"DC One Million" is a comic book crossover storyline which ran through an eponymous weekly miniseries and through special issues of almost all of the "DCU" titles published by DC Comics in November 1998. It featured a vision of the DC Universe in the 853rd century (85,201–85,300 AD), chosen because that is the century in which DC would have published issue #1,000,000 of Action Comics if it had maintained a regular monthly publishing schedule. The miniseries was written by Grant Morrison and drawn by Val Semeiks.
Set-up
The core of the event was a four-issue miniseries, in which the 20th-century Justice League of America and the 853rd-century Justice Legion Alpha cooperate to defeat a plot by the supervillain Vandal Savage (who, being practically immortal, exists in both centuries as well as all the ones in between) and future Superman nemesis Solaris the Living Sun. Thirty-four other series then being published by DC also put out a single issue numbered #1,000,000, which either showed its characters' involvement in the central plot or gave a glimpse of what its characters' descendants/successors would be doing in the 853rd century. Hitman #1,000,000 was essentially a parody of the entire storyline. A trade paperback collection was subsequently published consisting of the four-issue mini-series and the tie-in issues that were necessary to follow the main plot. The series was then followed by a one-shot issue titled DC One Million 80-Page Giant #1,000,000 (1999), which was a collection of further adventures in the life of the future heroes.
Plot
In the 853rd century, the original Superman ("Superman-Prime One Million") still lives, but has spent over 15,000 years in a self-imposed exile in his Fortress of Solitude in the heart of the Sun in order to keep it alive, during which everyone he knew and loved died. One of his descendants is "Kal Kent", the Superman of the 853rd century.
The galaxy is protected by the Justice Legions, which were inspired by the 20th-century Justice League and the 31st-century Legion of Super-Heroes, among others. Justice Legion Alpha, which protects the solar system, includes Kal Kent and future analogues of Wonder Woman, the Hourman, Starman, Aquaman, the Flash and Batman. Advanced terraforming processes have made all the Solar System's planets habitable, with the ones most distant from the Sun being warmed by Solaris, a "star computer" which was once a villain but was reprogrammed by one of Superman's descendants.
Superman-Prime announces that he will soon return to humanity and, to celebrate, Justice Legion Alpha travels back in time to the late 20th century to meet Superman's original teammates in the JLA and bring them and Superman to the future to participate in games and displays of power as part of the celebration.
Meanwhile, in Russia, Vandal Savage single-handedly defeats the Titans (Arsenal, Tempest, Jesse Quick and Supergirl) when they attempt to stop him from purchasing nuclear-powered Rocket Red suits. He then launches four Rocket Red suits (with a Titan trapped inside each of the four) in a nuclear strike on Washington D.C., Metropolis, Brussels and Singapore.
One member of the Justice Legion Alpha (the future Starman) has been bribed into betraying his teammates by Solaris, which has returned to its old habits. Before the original heroes can be returned to their own time, the future Hourman android collapses and releases a virus programmed by Solaris to attack machines and humans.
The virus affects the guidance systems of the Rocket Red suits and causes one of them to instead detonate over Montevideo, killing over 1 million people. Tempest (the Titan inside) had escaped long before the suit exploded by using the ice that formed on the suit at high altitude, although he subsequently blacked out and fell into the sea. The virus also drives humans insane, causing an increase in anger and paranoia worldwide. Believing that this was deliberately planned by the JLA to stop him, Savage launches an all-out war on superhumans using "blitz engines" he had created and hidden while allied with Hitler during World War II. The paranoia caused by the virus also leads the Justice Legion Alpha and the contemporary heroes to attack each other, although the Justice Legion Alpha manage to coordinate themselves enough to stop the other Rocket Red suits from hitting their targets.