KINGDOM COME DC Comics, 1996

Kingdom Come was the comic book event of the mid-Nineties, a painted four-issue mini-series that proved that darn it, DC is just as good at killing everybody in an alternate reality as Marvel is.

Written by Mark Waid and painted by Alex Ross, Kingdom Come is a beautifully illustrated epic that occasionally veers off course into self-importance or becomes buried under obsessive detail and nostalgia, but for the most part, delivers the goods. The whole series builds up to an apocalyptic battle between two armies of superhumans, a radioactive Ragnarok that earns Kingdom Come a post during Alternate Reality Where Everybody Dies Week.

Here’s the story: several decades in the future a new generation of superhumans rampages across the planet, battling each other in petty disputes without heed to loss of life or property. They’re like damn punk kids who mess up your lawn, only in this case the lawn is Earth. Several members of The Old Order like Wonder Woman get pissed off at the lawless behavior of their descendents. Things come to a head when Kansas gets wiped off the map during a superhero battle. So that’s what happens if you crack open Captain Atom’s shell. That’s something to avoid - good safety tip.

The entire story is seen through the eyes of Norman McCray, a preacher who is having a crisis of faith. While he’s praying for guidance, the supernatural spirit of vengeance known as The Spectre appears to him, wearing nothing but a green cloak over his pearly skin. The Spectre plays Virgil to Norman's Dante, guiding him through the events leading up to a global crisis. In the end, Norman appears before Superman and urges him to stay his hand and not drop a ceiling on the United Nations. Man, good thing The Spectre didn’t pick a right-wing radio host to take along with him; those UN delegates would be dead.

Norman has to go through the entire series not looking at The Spectre's glowing crotch, which is particularly difficult given The Spectre's fondness of floating about two feet off the ground. I don't care if he is the Spirit of Vengeance, dude needs to put some shorts on.

This new breed of “hero” can be equated with the upstart Olympian gods who revolted against Cronus and the Titans, or compared with the violent and kewl comic book characters of the Nineties such as Cable, Ghost Rider, or many Image Comics characters. Ross went crazy with the character designs for the new heroes, many of whom are descendents of current heroes and villains. It’s fun in a geeky way to try to identify all the characters packed into Kingdom Come.

Sometimes Ross just went off into left field for some of the characters. I love the Human Cathedral guy pictured below, he’s fantastic:

After Kansas gets wiped out, Superman comes back from a self-imposed retirement. He leads a Neo Justice League, an army of recruits that includes Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Power Woman, and Your Mom. It’s true; Your Mom is on page 16 of the second issue, behind Captain Marvel, Jr. They start cleaning up town, only in this case town is Earth.

But once they have laid the global smack down, what do they do with hundreds of super powered prisoners? The League creates The Gulag, a supermax prison of the highest order. Who named it Gulag, though? They need to get a friendlier name, something like “Fiddler’s Green” or “The Smile Factory.” Maybe they should hire The Grandmaster, creator of the “life bombs” as a brand image consultant.

Of course, the shit hits the fan, only in this case the fan is Earth and we’re all going to get sprayed. (I’m going to stop doing that.) Somebody cranks up the Thin Lizzy and the super-prisoners break out of The Gulag. Wonder Woman leads a force of heroes to stop them, and things go from bad to oh, hell no!

Each member of DC’s “trinity” has a different reaction to the socio-political situation created by the new breed and the Gulag. Although Superman is arguably the focus of the book, he’s portrayed as sort of ineffectual and reactive, whereas Wonder Woman comes across as authoritarian and bloodthirsty. Batman holds himself aloof from such matters but is secretly working behind the scenes as a sort of third political party that Superman wants on his side.

At the climax of the book, Superman fights a creepy mind-controlled Captain Marvel, set against a tableau of super carnage. The government decides to cut their losses and drops a mega-nuke on the battlefield and… you guessed it, EVERYBODY DIES.

Well, not everybody. A few heroes make it. You didn’t think a mega-nuclear blast could take out Green Lantern, did you?

Superman survives, of course, and he is not happy. Here’s a great sequence (below) of The Man of Steel emerging from the radioactive gloom, hella-pissed off.

Now isn’t that cooler than him sinking to his knees and throwing his head back and screaming “WHYYYY??!!” or “FAAATHERRR!!!”

When Superman’s eyes glow like that, it means he’s pissed and you shouldn’t talk to him and you should go in the other room and read and let Superman have some frickin’ peace and quiet, damn it!

Kingdom Come is a perfect example of the Alternate Reality Where Everybody Dies sub-genre, infused with enough gravitas that it feels like something important is happening, that these events actually matter. Sometimes it gets weighed down with portents and allegory, and often the art has a cluttered quality that comes from packing too many characters into a panel. Flaws aside, Kingdom Come deserves its status as one of the major comic publishing events of the Nineties.