I've had several moments, especially when I was younger. These stick out for me, though:

1) Steve Englehart, Marshall Rogers and Terry Austin's "Detective Comics" run, particularly the classic "Joker fish" storyline.

2) JB, Chris Claremont, and Terry Austin's run on "Uncanny X-Men," particularly the classic "Dark Phoenix Saga." (These stories are classics for a reason, people!)

3) "Crisis On Infinite Earths" and its aftermath that brought about JB's "Man of Steel," Perez's "Wonder Woman," and DeMatteis and Giffen's "Justice League." I am including this as an era for me, instead of singling out one specific title.

It is what got me to seriously follow DC titles outside of Wolfman and Perez on "New Teen Titans" and Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen;s "Legion of Super-Heroes" Those two titles were like a precursor for me, but it really started rolling after "Crisis."

Hmm, during my collecting period, these jumped up first;

1.WHAT IF?- I thought a great concept then, like when we used to sit around and talk "what if's?" about our favorite Hero's.

2.Last page DEFENDERS #50, no spoilers but man I must have read and stared at that page for a good 10 minutes that first time.

3. The teaser at the end of MARVEL TEAM-UP #73

    

      What?!?! Had to get it.

"Secret Wars" was definitely cross-over marketing. It's original purpose was to promote the toy line. But there was more to "Crisis on Infinite Earths." DC was realizing to stay relevant, it had to "Marvelize" its chracters. And, it worked to a good degree, as many Marvel fans made the leap to DC after the changes. I was one of those fans. I started buying as many DC titles as I did of Marvel after "Crisis."

FUN FACT: "Contest of Champions" was originally, in a different form, a story slated for a "Marvel Super-Heroes at The Summer Olympics" (1980), a follow-up to "Spider-Man and The Hulk at the Winter Olympics." When the U.S. ended up boycotting the 1980 Summer Olympics, the story was shelved and later dusted off and updated for the "Contest of The Champions" mini-series, breaking the story into three regular-sized issues.

I remember the house ad for the "Summer Olympics" treasury when I was a kid, and realized when "CoTC" came out that it was the story repurposed.

Here's more info on that bit of comic history: LINK.

I bought the SNL team-up off the stands when it was released. One of those nostalgic things I think about regarding comics from my youth these days.

"CHRIS: And Marie is going to ink it!"

Dammit, what could have been...

I was in my early teens when I got that mag off the rack, I was finally watching SNL regularly after it got off the household verboten list. I was so excited to get my grubby mitts on it.

2) First visit to a comic shop and meeting Chris Clearmont, Art Adams and John Bolton for the release of Classic X-Men 1. I had never been in a true comic shop before and was amazed that I could buy comics without a three month wait.

3) The Dark Knight Returns - for all the negatives there may be about this comic, I could finally talk to my friends about a comic.