – after absorbing the energies of the Central Power Battery, Hal would go on to become one of the greatest multiversal threats the DC Universe had ever seen, leaving an inexperienced Kyle Rayner behind to bear the torch as the last and only member of the Green Lantern Corps.

The Justice League As A Whole Suffered

Wonder Woman & Co. Weren’t Left Out of the Fun

Though Batman, Superman, and Green Lantern clearly got the worst that the ‘90s had to offer, they weren’t the only Justice Leaguers left to suffer. It was Hal’s best friend and fellow Hard-Travellin’ Hero, Green Arrow Oliver Queen, who met his own demise before Superman’s very eyes in Green Arrow #101 by Chuck Dixon, Rodolfo Damaggio, and Robert Camla. Meanwhile Aquaman – who like Oliver, first appeared in 1941’s More Fun Comics #73 by Mort Weisinger, George Papp, and Paul Norris – experienced a midlife crisis after he got his hand eaten by a pool of piranha.

Not to be outdone by the rest of the Trinity. Wonder Woman herself died in Wonder Woman #127 by John Byrne and Patricia Mulvihill. But considering the fact that she ascended to become the Olympian Goddess of Truth, it’s not the worst thing that happened to Diana that decade after she lost the right to the Wonder Woman mantle to Artemis in 1994’s Wonder Woman #92 by William Messner-Loebs, Mike Deodato, Jr., and Patricia Mulvihill.

Though Batman, Superman, and Green Lantern clearly got the worst that the ‘90s had to offer, they weren’t the only Justice Leaguers left to suffer.

DC Comics’ continuity is constantly ebbing and flowing, but, as far as readers can tell, all of these events still happened to the World’s Greatest Heroes. The consistent cycles of death and rebirth coupled with whatever random tragedies and crises they tackle in between clearly take a toll on the likes of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, meaning that the effects of the ‘90s are still rippling throughout the DC Universe to this day. Now, the stories themselves may be iconic, and for the most part, they hold up surprisingly well on a contemporary read. But the ‘90s were clearly a monstrously tough time for the World’s Finest, and for the sake of the Justice League and the rest of DC Comics’ greatest champions, it’s probably best to let the nostalgia – and the heroes it risks – rest.