Kingdom Come (DC Comics Hardcover) [Hardcover]

Mark Waid (Author), Alex Ross (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1998

Starring Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel, The Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman and Hawkman - but not necessarily as you know them! It's judgement day, and war is about to be waged between superheroes old and new, one that will determine the fate of the entire planet. Where before there was order, now there is chaos - perpetrated by a new breed of superhero for whom justice and honour are redundant concepts. This fully painted Elseworlds saga features one of the most astounding visions of the DC universe ever presented; a twilight future more unpredictable and incendiary then any depicted before.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 232 pages
• Publisher: Dc Comics (March 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1563893177
• ISBN-13: 978-1563893179
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 6.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,500,905 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must reading!!!!, March 12, 2009

By 

Axel (St. Lucia) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Kingdom Come (Paperback)

I cannot say enough about this exceptional piece of work by Mark Waid and Alex Ross. More than ten years after it was first released, Kingdom Come remains one of the essential volumes (I think) of comics-related reading that anyone who loves the genre should own. It would also make an excellent gift for anyone interested in science fiction, superheroes, fantasy, and art, even if they aren't interested in comic books.

Although Mark Waid is the writer here, the genius of Kingdom Come belongs really to artist Alex Ross, who came to DC with a proposal for the story and the broad outlines already in his head. Waid was writing at the height of his powers, while still doing a seminal run on DC's Flash, where he had earned genuine superstar writing status. Ross' genius was in suggesting a story that was both forward looking and a commentary on the state of the comics industry at the time. Kingdom Come is arguably the series that truly put the nails in the 'grim and gritty' wave of the previous decade, although the story is fairly dark in and of itself. Waid's contribution was also pretty significant however, in tying what were fairly loose ideas into an intricate and very coherent narrative that pulls the reader in and never lets go. The team works well together here to craft an exceptional story, the significance or influence of which, neither men are likely to replicate in the latter parts of their careers unfortunately. (It's unlikely Ross will ever do something on that scale again, at least, not on his own, and Waid's powers have been waning of late; his most recent writing often being too 'clever' for its own good, and is also less natural, or is more "constructed" than his best writing - see any Flash issue or trades by Mark Waid set before Flash #120 or so.)

The story concerns the return of a Man of Steel who has been in self-imposed exile, to a world which has moved on dramatically since he last frequented it. Populated by superpowered beings who epitomize the phrase "power without responsibility," Superman's re-emergence in a not too distant future, sets off a chain of events that lead to tragedy on an epic scale. Principally a love letter to a version of Superman that DC had disowned up to that point, the story also focuses a fair degree on an aged Batman and ageless Wonder woman. Dense, lyrical, mythical, epic and beautiful all at once, Kingdom Come is a tale dealing with power, responsibilty, loss, alienation, what happens when different philosophies collide, and yes, hope.

If there are any criticisms of the work, most are fairly minor in my view and easily dimissed. For example, some have argued that the multitude of new characters aren't sufficiently fleshed out to make you care enough. That's like going to an indian restaurant and complaining there are no burgers. These people completely miss the point. Kingdom Come isn't about the multitude of characters in the background, and the writer and artist waste no time on them, because they're intended to be a direct commentary on the multitudes of interchangeable/nameless/forgettable characters the comic industry was throwing up in the late 80's, early 90s, specially after Image launched. More significant problems are that issue one of the story is a little weak in comparison to the remaining three, as it is almost exclusively set up. Had Waid and Ross been doing it now, I doubt they might have taken the slightly decompressed approach they took originally for that issue. Finally, Batman was pretty obnoxious ever since Frank Miller put his hands on him, and the Batman written here is a fairly logical extension of the obnoxious, dislikeable Batman DC was enamored with at that period in the 90s. But other than a cynical and somewhat stupid/unfortunate historical tension with Superman, Waid and Ross never really provide a compelling, convincing argument as to why Bruce adopts the role of obstructionist here. It doesn't ruin the story in any serious way or affect your enjoyment as a reader too much, but it's a niggling irritation if, like me, you like the Batman and think, 'being difficult' doesn't do the character justice.

As for format, this volume of Kingdom Come actually bucks the trend by being a superior printing to the original trade paperback. The cover here is one of Ross' most beautiful and striking images created for the series, which is saying a lot considering the number of beautiful images Ross created in the story and for its promotion. Whereas the previous cover was a bit cluttered and somewhat clumsily staged, Ross' cover here is a beautiful emerald green projection of the mythical, epic nature of the confrontation contained in the pages of the actual story, for three reasons. First, because the location of Green Lantern's satellite plays a central role in the story, second because it highlights Superman's new Justice League, which sets off the central conflict in the story, and most importantly because it is yet another wonderful example of Ross' superb Superman. If ever there was a fictional character and an artist who were meant to be together, it's Ross and Superman. The artist's take on the character is always amazing. Ross clearly enjoys painting him and he renders the Man of Steel with love, but always as an imposing, powerful, and compelling fictional character that demands your respect and must be taken seriously. This first printing is also a steal because it contains a 'gatefold' cover, meaning that the cover is front, back, and an extra foldout, for a larger image. Amazon seems to only have an early pencil version here, but one of the customer images shows more clearly what the actual volume will look like. Whatever the case, it's a striking image that, more than ten years on after the initial release, reaffirms why Kingdom Come is one of the best pieces of graphic fiction ever produced by anyone, anywhere.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply, WOW!, January 24, 2009

By 

Marc A. Booker "SigMarc" (Pittsburgh, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kingdom Come (Paperback)

This is a unique trip through the DC universe. The device of seeing the ultimate war of the meta-humans through the eyes of a human preacher steeped in the apocalyptic visions of the Bible was masterful. As both a preacher and a comic book fan, this graphic novel really hit home for me. The artwork was phenomenal. stirring and beautiful. The presentation of the moral dilemmas faced by our legendary heroes was epic. There is nothing about this story that I didn't like. BUY IT! READ IT! THINK ABOUT IT! READ IT AGAIN!

23 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An Iron Age Classic - BUT DO NOT READ THE INTRODUCTION!!!, December 10, 2010

By 

Theo (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kingdom Come (Paperback)

Kingdom Come is a tough book to rate. On the one hand, it does possess level of depth that sets it far above most "comic books" on the newsstand. On the other, such depths as you will find are, to be brutally honest, entirely - yes, entirely - derivative of what Alan Moore had already given us in Watchmen more than a decade earlier.

Fundamentally, this is Watchmen revisited.

Or at least, it's one layer of Watchmen revisited. By the time Kingdom Come came along, the iron age of comic books was well and truly in full swing. Titles that took a long, hard look at the ideal of the superhero were positively in vogue. That's what we get here. But the deeper, less genre-specific layer of Watchmen? The layer that took an even longer, and even harder look into the absolute void of a truly meaningless and amoral universe?

That is not within the scope of this work.

But although Kingdom Come is most certainly a retelling, it is a good retelling. Like so many comic book writers, Mark Waid is presenting afresh a tale not his own; a tale with a course and an ending as pre-ordained as that of any tragic or comic opera.

Taken on such terms, what matters is not so much where we end up, but how we get there. The writing, although lacking Moore's originality, is good: I'd give it a solid "B+". But the real star of the show is undoubtedly the art. Throughout this tale, the art maintains a level of quality and sheer detail that we normally only get to see on covers, if at all. Even more than that, the artist, Alex Ross, makes a real artistic statement by depicting many of the characters and much of the action with a kind of hyper-realism that very clearly alludes to the work of Norman Rockwell. Superman in particular is especially subject to this kind of rendering.

I am of course very far from being the first to observe the Rockwell influence. Nevertheless, it is worth considering how this choice of style is used to draw us in to think about what our Earth could become if beings more than human really did walk among us. In the harsher light of this iron age vision, the prospect is perhaps less appealing than it might have seemed in the bygone ages of silver and gold.

But the Rockwell-esque style is a two edged sword. On the one hand, the extreme realism grounds us in, well, reality, with all that this entails. On the other, there is also a bitterly ironic counterpoint being made here. The almost eerily wholesome and idealized depictions of American life we so strongly associate with Rockwell's work are surely the spiritual first-cousins of the idealized vision of the comic books of ages gone: The very vision that Kingdom Come itself now confronts through older, wiser, and yet also sadder eyes.

One final point...

This book begins with an introduction that literally spells out exactly, and I do mean EXACTLY, what Kingdom Come, as a work, is supposed to be all about.

DO NOT READ IT.

At least, not until after you've read the book itself.

Not realizing what I was in for (thinking perhaps I was going to find something similar to the printed material so skillfully integrated into Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns) I did read this introduction before reading the book itself. And it's not overstating it to say that it really did ruin Kingdom Come for me.

For heaven's sake. Spelling out to the readers EXACTLY what the book is supposed to be all about before they even get the chance to embark upon that journey of discovery for themselves?

What an unbelievably stupid and self indulgent thing to do. I took off an extra star just for that.

Theo.