In comic books (hey, they’re part of pop culture) the biggest event of the decade has been the launch of the Marvel Ultimate line (which began in 2000). They basically started a series of parallel comic book series which used new versions of established characters.
Who reset their universe? DC?
Marvel and DC both reset their universes about once a year. Why bother trying to keep up? There’s no point trying to recap “events” like House of M or Civil War or Infinite Crisis or 52 because everything ends up pretty much back where it started.
That’s one reason I think the Ultimate line has been so successful. It wasn’t trying to remake the main Marvel universe so it didn’t feel constrained to follow established history.
Oh yeah, the other big thing in comic books since 2000? Zombies. Lots and lots of zombies.
No, the writers strike was in 2007-8. Millionaire premiered in 1999 and created a brief quiz-show craze (just as Survivor created a reality craze when it premiered the same year).