In 1985 there was a 12 issue comic book series from DC Comics that brought together every single superhero and many villains that have ever appeared in the line of comics since the 1930s. All of them were brought together to fight an evil that threatened to destroy the multiverse (that is multiple realities / multiple Earths, planets and other galaxies vibrating at a different speed and co-existing).
The graphic novel was awesome and my all time favorite.
-In 2000 it was made into a paperback novel (no illustrations) called "Crisis on Infinite Earths (DC Comics Novels)" by Marv Wolfman and told from the point of the Flash. I re-read it last week and although I enjoyed it, I much prefer the illustrated version (graphic novel).
If you want to read the story - get the graphic novel -and it's now 31 years old!! - Rob
About this novel: Trapped in a timeless limbo, Barry Allen, the Flash, can only watch in silent and helpless horror as, one by one, countless universes fade from existance in order to feed the insatiable need for power of the Anti-Monitor, a being from the anti-matter universe of Qward. Under the guidance of the Monitor, his benevolent opposite, the super-heroes and villains of all realities are brought together for a last, desperate stand against the forces that promise the literal end of all existance.